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Guest Post: The Great War Of The American Empire
Submitted by Michael S Rozeff via LewRockwell.com,
Looking at a map of current American military engagements overseas, one cannot help but notice their wide geographical spread and their seemingly interminable nature. Battles have raged in Europe (Yugoslavia and Ukraine), in Africa, in the Middle East, and in central Asia. The American Empire has launched this country into a series of battles that have no end in sight and no location that may not become a focal point of military force. These battles, each a war in its own right, have drawn in forces and resources from U.S. allies in Europe through NATO and even drawn in Japan. The scope of this war is global. In fact, one part of this war has been called the Global War on Terror. To understand this war and grasp its meaning, in the hope of bringing it to an end, a descriptive name is needed that tells us what this war is about. The name suggested here is the “Great War of the American Empire”. Since World War I, another disastrous war that America joined, is called the Great War, we can refer to the Great War of the American Empire also as Great War II.
Great War II comprises a number of sub-wars. The American Empire is the common element and the most important driver in all the sub-wars mentioned below. American involvement has never been necessary in these sub-wars, but the decisions to make them America’s business have come from the Empire’s leaders. The name “Great War of the American Empire” emphasizes the continuity of all the sub-wars to produce one Great War, and the responsibility of the American Empire in choosing to participate in and create this Great War. Had America’s leaders chosen the radically different path of non-intervention and true defense of this continent, rather than overseas interventions, Great War II would not have occurred and not still be occurring.
The Great War of the American Empire began 25 years ago. It began on August 2, 1990 with the Gulf War against Iraq and continues to the present. Earlier wars involving Israel and America sowed the seeds of this Great War. So did American involvements in Iran, the 1977-1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, and the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988). Even earlier American actions also set the stage, such as the recognition of Israel, the protection of Saudi Arabia as an oil supplier, the 1949 CIA involvement in the coup in Syria, and the American involvement in Lebanon in 1958. Poor (hostile) relations between the U.S. and Libya (1979-1986) also contributed to a major sub-war in what has turned out to be the Great War of the American Empire.
The inception of Great War II may, if one likes, be moved back to 1988 and 1989 without objection because those years also saw the American Empire coming into its own in the invasion of Panama to dislodge Noriega, operations in South America associated with the war on drugs, and an operation in the Philippines to protect the Aquino government. Turmoil in the Soviet Union was already being reflected in a more military-oriented foreign policy of the U.S.
Following the Gulf War, the U.S. government engages America and Americans non-stop in one substantial military operation or war after another. In the 1990s, these include Iraq no-fly zones, Somalia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Haiti, Zaire, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, Liberia, Albania, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Serbia. In the 2000s, the Empire begins wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, and gets into serious military engagements in Yemen, Pakistan, and Syria. It has numerous other smaller military missions in Uganda, Jordan, Turkey, Chad, Mali, and Somalia. Some of these sub-wars and situations of involvement wax and wane and wax again. The latest occasion of American Empire intervention is Ukraine where, among other things, the U.S. military is slated to be training Ukrainian soldiers.
Terror and terrorism are invoked to rationalize some operations. Vague threats to national security are mentioned for others. Protection of Americans and American interests sometimes is made into a rationale. Terrorism and drugs are sometimes linked, and sometimes drug interdiction alone is used to justify an action that becomes part of the Great War of the American Empire. On several occasions, war has been justified because of purported ethnic cleansing or supposed mass killings directed by or threatened by a government.
Upon close inspection, all of these rationales fall apart. None is satisfactory. The interventions are too widespread, too long-lasting and too unsuccessful at what they supposedly accomplish to lend support to any of the common justifications. Is “good” being done when it involves endless killing, frequently of innocent bystanders, that elicits more and more anti-American sentiment from those on the receiving end who see Americans as invaders? Has the Great War II accomplished even one of its supposed objectives?
The Great War of the American Empire encompasses several sub-wars, continual warfare, continual excuses for continual warfare, and continual military engagements that promise Americans more of the same indefinitely. There is a web site called “The Long War Journal” that catalogs events all over the globe that are part of the Great War II, what the site calls the Long War. This site is a project of the “Foundation for Defense of Democracies”, which is a neocon organization that is promoting the Great War of the American Empire.
What they see, and accurately see, as a Long War is a portion of what is here called the Great War of the American Empire. The difference is that all the interventions and sub-wars of the past 25 years and all the military outposts of the U.S. government that provide the seeds of future wars and interventions are included in the Great War II. They all spring from the same source, even though each one has a different specific character.
