This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Guest Post: One Simple Rule To Stop Unnecessary Wars
Submitted by Azizonomics
One Simple Rule To Stop Unnecessary Wars
I’m sick of war.
Officially the cost of the war on terror has been $1.3 trillion. And military spending — especially the interest on debt to pay for past wars — keeps growing year on year:
As General Eisenhower noted:
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
The cost in life was been ever steeper; over a million Iraqis died.
But it’s more than cost; this a problem of responsibility. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney live a comfortable life of wealth and leisure, four years after leaving office having started two destructive, costly and ineffective wars of choice. They didn’t fight. None of their children fought. But lots of American and British soldiers and innocent Arabs got their limbs and heads blown off.
Of course, military deterrence — and sometimes military action — is necessary.
As Eisenhower noted:
A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.
The trouble is that war is a great excuse for weapons contractors to make lots of money, and weapons contractors happily fund war-mongering politicians into power. That’s the self-perpetuating military industrial complex.
So the problem then lies in differentiating the necessary actions from the unnecessary.
I propose a simple heuristic for this purpose, one that if introduced would also render the war-mongering politician — the Congressman who votes to authorise, or the President who signs the authorisation into law — personally responsible:
If you start a war, you have to fight. If you cannot fight, then your nearest fit relative has to fight.
This puts the skin back into the game. You want to risk blood and treasure to start a war? If it’s that important, you’ll put your body and blood on the line before you ask any soldier to fight, or any taxpayer to pay. If not, then it must not be necessary.
Would George W. Bush have started the Iraq war had he known his two daughters would be conscripted, and shipped off to Iraq to find Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction?
I doubt it.
»
- 16187 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Only the individual has the capacity be moral not corporations or governments. And, the clearing in the forest has disappeared; been vaporized by a black hole of corporate fraud and political corruption. When the ethos of a civilization disintegrates so does its people. The individual with individual rights and the potential for morality can implement the rule of law in a just way. The larger the government or corporation becomes the more unwieldy the beast becomes because it does not possess the capacity of morality. Instead individually and everything associated with morality is blotted out in favor of the bottom line. Until finally the entire system implodes. Which is where we are at now. If we don't start to prosecute fraud and impeach corrupt politicians and restore individual rights we will implode. It has been proven many times over that this is what happens. It is fact.
So either we invert the pyramid and remove those in control of the beast or poof. I'm betting on poof.
But it doesn't have to be that way. We have the technology. We have the ability to implement a closed open source monetary system and to take the ability to pass laws out of the hands of politicians. That will occur although not likely before the apocalypse strikes.
Further its is mind breaking,that socalled Christians,with their peaceloving God,cant se where in their Holy hipocrazy book,they are failing bigtime,might be they cant count to five,like commandmend, 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 11.
And of to" Hipocradome" to ask forgivness,to the big pest of all time,The programing chief on commander!
I think the race is called,innovators,and we"The idiometers" live in the socalled advanced world,just cant se from where we advanced since we clubbed one and other on the scull,beside the distance have increseed into drone the crone,how advanced!
I've tried Google Translate but I still can't understand your post. +1 for effort.
Accepted!
What a great post. But it leaves me with a sense of deep sadness. Permanent War is now such a central part of the American culture and economy that it would take a generation to unwind. Let's all cheer "boo-yah!" to the Marines at the Superbowl halftime. We have to start by forcing those around us to face the facts, the pure and simple facts. Why would a nation that is surrounded by 43 US military bases, that we can vaporize within 15 minutes, that according to *our own military* presents no credible military threat to us, even be considered as a reason for another bankrupting war? This is beyond insanity. Hopefully enough Americans are not, and this can be opposed with all our strength and reason.
In my generation we stopped a war and threw out a President who was a crook. C'mon people get active. Get "radical" (as if speaking the blatantly obvious truth makes one a radical...). I will debate these points with anyone, anywhere, and I will win. Wake up, act up, or shut up.
Watch this CNN video and then let's debate. Anyone who wants more war and more military care to stand up for their beliefs?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkxhmp9H3yc
Hal the people who want more war are generally not on ZH, I'm sure you will find a hearty Jingo-Brigade over at freerepublic, eager to debate you, until you get kicked off the site. Duh why do you think I'm not welcome there anymore?
The sheople who foment and lather for more war generally fit into some categories: Employed in a war company, BA, Lockeed, HAL, just about every fake ass "company" mooching tax dollars. So if tax money is getting stuffed in their pockets then war is healthy for them. I find it ironic that the jingo families who have actual skin in the game are the most ardent warmongers ... hey idiots: It's your own son who is going to get his head blown off!! I can only guess they have to support the fake war against pretend terrism so they don't ever have to face the fact their kid died for lies, stupidity and the profit of others. (say that at freerepublic and your account can be deleted too!)
The average flag-waving Sheople the stupidity thereof is so mind boggling as to be beyond understanding, kind of like Max Fisher.
.
indeed, unless and until we all stop parroting "I thank you for your service" - service to whom precisely?? - and stop with the incessant cheerleading of uni-formed volunteer killers for the maintenance of the status quo, then this madness will continue.
and people on both sides will continue to be ground up and spit out by the machine, that serves the corporate fascist class.
No I won't debate you. These points are undebatable. Sometimes I wake up in such despair, I just can't see a way out of all of this. Or at least one that isn't filled with bloody violence and senseless murder. We seem to be caught in a trap in endless complacency in a backdrop of continual bread and circuses. I'm really getting tired now.
" Until they become conscious they will never rebel and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.
- George Orwell, 1984
Miffed
Gold as money,... uh gold is money, a gold backed
currency would stop these fuckers and their wars to.
Instead of just breeding chickens, the silverfurist on you tube.com could start raising chicken-hawks with people like Limbaugh, Bush Jr, Quail, Cheney, Hannity, and on and on. Bwaaaak Bwaaak!
