I am ashamed to be an American!

Yes, I am going to say it, I ashamed to call myself an american. We are supposed to be the world's most powerful country and we as americans should be setting an example of honesty, compassion and integrity to all other countries on this planet. Yet for the past century we have been secretly involved in numerous covert operations to over throw governments that don't follow our Foreign Policy. We have completely failed at setting an example of integrity to the world. I'll probably get a lot of haters for stating that I am ashamed to be an american.

First for the last century the US Government & CIA have been involved in numerous covert operations to overthrow/coups the governments of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Philippines, Nicaragua, Guatemala, South Vietnam, Chile, Grenada, Haiti, Panama and of late Iraq. Even back in the 1800's the US Government conspired to remove Queen Liliuokalini from her throne in a step toward annexing the island of Hawaii so the we could get a piece of the protected sugar market. Over the decades this has become a pattern of American foreign policy. The US government will claim that it's policy is necessary for the stability of the USA.

More often than not, our claims to protect the rights of the citizens of the said countries is total bullshit and is for another agenda altogether. If the USA is intervening or going to war with a country on the behalf of the protection of the citizens of that said country in the name of democracy then why is it we ignore the citizens of Darfur? I am not saying that every war the USA has been involved in was wrong. I don't know much about all the wars we have been involved in but I do know in the case of World War II the USA attempted to remain neutral for as long as it could before getting involved in that war and had we not entered the war the outcome may have been much different. On the other end of the spectrum we have the Vietnam war.

My point is we don't walk the talk of democracy and our elected officials appear to change our Foreign Policy to fit their agenda, we are hypocrites. George W Bush supposedly went to war with Iraq to stop Saddam Hussein from producing weapons of mass destruction that never even existed on the heels of the tragedy of 911. He coined the phrase "Axis of Evil" to describe those countries that support terrorism and then used this as a justification to fight the War on Terror. Ex President Bush has been criticized internationally and targeted by the global anti-war campaigns, particularly for his administration's foreign policy. Views of him within the international community are more negative than previous American Presidents.

I believe his agenda to go to war with Iraq was primarily the vast oil reserve's, daddy's failure to finish the job the first time, provide proof to the world that he & the USA is a force to be reckoned with. Here we are, 8 years later and I believe that the citizens of Iraq were better off with Saddam as their leader. When we finally get out of Iraq not much will have changed. There will be thousands of unnecessary deaths and a change in leadership, a leadership that will probably have less control of the country than Saddam did.

Ahh, did I mention the debt the USA accumulated from the war and the unnecessary deaths of all our brave soldiers who died for the ego/legacy of an idiot George W Bush. I am embarrassed that he was "elected" president twice and then he was a puppet of Donald Rumsfeld and Dickhead Cheney. The monies the USA spent on the War on Terror could have been put to good use addressing the issue's of healthcare reform, poverty, education, addictions and homelessness.

So why am I embarrassed to be an american? Instead of explaining this in my own words, Bill Mahr explains it best. in his New Rule from July 24th 2009:

"How about this for a New Rule: Not everything in America has to make a profit. It used to be that there were some services and institutions so vital to our nation that they were exempt from market pressures. Some things we just didn't do for money. The United States always defined capitalism, but it didn't used to define us. But now it's becoming all that we are.

Did you know, for example, that there was a time when being called a "war profiteer" was a bad thing? But now our war zones are dominated by private contractors and mercenaries who work for corporations. There are more private contractors in Iraq than American troops, and we pay them generous salaries to do jobs the troops used to do for themselves -- like laundry. War is not supposed to turn a profit, but our wars have become boondoggles for weapons manufacturers and connected civilian contractors.

Prisons used to be a non-profit business, too. And for good reason --­ who the hell wants to own a prison? By definition you're going to have trouble with the tenants. But now prisons are big business. A company called the Corrections Corporation of America is on the New York Stock Exchange, which is convenient since that's where all the real crime is happening anyway. The CCA and similar corporations actually lobby Congress for stiffer sentencing laws so they can lock more people up and make more money. That's why America has the world;s largest prison population -- because actually rehabilitating people would have a negative impact on the bottom line.

Television news is another area that used to be roped off from the profit motive. When Walter Cronkite died last week, it was odd to see news anchor after news anchor talking about how much better the news coverage was back in Cronkite's day. I thought, "Gee, if only you were in a position to do something about it."

But maybe they aren't. Because unlike in Cronkite's day, today's news has to make a profit like all the other divisions in a media conglomerate. That's why it wasn't surprising to see the CBS Evening News broadcast live from the Staples Center for two nights this month, just in case Michael Jackson came back to life and sold Iran nuclear weapons. In Uncle Walter's time, the news division was a loss leader. Making money was the job of The Beverly Hillbillies. And now that we have reporters moving to Alaska to hang out with the Palin family, the news is The Beverly Hillbillies.

And finally, there's health care. It wasn't that long ago that when a kid broke his leg playing stickball, his parents took him to the local Catholic hospital, the nun put a thermometer in his mouth, the doctor slapped some plaster on his ankle and you were done. The bill was $1.50, plus you got to keep the thermometer.

But like everything else that's good and noble in life, some Wall Street wizard decided that hospitals could be big business, so now they're run by some bean counters in a corporate plaza in Charlotte. In the U.S. today, three giant for-profit conglomerates own close to 600 hospitals and other health care facilities. They're not hospitals anymore; they're Jiffy Lubes with bedpans. America's largest hospital chain, HCA, was founded by the family of Bill Frist, who perfectly represents the Republican attitude toward health care: it's not a right, it's a racket. The more people who get sick and need medicine, the higher their profit margins. Which is why they're always pushing the Jell-O.

Because medicine is now for-profit we have things like "recision," where insurance companies hire people to figure out ways to deny you coverage when you get sick, even though you've been paying into your plan for years.

When did the profit motive become the only reason to do anything? When did that become the new patriotism? Ask not what you could do for your country, ask what's in it for Blue Cross/Blue Shield."

Enough said from me, Please make me proud to be an American citizen again!