Mensch tracht, und Gott lacht

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Future First Man Speaks Out

What the hey is President-for-Life, Bill Clinton, talking about? He says that never "in the history of our Republic" have we financed military conflict by borrowing from other countries.

Whuh? What am I missing here? I thought that we ran deficits all through the Vietnam War and Grenada and Panama and Somalia and Bosnia and Gulf War I. Doesn't that mean that we were borrowing money from folks to make war on other folks?

2 comments:

Tom Van Dyke said...

Memory sez (meaning don't quote me) that Finland was the only country the repaid in full its war debt to the US from WWII.

In other words, (my best understanding is that) America borrowed from no one---except her own people via War Bonds---to save the world from European fascism and Japanese imperialism.

Between genuine creation of wealth through postwar economic growth and a bit of monetarization (which is the prerogative of the world's keystone economy), the bill was settled.

Is the US' still the world's fundamental economy? Yes. When America sneezes, the rest of the world catches pneumonia. China/Asia and the EU realize they screw with the US economic base at their own risk. Although almost half of her own inhabitants don't realize it, the world would likely (and almost did in WWII) slip back into the savagery that was the rule before there was an America.

The world knows their history, even if many Americans don't.

Kathy Hutchins said...

The picture Drudge is running with this story reminds me: If I were interested in having Bill Clinton re-enter public life (the kind where people elect him or Hilary, not the kind we get shoved down our throats like tsunami relief, Katrina relief, UN group gropes, etc), and I could give him just one piece of advice, it would be this: Bill, get yourself enrolled in some Clockwork-Orangesque aversion therapy, and keep at it until you'd rather gnaw off your own left leg than wag that index finger of yours long enough for someone to snap your picture doing it. It just brings back all the wrong memories.