And by the way, does anyone know the list of chicken hawks who did not serve? It was on the internet years ago.
Damn! forgot Clinton. Then there's Kerry, the chicken hawk who actually stuck a hawk's feathers in his cap or his uniform to really fool us all.
@gullyfoil;
Thanks for great link to a great song. makes me want to shut my f'ing wise cracks up especially when I realize that Viet sent a lot of men who were drafted, not volunteers, to their graves and many others to a living hell afterwards.
Me? was a dumb, spoiled, preppy college kid in 1972 when I had to register for the draft, as the war was winding down, and got draft number 254 to boot. No idea what the hell was going on.
Belatedly tried to become medical officer (orthopedic surgery) last year, but due to the endlesss delays and bureaucracy, gave up when no response after 6 mos (from the time of completion of my application. )
The question I have is about these so called "volunteers" are they being coerced "economically" to join? (lousy economy, no jobs therefore army) or do they need a reality check in so far as they may not have a "career" with a pension and benefits but rather they may get called up , go to war and die or get disabled?
there is really no excuse for anyone "volunteering" to be shipped to someone else's nationstate to kill.
the "economic" excuse is appalling - how stupid does one need to be to volunteer to kill people? and if one will volunteer to invade another country to kill humans trying to exist in their homes, how easy to convince the volunteer to kill anyone they're told to? I mean, why not, if "I can't gets a jawb" then why not kill anyone you're told a story about for money?
seriously, if one cannot get fucking creative about learning to exist, with less if necessary, if the only option is to be fed, clothed & medicated with untested pharma in exchange for murdering people, then you're already the walking dead. . .
But that's my point. Some? or a lot? of "volunteers" really don't want to kill anyone, they just want a "job" with benefits and pension.
Granted, there are those who join because they want to kill anyone with the biggest , baddest gun they can get their hands on, complements of our arms merchants.
I've zero sympathy for this argument:
irrespective of "wanting" to kill, that's what the uni-form is all about. how stupid and venal must one be to volunteer to "pilot" a drone that kills whole families you'll never see? or willingly puts on a uni-form and INVADES another country to poison the peoples trying to live there? how immoral is one who willingly uses depleted uranium on humans, resulting in genocide, such as in Fallujah?
and now the women are being told to not get pregnant, as the deformities are so heartbreaking and severe.
"oh sorry missus, but I just wanted benefits & a pension" - as if one would live that long, and pensions will get paid by this ponzi-nation.
anyone who volunteers to do this and many more war crimes is a tool, in ALL of the definitions. . .
Absolutely correct. The economic excuse is not valid. Zero tolerance for war criminals and profiteers, zero sympathy for the economic excuse. It's very simple; war is a crime, it is a last resort, a failure of policy. In a sane culture politicians who shilled for war would have zero credibility. Time to grow up humans.
edit... +1 for mention of Faluja. If you want to understand the real cost of war, start thinking about what we, as human beings, have lost through centuries of warfare. Our culture is nowhere near as deep or as advanced as it should be now. We have lost vast amounts of priceless learning and cultural sophistication. This BS is holding us back. We will never reach our potential or get off this rock, let alone survive, if we don't address the problem of institutionalized war and its idiot stepchild, the central banking/fiat money cartel.
*nods*
and for all you folks who think Fallujah only happens to the "brown people over there" - the military have "tested" depleted uranium for years, on homeland soil, poisoning everyone as they go, do a *search* on DU in Hawaii, should get you started. . .
Depleted Uranium – One Of The Greatest Environmental Horrors In The History Of The World
http://www.gulfwarvets.com/du_greatest_enviomental_horrors.htm
Fukushima's Nuclear Nightmare Is Far From Over (or the Disturbingly Deadly Act of Placing Profits Before People)The visit to Japan some twenty days after the catastrophic earthquake, horrific tsunami and resulting nuclear accidents at the Fukushima Daiichi site by French president Nicolas Sarkozy is described as having been focused on the continued sale of deadly MOX (a "dirty" mixture of Plutonium and Depleted Uranium).
http://www.beyondnuclear.org/japan/
LOL AT BUSH GIRLS. WTF DRESSES LIKE THAT.
Satan worshipers they never learn thinking they look innocent, attempting to conceal their reptile like thought patterns, & behavior by tricking your mind (average J6pk) thus you might ask Who the fuck dresses like that WTF! Don't let their looks deceive they will eat your children! nom nom
We don't have "wars" anymore, we have , "dust ups", "skirmishes", 'conflicts", "missions", "raids", "sortes" "battles", "incursions", "kerfuffles" blah, fucking blah, blah.
Congress has to DECLARE a war for it to be a "WAR" thus the word play mind fuck. The only "wars" at the presient time are "the war on drugs" and "the war on terror" and those are directed at the American people and they willing go along with it because every mother will allow their daughter to be fingered by a guy in a blue shirt and rubber gloves as long as she and her offspring can fly in safety!!! forget the fact that her daughter was just molested going through security, it won't be long before HHS will be waiting at the other airport to arrest mom for allowing someone to molest their daughter. DAMNED IF YOU DO, DAMNED IF YOU DON'T.
Other then that, the only people that the government has caught is people that our own government bribed to take those actions. The shoe bomber and underwear bomber were allowed on a plane with what they had by agents of our own government. So the FBI is running around bribing yokels and muslims with money and a block of grey playdough with a fucking firecracker fuse sticking out of it, feeling safer now.
People in general enjoy conflict. They enjoy first-person conflict ("I'll kick your ass!"), they enjoy second-person conflict ("Kick his ass, Johnny!"), and they enjoy third-person conflict ("Let's watch Johnny kick his ass!").
Conflict-seeking is not the disease. It is a symptom of two unique diseases: insecurity, and predatory nature.
Withdraw your support of both the insecure and the predatory, and the wars will end. The insecure will expire naturally. Following that, the predators (lacking available prey) will eat themselves.
