Bailouts, bankers & bombs

The economic crisis is not the sole blame of bungler bankers. Yet too many of these former plunderers are unrepentant and anti-reform. Those banks receiving bailout funds should be forced to retire their top management due to poor performance.

American adventurism in the Middle East is hugely expensive; these are costs that the USA can ill afford, and they are not only monetary. The US basing of troops in Saudi Arabia was the major grievance of the 9/11 hijackers (though George W. Bush & Dick Cheney claimed the focus was a vicious attack on the American way of life). Poor foreign policy choices have undermined the US economy and created enemies abroad. Now, more than ever, few American taxpayers wish to serve as human shields for Iraq & Israel.

More precisely: US media outlets regularly trumpet Israel's right to exist. Yet others in the region also have the right to exist. Regional solutions have been cast aside as the USA has bankrolled Zionist adventurism. Moderate Israeli solutions are undermined by US funds channeled to the extreme & the ultra-Right. Bombs will not solve Middle Eastern problems. US funding should be redirected to American domestic education.