Scott Allan’s World

10 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

1. Scott, do you really believe our economy is strong?
    
   Was the Taliban really defeated in Afghanistan, or was it only removed from control of the country, seriously wounded, but still alive? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban#Resurgence_of_Taliban
    

   1. Don on September 12th, 2008 at 5:07 am

2. Scott, you know it. America is being trained to forget that 3,000 innocent people were killed on 9/11, nearly 1,000 more than Pearl Harbor.
    
   Test: Watch the media response to a billionaire Mexican buying a major share of the New York Times.

   There will be very little coverage of it. But if FOX  bought that much interest in the NYT there would be outrage and coverage by every media outlet.
   Pinchy and Carlos are both are positive about New York Times Co.’s future, and investor Carlos Slim Helu, who has a 6.4% stake in the company, “wants to be along or with us for the ride,” publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said in his annual “State of the Times” address.

   Micks last blog post..Ike is heading toward Houston — Cat 3/4 — Time to Evacuate

   2. Mick on September 12th, 2008 at 7:32 am

3. Hey Don,

   Yes I think our economy is basically sound.  We still have not had two consecutive quarters of negative growth so no recession.  It looks like we made it through the rough patch.  Bush pulled us out of a recession fairly quickly in his first term and the economy has grown ever since.  All economies are cyclical and every 10-15 years we are due for a downturn so I don’t turn into chicken little every time it happens.  There are definitely things we can improve on such as the low dollar and the out of control spending.   The housing market was a huge bubble and everyone knew it.  It popped as predicted and he market is correcting itself.  Banks have learned a pretty valuable lesson about responsible lending.  Inflation is starting to rise due to oil prices but that can be solved if the do-nothing Congress would get off its ass instead of purposely trying to destroy the economy to gain the White House.  Sure we have problems but all can be fixed.  We are still the envy of the world.

   As for Afghanistan, I was really referring to the initial overthrow of the government and that the Taliban is no longer in power there.   It took him weeks to do what the Soviets couldn’t do in 10 years.   I know the Taliban is trying to make a comeback, but a nice “surge” could take care of that.  We really need to stop handcuffing ourselves.   I always find it hard to believe we couldn’t soundly defeat our enemies quickly if we really wanted to.  I was really impressed to see Bush go after the Taliban in Pakistan without “asking permission”.

   3. Scott Allan on September 12th, 2008 at 10:20 am

4. Scott, I sent this to you in an email before I ever visited your blog this morning but perhaps you haven’t read it yet, or don’t believe it: “How to Avoid Another Depression” can be read @ http://mises.org/story/3103.
    
   Bush didn’t need to ask permission to go after the Taliban in Afghanistan. The constitution gave him the authority to do that. The constitution didn’t give him authority to invade Iraq, though, so he asked for congressional permission to do it and received permission, but that was not in accordance with the constitution.

   So many forces were required in Iraq that it diminished the amount available to pursue Bin Laden and his Taliban cohorts in Afghanistan…..therein lies our problem with still not capturing or killing Bin Laden. Plus, the cost of the war in Iraq in money, not counting the cost in lives and blood, is one of the major problems with our economy because it’s bankrupting the USA, even with the Federal Reserve (which is NOT a part of our government)  just printing money out of thin air. A dollar today isn’t worth what a dollar was just a few years ago. That hurts every American.

   4. Don on September 12th, 2008 at 10:40 am

5. Mick,

   Perhaps there is no outrage over the NYT investment by a Mexican billionaire because it’s got to be the worst investment ever.   I’m not that outraged because I’m too busy laughing at him. I’m sure you’re worried about international influence though and you should be.  Did you see the lastest “global poll” on who is responsible for 9/11?

   http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/home_page/535.php?nid=&id=&pnt=535&lb=

   30% of Mexicans believe 9/11 was an inside job by our own government.  That’s double the international average and 2nd behind Turkey.  Even the Palestinians are smarter than them.

   5. Scott Allan on September 12th, 2008 at 11:00 am

6. Don, I was impressed he went into Pakistan without permission, not Afghanistan.  Until now, we were letting the Pakistanis handle it but it was clear long ago that they were unwilling or unable to complete the task.

   I still think Iraq was a worthwhile mission.  The benefits of a stable, friendly democracy in the Middle East cannot be measured in terms of money.  The opportunity to defeat Al Qaeda in Iraq was definitely worth it.  Al Qaeda is not just in Afghanistan.   They made a major miscalculation that they could defeat us in Iraq and gathered there in large numbers.  I’m not sure that killing bin Laden early on would have prevented any of this from happening.  It may have had the opposite effect of making him a martyr and increasing recruitment.

   As for the financial impact of the war on terror, I see it as money well spent because if we did not confront it now, the costs would be astronomical in the future. Can you imagine what would happen to the economy if a nuclear attack ever happened here? I bet at that moment you’d might reconsider whether it was wise to spend the money on the war on terror which includes Iraq.   We escalated the arms race with the Soviets in the 80’s and won it basically because we could afford to outspend them and bankrupted their country.  The cost of that was far less than the long term effects of letting the Soviets continue their influence.   I think we learned from that lesson and are applying it now that an investment in our future safety is always a good investment in the long run and cheaper than doing nothing.

   6. Scott Allan on September 12th, 2008 at 11:11 am

7. Scott, how impressed would you be if Putin’s puppet sent Russian troops into the USA in pursuit of someone who had committed an attack on something or someone inside Russia?
    
   Bush certainly showed that he has guts, or lack of understanding, for him to ignore the sovereignty of Pakistan by sending our troops across its border. It was probably not in accordance with what is understood to be international law or —- at least acceptable behavior of one nation with another, and I worry about whether it was constitutional.
    
   As for Iraq, only time will tell if Iraq develops a “stable, friendly democracy in the Middle East”. The jury is still out on that, and may be for some time to come.
    
   As for the financial impact of the war on terror, we are on the verge of bankrupting ourselves if we haven’t already done it. Don’t take my word for that. Search around and see what people far more knowledgeable than I could ever hope to become say about it.
    

   7. Don on September 12th, 2008 at 12:36 pm

8. I’m not sure Russia invading the U.S. is analogous. I would like to think if there were terrorists hiding in our country from Russia that we certainly would do everything we could to find them.  A better example might be say if Chechen rebels were hiding in let’s say Venezuela or Syria or Iran which are allies of Russia and their leaders weren’t putting in any effort to find them because it’s not politically popular.  I’m not sure I could blame Russia for taking matters into their own hands once they had exhausted all other measures.  I do believe there are other steps we could take with Pakistan to influence them such as withholding all the funds they take from us to supposedly fight terror but instead build up their military against India.   It’s not clear to me why we allow this to continue.

   Treasury Secretary Paulson has committed up to $200 Billion just to bail out Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.    Katrina cost $200 Billion in taxpayer money.  Iraq costs $10 Billion per month and Afhganistan $2 Billion per month. I’m not convinced that the costs of the war on terror are outrageous and unacceptable.

   8. Scott Allan on September 12th, 2008 at 1:20 pm

9. Scott, I think the best thing we can do at this point is to just say that we see things differently, and that we should just agree to disagree on some issues and remain friends.
    
   I hope you and your loved ones enjoy a great weekend.

   9. Don on September 12th, 2008 at 2:01 pm

10. Don, I’m glad we don’t agree on everything.  That would be pretty boring.  I do enjoy the discussion with you though and I learn alot from you.  Have a great weekend yourself!

    10. Scott Allan on September 12th, 2008 at 2:23 pm