Governments tend to
use fear to increase their power. Keep the fear pressure on citizens
with threats via color-coded terrorist alerts and such--then scare the
scat of them with things like 9/11 and wha-la! More powerful government.
More war. Americans have been duped into cowering for protection from
mysterious, crazed foreigners hating us for our "freedom and democracy";
hating us for something we don't even have. Weird? You know, there
might be something a little deeper...something about "blowback"?
But we do still have liberty, though terminally threatened from within. And our constitutional republic is well-defended from democracy--especially now by various means such as e-voting and unlimited corporate cash controlling elections...many means that surely would make our Founding Fathers squirm.
Sweet talk about freedom--politicians emit it like camels emit methane. Despite that, freedom (they mean liberty) is an endangered species. Benjamin Franklin had such a knack: "Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one." He must have said it before our freedom had been institutionalized into liberties?
Peace
Remember
Woodstock, 1969? People took many liberties, even enjoyed shocking
freedom, entwining music, mud, sacrifice, camaraderie, joy and peace
together with eternity. There were plenty of problems, but so much
sharing and caring...and plenty of peace.
Today's police state would never allow Woodstock to happen again...but, if it did, 500,000 people under similar circumstances...would peace play such a part? Cell phones alone could power widespread antagonism and conflict. And the police presence....
Might American imperial war profiteering seem any less disgraceful if war mongers publicly crusaded about there being no money in peace--that war is what grows fortunes? They have an enormous amount of disgrace to conceal, not even considering the humanitarian euphemisms they use as cover for killing citizens, mangling their countries, installing tyrants beholden to Washington, and stealing their resources.
Civil War Union general Tecumseh Sherman, said, "War is all Hell."
For anyone directly exposed to war, that has to be precisely true. But for the war profiteers, who cultivate the bravery of being out of range, more truth might be found in: "War is all Gravy."
When Smedley Butler died a retired Major General in 1940, he was the most decorated Marine in history. He'd written scathingly about the military industrial complex in his book, War is a Racket. This passage is from an issue of Common Sense magazine in 1935:
I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class thug for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902--1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
In George Orwell's prophetic novel, 1984, the three slogans of The Party led by Big Brother are:
WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
Perpetual war gripped the world in 1984. Now we have "perpetual war for perpetual peace" (from American historian Charles Beard [1874--1948], famous for his outspoken criticisms of American interventionism abroad).
War has become America's number one export. We spend nearly as much on war as the rest of the world combined, while selling over half of the world's implements of war. We have armed forces deployed in 130 countries, and more than 1000 overseas military bases that have nothing to do with "peace".
America is far and away the world's preeminent war profiteer, annually spending more than $1 trillion (vastly more when "black budget spending" is considered), while cutting to the bone any spending that directly benefits Americans. It's conceivable that nobody really knows how much we spend on war...bottom line is it's simply shameful.
But we do still have liberty, though terminally threatened from within. And our constitutional republic is well-defended from democracy--especially now by various means such as e-voting and unlimited corporate cash controlling elections...many means that surely would make our Founding Fathers squirm.
Sweet talk about freedom--politicians emit it like camels emit methane. Despite that, freedom (they mean liberty) is an endangered species. Benjamin Franklin had such a knack: "Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one." He must have said it before our freedom had been institutionalized into liberties?
Peace
Today's police state would never allow Woodstock to happen again...but, if it did, 500,000 people under similar circumstances...would peace play such a part? Cell phones alone could power widespread antagonism and conflict. And the police presence....
Might American imperial war profiteering seem any less disgraceful if war mongers publicly crusaded about there being no money in peace--that war is what grows fortunes? They have an enormous amount of disgrace to conceal, not even considering the humanitarian euphemisms they use as cover for killing citizens, mangling their countries, installing tyrants beholden to Washington, and stealing their resources.
Civil War Union general Tecumseh Sherman, said, "War is all Hell."
For anyone directly exposed to war, that has to be precisely true. But for the war profiteers, who cultivate the bravery of being out of range, more truth might be found in: "War is all Gravy."
When Smedley Butler died a retired Major General in 1940, he was the most decorated Marine in history. He'd written scathingly about the military industrial complex in his book, War is a Racket. This passage is from an issue of Common Sense magazine in 1935:
I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class thug for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902--1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
In George Orwell's prophetic novel, 1984, the three slogans of The Party led by Big Brother are:
WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
Perpetual war gripped the world in 1984. Now we have "perpetual war for perpetual peace" (from American historian Charles Beard [1874--1948], famous for his outspoken criticisms of American interventionism abroad).
War has become America's number one export. We spend nearly as much on war as the rest of the world combined, while selling over half of the world's implements of war. We have armed forces deployed in 130 countries, and more than 1000 overseas military bases that have nothing to do with "peace".
America is far and away the world's preeminent war profiteer, annually spending more than $1 trillion (vastly more when "black budget spending" is considered), while cutting to the bone any spending that directly benefits Americans. It's conceivable that nobody really knows how much we spend on war...bottom line is it's simply shameful.
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