More Bases More Bombs More War

 

They say things have to get worse before they get better.

But how much worse can the U.S. and the world tolerate?

Driven purely by institutional self-preservation and relentless pursuit of profits by the military-industrial-complex, the cancer of American military presence continues to metastasize unchecked across the planet.  Not satisfied with creating tens of thousands of new terrorists since 9/11 with aggressive wars, invasions, special ops initiatives, drone bombing, assassinations -- all claiming the lives of over a million innocent civilians -- budgetary allocations are in place and plans being implemented for even more bases in Asia, Africa, Europe, even the Arctic.

Is it any surprise that when America sets up a new military hub in a foreign country, conflict and war soon follow?

It's a closed feedback loop where a cure sets up the conditions for the disease it's supposed to treat.  If an area is relatively at peace, the putative guarantees of continuing tranquility offered by a military presence will produce opposition and rivalry which inevitably will metastasize into conflict and war.

On that note, there certainly is no mystery why terrorism is on the rise, especially in Middle Eastern countries.

Osama bin Laden stated it clearly.  To paraphrase: "We don't want you here."

Not only is sovereignty at issue in these native lands, but often they host sites which are considered sacred in both social and political traditions which stretch back centuries. The very presence of U.S. soldiers, war planes, drones, or any of the other paraphernalia of empire is insult enough. But the slaughter of innocent individuals, too often women and children, can only evoke cries of outrage and demands for revenge.  Is it asking too much to imagine how U.S. citizens would react if a wedding party was blown to bits in Topeka, Kansas or Knoxville, Tennessee?

This must end. The unnecessary expansion of U.S. military presence throughout the world is bankrupting our economy, incriminating each and every American citizen in horrifying war crimes, risking World War III, and ultimately will collapse the nation and take down the great American experiment.

It's up to us to stop this before it's too late!



[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]


More Bases More Bombs More War

You say you want a revolution?

Bernie Sanders has called for a revolution!

Rah-rah-rah, sis-coom-bah.  Go Bernie!

But . . .

There's great danger in such loose play with inspiring and provocative language.
Not the danger that citizens might rise up and actually incite a radical and much-needed transformation.  But the danger that the idea of such a transformation will be trivialized and gutted of any substance by empty campaign rhetoric and fatuous sloganeering.

What is he really saying?  Will he stop the drone attacks?  Will he cut the military budget by 40%?  Will he close 500 bases and bring the troops home?  Will he end the special ops missions which have occurred in at least 135 countries so far this year?  Will he put a halt to our self-sabotaging aggressiveness in the world, driven by the greed of DOD contractors and stoked by the neocon delusions of world empire?  Will he open a constructive dialogue with Russia and China to promote peace and multi-polar power-sharing?  Will he end the contentious, chest-beating encirclement of China -- the silly sophomoric "pivot to Asia"?  Will he condemn the apartheid and aggression by Israel against the Palestinians?

I'm all for revolution.  But I'm for REAL REVOLUTION.

If Mr. Sanders wants to talk about revolution and stake out the higher moral ground, there is certainly a way to do it.  Refer to the above questions.

Understand there is more at stake here than the cosmetics of a campaign strategy.  Applying just a little common sense and a pocket calculator, one can only conclude that there is gross inconsistency and guaranteed failure in promoting an agenda of far-reaching domestic reform without conjoining it with a repudiation of America's out-of-control militarism and imperial visions of grandeur.

Mr. Sanders' critics from the right claim his socialist ideas will bankrupt the country.  And there is a lot of merit in this.  The simple, obvious truth is there will be no money at all for his wonderful ideas under the current budgetary regime, UNLESS we as a nation are cured of our addiction to war.

THAT is the revolutionary message.  War is bankrupting us and destroying any prospect of a good life for everyday Americans and a hopeful future for our children.

THAT is the sobering message we don't hear from any of the candidates.  Sure, Jill Stein has consistently been saying it.  But the sad fact is that Green Party continues to conduct a stealth campaign which is all but invisible to the public.  Her ideas are never heard.

Most Americans are sick of war.  No voice is being given to the anger and frustration of the American public in this regard.  Even the constant demonizing by politicos and the media of Vladimir Putin and chicken-little fear-mongering about Russia is losing its punch.

Putting aside the current risks of moral bankruptcy, nuclear war, and economic collapse, it would be a shrewd and welcome move for Mr. Sanders to rethink his militarism, allegiance to the military-industrial complex, and tacit embrace of empire-building, and give voice to the truly revolutionary idea of America as a nation which promotes peace and harmony, democracy and freedom, cooperation and constructive engagement across the globe.

What a slick and audacious campaign strategy, eh?  Telling the truth to the American voter about how war is becoming a fast track to economic collapse and social disintegration.