Keep this in mind. When the Army quit Viet Nam, Nixon used the USAF to continue the war for "4 more years". In the 21st century, they'll use drones and keep everyone's hands nice and clean.
Cambodia.
http://www.edwebproject.org/sideshow/history/nixon.html
lies. endless stream of lies.
It's especially ironic - not to mention hypocritical - that Chaney was a world class draft dodger and Bush topped that with desertion.
Since we no longer feel compelled to comply with the constitution and declare war before we send troops into combat how about addressing this from a nice conservative financial perspective now that everybody who loves wars now hates deficits. How about pay as you go financing for discretionary undeclared wars. If you want to push the cost of wars off on future administrations you need to have Congress declare war like we did back when we honored our constitution. All undeclared conflicts have to be pay as you go with income tax surcharges.
End of wars.
It would be better to make the wars "pay as you go". If it's important enough to kill a million people then it's important enough to raise taxes. That would defeat the enticement that "Wars are good for the economy". Bad checks dumped on the next generation are good for the economy when nobody can write a good check. A gallon of gas goes for $700 to $1000 in Afghanistan and it's only 500 miles to the coast. Of course now it can't go through Pakistan due to anti-apology hubris for killing 24 of their soldiers. Money is no object. Taxes should be raised during a war to make money an object again.
How about a constitutional amendment that no war can be fought with borrowed money and must paid fully by taxes and not passed on to the next generation.
Unless you were attacked on your own home ground by a foreign army and not some "terrorist".
Pieces can be arranged around to fit whatever definition you throw at them. War is the past, present and future until TEOTW. This is utopian society stuff. Don't want to see anyone get killed but that is life and life isn't fair. I live with it.
It still has to be paid for even if there is a real enemy and defineable goal. The military industrial complex has to use every piece of equipment they own in every war to keep the funding appropriations up. That is far more important than any other war plan. It needs to be pay as you go, so American citizens will be reminded day by day that their future is being destroyed and to get the "mission" over with as soon as possible. 10 or 20 years to bomb people in mud houses with machetes and cans of gas costs enough money to destroy our country.
What if all money is borrowed into existance?
Of course we could always just abide by the terms set forth in the Constitution in regards to wars, standing armies and so forth. That would stop unnecessary wars..................LOFL.
What? No mention of General Smedley Butler"s classic, "War Is a Racket"?
You must read it if you like this article. Truer words have never been spoken.
War is organised theft and if we can't stop theft in the general community we have very little hope of stopping the organised theft engineered by the industrial/military complex.
You will only end wars if the military/industrial complex is given a monopoly over some other productive aspect of the economy, otherwise nothing will stop them pushing nations to the battlefield.
Well their job is plundering the productive class at home and murdering people abroad in the interest of alien masters, who don't look like us.
And you want to give them more power? What the Hell productive thing could this band of misfits ever do? Their job is to step on the faces of the living and piss on the corpses of the dead.
There will NEVER be peace until central banks are done away with...
- The United States had it's first CENTRAL BANK charter in 1792 (20 year charter)
- When it was over, & not renewed, the RED SHIELD funded England to start the "War of 1812", & burn Washington DC to the ground
- US prevailed, but by 1818, there was the 2nd CENTRAL BANK endeavor (which lasted until Andrew Jackson shut it down in 1838 ~ which he was almost assasinated for).
- There were no CENTRAL BANKS (until the initiation of the Federal Reserve system in 1913), but Lincoln issued 'greenbacks' (instead of a usury interest rate on Rothschild loans) to fund the Union army in the Civil War... The Civil War was fought because bankers were not getting a piece of the profits from Southern states commerce... It had little to zilch to do with slavery.
- As soon as the Federal Reserve system was in place, the US entered WWI (& borrowed money to do so)... Same with WW2...
- By the 1950's, the MIC was fully in place, & since, we've gone into debt to finance the Vietnam War (which led to abandoning Bretton Woods), & the ongoing war on TERROR...
~~~
The true TERRORISTS are the central bankers...
We had war long before we had bankers, they may have taken advantage of it and promoted it but they didn't create it. It is in our nature. They just nudge us towards our inclinations.
Come on... That's only an illustration of WARS fought during the modern monetary era...
Are you going to tell me that the Romans didn't go to war to get loot for the treasury? War is for PROFIT... Nowadays ~ It's only the bankers who profit...
Before us whities showed up in Hawaii, the native tribes warred on each other constantly. With little or nothing to gain in reality since one island isn't really superior to any other and there was no industrial base to capture. It was just similar land, new beaches (more sand), etc. without any tangible gains from battle.
Now, from my perspective it's insane. Because here you are, in paradise, year round sun, abundunt seafood and tropical fruits, and a small easily supported population. And yet they fought.
It's just what people are wired to do.
Between the starting point and the integration to the US, hawaiain story does not read as the peaceful, no conflict, no war as sold.
This rule might apply to the modern cowerd from the western world. But rulers riding into battle is old school, battle is where leaders were chosen. We'll come full circle soon enough.
I'm not a huge fan of the British, but one point worth making is that their royalty still serve.
Dupe
Let's not forget the heroic service of George W. Bush in the national guard.
Oh yeah, whoever makes money from a war or votes for a war must partake in a war? Just like whoever makes alot of money in business or trading must pay all their taxes on those earnings?
Lemme know how that works out for you?
draft young people in reverse order of their parents' net worth, problem solved
I would suggest that all ZHers railing against the military industrial complex, the FED and the American way of life take a good look at how they personally have benefitted from these systems installed and implemented for their benefit.
Everyone talks a good game, and talk is easy. But as you tool about in a vehicle that runs off the sweat of others (CHINA) and exploits the resources of other nations at the point of a GUN (MIDDLE EAST) realize that the beneficiaries of crime are just as guilty as the hired hands!
As Hunter Thompson famously said..."We will march on a road of BONES"
Indeed!
The computer on which the above post was typed was likely made in China.
