Mark Small

+ Jan 11 comment by current occupant of Oval Office - our troops are used as mercenaries. He said of Saudi: you’re a very rich country. You want more troops? I’m going to send them to you, but you’ve got to pay us.... they already deposited $1B in the bank. 20/36

I previously wrote we R hated - very much - by people from other counties because WE KILL A LOT OF PEOPLE for reasons that have nothing to do with freedom & democracy. In Vietnam we propped up a dictatorship as corporations raked in cash. 21/36

Some areas of Vietnam were off limits to U.S. military, e.g., our people could not enter the forests of rubber trees owned by Michelin, the French tire manufacturer. Viet Cong and NVA forces - of course - then hid in those forests. 22/36

Our support to Saudi Arabia, a dictatorship, was partly the reason the 9/11 terrorists - all but two of whom were Saudi nationals - attacked us. In Saudi, a protestor may be beheaded. The royal family cannot be voted out of office. 23/36

When ppl R ruled by dictator & can’t protest/vote, they’ll use politics by other means, except their rulers have all the weapons, gratis us. If they sought solace in their religion, in Gulf War I, at their rulers’ invitation, our military set foot on their holy land. 24/36

9/11 was awful. Terrorism never is justified, but despotism tends to create terrorists. We need to cut our military budget by half. That will make us more secure. 25/36

Military as a wing of, & gov’t subsidies to, businesses - what Rev Beckwith advocates - do not = free market economy. Neither R such policies traditionally GOP. Sen Taft advocated isolationism & Pres Eisenhower warned us about the military-industrial complex. 26/36

Rev Beckwith does not really believe in a “free market.” He favors “tax breaks and funding” in regard to agriculture. This statement is consistent with his overall view for “a framework that empowers family farms and small businesses to succeed.” 27/36