Whose Outsized Military?

The U.S. State Department is grumbling over
Venezuelan purchases of military equipment, saying
the equipment goes beyond the country's legitimate
defense needs. State Department spokesman Sean
McCormack says the purchases are part of what “we
would consider an outsized military buildup in
Venezuela.”

Excuse me, but who has an outsized military?
Venezuela spends each year approximately 66
dollars per capita on its military, while the U.S.
spends 500 billion dollars a year, or
approximately 1700 dollars per capita. The U.S.,
with less than 5 percent of the world's
population, spends as much on its military as the
entire rest of the world combined.

Unless the entire world is planning an attack
on the U.S. - and there's no evidence for that -
those enormous military expenditures certainly
can't be intended for defense. One is left with
the conclusion that our military is intended for
offensive purposes, such as Bush's illegal and
immoral invasion and occupation of Iraq. Given
that Venezuela, like Iraq, is an oil producing
nation; given that the U.S. is currently consumimg
a quarter of the world's oil and has expressed and
demonstrated its intent to control world supplies
by military means, any military buildup by
Venezuela must be considered a prudent move on
their part.

Any objection by the U.S. to Venezuela
acquiring the means to defend itself and its oil
resources is the height of hypocrisy, and is not
based on a concern for Venezuela acquiring an
outsized military; rather, it is the concern of
the Bush regime that invading Venezuela for its
oil resources, as in Iraq, will turn out not to be
walk in the park.

Republicans Continue their War on Knowledge and Education

In the continuing right wing war on knowledge
and education, the “Bruin Alumni Association” is
offering students at the University of California
at Los Angeles up to one hundred dollars for
recordings of classes, class materials, and
lecture notes. The stated reason: to show that
UCLA professors are liberally biased. The real
reason: to promote the right wing agenda by
removing qualified professors from their positions
and replacing them with right wing ideologues.

The project is the work of Andrew Jones, the
sole member of the Bruin Alumni Association. On
the project's website, Jones lists the political
affiliation of every tenure or tenure-track
faculty member for whom he could determine
political party affiliation. Indeed, according to
Jones' lists, a large majority of UCLA professors
are Democrats. But does this mean that UCLA is
liberally biased?

Hardly. What it shows is that UCLA is
concerned with providing the best education
possible. Obviously, university professors must
be highly educated, and those who support
Democratic candidates and policies are typically
better educated than the right wing. Evidence of
this is clear: of the states with the highest
numbers of college educated persons, 8 of the top
10 states voted for John Kerry in the 2004
Presidential election. Of the 20 states with the
lowest numbers of college educated persons, 18
voted for Bush. Democrats are more likely to be
highly educated than Republicans.

Since Democrats are better educated than
Republicans, and a university has an obligation to
provide the best faculty available and the best
education available, it is only natural that a
larger proportion of the UCLA professors will be
Democrats. UCLA doesn't hire by political
affiliation, they hire by qualifications. Should
UCLA be required to hire lesser qualified persons,
simply because they are Republicans? Should UCLA
be require to compromise their principles and
their quality of education just so they can hire
Republicans? The mere suggestion, coming from a
political party that opposes affirmative action
programs and claims that people must be judged on
their merits rather than their skin color,
national background, or other attributes, reeks of
hypocrisy.

Right wing Republicans have long voted to cut
funding for schools, opposed sex education and the
teaching of genuine science, and lobbied to
replace science with their creation and
“intelligent design” myths. The attempt to
replace qualified professors with right wing
ideologues is just the latest in their long war on
education and knowledge. The right wing's
attempts to return America to the Dark Ages must
not be tolerated.