"Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers."

So Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon advised Herbert Hoover in the Great Crash of '29.

Hoover did. And the nation liquidated him – and the Republicans.

In the Crash of 2008, 40 percent of stock value has vanished, almost $9 trillion. Some $5 trillion in real estate value has disappeared. A recession looms with sweeping layoffs, unemployment compensation surging, and social welfare benefits soaring.

America's first trillion-dollar deficit is at hand.

In fiscal year 2008 the deficit was $438 billion.

With tax revenue sinking, we will add to this year's deficit the $200 to $300 billion needed to wipe the rotten paper off the books of Fannie and Freddie, the $700 billion (plus the $100 billion in add-ons and pork) for the Wall Street bailout, the $85 billion to bail out AIG, and $37 billion more now needed, the $25 billion for GM, Chrysler, and Ford, and the hundreds of billions Hank Paulson will need to buy corporate paper and bail out banks to stop the panic.

As Americans save nothing, where are the Feds going to get the money? Is the Fed going to print it and destroy the dollar and credit rating of the United States? Because the nations whose vaults are full of dollars and U.S. debt – China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Arabs – are reluctant to lend us more. Sovereign wealth funds that plunged billions into U.S. banks have already been burned.

Uncle Sam's Visa card is about to be stamped "Canceled."

The budget is going to have to go under the knife. But what gets cut?

*snip*

It is the American Empire that is going to be liquidated.

Retrenchment has begun with Bush's backing away from confrontations with Axis-of-Evil charter members Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs, and will likely continue with a negotiated peace in Afghanistan. Gen. Petraeus and Secretary Gates are already talking "reconciliation" with the Taliban.

We no longer live in Eisenhower or Reagan's America. Even the post-Cold War world of George H. W. Bush, where America was a global hegemon, is history. In both relative and real terms, the U.S.A. is a diminished power.

*snip*

The American Empire has become a vast extravagance.

With U.S. markets crashing and wealth vanishing, what are we doing with 750 bases and troops in over 100 countries?

With a recession of unknown depth and duration looming, why keep borrowing billions from rich Arabs to defend rich Europeans, or billions from China and Japan to hand out in Millennium Challenge Grants to Tanzania and Burkina Faso?

America needs a bottom-up review of all strategic commitments dating to a Cold War now over for 20 years.

Is it essential to keep 30,000 troops in a South Korea with twice the population and 40 times the wealth of the North? Why are McCain and Obama offering NATO memberships, i.e., war guarantees against Russia, to a Georgia run by a hothead like Mikheil Saakashvili, and a Ukraine, millions of whose people prefer their kinship to Russia to an alliance with us?

We must put "country first," says John McCain.

Right you are, Senator. Time to look out for America first.

Tom Bodak saw enough during a seven-month hitch in Iraq to realize at least one thing — he did not know what our soldiers were accomplishing there by fighting and dying.

"I don't think we're there for any reason, really," said Bodak, an Orland Park resident who returned from Iraq in January.

"I don't see any benefit," he said. "A lot of my friends have the same opinion."

One of Bodak's friends is unable to share his opinion on the war in which they both served, because he was killed by a roadside bomb.

The man was one of four in Bodak's company of military policeman to lose his life in such a manner in the seven months Bodak served in Iraq. His death is a big reason Bodak did not remain on active duty.

"If it wasn't for that, I'd probably have stayed in," said Bodak, who is now in the Army Reserves.

But the Chicago native may actually be going back in after all. It might be the best way for him and his family to make ends meet.
Supporting his family

Bodak had initially joined the reserves before going on active duty and eventually heading to Iraq.

He served as a medic attached to his company of military police and is now taking classes at Morraine Valley Community College full-time to maximize his income from the GI Bill; working full-time in security for a casino; and helping to take care of his 2-year-old daughter, Charlotte, with his wife, Sarah.

Sarah, also works, as a certified nursing assistant, and takes nursing classes at Morraine Valley.

While he would prefer to remain stateside and pursue his education and career as a physician while in the reserves, the reality of dollars and hours may lead Bodak back to the Middle East.

"I'd rather do it out here," he said. "(But) it's just too much working at night, going to school during the day, watching my daughter."
Not playing fair

While in the military police unit, Bodak and his fellow soldiers would visit Iraqi police stations and accompany them on missions. He said some Iraqi police were bought off by insurgents. Others were coerced into assisting enemy, he said, after their families had been kidnapped and threatened with death.

"We didn't really know what the cases behind them are," Bodak said. "We just know we caught them (collaborating with insurgents).

"They definitely don't play fair," he said of the enemy.

And of our Iraqi allies, he said, "There's a lot of corruption there."

There's also a lot of danger, seemingly at every turn.

Once, while escorting an interpreter to a meeting of political leaders, Bodak said an explosive "suicide vest" was found in a restroom garbage can next to the venue.

"Somebody was just going to go in the bathroom and put it on and walk up," he said.
Should we stay or go?

Bodak believes the withdrawal of American troops will lead to the deterioration of order in Iraq. But he is not convinced a military presence will assure stability either.

"Whoever does take over, I think they'll just try to kill them anyway," Bodak said of the possibility of a successful transition to a self-sufficient Iraq. He also questioned the progress made in rooting out the enemy.

"I honestly don't think that much is going on," he said. "They say they're getting rid of terrorists, but they're still over there."

Bodak's experiences cemented his choice in the coming election.

"I'm voting for Obama because he wants to leave quickly," he said. "I didn't see anything changing enough while I was there to stay there."

...as we near the holidays, I want everyone to start thinking about veteran's charities....there are thousands of troops stationed far from home that will be spending Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hannukah, and Kwanzaa away from their families, and a little bit of comfort from home would do wonders for their morale. Now is the time to start thinking about doing something, so things reach the troops in time.



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