A look at "No Accountability". It is the American Way.

Today’s New York Times shows all of us a breathtaking view of how the business segments in modern American society try as hard as possible to squeeze the largest amounts of profit out of situations where they are held barely accountable for their actions by the government.

They want something for nothing. They balk at being held accountable. This can seriously harm the health and well being of our nation’s people while at the same time change the super-wealthy into the mega-wealthy. How does this serve the nation?

American veterans need to stand up and cry foul. The American people are on the receiving end of this nonsense. Common sense has to reassert itself here.

The first story is here. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is standing in the way of "green legislation" in Congress to reduce greenhouse gases coming from industry. Why?

It is important, perhaps even crucial, that American veterans clearly understand our place in correcting this massive imbalance concerning responsibility by the business community to the communites at large in which they operate.

Without an acknowledgement by all citizens that the profit margin cannot exceed quality of life considerations in all business decisions by the super-wealthy class that largely manipulates our economy, we simply have government facilitated rape of the commoner by the nobles.

People are getting sick and dying because our desire to make money supercedes our desire to make sense.

We are no longer acting rationally at the highest levels of Ameircan business consensus. The nation is being poisoned so that once again, the few can benefit at the expense of the many. Is this what you served in uniform to support?

The Times is overflowing with this sort of news today. We need to pay attention here.

Now you might ask, what does this have to do with veterans’ interests? How does this impact us?  Why is this something that veterans should consider for action?

And I would answer that situations that included the poisoning of American troopers and marines with depleted uranium ammunition in the Gulf War and now in western Asian wars fall squarely into this category.

So does the use of Agent Orange by our troops and sailors in Viet Nam.

So does the travesty suffered by the "guinea pig soldiers" of the Atomic Test era in the 1950s.

So does any situation involving involuntary innoculation of our troops with vaccines that often times actually kill or disable them. I lived through one such situation when I was in the Coast Guard. It is terrifying.

So does the travesty of sole provider contracts which were awarded to Dick Cheney’s friends in Iraq and Afghanistan where U.S. troopers were electrocuted due to shoddy workmanship in new built huts. This was also true where substandard food provided by single contract disbursement sickened our troops and where water was not up to standard when it was delievered to our people in the desert.

Do you see the connection now?

But this sort of collusion between weak government oversight and big business interests was not only at this level of hurting Americans with poisoned business practices. We actually find that after extensive post mortems relative to last year’s meltdown on Wall Street, the federal investigative arms have all come to one unsettling conclusion.

The feds knew what was happening and turned away!  They simply watched the world’s financial markets melt down because the powerful were making Big Money!

We now know that the federal regulators across many agencies that were tasked with making sure that the American consumer was protected by Wall Street’s excesses simply did not act on what they knew to be poisoned business practices.  They were frozen in place due to their fear of Big Business and what it would do to them if they acted.

These federal employees knew very well what was happening. It was no surprise to them when the financial market melted away last Fall. But because money was being made, albeit in a way that would eventually lead to World Recession, our ‘protectors’ in government simply looked away. The price that they would pay for doing their jobs would be too high.

They might get fired or worse.  They might get hurt.

This is telling. This is the kind of government we presently have at work for us. "Big Money" essentially runs our government.  How do you feel about that as a veteran?

This shows how deeply engrained this poisoned thinking truly is inside the American personality. Money is god to us. We will follow that god to our deaths if need be. And in fact that is exactly what is happening right now to our troopers and marines in western Asia.

Those wars are about the wealthy few in this country sending the "economically enlisted" to their deaths or into a lifetime of disability in order to make money for the elites on sole provider government contracts and emerging market territory takeovers using our armed forces as muscle.

This is exactly the role that the Roman Legions fulfilled for Rome.

How do you feel about that? As an American veteran, did you see yourself as muscle for the Big Money Boys when you wore a uniform?  Because that is what you were.

Here is a story on rising drug prices prior to Obama’s Health Care Plan being initiated.

Here is an Op Ed outlining the views of those who oppose Health Care Reform. Opposition seems to be based on money outflow from the elites, not on the health care needs of the nation.

Here is another Op Ed on Health Care Reform basically stating the the GOP opposes it not because it is bad, but because it belongs to Obama and he is too popular with the people for the GOP to support it! Is this what you served in uniform to support? Does this sound like good government to you? Is our nation being served by this type of politics?

In this editorial, the Times explains that these wars in western Asia are now Mr. Obama’s Wars and that he is obligated to explain to the American people exactly what his goals are there. We don’t know his goals and blaming it all on the Bushites won’t cut it at this point.

We need a clear explanation of where we are going from here.  We have not recieved that yet.

Here is the New York Times view on Secretary of State Clinton’s trip to Afghanistan this week.

Here is the Times reporting on Obama’s warnings to both Iran and North Korea on their nuclear ambitions.

Finally in the On This Day section of the New York Times we read the following.

"On Nov. 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address as he dedicated a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania."

So on this day, I again point out to you that as a veteran it is your obligation to get informed and stay informed so that you can effectively participate in governing this great nation.

An informed veteran is a comfort to his friends and a danger to his adversaries.

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)