It’s been 43 years since the assassination of the great Martin Luther King Jr., who once said that “nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

Amen to that.

The inspirational leader and speaker also stated that “the more there are riots, the more repressive action will take place and the more we face the danger of a right-wing takeover and eventually a fascist society.”

While I sincerely hope that’s not the case nowadays – what with the escalating violence in Libya and the Middle East – it seems more and more like governments the world over are more concerned with money, power and holding their citizens in a fear-induced, hostage state of mind.

Maybe that’s taking it a little too far, but then again, maybe not.

Which got me to thinking, what would Dr. King think of our current situation here in the good-old United States of America, if he were still alive today? On one hand, I can only imagine the pride he would have felt following the election of our first African American president, something I was quite proud of myself back in 2008. At the same time, I’m fairly certain that particular victory would in no way stem his disappointment in our continued warmongering in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yes, you read that right, I said warmongering.

It’s only my opinion, but it seems blatantly obvious that we’re not there for the cause of freedom, and every day it becomes clearer that we never were. We’re there for oil – and for profit – plain and simple. It’s actually quite depressing when you think about it, but in situations such as these, one can typically search for whomever will benefit the most from any given action and then determine, with a fair amount of accuracy, why they took that action in the first place.

Just follow the money.