Joseph Jones,your sadely right.
I opened my HP to have a look and it was full of (i am a very ashamed)Foxcon components,so yes,even we want or not,we get it,Conned by the Fox,no escape,just shame!
Shibumis post is insanely stupid and false.
I would suggest that all ZHers railing against the military industrial complex, the FED and the American way of life take a good look at how they personally have benefitted from these systems installed and implemented for their benefit.
Benefit? Like by paying for these wars and having my tax money plundered from my pocket? Some benefit dude thanks!
Everyone talks a good game, and talk is easy. But as you tool about in a vehicle that runs off the sweat of others (CHINA)
Um, like how I paid large $$$ (large for me, technically it is a modest car) to Japan enriching some workers and execs, who are now rich with my money? I am happy too with a sweet-ass ride, you don't seem to be happy about voluntary exchange, perhaps I could direct you to a board focusing on Socialism?
and exploits the resources of other nations at the point of a GUN (MIDDLE EAST) realize that the beneficiaries of crime are just as guilty as the hired hands!
Beneficiaries? Are you loopy? How is me paying 4x more for gas to pay for these fake-ass "wars" benefit me? Remember tool all Saddam ever wanted to do, and all Iran wants to do, is SELL US OIL. FULL STOP. Blowing up their oil fields and paying for wars uneccesary makes the gas cost MORE. God what stupidity is in people's heads?
As far as China, China is getting rich selling us stuff and the world. When the average Chinese is richer than us (as is true in Japan and Korea already) who will you weep for then? Dear Lord will stupidity ever end in the world?
Your money? No. The bankers' money. They lease it to you to ease trade.
This said, USD is backed by a lot of things, and your contribution is tiny.
Remove the contribution and not much is changed.
Remove some other contributions and suddenly, you will mourn the good old times when you had to pay those 'heavy' taxes of yours.
US citizen nature is eternal.
Hardly anyone talks about the US PRIVATE ARMY, 140,000 contractors in Afghanistan alone, THAT WILL STAY. It's time the dumbass American people call it unconstitutional and institute a draft for any deployment.
. . . and that "private army" of ex-military hired guns within amrka, oooh yes.
thanks, +++
What the hell would a draft solve?? It would give pansy Congressmen millions more in cannon fodder to send off to wherever they feel like instituting some "freedom."
Conscription is a heinous evil, period.
the last time there was a military draft, it motivated many to become more aware of what was being fought, and why - not everyone resisted, but some did, and more agitated against - people took to the streets, and some people *woke up* to how the nation was being manipulated - again, not everyone, but some.
right now it's like living in the Twilight Zone - so few are even aware of how many bases surround Iran, nor do they even care, because they don't believe it effects them, or their family - if a draft was called for, more would have to pay attention, take a stance, lest they be chewed up and spit out by the war machine. maybe it's time to *shock* some of the sleepers AWAKE.
and perhaps some families would bundle up their draft-age kids and leave - it's happened before. . .
It's a quandary. Our current military adventurism continues unabated precisely because of the disgusting ignorance you call out so well. I think my objections to conscription still stand however because I refuse to fight our apathetic evil with even more evil. Enforced slavery, where we compel young men and women to risk life and limb at the end of a gun (on either side, no less) is pure, abject evil. That it might possibly be a cure to other apathetic evils does not make me support it in any way. That's my two cents, adjusted for inflation as usual.
My take on war in general is that we should have a strong military capable of defending our homeland. I mean "defend our homeland" in the literal sense, not "these brown people over here may attack us, so we should occupy their lands indefinitely because...national security, and stuff." While you can count on me as being anti-draft and anti-military adventurism, you can also count on me to fight shoulder to shoulder with you should our nation actually be threatened by invading forces intent on subjugating us.
I think the things you desire are noble, and I think they can and should be accomplished in ways other than resigning various "other" citizens to slavery, mutilation and death.
With respect, as always, Cathartes Aura.
I realise that my "noble desires" will never see anything close to fulfillment - no really, I do realise this! - but my belief is that everyone who can dis-engage themselves somewhat from the "matrix" of auto-repeat memes, anyone who can see a connection between seemingly random stories can at least share the perspective(s). . . it's my perspective, and when it pushes hard at me, I type it out as opinion. . .
I also respect your posts Chump, and your perspectives too,
few who feel the tug of real patriotism, real love of country, could disagree with your words. . . I don't really feel any allegiance to a particular idea of "nation" - I can empathise with peoples, but not so much with their individual beliefs, as there will always be conflicts, based on the stories they've ingested since birth, and which they've decided to call "truth."
most amrkns have very little idea of what "their military" is doing globally, and this is why they feel they can "support" whatever it is being done - even to the point of encouraging loved ones to enlist on behalf of those beliefs. I would hope more could do the research before committing to this machine, but I also realise we're back to the "noble desires" - and so I take the firm "extreme" and work from that end.
I also talk with young people in their late teens/20's - and try to point out some stories that they haven't stumbled on as yet. . . what else can one do? my posting that a "draft" might galvanise some more people to wake up to what "their country" is doing globally, and to people HERE "inside" country, is unpopular, but since I've been posting here, more people are also coming around to the notion that supporting the corporate military in its adventure abroad isn't in anyone's interest bar those who pull the strings from wherever.
I can't be "polite" about this subject, it's not my *cough* gift to do this, heh. but I do respect others unique perspectives, including those people of "foreign" nations who have the US military in continual occupation. . .
US Military Bases on Guam in Global Perspectivehttp://theglobalrealm.com/2010/08/02/us-military-bases-on-guam-in-global...
peace to you and yours Chump.
Back at ya, and thanks for the exchange, and the link.
I would just like to say, to all of you people calling for the active institution of slavery, or, the draft:
FUCK YOU.
You go die overseas if you are so eager to have that happen. But to use some rhetorical trick to attach the draft which is slavery and means war and death, to our honest desire for peace, is horrible and wretched.