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Of course, none of this looks set to improve (or even stop escalating) following President Obama's Force Authorization this week (as Ron Paul recently exclaimed)
The president is requesting Congress to pass an authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) resolution against ISIS. Congress has not issued a similar resolution since 2002, when President Bush was given the authority to wage war against Iraq. The purpose of this resolution is to give official authority to the president to do the things that he has already been doing for the past six years. Seems strange but this is typical for Washington. President Obama’s claim is that he does not need this authority. He claims, as have all other recent presidents, that the authority to wage war in the Middle East has been granted by the resolutions passed in 2001, 2002, and by article II of the Constitution. To ask for this authority at this time is a response to public and political pressure.
It has been reported that the president is going to request that the authority limit the use of ground troops. However it would not affect the troops already engaged in Syria and Iraq to the tune of many thousands. This new authority will acknowledge that more advisors will be sent. Most importantly it will appear to have given moral sanction to the wars that have already been going for years.
Interestingly it actually expands the ability of the president to wage war although the president publicly indicates he would like to restrain it. The new authorization explicitly does not impose geographic limits on the use of troops anywhere in the world and expands the definition of ISIS to that of all “associated forces.” A grant of this authority will do nothing to limit our dangerous involvement in these constant Middle East wars.
The war propagandists are very active and are winning over the support of many unsuspecting American citizens. It is not difficult to motivate resistance against an organization like ISIS that engages in such evil displays of horrific violence.
We have been fighting in the Middle East for 25 years. There have been no victories and no “mission accomplished.” Many needless deaths and dollars have been spent and yet we never reassess our policies of foreign interventionism. One would think after the humiliating defeat of the Republicans in 2008, as a reaction to the disastrous foreign policy of George W. Bush, that the American people would be more cautious in granting support to expanding our military presence in that region.
Even if our policies led to no boots on the ground, the unintended consequences of blowback and the enemy obtaining more American weapons will continue. The CIA has said that 20,000 foreigners are on their way to Iraq and Syria to join the ISIS. Our government has no more credibility in telling us the truth about the facts that require us to expand our military presence in this region than Brian Williams. Constant war propaganda has proven too often to be our nemesis in supporting constant war promoted by the neoconservatives and the military industrial complex.
It’s my opinion that giving additional authority to wage war in the Middle East is a serious mistake. Instead, the authority granted in 2001 and 2002 should be repealed. A simple and correct solution would be for our elected officials to follow the rules regarding war laid out in the Constitution.
Ironically there may well be some Republicans in the Congress who will oppose this resolution because of their desire to have an all-out war and not be limited in any way by the number of troops that we should be sending to this region. The only way that Congress can be persuaded to back off with our dangerous interventionism, whether it’s in the Middle East or Ukraine, is for the American people to speak out clearly in opposition.
There is no doubt that ISIS represents a monstrous problem – a problem that should be dealt with by the many millions of Arabs and Muslims in the region. ISIS cannot exist without the support of the people in the region. Currently it is estimated that their numbers are in a range of 30,000. This is not the responsibility of American soldiers or the American taxpayer.
Declaring war against ISIS is like declaring war against communism or fascism. The enemy cannot be identified or limited. Both are ideological and armies are incapable of stopping an idea, good or bad, that the people do not resist or that they support. Besides, the strength of ISIS has been enhanced by our efforts. Our involvement in the Middle East is being used as a very successful recruitment tool to expand the number of radical jihadists willing to fight and die for what they believe in. And sadly our efforts have further backfired with the weapons that we send ending up in the hands of our enemies and used against our allies and Americans caught in the crossfire. Good intentions are not enough. Wise policies and common sense would go a long way toward working for peace and prosperity instead of escalating violence and motivating the enemy.
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It worked for Rome, didn't it?
Oh, wait..
The US has already had Special Forces operations in 105 countries so far...this year.
And that was the tally as of a week or so ago...
source?
You are posting on the source...
Either way this is all about displaying the lengths the Empire will go to ensure the dominance of the all mighty fiat.
A serious question?
I am watching a report about Egypt bombing ISIS in Libya in retaliation for beheadings.
Who best wrote about TPTB using the war machine to take a monarch/dictator controlled nation, destabilizing it allowing a religious sect to fill the vacuum?
Who best published the USA befriending Sadam, selling him arms and providing intel to fight the new revolution in Irag?
Who wrote the USA pulled together tribal groups, paid them to train and provide stingers to bring down Soviet gunships, losing so many tanks and helos that they pulled out?
Adding in double crossing Sadam and Daddy Bush bitch slapping him when he crossed into Kuwait, which leads into the tale of WMD's in Iran? Heh, Powel standing behind GW at the UN giving credence to Valery Plane and yellow cake to INJECT the war machine centrally located in Babylon.
