"The nicest veterans in Schenectady, I thought, the kindest and funniest ones, the ones who hated war the most, were the ones who'd really fought."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five, Chapter 1
The more I learn about war the more disgusted I get at those who allow it, us. History is replete with warnings, lessons, and examples of why wars are fought and the propaganda those that benefit use to gain support.
In recent U.S. history, the fear of communism and terrorism have fueled the warmongers and propagandist's fire aimed at ordinary citizens. The Global War on Terror authorized after the 9/11 crime in New York City has given the warmongers, chickenhawks and their supporters carte blanche over the entire earth. American interests are everywhere and so is the war machine.
The latest propaganda success conducted by our rulers for war has been in Libya. The people were told evil was overtaking innocents in a far away country and the answer is to bomb, bomb away. After thousands of years, humans still naively fell for it. For many of those claiming to be liberals or progressives, the cognitive dissonance is overwhelming. Maintaining support for the democratic party and President Obama while keeping silent on the wars and the war machine is as incongruous as a human being can get. There is no sense to it, no morality at all. It's deluded self interest that mirrors the self interest that rules us. Hey, it ain't Bush and Cheney, it's Obama, must be all right. Fuck that shit.
"When the syphilitic German has used a French or Belgian girl, he cuts off her breasts as a warning to the next German soldier." (Time Magazine, 1939)
http://www.time.com/...
"Colonel Gaddafi ordered mass rapes and gave sex drugs to troops to encourage them to attack women, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has claimed."
(June 2011)
http://news.sky.com/...
"I volunteered at the al-Addan hospital," Nayirah said. "While I was there, I saw the Iraqi soldiers come into the hospital with guns, and go into the room where . . . babies were in incubators. They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators, and left the babies on the cold floor to die." (October 1990 to help justify the first Iraq War).
http://www.csmonitor.com/...
General Smedley D. Butler, U.S. Marine Corps, 1898 to 1931, gave a now famous speech to the American Legion in New Britain, Ct in 1931. A reenactment of the speech is below, highly recommended. General Butler was the highest decorated soldier in American history at the time of his retirement, seeing action all over the world. He also wrote the book, “War is a Racket” in 1935.
“WAR is a racket. It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives...
In the World War a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows...
Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill...
And what is this bill?
This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations...
...a war that might well cost us tens of billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of lives of Americans, and many more hundreds of thousands of physically maimed and mentally unbalanced men.
Of course, for this loss, there would be a compensating profit – fortunes would be made. Millions and billions of dollars would be piled up. By a few. Munitions makers. Bankers. Ship builders. Manufacturers. Meat packers. Speculators. They would fare well.
Yes, they are getting ready for another war. Why shouldn't they? It pays high dividends...
The normal profits of a business concern in the United States are six, eight, ten, and sometimes twelve percent. But war-time profits – ah! that is another matter – twenty, sixty, one hundred, three hundred, and even eighteen hundred per cent – the sky is the limit. All that traffic will bear. Uncle Sam has the money. Let's get it...
Of course, it isn't put that crudely in war time. It is dressed into speeches about patriotism, love of country, and "we must all put our shoulders to the wheel," but the profits jump and leap and skyrocket – and are safely pocketed."
Listen to that speech man! Tell me things have changed. No, it's just become worse. Madison Avenue is involved now, not just preachers.
Butler's book was preceded in 1933 with a book called "Preachers Present Arms", by Ray H. Abrams, about the incredible effect the war propaganda had when the Christian Preachers of the country took it to the people.
Back to the present. WTF is different? Really, WTF is different? For chrissakes, we were warned by Socrates thousands of years ago and by General Butler over 80 years ago. We were warned by James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Thomas Jefferson, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr, and George Washington. WTF do people want, a warning from God? Or a warning from the aliens like in the "Day the Earth Stood Still"?
Do you want them to take your last fucking dime to pay for their wars so they can become rich and other people can die? WTF is wrong with people? People cry about a horse that was injured in a movie or a dog maimed in a Michael Vick dogfight, but they can't cry about someone stealing everyone's money while they kill millions and reap the profits? They want to blame it on each other? Those fucking Republicans. Those fucking Democrats. Shit Smedley, it's the same thing only worse.
War sucks, war is a racket, war is evil, war is the tool of the elite to keep their power and steal the riches of the world. War is inhumane, immoral and unconscionable. War is against your best interests, against the best interests of the human race. Wars are fought because of and for the rich people on the earth who control the masses. It has always been that way. Those that believe the propaganda spewed by those that benefit are idiots.
Are you going to support the next humanitarian war in Syria? Somalia? Iran? Venezuela? North Korea? Turkmenistan? China? We're in World War III now. The United States, NATO, and Israel are trying to rule the world through their combined military and financial might. Will you be so stupid as to support World War IV?
I'm with Smedley, "To Hell With War."
"I'll tell you what they don't want. They don't want a population capable of critical thinking. Now they're coming for your Social Security, and they're going to get it".
-George Carlin
Critical Thinking. Shit.