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Texas Governor Rick Perry Dreams of a Second Mexican War

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Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 05:32 pm

Here we go again with the Republican warmongering.

Let’s recap (again):

Lindsey Graham (R-SC) wants to invade Iran;
Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-CA) opposes cuts in defense spending;
Jon Kyl (R-AZ) says Congress doesn’t have time to ratify the new START treaty with Russia;
Michele Bachman (R-MN) says Obama is going to let Iran nuke Israel and we need to do something about Iran; and,
Joe Miller (R) says that border security should be done like they did it in Communist East Germany.

And now for something completely….the same (yeah, fooled ya didn’t I?):

Rick Perry, Republican governor of Texas, says we ought to invade Mexico.

Is it sexual? I mean, there are a lot of violent, penetrative acts being recommended here by a very sexually obsessed and insecure party. Should we read something Freudian into all this? What sorts of deep, dark fantasies are lurking in Republican heads?

I’m not enamored with Freud but the GOP is beginning to make me wonder if he wasn’t on to something.

Rick Perry is a scary guy. He talked about secession as a real possibility before. Now he is talking about a Second Mexican War à la Zachary Taylor and the Halls of Montezuma. Maybe he sees himself as another Black Jack Pershing. Or maybe it’s belated revenge for the Alamo, though I thought we took care of that at San Jacinto back in ’36 – 1836 that is.

Apparently, there is no problem war cannot solve, in this case the drug war along the border, but also immigration reform. I’m not making this up; those are Perry’s justifications. Yeah, I suppose if you kill all the potential immigrants along the border they won’t be immigrating…or maybe he wants to create a zone of desolation, a no-man’s land no one can cross in case the Great Wall of America doesn’t work out.

Or maybe he’s just seen Mad Max one too many times. Those Republicans love apocalyptica after all.

The mark of a fanatic, of an ideologue, is an embrace of extreme solutions. There is no middle ground, there is no moderation; it’s always do nothing or do everything. Obama should be attacking other countries and since he is not, he must be apologizing to them. The modern conservative mind literally cannot see anything in between black and white.

Perry says Mexico would have to approve the invasion, of course. He doesn’t propose we get all Genghis Khan on our amigos south of the border. Of course, he is likely as deluded as he sounds if he thinks this sort of approval will be forthcoming. Mexico would be right in fearing that what Perry has in mind is another “Mexican cession” of ’48 – 1848 that is. You might remember that; it’s where we got the real estate to create the states of California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona, not to mention half of New Mexico.

Perry, perhaps, has been reading too many of those Texas textbooks. Perhaps he is unaware of the history of strained relations between the U.S. and Mexico. Or maybe he thinks the first Mexican war really was justified, and that therefore another one would be as well. After all, according to the Officially Revised Conservative History of the United States™ we didn’t steal any land from the Native Americans either. Those nasty Indians hurt white people!

I find it difficult to believe that there is no measure between surrender and conquer that we can embrace. The word diplomacy occurs to me – to any sane person really – which sadly leaves most Republicans out. Yes, the border is a problem – a serious problem. No, it’s not a problem that is going to disappear overnight. No there are no easy solutions, none that everyone agrees on beyond a consensus that something needs to be done. But is starting a war the solution to every problem?

Again, as with any invasion of Iran, you have to wonder where Perry proposes to get the troops for this invasion of his. We already have a war going in Afghanistan and 50,000 troops bolstering the Iraqi government, not to mention other commitments around the globe. Our military is overstretched and exhausted from our own personal Trojan War redux. On the other hand, maybe these Republicans want to take advantage of the fact that the weak economy has boosted recruitment. Use ’em while you got ’em. After all, soldiers are just little pieces of policy to be expended.

But here’s the fly in the buttermilk: We’re not raising taxes; we’re lowering them, or that’s the plan at any rate. Everyone at least pays lip service to the idea of deficit reduction. The Republicans actually want to cut taxes for the wealthy, adding to the deficit. They don’t want to cut defense spending (and with all these planned wars how could they?). So where do we get the money to pay for all these foreign adventures? Borrow more money from an increasingly impatient China?

I know, maybe we can sell them Texas. It might be less bother in the long run. A reverse Mexican Cession.

This spring, you will remember, President Obama announced that 1200 National Guardsmen would be deployed along the Mexican border to bolster the Border Patrol there, and he requested an additional $600 million “in supplemental funds for enhanced border protection and law enforcement activities.” The Republicans (led by John McCain) wanted 6,000 troops (presumably because President Bush deployed 6,000 troops on the border in 2006). Twelve hundred, they said, was insufficient. Apparently now, so would the 6,000 be, since a war would take a great deal more than that.

Or maybe Perry can borrow Sheriff Arpaio’s Freikorps. Sic Lou Ferrigno and Steven Seagal on them, that is, if real American hero Ferrigno can be bothered to take time off from selling foreign cars to American buyers. That will teach those cartels. At least it would kill two birds with one stone. Remember the Hulk!

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Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen's Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.

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