DRAFT YOURSELF, then shoot yourself.
y'know prole, if your "honest desire for peace" is strong, then I sincerely hope you're working hard towards that goal, peace for everyone, including those peoples who live in military occupied nations globally.
because if a "draft" is slavery, so is being occupied by a foreign military base who sees you, and your fellow humans in your own lands, as human derivatives to be fk'd with for the lulz.
http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/1-more-us-soldiers-c...
That just blew my mind wide open. I don't have words...
there are people in this world that have zero empathy, zero compassion for others, that see humans as "test subjects" for their curiousity, or for a "higher" agenda, or whatever excuse one wants to make for a person who deliberately uses another, or deliberately tortures another - that "war" is an excuse for those people's existence is a pathetic way to exist as humans, and this goes back forever. . .
if you read the comments on that story, you'll see how people "compartmentalise" their emotions, feelings, to justify the actions. . . and how they lament the loss of a "warrior" culture lionised in war films & books. . . so few talk of the minds of men (and now women) in the military who are fk'd with, for all they've witnessed, for all they "know" but can never discuss without censure - be it their "buds" or the military itself.
"everyone knows" the military tests pharma on the uniformed, but few will discuss this - again, secrets and lies - the kids being sent to these undeclared "wars" round the world are fed handfuls of pharma, experimental brain meds, and god knows what, to keep them functioning in the manner to which is required by those who care nothing for them. they think they're "cool" and have a "job" and weapons and hang with their crew, in their "town in a box" dropped in the desert, with Burger King franchise, and air conditioned bunks. . .
I've listened to some of their stories, from the military side, and from those victimised by wars - it's difficult to contain my emotions, but I can only imagine how difficult it is for the one sharing their experience, one they've kept to themselves because their loved ones can't bear to know. . .
as I said, I've no illusions that things will change, but I can't support this insanity by ignoring it. my avatar is a vulture, who consumes the foul because it is uniquely suited to do this, thus preventing other (animals) eating what might sicken them or even bring death.
sigh.
It's rational, compassionate people like you who took me from a flag waving right-wing warmonger to...well...here.
I should say thank you, and I am thankful, but I still can't get over that link, or the one above. So so so seriously fucked up beyond all belief.
you may have been a "flag waving right-wing warmonger" to fit in with your peers, but you can't be that at heart Chump. . .
once presented with evidence to the contrary, folks hit their crossroads - abandon the identity they were assigned from birth, or individualise and re-create "self" from awareness of what is.
you've always had heart, your posts here show that. . . understanding how "fucked up beyond all belief" the system in place truly is can feel like someone's hand on your head holding you under water, until the deeper awareness surfaces - that it's your "beliefs" that have been pressing you down all this time. . . whooooosh! surface for air!
clarity is yin/yang, simultaneously includes grief and joy.
it is peace.
Sin's of the father? NO.
A better rule would be all those voting in favor of conflict must remove their eyes, teeth and liver with a spoon (it can be a sharpen spoon but must be universly recognised as a spoon).
Second if the voter of conflict is unable to remove all of their own: eyes, teeth and liver. Then their prediecessor will, after an electon of course.
This way those who wish to inflict pain on other will first experience pain themselves.
All those voting for conflict from generals to your local loudmouth will have to baptise the vote with their very own blood.
This solves most problems of war except the one of civility.
Savages we would ever be after such a rule.
Civilized men would not need such protections on virtue or honor.
Civilized men we were once and can be again. But that is just hope.
I wrote this same thing some years ago. I don't need to own it and am happy to re-endorse it.
The all-volunteer military shouts the degree to which Amerikuns love, cherish, live for, and long for war. We live, eat, drink, and breath war.
The volunteer military is a big part of TPTB.
One attitude which seems to prevail, and I am not innocent of it either, is we agree with the topics at hand, offer endless lines of written platitudes, yet has anyone formed a solution or alternative way we can actively follow?
If we did, would the powers that be allow it, or are we toast?
keep digging out the facts, arm yourself with deep knowledge, gather trusted community, and disengage.
It's not a bad idea, but I think people forget that WAR PROFITEERING is already a crime. Unfortunately, the current vacuous moral relativism and American/Western exceptionalism means that it is never prosecuted in "our" countries.
Even when we are all faced with more war crimes evidence not seen since the Nuremburg trials, (when many Germans were succesfully prosecuted for war profiteering), absolutely nothing has been done to bring the most obvious recent cases (KBR, Halliburton, Bechtel, Blackwater, and their political/civil service counterparts) to trial. The USA even has the 2007 War Profiteering Prevention Act, and the 1863 False Claims Act which are poor jokes to fool foreigners, kids, and morons in to thinking that the rule of law prevails. Because despite gross examples of war profiteering, lack of audits for hundreds of millions of dollars in cash doled out to private US contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, suspicious commodity deals on the eve and aftermath of invasion, and the rest of the disgusting sordid story that we've all had to read over the years on Abu Gahraib, and Gitmo, not a single prosecution has taken place.
In my grandfather's generation, war profiteering was a serious, disgusting crime. Nowadays if you point it out, you are more than likely to be laughed at, or even punched for not towing the patriotic line. That's how far into the shit our societies have fallen.
bravo!
Thanks mate.
What a great comment.
The article is spot on as well. How many Americans even think for one second about the fact that we're engaged in hostilities at this very moment in multiple countries across the globe? It's like it doesn't even matter to us. TV's still on, no rationing necessary, no need to think about the blood being spilled. It's a sorry state we're in.
You got THAT right!
Germans were convicted of the one-and-only war crime there ever was: LOSING.
The rest of Yangtsee's post was a load of nonsense. Making money off war (by the few) at the expense of the many, is the whole POINT of war.
Read some Smedley Butler and get a clue Sheople.
"War is a Racket" is a great book and highly recommended. Not quite sure where we differ in opinion.
