Since leaving America August 2006, I have traveled to sixteen countries. A great deal has happened. This site is to share my thoughts, photos, music, writings, travel experiences, and developing political/social commentary with you. I hope you find it interesting and informative.
Showing posts with label military aggression. Show all posts
Showing posts with label military aggression. Show all posts
Idiots in power!(I try not to judge people by their looks but I have to be honest. These people are scary!)
Above are just some of the people in positions of enormous influence and power who are promoting the war in the Ukraine. Make no mistake about it. They couldn’t care less about Ukraine or the Ukrainian people. What they truly care about is destroying Russia.
Contrary to what 111.99% of what is reported in the Western MSM, Russia did not want this conflict. Putin did not want to “invade” Ukraine. Putin and the Kremlin do not want to kill innocent Ukrainian citizens. Russia does not want to take over and occupy Ukraine.
Russia was FORCED intentionally into this military action. This nightmare is the product of US/NATO provocation, intimidation, aggression, all engineered at minimum to give Russia a bloody nose, at maximum to liquidate Russia as an independent country.
So where is this heading?
Everyone in the idiot gallery above is for sending more arms to Ukraine. Of course, arming Ukraine with lethal weaponry, the threat of Ukraine arming itself with nuclear weapons, is what made it necessary for Russia to destroy the Ukrainian military — which is what it is now doing — because it had become an existential threat. So what’s the solution proposed by the above brain trust for addressing the crisis? How do they propose fixing this mess?
More arms . . . more weapons . . . more threats to Russia!
“Gee, what started that apartment building on fire, chief?”
“Apparently, open cans of gasoline and kerosene in the basement.”
“Well, gosh darn, there’s only one option. Let’s pour more gasoline and kerosene into the building and see what happens.”
Several of the idiots in the scary collage above have moreover suggested that NATO and the US establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine. Which will mean — please give this your full attention — US/NATO planes and missiles deployed to shoot down Russian aircraft. Translation: Direct engagement, military conflict — yes, war! — with Russia.
Gee . . . how will this turn out?
After decade after decade of bombing; after twenty years of the War on Terror; a meltdown of the economy in 2008-2009; two years and counting of Covid-19 technocratic terrorism still hovering over us like a sledgehammer; with a coming economic meltdown which will make 2008 look like a rounding error; with the raucous, maniacal, increasingly fever-pitch pounding of war drums and shrill harangues against Russia and China; with a Congress and White House apparently inhabited by the certifiably insane (again just look at the above collection of whackos) . . . hmm. Whaddya think?
What will the future look like?
My prediction is that if we keep going the way we are, the future will indeed be . . . bright!
Very bright! And hot! Here’s how I imagine it’ll turn out . . .
In the forums for our national conversation, there is no earnest discussion of peace and cooperation now … period! I’m not talking lip service or political posturing. I’m talking REAL DISCUSSION, widespread, inclusive, comprehensive discussion. In the media, by our leaders, among everyday people. NONE!
We have a war economy, a war on terror, troops fighting in seven countries (that we know of), over 800 military bases across the planet, countless secret missions and ops, soon weapons in space, and to add more gasoline to the fire are insulting and openly hostile to Russia and China — apparently to provoke them into a war. We the public are to believe the only available options are how much war and who to attack next.
There are no prominent media platforms, no high-visibility celebrities, no folk or pop songs being aired, no TV shows or movies, no major love-ins/teach-ins/sit-ins, no massive demonstrations, promoting peace.
If spectacle is out of the question because of Covid-19 lockdowns and social distancing, an effective peace movement would at bare minimum establish a national conversation about peace with the powerful tools that are available. But the current appeals for peace are a total washout. That’s the reality. There are sparsely-attended Zoom sessions, enthusiastic but isolated and very small clusters of activists, occasional listless street protests, none of which create enough buzz to be news to the greater mass of American citizens. They hear as much about peace now as they hear about powdered wigs.
As for our spokespersons at a federal level, all they officially talk about is “defending our national interest” — whatever that means — and the need for bigger, more powerful, more exotic, more expensive weapons. This salivating for a bigger badder military is bipartisan. Apparently blowing things up, creating animosity, and making more refugees are the only items the Democrats and Republicans can agree on.
