The drum is beating again, the drum of impending and disastrous war. It is a shame Americans do not have any perspective of the world outside of the United States and it’s corporate media.

Fred Reed a US expat living in Mexico has a viewpoint to this reality. First the way the US sees itself, those rose colored glasses work only for those who are blinded by jingoism.

“The American narrative holds that the United States is a light to the world, the freest, richest, most productive country the world has ever seen, the greatest military power, the most prolific producer of technlogy and of Nobel laureates. America is a force for freedom and democacry, a champion of human rights, a land of universal opportunity with liberty and justice for all. The United States is what all countries could be if they accepted our values. History supports this view. In a raw ccontinent, American energy and free enterprise carved a paradise from a wilderness.” Fred on Everything

A news paper in Australia has a detached and perhaps more objective view of the US than those in the US.

“Last week the all-mighty Israel lobby convened in Washington and swamped Capitol Hill with visitors raising the spectre of Auschwitz. The Republican party is firmly committed to war against Iran. It is no longer the party of Dwight D. Eisenhower or Ronald Reagan or even George W. Bush, who vetoed an Israeli plan to attack Iran. The Republicans are propelled by evangelicals who are convinced the current moment is a harbinger of the end-times. One way, perhaps the only way, that Mitt Romney could bring these voters to the polls is by polarising the Israel-Iran debate and pledging to back Israel under any circumstances. Add rich Democratic fundraisers to the mix and you can see the logic of Obama bending a little rather than breaking.”  TheAustrialian

Fred also comments on the view many in the rest of the world have of the United States. It is quite different than those wrapping themselves in the red, white and blue have.

“Quite different is what might be called the World Narrative, held around the globe with differing intensities and emphases. It holds the US to be an endlessly aggressive military power that is out of control, hypocritically speaking of democracy and freedom while supporting dictators and overthrowing elected governments. America is arrogant, crassly materialistic, crime-ridden, vulgar, racially unjust, the world’s only avowed practicioner of torture, economically exploitative, imperialistic and intolerant of other cultures.

The military form of the World Narrative holds that America savagely attacks weaker nations in pursuit of oil and empire, that it uses overwhelming technological superiority to butcher peasants armed with rifles, that atrocites are routine, that it employs Stalinist nocturnal raids to terrorize populations, that killing of children is common.” Fred on Everything

Israel, is both adored and reviled for it’s very existence and the actions it continues to take on the regional stage. If Israel feels it needs to preemptively strike Iran to survive that should be their decision and is not something the children of the United States need to support with their blood. No more blood for oil, Chevron and Mobil might be red, white and blue but let them fight their own wars.

If you consider the oil factor and history the equation tilts even more toward impending war.

“Since October, money managers have bought the equivalent of 372 million barrels of oil through a variety of futures contracts, essentially doubling their oil exposure.”

“money managers now hold a record net long exposure to oil through 638,774 futures contracts, which at 1,000 barrels per contract equates to about 638.8 million barrels of oil.”

“in July 2007, a year before the price of oil peaked at $144 a barrel, money managers held a net long position of 160,000 WTI futures contracts on the NYMEX, says Evans. Today, that number is 272,000 contracts.”  Bloomberg

The money people are wagering on war, the money people own the politicans and the media, the politicians sit secure in their power and have no problem expending the blood of an all volunteer military. Obama finally ended the ill conceived war in Iraq, the war in Afganistan continues and now Iran?  Why can this occur, it’s all about money, religion and fear.

People in the US and here in Panama are paying the price for the two unfunded wars created by G W Bush, inflation, devaluation and increasingly living in a police state are some of those prices. Do we really need more of the same? Ron Paul is the only Republican candidate who seems to understand there is no upside to being the cops of the world.

Fear, potential financial gain and religious fanaticism are all pounding the same drum. Can war be far off and if it comes what are the costs and the benefits? We spent billions in dollars and thousands of lives in Iraq, for what? Billions more and thousands more in Afganistan, for what? Do we really need a repeat performance in Iran?

It’s all about money, gain for those who speculate on oil, those who think the expending of life is a cheap thing because their lives and their children are not at risk. Stop the insanity before it too late.