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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 23-Nov-2013
23-Nov-13 World View -- JFK: We shall pay any price, bear any burden for the success of liberty

Web Log - November, 2013

23-Nov-13 World View -- JFK: We shall pay any price, bear any burden for the success of liberty

Afghanistan security agreement may be close to collapse

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

Afghanistan security agreement may be close to collapse
JFK: We shall pay any price, bear any burden for the success of liberty

Afghanistan security agreement may be close to collapse

Loya Jirga delegates walk on the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Friday (AP)

Loya Jirga delegates walk on the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Friday (AP)

Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai has apparently torpedoed the security agreement with the U.S. that Secretary of State John Kerry had been negotiating. This is the agreement that authorizes American soldiers to remain in Afghanistan past the official 2014 withdrawal. It was thought that once Afghanistan's grand assembly, the "Loya Jirga," approved the security agreement, then Karzai would sign it, and the deal would be complete. But everyone was shocked when Karzai said that even after the Loya Jirga approval, the agreement would not be signed until after the elections of April 5, 2014. Kerry's spokesman Jen Psaki said,

"Failure to conclude (the deal) ... would be seen as a signal to the world that Afghanistan is not committed to a partnership with its supporters and that it is willing to jeopardize all of the financial and practical help that has been offered."

The entire Mideast is littered with failed peace deals and betrayed promises from Kerry and the Barack Obama administration, so unless Kerry can convince Karzai to change his mind, this will be just one more. AP and Reuters

JFK: We shall pay any price, bear any burden for the success of liberty

On the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a lot of people who evidently don't have the vaguest clue what his principles were are lauding him for their own purposes. Here are a few paragraphs from his 1961 inaugural address:

"We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. ...
In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility—I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it—and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country."

People on tv keep asking about JFK's ideology. Politicians today can't even imagine taking a stand on principle. There's nothing but ideology.

Kennedy's address had nothing to do with ideology. It was based on his life experience.

He was in the generations that had seen massive famine and genocide. He had seen American soldiers tortured, mutilated and killed on the Bataan death march, or shot down like fish in a barrel on the beaches of Normandy. He had seen America and its allies kill millions of civilians, women and children, with huge firebombs and nuclear weapons. He had seen human beings at their worst, worse than the most vicious animals. And he was saying that America must pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship to keep it from happening again, because he knew that paying that price was a tiny fraction of the cost of not paying it.

Can you imagine any politician, particularly any Democrat, saying anything like that today? Politicians were different in 1961 because they had survived the worst war in world history. Today's politicians think that the generations that survived that war are simply full of crap.

Today, under the leadership of President Barack Obama, Washington has turned into a cesspool. Any lie is OK, any law can be violated, because the Administration is lawless. Financiers who had defrauded millions of Americans with fraudulent subprime mortgage backed synthetic securities still appear on CNBC and lie about stock valuations (price/earnings ratios).

(By the way, according to Friday's Wall Street Journal, the S&P 500 Price/Earnings index (stock valuations) on Friday (November 22) morning was 18.85, which is a new recent high, and astronomical by historic standards, indicating that stocks are far overpriced, and the stock market bubble is worse than ever.)

The Russians and Iranians are providing massive weapons and military support to one of the worst genocidal monsters since World War II, Syria's Bashar al-Assad. Europe is seeing the rise of Nazi groups that dominated World War II. And China is massively preparing for preemptive thermonuclear war with the United States, while America's armed forces are cutting back.

We could use a little of JFK's attitude about now. Kennedy's Inaugural Address

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the 23-Nov-13 World View -- JFK: We shall pay any price, bear any burden for the success of liberty thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (23-Nov-2013) Permanent Link
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Afghanistan security agreement may be close to collapse

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23-Nov-13 World View -- JFK: We shall pay any price, bear any burden for the success of liberty