On and on, now WTF? ISIS in Libya and Egypt fighting?
whoever wrote about this stuff before it happened might be a good person to hear from? Right?
Seriously who wrote about this?
Project for a new America.
Everything from daddy Kissinger to the modern day CFR. It's been the Communists the whole time. They just keep changing their names and tactics, but the strategy is always the same. Top down orders to the ground up activists to incrementally "progress" towards socialism for the masses and lordship for the conspirators.
To me it's just the Jewish Mafia, because they are in the end running the show.
troops in 150 countries
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2012/04/us/table.military.troops/
SOF in 134 countries
http://www.thenation.com/article/177964/americas-secret-war-134-countries#
The ONLY country with bases in more than a handful of foreign countries, probably more than the rest of the world combined.
Pretty much the only country to be torturing and killing people in foreign countries.
Truly an exceptional country.
De-worming orphans in Somalia?
Orphaned by American bombs and proxy forces...
They thank us for their freedom.
But, but, but, we are spreading freedom with these forces.
The author just doesn't get it. These people blow up their shoes and underwear!!!
How sick is that?
I say fight... to the end... to their death (or atleast till they promise no more exploding panties).
judging from the effects of the u.s. on nations such as lebanon, afghanistan, iraq, libya, syria, and now yemen, it seems that the goal is failed states. chaos is not collateral damage; it is the plan:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/greater-israel-the-zionist-plan-for-the-mid...
@Ignatius
Fight to the end, yeah! So when are you signing up for the infantry?
Oh you aren't...? Well then STFU you sniveling coward.
If you want war, then YOU go fight it.
Your assumption that everything is going according to plan is incorrect. The grand conspirators don't always get it right. History has shown that those who wish to rule the world fuck up more often than not which is why their systems always collapse in the end.
Yes, Voice of America: Incite rebellions and leave then the poor bastrads on their own like in Hungary 1956.
I say if they don't want democracy and freedom, then you bomb the crap out of them until they do.
"The US has already had Special Forces operations in 105 countries so far..."
Here is the link
"Special Forces" largely refers to the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), which reports directly and only to the President, effectively his/her private army. They conduct military, spy missions, and assassinations around the world. A primary mission objective appears to be fomenting destabiliation and chaos.
The article states, "We have been fighting in the Middle East for 25 years. There have been no victories and no 'mission accomplished.'" I disagree. The US does not need to win wars to fulfill its Imperial intentions. Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen, Ukraine are all now failed states, thanks to US intervention. Ripe for Imperial domination. With no legitimate government to oppose them, and compliant/subjugant populations, the US is all over Iraq and Libya, exploiting oil resources and using the occupied territory as a staging ground for misdaventure elsewhere in the middle east and North Africa. Greater Africa is next.
Are Muslims tools?
The Empire is destabilizing nations using Muslims as tools to create havoc? I am guessing Muslims will figure this out and change tactics. Nuclear ISIS anyone?
What was the problem wirh IRAN, I forget? They are our buddies helping fight ISIS.
The Rise of the TOOLS
Only as long as Romans did the fighting.
When the legions became mostly furiners, things went to shit.
Discounting mentally ill leadership. of course.
America:
Location: Variable: North American continent, or the Centre of the Universe (depends if you ask a Yank)
Population: Too many
Education: Occasionally
Languages: Sure, probably?
Chief Export: Munitions.
Unit of Currency: Munitions.
GDP: Munitions.
A very interesting exercise is to google "debt-GDP" ratio of countries around the world. A correlation with "organized chaos" delivered under the guise of Freedom is rather apparent for some reason.
The central bankers appear to get really agitated whenever a country with real assets gets under about 15% or so. The Argentinian president's current problems would "disappear" if she were just a little smarter about this; Putin sees this all quite clearly.
War is a racket.
how can you down arrow this sentiment? and how much more proof since butler wrote it?
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html
Too many people have learned to easily recognize the reference on the basis of many quoted snippets distributed across the interwebz, but that article is one that we should all read word for word, start to end, to fully appreciate.
Takes maybe 10 minutes.
The Sunday morning talk shows are full of politicians, bureaucrats and private industry consultants telling the American sheeple that the wars have no end in sight and that we must continue to fight and more. The word vomit comes to mind.
Yes, they are worse than ever. At least Tim Russert challenged guests a little.
imo not so
he was a sycophant to power.
Every time I go visit my parents on a given weekend they're glued to the screen watching the morning weekend talk shows for most of the day. The amount of war that these talking heads want is mindboggling to say the least. If this was the Soviet Union doing the exact same shit to their own people we'd be laughing at them for such ridiculous propaganda. Of course that's not the case here since we're so exceptional and different...