...are you kidding? Those Skull and Bone Bushwhackers ate their first born, after they sacrificed the child to Moloch and Lilith.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeMqgv3XasQ
Two things:
1.) Only fight when the enemy lands on our shores [never happen, logistically impossible]. Note false flag operations such as flying airplanes into skyscrapers do not apply.
2.) Have your 17-18 year-old look at: "War Surgery in Afghanistan and Iraq - A Series of Cases, 2003-2007"
In the event of a nuclear war [very possible due to malfunctions or crazed actions], just bend over and..........
Unfortunately, from the time you are five years old, war sells, not diplomacy.....[Occassionally, a movie like Ghandi will appear, but it is like a small puddle of water in the Sahara desert]
It's not the war, it is the debt from the wars that they want.
Yep, remember Cheney had 5 deferments during Vietnam. What a putz; but he was happy to send everyone else to the middle east.
How 'bout we:
-Not attack other countries unless they've attacked us
-Not wage war based on tactics "terrorism'
-Not wage "war" based on substances "drugs"
-Not send special ops/drones to attack individuals on other countries sovereign soil
-Not wage war without a declaration from CON-gress
-Not use private contractors for anything related to servicing troops (lodging, showers, food, gas/diesel/transport) or "security"
Gentlemen where is your patriotism? Wars waged by America are wars of peace and prosperity. We do not fight to expand an empire or the enforce the will of US corporations on the world, we fight to free the opressed and to liberate the human spirit. If some bad guys must die in order for us to liberate earth, then that price must be paid.
Either we fight the bad guys now and on their home ground or we will be forced to fight them later here on our own front yards. They hate us for our freedoms, and since they are willing to die to take away American's trips to McDonalds and our gas guzzeling SUVS then they must be exterminated.
The difference is that America only goes to war when America is threatened by bad guys, we fight only for peace and security. As to Iraq, do all you peacenicks think that the smoking gun was NOT going to be a mushroom cloud over New York or Washington DC? Saddam was planning a nuclear strike on America. This is a proven fact and the evidence was presented to the world at a UN forum. There the proof was given for all to see. When America struck Iraq weeks later it was in the nick of time. Our peace, freedom and security are not free, only men like Bush had the courage to stand up to the terrorists.
Obama is a surrender monkey. He pals around with terrorists. This is also a proven fact. I suggest you other liberal surrender monkeys should move to Iran if you love it so much. America, love it or leave it. You have a choice.
You forgot the /sarc...
Richard was more eloquent than you and had a very goodlooking wifie, who knew how to bite and to fight. You have a choice : change your name to Richard or add and "'s" to your name. And go sell biscuits in "Burton's Foods".
You forgot the fairly well-desired /sarc or to log in as MillionDollarBonus_ to make that post.
Bullshit, jack. you CLEARLY have no idea what the US military actually DOES.This was a major opportunity to raid a country that couldn't even give us a decent fight for as much as we could haul away. Saddam didn't have any KIND of effective delivery system -we knew it-HE knew it. We KNEW HE KNEW WE KNEW it. either you are on extremely stong drugs, or you're just stupid: either way--this whole THING was a put-up job for PROFIT; and EVERYONE (except YOU) KNOWS IT.
Ten years on, Cheney's companies ALONE have hauled off WELL over 700 million in profit.( that we KNOW of).. So tell us again how this was about "Freeing the oppressed." or even MORE hilarious, "Saving McDonalds?" SERIOUSLY? YEAH , RIGHT! All Bush ever 'stood up " for was to order another round. the SINGLE most under-qualified individual to EVER hold the position--and THIS is your champion of American freedom and excellence? Give up.
2..3..4..
You're trolling, aren't you?
Brilliant comment piece by this author. Once upon a time, the men who waged war had to pay for it in their own blood or money. Not now. Endless war is waged by the spoilt brats who profit from it, without risking anything of their own.
It may come as no surprise that many Armed Forces, particularly those with 'special skills', would agree with this article; every word of it. It applies to all the modern political class and their corporatist two-faced cowardly money grubbing backers. They play. We pay.
The right to bear arms is to allow the people to defend themselves from an overbearing government. It is unconstitutional to fight endless foreign war for the profit of the political elite and their resource grabbing corporatist gangsta bankstas.
BTW, when will Jon Corzine go to jail? All these foreign wars simply allow the creep corporatists to steal with impunity.
End the money merry go round for the corporatists, and that will end the wars. The only no flight zone we need is a ban on travel between any country that threatens us and our countries. Seemples.
so the frontline guys are making money off of it? So now the theme has now switched to the "unnecessary war," from GH Bush "didn't finish the job." Saddam has weapons of mass destruction, but Kerrey and his ilk would still rather have Saddam in power and wring their hands over it for 24 total years rather than have a Republican come in and do the dirty work.
Quit snivelling, volunteer and help end the damn war. Jihadists have been interested in war since 700 AD and LOL trying to make a fortune as an infantryman. What a bunch of snivelling boobs.
You all are not interested in war but jihadists are interested in your women covering their faces and screwing your virgin daughters and your dhimmitude. War is interested in you and you are oblivious to it.
Incorrect, pasmurf.
Ask the war-hardened soldiers what they would do to end the corporatist profit. One response might be much more than politicians and their bankers could tolerate, eg:
End all travel between nations that threaten us, except for essential trade discussions and diplomatic essentials - our diplomats travel; the foreign representatives do not come here - and that includes all the desert despots, ie the House of Saud.
PapaSmurf, may have barfed up the stupidest post in the herstory of mankind.
Smurf rails against Jihadis and etc etc, guess what retard: US military eradicated and exterminated the Christian culture in Iraq. Saddam was no Jihadist, and Saddam was also the protector of Christians, so US military killed him, now Christians are dead or gone from Iraq. Second great protector of Christians is Assad of Syria, who the US is about to wipe out so the Jihadis can kill the Christians there.