But here’s the wrench in the gears of this doomsday machine: The simple, obvious truth is, all of the current talk about the urgent need to extend and expand our military is predicated on completely flawed thinking and a deceptive premise, one that we’re hearing belched out with teeth-gritting hysteria more and more these days.
Here it is:
“We can’t win a war against China or Russia, much less both at the same time.”
Actually yes! This is completely accurate.
BUT THE REAL TRUTH IS, THIS SHOULD BE A CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION. Because THEY can’t win a war against us either! It’s a perfect standoff. No one wins. No one loses. Why bother?
What a relief! There will be no war. Right?
Wrong.
Instead, it’s the basis of the further absurd claim that since we can’t beat Russia or China, we are militarily weak, vulnerable, lacking the necessary hardware and fire power. It’s used to promote expanding the military even more.
Where’s the deception? The deception is the wording. It should be: We currently can’t win a war of AGGRESSION against them, attacking them on THEIR soil. The need for the pivot to Asia. Putting NATO troops and missiles on Russia’s borders. Our never-ending wars in the Middle East. Expansion of our military footprint in Africa. Our secret ops everywhere. All of this projection of power “over there” to confront and defeat our “enemies” on their soil, in their waters, in their skies, requires bigger and better weapons, more ships and planes, trillions more dollars to float the bloat.
This sprawl of U.S. fighting forces is predicated false assumption is that WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO DEFEAT ANYONE, ANYWHERE, AT ANY TIME.
Who voted for this? Did you? I sure didn’t.
This mindset, this thinking comprises the essential core of exceptionalist madness. It’s the sort of delusion and arrogance that brings every empire down. And it obvious that it’s bankrupting our country . . . socially, morally, and economically. The self-sabotaging assumption that the U.S. should rule the planet is at the root of all of our geo-political machinations, misadventures, miscalculations. It’s making us the pariah of the world community and ultimately will destroy our unacknowledged empire from within. We will collapse from the weight of our hubris and recklessness. If we don’t push our adversaries too hard and too fast, ending up with a humiliating defeat on the battlefield, then eventually the waste of so much of our national resources on the pursuit of world empire will eviscerate America from within. We already see the shocking signs disintegration, the destruction of a functioning society every time we turn on the news. Some folks only need to look out their window.
THE BIG PICTURE, THE SOBERING REALITY.
Nothing will change, this self-destructive addiction to a failing world view and foreign policy will not go away, with the incentives now in place to perpetuate war, perpetuate empire, perpetuate the MISCM complex. NOTHING WILL STOP THE MADNESS! Yes, there will be minor adjustments, tinkering, fine-tuning. But it will always be tinkering and fine-tuning an out-of-control military, putting a pretty face on a thuggish foreign policy, and disguising our blood-drenched ham-fisted attempts at world conquest as a visit by the Democracy Fairy.
Most importantly, the policies that have resulted in endless wars, rivers of bloodshed, mountains of corpses, and nation-shattering chaos across the world are choices that the vast majority of everyday citizens NEVER APPROVED OF, NOR WOULD THEY EVER if they truly understood what was happening.
Without a genuine national conversation which at bare minimum focuses on reducing our military footprint and ending our wanton aggression, redefining the role of the military, promoting real peace, seeking genuine partnerships on a whole host of issues that require international cooperation, reaching out (as both China and Russia both do) to create win-win situations based on mutual respect and shared values, our current trajectory — a high-risk flirtation with nuclear war and other epic disasters — will continue unabated.
How do we begin a national conversation which seriously promotes peace?
How do we begin a national conversation which marginalizes or axes the warmongers?
How do we the people insert ourselves into making the decisions that impact our lives and future?
It starts with emptying the seats of those now in power. Then filling them with individuals who are not captured by the psychosis of American exceptionalism, not beholden to the military-industrial-congressional-media complex, committed to representing the interests and promoting the general welfare of all citizens, determined to restore the proper balance of the branches of government as required by the Constitution, and invested in promoting cooperation and peace among the nations of the world community.
For that, we need the full support of at least 150 million everyday citizens, who demand to be heard and treated with dignity and fairness. Enlisting and engaging these individuals is the central goal of the Peace Dividend Project.