It never ceases to amaze me that the biggest opponents of war are those who have actually served and the biggest warmongers are the ones crying for it from the safety of their offices and TV studios.
Never advocate war unless you plan on picking up a rifle. Everyone else is just a loud, obnoxious pussy.
Emperor in The White Palace decides what the Subjects need to know in order to obey. All Republics decay and the American Global Empire came from the Coup of Brumaire
Maybe it's a good idea to support this ISIS war, as hopefully it will keep the Neocons and military-industrial complex busy for a while. Better fighting a brutal CIA-created stateless organization than nuclear powers. Maybe it will kick the WW3 can down the road a little more.
How do you think these assholes fund this organization?
What exactly is it that you guys think the Iraq wars were about?
They were about getting funding to build this this police state of a prison and to support Israel's ongoing slaughter of Palestinians.
Herman Goreing if we had not had the Jews we would have had to invent them. The Us. Gov if we don't have some one to free the shit out of we will invent them
imo the goering quotation is spurious but your conclusion is valid.
The U.S. Is weak and getting less relavent. tick tick get your house in order.
too late. there are too many sheeple scared shitless of underwear and shoe bombers and exploding kitchen appliances
Let the confiscation of unregistered toasters commence!
We should keep in mind the American goals when George W. Bush became president. Before 9/11 sent us on a different course, the President and Congress both were screaming for a confrontation with China. Bush moved to increase spy flights as close to Chinese airspace as you can fly without entering it. China reacted with the famous Spie Plane incident, and the papers and news where howling for American to act with more aggression. Just as the US was about to go all in against China, 9/11 changed the whole scenario. I've oftened wondered what would have happend between the rabid US congress and their desire to confront China at all turns. Instead we went into Afghanistan and Iraq. While still proclaiming a long term pivot to the East, which is still ongoing.
The plays we made in Libya and Syria were pretty radical, with US air power doing the job of changing governments. Though Putin prevented the US SYria move. Which in fact is NOW back on the table, if you notice!
Look, these were all small potatoes compared to the all out end game attack on Russia. If you know Russian history, you would know that America ruling Ukraine, no matter who the puppet government claimed to be, was going to involve a push to the brink. Never in the last 300 years or more has Russia sat by and allowed a foreign power to own Ukraine and use it as an anti Russian outpost and jumping off point for attacks further east.
If I know that much, then our government KNEW that much. Which means, they are prepared to take Ukraine no matter what the Russian would do. Reckless to the point of madness is what I would call this.
A nation that must print out of thin air 50% of all it's spending budgets, and is on the move all across the globe with expanding military bases, naval forces and proxy wars, while it's real economy clearly rots, well, does this end well?
My real problem, and what makes me post all the time on this subject is my disgust with the tiny Neoconservative, AIPAC, Christian Zionist alliance that rules us with an iron fist, and a liar media. The 1/10 of 1% who rule, are reckless madmen, seeking to expand their wealth and power. None of this is about American freedom. It is about world wide Zionism that is in play everywhere, but stage managed from Washington DC.
The real question for Americans now is stay thinkign they can help or get out while they still can.
Frankly, I don't think staying to help "save American" is a real option. America is dead, and the populace overwhelmingly cannot be recovered.
Would it have made any difference to stay in Nazi Germany? Seems as pointless as standing in front of a runaway steamroller, especially since most people wouldn't have wanted freedom even if they knew what it was.
What's that quote that keeps floating around- something about Americans being a dead people who are so selfish, indolent, and willfully ignorant that they deserve the apocalypse that is coming to them? It's a bit harsh but unfortunately, not too far off. I see a lot of moral cowardice, normalcy bias and just trying to get by.
If America can get to 25% awakened and 1/10 of those prepared for a nasty fight, then there is a very good chance of victory. Not there yet and time is running short.
This is the culmination of the War on the Human Spirit, which has been going on for thousands of years. They chose America for a reason.
just like we would not like Russia moving into Canada and putting military bases in and along the border
Oh yes, lets look at ISIS for example.
Clearly, the main enemy of islam in the middle east is Israel, but as we can see ISIS is not trying to attack Israel, or not even talking about it. Instead ISIS is a menace for the countries like Syria and Iran who oppose Israel. The only logical reason for such behaviour is that ISIS is sponsored by Israel and US, to weaken Israel's opponents.
#JSIS and #ISIS have the same #THESIS - exclusive ethno-religious state for their tribe (+ out-of-tribe slaves).
Jezus krist, first bloody line again! No, I'm not reading shit like this when the first line is this hopelessly warped misrepresentation nonsense.