PS: "We" were in Yugoslavia with a single purpose to kill Christians and build a new Islamic State in Europe, Kosova, (DONE)
You are the Jihadi bitch. By your own argument you should kill yourself.
Join the US military if you want to kill Christians. (to serve an alien race who are neither Christians, nor Moslems)
pasmurf,
maybe you are joking, but if not you should know that Kerry (you mean John, right?) voted for the authorizing resolution.
Snivelling??? What a toad! You know how many contractors that I have seen floating around Iraq and Afghanistan??? Like DynCorp, these guys refused to leave the FOB to do their damn job, but were gladly recieving imminent danger and hostile action pay "can't leave, it is dangerous". Then WTF are you boobs doing here??? Then it hit me in the head, these are the same types of idiots that you would see (for example - CalTrans) where you had 16 guys watching 1 guy work. That is who these toads are - public union knuckleheads who want to contribute to the cause. Have some skin in the game, but NO RISK!!! Sounds like a bunch of REMFs to me!!!
Listen, what if the Twin Towers and Pentagon were false flag events? Your government would NEVER lie to YOU, right??? Just like they wouldn't bring into existence the NDAA or HR314 or "EO - National Defense Resource Preparedness", The Patriot Act, Carnivore and/or Echelon. The list goes on.
YOU want war? Then you go and find a war to fight, because it sounds like YOU have never been in one, I have, three of them and they SUCK. You need to get with reality bubba!!! Just saying.
Those who are not prepared to kill will live only under the suffrance of those who are.
Silver is the MIC and PTB weakness. The market is so tiny, and supplies are so thin, that only a relatively small growth in physical silver coin sales, would expose the manipulation of this precious metal. Fungilble silver coins are the lever point with silver. Once the price takes off, you will be driving a silver spike into the heart of of the Vampires Squid, which has digital money as it's blood. You know the tale about Vampires and Silver, they really can come true. Digitial Fiat Money dies and these crazy wars end. That is only one of a hundred benefits to all facets of live that is currently poisoned by DFM, which corrupts everything in today's dollar centric world. If you really want to take some highly effective leveraged action to make the world better, then take some of your current DFM and turn it into silver coins. Stop war, economic slavery and senseless suffering, starvation and eclologic damage, buy silver coins. A million people buy a thousand DFM worth of Silver coins and we win. Can it really be that simple? Prove me wrong and I will gladly add your wisdom to my further analysis.
Do something heroic, Buy Silver
Buying silver is critical but don't be fooled.
The mechanical and electrical features of silver are being replaced. Look up graphene tubes aka carbon super-conductors or nano-tubes. Silver can't do that. Silver-vaporizing currents can easily pass through nanotubes.
I see pictures of Bush and Cheney and the very attractive Bush daughters, but lets get a little more current. What about the present prez, has he brung da troops home as promised? Of course not, so where are the pics of him and Biden and Michelle and the younguns that will never get anywhere near afghanistan or libya or any other war torn area as a conscripted serviceperson? Lets live in the present, shall we.
Kings used to be at the FRONT of their armies........ In Britain - throughout the era of empire, it was typical for the first son to inherit land and title - the second and third sons would go into the military (or clergy). 'Gentlemen' did not go into business.
Even in this country it was expected that ALL would serve if this country went to war. A draft was the norm - until our 'volunteer' military. I was at West Point in the late days of Vietnam and at least half of my upperclassmen were there not because they were gung ho and 'believed' but because they had low draft lottery numbers and were going to 'Nam anyway.... they were hoping things might be better after 4 years - or figuring they could earn a better assignment than ground pounding - and life as a @nd Lt might be better than aas a Spec 1st (even if you owed them 5 years instead of 2 - and at least you got a college education). So even USMA reflected the diversity of attitudes and opinions in society at large. We were told regularly that West Point produced the men that won our country's wars but personally I thought it was the civilian soldiers who won wars. They wanted to get them over with and get home alive (that was my family's civilian soldier pov from the Revolution on). The career soldiers were too likely to get ther men killed in a quest for a Silver Star or trying to impress superiors. Might explain all the fraggings as Nam progressed.....
I - and a good part of my class resigned - disillusioned mightily. Had a platoon leader that was all the Army could want - a great leader beloved by his men. Was screwed regularly for looking out for his men....SOP it seemed - exactly how NOT to do things.
I wouldn't let my sons near the military now. Pointless - and illegal - wars, and we treat our soldiers like crap. NO real support for our troops.... repeated deployments, brutal injuries, rampant PTSD, crap care and a suicide rate that SHOULD be outraging this nation... I know a sgt in the 101st who had 9 deployments in 11 years - glad he blew his back out cause he was sure he wouldn;t survie another tour overseas.
War? There are no wars anymore. Congress is too scared to declare war. They just go along with and fund "police actions" and all other names for war but without the word "war."
Bush and Cheney. What more can I say, except - pure unadulterated hillbilly cowards, period! Chicken Hawks that rank right up there with the extinct, and flightless dodo bird --- a gallery of infamous capon's in full dress?
I can remember as if it were yesterday in late 2002 when, Sec. of Treasury Paul O'Neil and Dir. of Nat'l Economic Policy Lawrence Lindsey were both fired! Paul because he disagreed on Bush's Iraq policy having shit for credible evidence, and Lindsey for saying to the asshole #43, america couldn't afford an unnecessary war that would tank the economy [1st predicting $0.5 Trillion [$$$] just getting started.
Ps. It was Lindsey back in the 90's that argued against Greenspan's monetary agenda, that a dot-com bubble was about to burst, and forewarned many times about risky fiduciary practices creating a housing bubble. Larry meticulously put together the Bush Tax Credits, and to have this asshole Cowboy from Texas fuck it up was beyond his comprehension. I just hope that Romney will keep these two [O'Neil & Lindsey - true hero's that knew how to say no] guys in mind for a top-tier cabinet post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMUBWKJ5A_0&feature=related
"I’m sick of war."
god bless you azizonomics!!!!!!!!
those fucking murderers in your picture are the filth of humanity.....those two assholes destroyed the world trade centers.....they trade in murder, mayhem, and mendacity....