Here's an even BOLDER STEP toward a real revolution . . . http://peacedividend.us

Yes, I'm involved in this groundbreaking effort.  And yes, we are DEAD SERIOUS.

Real revolutionary thinking, folks!



[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

You say you want a revolution?

Compassion Is The Fashion

 

Compassion is the love muscle of caring.

But a lot of the muscle flexing I see going on these days is more like body
building than world building. It looks great and makes the "flexer" feel
darn good about him or herself, but other than putting on an impressive
show, it doesn't get much done. And it actually may do some real harm.

Look at all of the crocodile tears over the disappearance of Malaysian Flight 370.

Granted that this is a tragic, highly unexpected event. Whether pilot error,
pilot meltdown, mechanical failure, a vibrational burp in the harmonic
spectrum, or some hairline gash in the condom of the space-time continuum, 
it happened and represents a tragic loss for the families of the passengers.

But shit happens. None of us caused it. None of us can bring back to life the 
victims of this bizarre malfunction. None of us particularly needs this reminder 
that the world we live in, even those things we so fastidiously design and 
meticulously create, are not and never will be perfect. Certainly none of us 
can even do anything to prevent it from happening again. We have no idea 
even what happened.

So why themedia drama and obsessive news reports? And why the disproportionate
and OCD level of attention to a fluke, affecting 239 people who 99.9999%
of us didn't and will never know?

Well . . . we do know why the media gave this particular event so much attention. 
Yes, if it bleeds it leads. But now since the spurting of blood is down to a trickle, 
we find the story consignedto the "back pages" of the 24/7 cyber river of pseudo 
news and hand-wringing, gut-wrenching, love-muscle flexing. And like the switch
man at the local railway yard, we can send our trail of tears down another track. 
The Compassion Express is off to some brand new destination of manufactured grief.

During the unfolding of the Malaysian airliner crisis though, we really cared. 
We really felt for those victims __ the dead and their surviving relatives and friends. 
It really felt good to care about others. It really showed what a good space we were in. 
It really let those families know what a big concerned family the 7 billion of us are 
here on Earth.

Really?

Did anyonecheck with the families to see if they really wanted all that
attention? Did we forget about something called "privacy" or "solitary
mourning"? Do we actually think that mass, anonymous sharing of their
grief made any of those poor, sorrowful individuals feel any better? Did
anyone stop to think it might actually make them feel worse? Maybe a
big group hug from millions of television voyeurs wasn't such a great
idea?

During the sanctions imposed on Iraq for their invasion of Kuwait, lasting  
for twelve years from 1991 until 2003 when Saddam Hussein was finally 
toppled by the U.S. invasion, it is estimated that over 500,000 children died 
of malnutrition and lack of medical supplies and proper health care.

Articles reporting this horrible tragedy startedon the back pages and 
stayed there, or they disappeared entirely. There certainly was no outpouring 
of shared grief for the millions of Iraqi casualties resulting from our insidious 
foreign policies, including the death of over a half million children. 
No crocodile tears were shed outside of some very dedicated, truly caring 
on-the-ground aid organizations who saw first-hand the genocidal results 
of our cruel punishment of innocent civilians.

But there should have been.

What's the difference between Flight 370 and sanctions on Iraq?

While we had nothing to do with the vanishing of Malaysian Flight 370, 
we were directly responsible for the death of those innocent children. It 
was our government perpetrating this horror. We could have stopped it. 
We can  and should stopthings like this from ever happening again, because 
each one of us is implicitly involved. As citizens of a democracy, we are directly 
and personally responsible for the policies and actions that come out of our
often misguided representatives in Washington.

And when we murder 500,000 innocent children, that's something to cry about.

Unlike disappearing jetliners, it's something we could have done something about.

There is something we could do about right now.
 
Something we should and must do. That's ending the illegal, immoral,
and self-sabotaging murder of innocents with drones. It's estimated that  
just during the Obama presidency 2400 individuals have been killed by these 
impersonal weapons of our errant, self-defeating foreign policy. Estimates 
which run as high as 37% say many are completely innocent people, having 
absolutely no interest or role in terrorist activities against the U.S. or its allies, 
mere victims of our paranoid and extralegal campaign of assassinating militants. 
Often these folks were just attending weddings or other family events. 
A lot of the dead again are children.

The harsh truth is that we are all complicit in these murders. It's our government. 
It's our trigger-happy Congress and President who perpetuate this carnage.  
This is something we should be crying about.

Crying and yelling and screaming.

Do you feel it?



[ This originated at the author's personal web page . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

Fiscal Cliff Poem

(It's all a game, eh?)  

 

White takes pawn
Black takes rook
Drone hits building   

Everyone is dead

[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]