"current?" ... "engagements"
Does the poster under the definition of 'current', and what a military 'engagement' is?
No, current combat is not everywhere, it is in a couple of places, currently.
Military engagements are everywhere in history, but history is not current - is it?
And if this is about history, please show me single great power of its day that did not do exactly the same things, distributed over time?
Are we expected to be naive little children and lap up this unblinking junk? The world is NOT your fantasy, it is NOT your rhetoric, history does NOT happen all at once. Get real.
Dear Michael,
If you want to be taken seriously try not writing warped bullshit from the very outset. Real things are bad enough without some petty blogger introducing more hyperbolic propaganda bile to deliberately muddy the waters, and confuse issues with a mish-mash of topics, in a melange pretentiously asserting that it's useful analysis and advice. Grow up.
Cheerio
Maybe you have a different map?
Maybe people are finally getting sick and tired of subhumans like you.
Ones that revel in the savagery of bygone days.
... subhuman ... revel in savagery ... vivid imagination you have there anus.
Do you expect human nature to change via the cure-all mechanism of wishful thinking? Militaries are a feature of Human history, in one form or another, in all of civilization's past. Virtually every form of technology you are currently using (look around you) came from the outcome of military competition, and technical one-up-man-ship.
You will struggle to find anything that wasn't. And that technology is the reason you are still alive and flourish. Bitter pill much?
We aren't 'improving' toward a glorious golden age of lions and lambs eating grass. That's a progressive hyper-myth. Look around you, the polarized retardedness of hate online and on the street, grows noticeably each year. So why would military forces and activities not reflect that hatred and polarising of all the civil and military hate propaganda content?
But by far and away, AND MORE TO THE POINT, why is almost no one interested in NOT being polarized and manipulated by such divisive hate propaganda?
And when I have the unmmituigated cheek to propose that people do reject it, from ALL sources, and simply end the power of the division and disgusting manipulation it seeks to impose and imbued hate - what do I I get called?
Subhuman!
Hahaha! That was a good one anus! I have not been called that one so far, so congratulations on your extravagant twisted hyperbole and natural capacity to completely miss the point - impressive! :-D
Can't refute message, shoot messenger much?
The messenger is not worth refuting... -1
I say:
You say:
Total absence of merit, or care, or logic. Pure stupid on steroids, the emergent grunt of the neanderthal's reptilian brain.
The reveling in the capacity for hatred and manipulation that comes from the utility of polarizing and divisive propaganda.
Your every word drips it, you even cynically adopted the misnomer, 'angel of joy', because it's the dissonant diametric opposite of what you would wish for humanity.
Pay attention here zh, ... the suggestion is that I'm SUBHUMAN for proposing that you should not be manipulated into hatred and divisions that get you all damaged, destroyed and killed.
Remember the Orwell 1984 terms of, 'Double-Speak', 'Double-Think', 'Thought Police', and Two Minutes of Hate? Can you remember how those mechanisms worked and were forced on people? Do remember the pervasive fear inculcated at every level? And the role of contrived divisive propaganda in creating hate, simply as a utility to manipulate people and control them, and to make reality whatever was desired at a whim?
You are looking at it occurring in real-time.
Are you going to play along with this propaganda lovers? Are you going to just go along, and expect or hope for it to get better next year? Did you see the kerfuffle about the Samsung spy-TV's last week, and how it beams private information to third-parties over an NSA monitored internet network? Gee, where did they get an idea like that?
So you either chose to tell ALL of the propaganda lovers, makers and propagators to go to hell and reject every polarized partisan manipulative hate-inducing 'side' which they keep urging you and stampede you with fear to chose, for every 'side' will be used to do exactly the same things to you - count on it - or you and your family's are not getting out of this.
You are out of time.
Right you are.
The average human thinks that just because something happens to some other guy that it will not happen to them because they are smarter, better looking, richer, or whatever, and history will turn out different.
Just look at how while Hitler sat in his bunker getting ready to kill himself with the Russians literally outside the door. All the other Third Reich members were working overtime to take over thinking they could produce a better ending and keep the show rolling, all wanting to be the BOSS.
"But by far and away, AND MORE TO THE POINT, why is almost no one interested in NOT being polarized and manipulated by such divisive hate propaganda?"
Because looking anatomically human and being human are not necessarily the same. We have complex brains with complex behaviors and behaving human is an adaptation of man-the-animal's behavior. Man is a high-function example of an animal, a human rejects the red in tooth and claw of the animal world.
So, simply put, the vast majority of people are born an animal, live like an animal, and die an animal.
