"In 1995, the countries of southeast asia spent $435 billion on military expenditure-- Not because the people demanded it, you understand; how many peasants do you know who've started wars? Mao Tse-Tung spouted a lot of nonsense, but he sure got one thing right: 'all (political) power comes out the barrel of a gun.' You don't believe me, do you? You live in a democracy. You vote for your leaders-- So tell me -- what happens if you want to disobey them? Say you don't like the President. You object to paying taxes to support him, his family, his pets, his bodyguards and his friends he wangled jobs for. What do you do? Or say you don't like your taxes being used to subsidize foreign arms sales for slaughter in the third world. How can you stop it? Vote for somebody else, whose policy is the same? Don't vote? The government pretends to be there to serve you. In reality, it's there to tell you what to do-- If you refuse to obey, you'll be investigated--arrested--criminalized. Your assets will be seized and given to the state. You will be jailed. And that's the 'free' America -- -- Imagine what it's like in Iraq."