Since the U.S. elected officials--congressmen, senators, president--cater to the wants of the members of their own ruling class instead of the general population, and since the elected officials command the U.S. military, then also the public's military provides killing services--security or defense--first and foremost for the benefits of the 1 percenters. This New World Order in the United States now resembles a totalitarianism like that of the old Soviet Union, even though it's called by euphemistic names like "free market." There's nothing free about it, especially as the middle class pays the brunt of the taxes to finance these oil-motivated military escapades into endless wars.
As it stands then, any American who joins the military thinking patriotically and heroically that he or she is "serving the country" is gravely--no pun intended--mistaken. You join up with the military, you provide protection for large corporations, most of which are not even American (CACI, Halliburton, KBR to which Cheney gave no-bid contracts in Iraq, and this list of war profiteers is long). (7)
To break this down into pragmatic and simple terms, the military, with all its clever toys, like the drones, only serves the interests of the few, extremely wealthy"the 1 percenters. The military, following commands from the ruling class, which includes the elected officials, enables these patricians to pursue their search for greater profits today in the Middle East and tomorrow elsewhere. The Big Oil lords do so with government subsidies and special tax breaks on top of all other services.
The rest of us plebs--the 99 percenters--have all learned to avert our eyes and thoughts about this simple truth. Our democracy is no longer in the hands of the voting citizens. Us 99 cent-ers are mere subjects obeying the demands of corporate fiefdoms.
So, no matter how you parse the legal arguments about drones or other clever killing tools, the answer to such debates carries a foregone conclusion.
The Big Oil lords, the wealthy barons of Wall Street--the ruling corporate class--this small group of elites makes the rules by simple force of financial power. They determine the laws and often act regardless of the laws.
The unjustified, preemptive invasion of Iraq serves as one blatant example of disregard for the laws. And there are many more such examples from Cheney's war crimes regarding torture to Rumsfeld's blind military and nation building blunders.
Likewise, the Supreme Court also demonstrates how the highest ranks of the justice system adjudicates not in the interests of the greatest benefits of the citizenry but rather in favor of the interests of their own ruling class by allowing corporations all rights as individual citizens. Big Money corporations are seldom American and most often global and without any national loyalty.
With the 2010 judgment on Citizens United v FEC , we find again how the "authorities" in America give corporations the right to spend unlimited funds to influence elections despite the wishes of 85% of the citizens. (8) The Supreme Court justices give corporations all the rights of individual citizens, such as free speech, even through they are hardly "American citizens," as they are almost all global and mostly based in tax-evading islands, and they are never prosecuted as individuals when they break the laws.
None of these military policies or the energy policies--not to mention the "too big to fail" policies on Wall Street--serve for the greatest good of the nation but rather for the interests of those who possess the billions and millions of financial force. Elected officials--both Democrat and Republican--serve the barons of industry more so now than ever before and to hell with anyone who stands in their way.
Drones are effective tools as they ultimately enable the tycoons in their pursuit of greater profits.
The well-heeled attorneys can debate all they want about the legalities of drones or Patriot Acts or torture or preemptive invasions based on lies or massive fraud in the banking or in the healthcare industries. Our current perversions of the system of justice and of politics, is determined not by rational laws but by powerful barons of industry.
Bigger forces trump the laws.
Sources:
(1) MacKinzie, Jean. Are our drone attacks legal?, Global Post, Oct. 11, 2011, click here=newsletter
(2) Greenwald, Glenn. The FBI again Thwarts its own Terror plot, Salon blog, Sept. 29, 2011, http://politics.salon.com/2011/09/29/fbi_terror/
(3) Porter, Gareth . Alleged Iranian Assassination Plot Appears an FBI Sting, Real News Network, Oct. 15, 2011. Take a look at this recent report on the Real News Network:
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=7452
As it stands then, any American who joins the military thinking patriotically and heroically that he or she is "serving the country" is gravely--no pun intended--mistaken. You join up with the military, you provide protection for large corporations, most of which are not even American (CACI, Halliburton, KBR to which Cheney gave no-bid contracts in Iraq, and this list of war profiteers is long). (7)
To break this down into pragmatic and simple terms, the military, with all its clever toys, like the drones, only serves the interests of the few, extremely wealthy"the 1 percenters. The military, following commands from the ruling class, which includes the elected officials, enables these patricians to pursue their search for greater profits today in the Middle East and tomorrow elsewhere. The Big Oil lords do so with government subsidies and special tax breaks on top of all other services.
The rest of us plebs--the 99 percenters--have all learned to avert our eyes and thoughts about this simple truth. Our democracy is no longer in the hands of the voting citizens. Us 99 cent-ers are mere subjects obeying the demands of corporate fiefdoms.
The Big Oil lords, the wealthy barons of Wall Street--the ruling corporate class--this small group of elites makes the rules by simple force of financial power. They determine the laws and often act regardless of the laws.
The unjustified, preemptive invasion of Iraq serves as one blatant example of disregard for the laws. And there are many more such examples from Cheney's war crimes regarding torture to Rumsfeld's blind military and nation building blunders.
Likewise, the Supreme Court also demonstrates how the highest ranks of the justice system adjudicates not in the interests of the greatest benefits of the citizenry but rather in favor of the interests of their own ruling class by allowing corporations all rights as individual citizens. Big Money corporations are seldom American and most often global and without any national loyalty.
With the 2010 judgment on Citizens United v FEC , we find again how the "authorities" in America give corporations the right to spend unlimited funds to influence elections despite the wishes of 85% of the citizens. (8) The Supreme Court justices give corporations all the rights of individual citizens, such as free speech, even through they are hardly "American citizens," as they are almost all global and mostly based in tax-evading islands, and they are never prosecuted as individuals when they break the laws.
None of these military policies or the energy policies--not to mention the "too big to fail" policies on Wall Street--serve for the greatest good of the nation but rather for the interests of those who possess the billions and millions of financial force. Elected officials--both Democrat and Republican--serve the barons of industry more so now than ever before and to hell with anyone who stands in their way.
Drones are effective tools as they ultimately enable the tycoons in their pursuit of greater profits.
The well-heeled attorneys can debate all they want about the legalities of drones or Patriot Acts or torture or preemptive invasions based on lies or massive fraud in the banking or in the healthcare industries. Our current perversions of the system of justice and of politics, is determined not by rational laws but by powerful barons of industry.
Bigger forces trump the laws.
Sources:
(1) MacKinzie, Jean. Are our drone attacks legal?, Global Post, Oct. 11, 2011, click here=newsletter
(2) Greenwald, Glenn. The FBI again Thwarts its own Terror plot, Salon blog, Sept. 29, 2011, http://politics.salon.com/2011/09/29/fbi_terror/
(3) Porter, Gareth . Alleged Iranian Assassination Plot Appears an FBI Sting, Real News Network, Oct. 15, 2011. Take a look at this recent report on the Real News Network:
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=7452
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