Like you - a talking monkey with car keys.
constant endless wars are not a feature of any countries in history except those that try to conquer the world. all have failed miserably so far. maybe this time it's different
Forget the big foreign powers in time for a moment.
Look just at the dispositions of countries, cultures, fundamentalist-religion and geography plus the traditional and more recent ethnic hatreds, racism, plus spiral escalations recently, in many places.
Is war generally more likely in those places due to those factors alone, irrespective of what State power is the global Boss-Hog?
I would say most certainly yes.
So is the fact of war in those areas chicken (local), or egg (foreign), or both contributing to conflict?
I'd say both are making the wars develop as they do, and if the foreign powers were not there they would still be at each others throat just as often. The West manipulates to the extent it needs to or can get away with to get what it and its alliance need or would wish, given the fact of such animosities. So were does local war-like effect end, and foreign war-like intervention effects begin?
If you pull all western forces out of the regions of war (which won't happen, and it would be nice if people simply faced up to such facts with less garment-rending and adolescent hand-wringing), conflicts would still brew and still spiral escalate.But for sure, one foreign attacks start, the entire region destabilizes into warfare far more easily.
What I can say for sure is that NATO action in the Balkans stopped most of a decade of horrible warfare and incredible civil suffering, and very quickly. I also know that INTERFET intervention in East Timor, which a few SEA states totally panned at the time then shut-up once they saw that it almost immediately worked and stopped the attacks and the mass suffering. It stopped incredible levels of destruction, torture, rape, murder and looting. Same for the intervention in the Solomon Islands around ten years ago.
So a military force can do a lot of good and can stop a lot of suffering, if it's used the right way, by the right people, with the right motives and restraint.
So when people tell me or insist to me that a military does no good I'm not easily persuaded by that assertion and it hyped assumptions. Though we all know of numerous examples of epic hideous results of military force, that was used wrongly, for false and devious reasons by pricks and mass murderers.
It just isn't the black and white fairytale of military action being always bad that so many propagandists want us to accept as rote. The danger is you never know how it will go, or how it will turn out. Certainly, following the US into a war is generally a very bad idea (Libya Iraq and Vietnam/Indo-China make me fucking furious at the US and its scum-sucking 'leadership').
But as in the Balkans showed, even that was not always the cas.
(and I just know the Slavic fringe is just going to pop a fuse about me daring pointing that truth out, but they also were spared the suffering of another ten years of war, to hell with them if they don't appreciate it - their children will have)
There is not a single invention that has helped humanity that was invented by people of the military.
Don't get cute, almost all high technology existing was developed for and applied to military purposes, first, then moved into the civil sphere. That is a general reality, so to pretend the military has not served your interests is a nonsense. The USA became a former center of technical innovation due to it. It is not honest to pretend this is not so. The effect is that you are still alive, to the age that you are, and live as you currently can. People don't like reality, rhetorical fantasy is much nicer, but it is still the case. The subcultural pretense that it isn't so, is risible.
That military derived technology and processing power applied to civilians is producing an astonishing mad gush of propaganda 'information', that does next to nothing to inform, but profusely grows hate and accentuates divisions to manipulate people, often to crazy actions being taken.
We can't stop technology but we can decide to say no to all 'sides', which all seek to create hate or derivations on hate in us, to divide us and manipulate all into polarized groups for actions, which will harm everything we need to live, especially a capacity to think clearly and independently, free of mob peer-pressure, and state-sanctioned nascent 'thought-police', and a move to blanket censorship.
So we either every day say no to slavishly following all propaganda 'information' that seeks to divide and manipulate to hate, or your choices and capacity to chose will be forfeit, as a matter of course.
I bet you also believe that there would be no chatting on the internet if it weren't for the existence of Israel. If your thesis that there always was and will be military pervasive throughout features of society is true, then how do you associate any real causality to technological developments? Isn't it mere correlation? That is, if there had been no military, there also could (and likely would have) been such technological developments. Lol - underlying most of the tech "progress" is simple competition - not militarism.
Competition is often parallel to military developments (NOT militarism).
But you are nit picking away from the point.
I'll say this to support your line of reasoning:
1° The fact that somebody makes an irrefutable observation based on fact does not mean he condones the underlying ideology that feeds it.
A good example in history is provided by three eminent historians who defined geo-politics over the ages :
a) Thucydides who started factual history and showed the world what Athen's definition of "hegemony" as defined by its greatest strategist Pericles entailed : The defeat of Athens at the hands of arch rival Sparta. Cause and effect.
b) Ibn Khaldoun. This eminent philosopher observed that fallen nations do everything in their power to "ape" the culture of their victors to the point of adopting even their worst idiosyncracies !
c) Machiavelli. He observed that the Popes having destroyed the fear of God's eternal vengeance on Man it opened the way for the Political Prince to dissimulate his stratagem under the tinsel curtain of "the end justifying the means".
