America & Israel's High Cost of Supporting Lies

What a coincidence or was it? Yesterdays House vote over budget cuts were called off. The republican majority couldn't get the votes to cut spending by $ 50 billion over 5 years. That figure is a pittance compared to the $ 7 billion per month expenses of the Iraq/Afghanistan wars. But the cuts were going to be levied on the backs of the poor not Lockheed, Boeing, Halliburton et al. The ugly realities of what this war is doing to the middle class and the poor has brought a revolt.

At the same time in Israel, the ruling coalition of Likud/Labor was about to collapse. The upset victory of a new Labor Party leader Amir Peretz over Shimon Peres is the reason. Peretz said he will pull Labor out of the coalition because his partys members are being left behind. Israel like America is a top ten world arms dealer. It is # 4 and America is # 1. So while the unending conflict with the Palestinians is good for a certain segment of the economy the rest are being left behind.

America is trying to live the expensive lie of empire as a reachable , sustainable goal. And Israel is trying to live the expensive lie that it can occupy anothers land indefinitely.