Must be a National Guard unit available now George Bush has created a vacany.................Chirac found himself a nice desk job, Jean-Marie Le Pen was a paratrooper because he lacked "pull".................Kipling pulled strings to get his soon with poor eyesight into the Irish Guards and never found his body in Flanders.......Herbert Asquith, Liberal Prime Minister lost his firstborn son on The Somme' Teddy Roosevelts three sons served in WW1 with the AEF with Quentin KIA in France in WW1 and Ted dying in France 1944 as a general
Has anyone worked out why a 'national guard' needs an air national guard? ... with squadrons of F-16s 'n shit?
Aren't the National Guard the guys they use to kill feral stoned Hippies on college campuses, because the Military isn't allowed to or somfin?
I mean, I thought that's why a country has a National Defense Force, which I might add includes not just one airforce, but also a massive Naval airforce?
Which are the first and second biggest airforce's on earth BTW.
Is this totally fucked in the head, or what?
maybe for the same reason "local" policing "need" drones. . .?
http://www.gilmermirror.com/view/full_story/8112225/article-Drones-over-...
THe US spends Deficit Dollars on building its War Machine and the israelis pay a Pollard a few hundred thousand or the Chinese hack a system or send Chi Mak or Peter Lee or Katrina Leung to make photocopies................or to hack BAE computer systems
Agreed. All leaders of all countries and their cohorts who start war must lead from the front.
You may want to consider the fact that the Brit Royal Family's sons do go to war.
It's what real 'ruling-class' families have always done ... it's in their blood.
Unlike the big-takin gutless snivilling cowards that infest Washington DC's chambers and Barrny Fwank's Oval orifice.
Rest assured that prince Harry probably had 4 apache gunships, 7 drones and 5 harriers hovering over his head during every patrol.
with a personal 'how-to-SIW' love letter tucked in his boot for good luck from john kerry - on, how to go for a six week boat ride, and come out sitting in d.c. next to the admiral with a purple heart, pathetic all!
Doesn't stop a land mine, IED, sniper, RPG, mortar, Taliban Afghan Army infiltrator or suicide bomber, though.
Hopefully, the Arabs have innocents among them.
Made me laugh.
US citizens are extorters of the weak and farmers of the poor. As long as the extorted and farmed comply, it is not an issue.
Basically, the Iraqis had seen their country invaded. Anyone taking up arms has to be a terrorist though. That anyone can not be granted a soldier status. No soldier would take up arms to fight an invading army of US citizens. You dont take up arms to fight off the extorter and the farmer. This is the story an extorter and farmer has to support though because well, legitimization of taking up arms against US citizens is very counterproductive.
As the Arabs can not be allowed to be soldiers to fend off an invasion of their country, well, innocent people are helpful.
Are they that helpful? Not so much.
Take a look at US citizen habits. Kids, toddlers, newborns are said to be innoncent. But what about unborn people? Are they or not? If yes, does not prevent US citizens from killing dozens, thousands etc.
Innocence cant be a criterion to oppose to US citizen killing.
.
...nor, obviously, can it be a criterion to oppose Chinese citizen female infanticide.
Great Idea.
All relatives between 18-25 of the President, the congress, the Joint Chiefs, Governors of all States, and leading Defense Contractors should serve. No Special treatment or elevated rank. No paper shuffling job in Butte, MT.
Infantry Grunts that go directly to the theater of operations.
If there are no eligible relatives in the chosen age range, extend the age range until a proper number of family members have been selected.
wars are started by dishonest people who disregard the rules. No one wanted to fight with Hitler, but he gave the world no choice, same with Mao waring with h's neighbors, mainly Korea, India, Vietnam, same with Stalin, etc. Soon it will be Iran & Mexico among many other possibilities, I don't think you can blanketly blame weapons manufacturers, that would be like blaming the 'gun' for the killing of someone else. But, sometimes common sense is the scarcest commodity, so go ahead and blame the many symptoms if it makes you feel better. Better yet, ask some aged Iranians and Kurds about Iraq's mythical weapons of mass destruction, that might put more common sense into your intellectual process and do away with those glaring empirical contradictions to your writing.
i've received the education of a lifetime on ZEROHEDGE website & am grateful for it. i'm a changed person, for the better. bless all those TYLER'S hearts.
As my dearly departed Dad put it so eloquently,
"If you want to swing the axe, you hold the wood!"
This kind of wisdom as become uncoupled in our society. Risk/reward such as the subprime mess is only one example.
The real problem here, is getting our 'leaders' to initiate this kind of plan.
Good luck with that.
•J•
V-V
Dick and W should be tried in International Courts and jailed for life... along with Wolfowitz and Rove and Card and Powell. All that said, Jenna has a pretty nice rack.
And put movie "Stalingrad" as important to watch at 4th grade, and movie "Hirosima" at 9th.
Agree onsending those who voted "yes" to war.
You know what would be really good? That a declaration of war automatically ends a Presidency. Know what else would work? Sending troops to war without approval of Congress would be an automatic death penalty for the President.
Maybe I'm just playing devil's advocate, but that argument has technically already been tried over the course of a couple millenia -- people like Alexander, Atilla, Genghis Khan, Nobunaga, the Caesars, Napoleon, Xerxes, etc, etc, etc. Now I know someone will say that not all of those people physically fought with sword, shield, and fist, but they were physically present at the battles they commanded and therefore took part in the wars they started, and thereby put themselves in harms way. All of these people started their own wars and fought in them in the name of their own ambition and conquest. The simple fact is that there will always be people that love war and want to fight -- a sad, but all too oft-proven truth.
I like the point being made in the statement, but unfortunately history puts a bit of a damper on the practicality of the idea.