Lastly, since Roman times we know that : If you want peace always prepare for war. It remains true today in the age of Oppenheimer's toy!
Thank you falak, you clearly understand how common this problem is and how often people seek tangential 'points' or even denial based on that assumption alone. Unfortunately it's a particular problem on at unmoderated forum (watch, someone will now want to make a song and dance about my saying that), where the majority are apparently struggling to stick to any topic without several intervening tangential spasms and cognitive seizures.
+1
there are possibly 2 to 300,000,000 living sociopathic personalities alive now.
we live with advanced technologies available to millions of these people who lack empathy, but crave wealth, power, and self.
my Moore's law equivalent - in advanced societies where technological development is in rapid stage, evolving morality cannot keep up with evolving technology.
the result is inevitable moral relativity and then societal collapse as a result of availability and misuse of technology/science by a minority or one. once a planet becomes globally connected, the collapse is global. examples are nuclear war, EMP disaster, environmental fail, Fukushima, ocean death, etc.
this is most likely why we have not encountered other advanced species - they die out or devolve to repetetive pre-tech phases before their technology gets to the interplanetary contact and colonization phase.
I was thinking an advanced species would avoid humans like the plague... "Mostly harmless", but not entirely
If that sentence represents "unblinking junk" to you, your comment is blinking junk then, I suppose. Frankly, I don't know WTF you're talking about.
About the only argument you came up with was "other great powers did it too". That's awesome. I suppose if your neighbor beats his wife, that's all the (un)blinking justification you need to do it as well, right?
Only because you don't want to. ;-)
What a sick society we live in.
Most Americans have no idea how much misery and suffering we cause globally.
Its fucking incredible.
Most Americans do not care how much misery and suffering we cause globally.
A more accurate representation of the facts, I fear.
. ooops
I love this: "There is no doubt that ISIS represents a montrous problem - a problem that should be dealt with by the many millions of Arabs and Muslims in the region"
Why should they have to deal with this when it was the CIA / Mossad who created the terrorists in the first place and continue to fund it? If the Neocons want to destroy the Islamic State (or the psyop name of the week is) then they should drop a few cluster bombs on Langley, McLean VA headquarters, the US Embassey in Ankarah Turkey (control operations for IS), Mossad headquarters in Israel, the Bush compound, all poppy fields in Afganistan, the Sinaloa Cartel...
This should be a good start. If they get through these, I will put together another list. HSBC and JPM headquarters come to mind :) / sarc (this is for NSA plausible deniability)
You forgot Whoringtown DC /sarc for same deniability.
We already know that the Oligarchs own or are themselves the congrassholes, the owners of the big corporate defence contractors and the msm.
Perpetual War for the explicit pourpose of extracting wealth from the domestic and global economy is the only objective of the MIC.
The primary purpose of the war machine is to perpetuate war to from which to profit from.
The logical or moral basis for conflict is irrelevant.
Results are irrelevent as long as conflict for profit is perpetuated. Outcomes that might be considered succes or victory are far less favorable than to continue making money.
It's a virtuous circle: Congress feeds the MIC and the MIC feeds Congress.
Washington D.C. doesn't represent the United States of America. They need to move their headquarters into some other nation like Somalia.
Have them pack out the UN with them.
Eisenhower said war is man's greatest folly and those who pursue it or fail to prevent it are a black mark on all of humanity.
Hawks and Doves must admit that countries flee to the dollar because it is backed by the baddest super power military in the world. Thats where the buck gets its international gravitas and interest, no matter that its misguided. Foreign countries ate attracted by sword rattling swagger. Same answer for What Is Driving The Dollar?
Every time you see a paraplegic vet, go over and thank him for a strong dollar.
I don't think the banker-dudes do that very often, so it's up to the rest of us to help cheer them up.
#ThankAVet
Remember this on Memorial Day, Bitches!
They are very successful . The goal is just different from what you think. The Emmanuel Goldstein enemies are required to subdue their own population. The foreign scare puppets do an excellent job.
So, it's a war against ISism.
I think that a part of the passive acceptance by most Americans of this global non stop war is the lack of a draft. If the war effort is so important - every one should be called to participate. Doesn't mean that the draftees even have to be combat soldiers (I would prefer they not be). But if you eliminate the detachment between the general citizenry and the troop deployments, I think that the powers that be would find their war making efforts severly restricted. IMHO the average guy on the street has no vested interest in our military adventures other than the movies about it.
The genius of the "all-volunteer" military.
Grind the lower part of your population down so low morally (media), legally (war on drugs) and economically (.1% versus everyone else) that they are desperate. Nothing less than desperate. At that point, the Stockholm syndrome works like a charm. "You see? We're the wonderful benefactors! We will now give you a job and training so your life will be wonderful!" Voila, cannonfodder.
It's sickening.
Pox amerikana, like Wouter Basson (Dr Death of apartheid South Africa) and his weaponised Ebola, is simply the total anglozionazi war on the human family by other means. We are all the enemy of these psychopaths.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSXbw622kQ8
Consider each of these foreign illegal interventions by Vichy DC as single entities. You could refer to them as MIC Blood Bank (Iraq, Ukraine etc etc )
The USSA government and Local/ International Partners involved are obliged to submit a Balance Sheet and Statement of Accounts for PUBLIC SCRUTINY.
Transparency and all that.
THE FED ultimately oversees these Blood Banks.
War is big business. As long as there are Jew bankers running the Military Industrial Complex there will be war.
God save America.
greeting of Muslims from the Balkans (Europe) that there would no longer exist without the intervention of the American military.
The Israeli Elections are on the 17th March and the recent spate of ' lone wolf ' attacks are perfect electioneering fodder for NetaNutJob.
Instill fear among the Jewish Public into voting for a ' bunker mentality ' when the reality at home is that MANY Jews are as tired of Benny's policies as the rest of the world is.
Positive Jewish input say in the Medical Field ( where they shine as advised by my doctor friend ) into Palestine rather than Occupation is the ONLY way forward for PEACE.
Would be a HUGE statement to vote BN out of office , especially to Vichy DC & MIC. A few vested interests would be horrified at the thought of this prospect.
This is where the "Jew" threads sadden me. There is an element within Judaism that is truly evil. There can be no question. BUT there are also some great people out there who are Jewish trying to stop the assholes (Miko Peled a prime example). The word zionist is a much better description for the assholes, particularly since even our dear "non-Jewish" leaders love to accept the mantle of zionism (Joe Biden: "I am a Zionist") My guess is that even in WWII Hitler was after the assholes, but they had long since left for greener pastures, leaving behind a lot of innocent Jews to get punished for what the assholes had done. The zionist wing of Judaism are criminals against even other Jews. They are truly evil.
Sunday on Zerohedge is like Walmart after midnight.
Amerika should watch carefully how it moves . It's armed forces are overstretched , China and Russia are closing the armaments techological gap and the economic system is emploding .
Amerika is being destroyed from the inside by 5th columnist with dual citicenship from Israel who hope that if the USA dies , the zionist entity in Israel is to take over the world . I hope Russia vaporazes the Apartheid state during the war that at the moment seems inevitable . After the criminality of the USA administrations who needs the same criminals to survive in the apartheid state ? The US military is still on time to exterminate the 1% controllers and the dual citizens USA- Israel . It is better to exterminate the 1 % and the zionists friends than the 99 % of the population . It's time to make a decision for people in the armed forces ............ When will you wake up ? AIPAC and it's minions want the USA destroyed , so , they think they will take over ........ Exterminate their families too .
"The inception of Great War II may, if one likes, be moved back to 1988 and 1989 without objection..."
Or you can say it has been one never ending Great War.
You know, it is funny, well not really funny, just confusing; I mean, we never thought about America as an Empire when I was going to school 1950's 60's; we thought of America as the protector of peoples; protecting people from Empire, i.e., the Soviet Empire. Man, did we get fooled. All along the idea was to use America to destroy the world, to lower the world's human populations, to steal everything that is not nailed down from every other nation on Earth; to kill, steal, reek havoc everywhere. How? The Soviet Empire, or at least the communiost Jews who were the Soviet Empire, stole everything from Russia they could, and, moved to America where they now control the medias and everything else vital and important to/in America. America, is not getting off scott free; the same hatred that destroyed Russia as the Soviet Union is destroying America, for the last fifty years. America, has suffered destruction, right along with the destroying it has done to other countries and the Earth. America's system is broken, that's the only way to say it; to say it the long way, such as: the educational system, the political system, the judicial system, the religious systems, the work systems, the union systems, hollywood and the medias, everything about America, of America, is in decline, or, totally dysfunctional, gone, really doesn't cover it all. America, today, is a nation of ugliness and carelessness. America, is killing the world's natural environment, including the animals and the plants. America is an infected sore on the Earth needing to be dealt with. So, hang on, Earth, is a living organism, and, Earth is bound to be getting tired of us. What happens now is only just, only, what we have coming. Hang on, this real war is only just beginning.