It's actually a death rattle. The low guttural burbling of a movement on its death bed.
The
sad truth is that the peace movement in America is in a coma, just a
whimper away from an inglorious burial in an unmarked grave behind the
county dump.
When is the last time more than a few hundred showed up at a massive rally for peace?
Is there hope?
I'd like to think there is.
But
we have to be realistic. If we're going to have a serious national
conversation about peace, ending the senseless self-sabotaging wars, and
taking America off permanent war footing, we must approach everyday
citizens in language they understand, in terms they can embrace, in a
way that is so powerful and over-the-top they can't possibly ignore it.
The Peace Dividendconcept
is just that. It's so extreme and outside-the-box -- not that that
discredits or invalidates it in the least -- it can only get traction
from two sources.
Either
a bold and charismatic politician makes it central to his public
oratory and serious political agenda. Obama, Sanders, and (I hate to
admit it) Trump would all be capable of "selling" it. Obama and Sanders
both love war. Trump is mentally challenged. Maybe there's another
MLK out there somewhere. We can dream!
Yet
another senseless war breaks out. Body bags are piling up. The
national debt begins skyrocketing. People have finally had it. They
are sick of empire building, endless wars, appalling waste. This
scenario could unfold sooner than we think. We have a tough guy
president who's just proposed a 10% increase in our already bloated
military budget, we have both major parties screaming for war. Major
confrontation with Iran, China, Russia -- or all three -- is on the
horizon.
Unfortunately,
when that happens all chaos will be unleashed, the fog and frenzy of
battle will roll over everyone like a toxic oil spill, the media will go
into hyper-drive to "support our troops", the imbeciles who led us into
the conflagration will be grandstanding and/or pointing fingers of
blame at everyone else, and clearer heads will be lopped off in displays
of fanatic super-patriotism as the media fills our eyes and ears with
tales of valor, sacrifice, and super-human acts of heroism. It will be a
bullshit storm of epic proportions.
We
could be doing this right now. There already exists a phenomenal
network of peace activism. But these organizations are totally
ineffective now because their message, 1) is not getting heard, 2) is
not engaging, 3) is stale and boring. I have contacted hundreds of
these groups and their spokespersons. No one is interested in new
ideas. These include a lot of very famous peace activists (you would
definitely recognize most of the names).
So . . .
Either I'm crazy.
Or . . .
These
peace creeps can't get their heads around the idea that for 40 years
now, continuing right up to the present, they have completely failed.
The old methods and battle cries from the Vietnam War days haven't
worked since the 70s. These folks need a new paradigm. They need new
memes. They need both a new message and better messaging.
Just look around. We just had a Peace Prize president who dropped 26,171 bombs last year
on countries we're not even at war with. The U.S. has engaged in
massive military aggression in eight countries since the peace dividend
was originally promised in 1992. We are now in an open-ended war on
terror that is making us and the entire world less safe. Our military
is the scourge of the planet!
Is the current peace movement actually going to claim they're making progress? That the demonstrations, petitions, bumper stickers are working? [Insert Einstein's definition of insanity here.]
The Peace Dividend concept is not some impulse, some catchy phrase developed over a bowl of hashish. It's a fully developed strategy. I've outlined what the approach entails, how it can be effected, how it can be paid for.
This last point is the important. The Peace Dividend refund, because
of its scale and the way it's underwritten, drives a host of other
progressive reforms. It is a watershed for massive realignment of our
priorities and use of financial resources. Seems like that would be
worth paying attention to.
If
you know anyone working in the anti-war organizations, please tell them
they absolutely must take a look at my plan. Singing Give Peace A Chance doesn't cut it anymore. Neither does getting a peace sign tattooed to your forehead.
The
world is rushing headlong toward world war, risking nuclear
annihilation and the end of the human race. Eliminating geopolitical
idiocy, imperial hubris, and monomaniacal delusions of conquest by
challenging our warmongering elites with an effective plan of action
should be what shapes and defines the struggle of those noble
organizations attempting to abolish war and promote peace throughout the
world.
A strategy like the Peace Dividend must be the centerpiece giving focus to their efforts.
Otherwise, the next time I file an update, the response will be . . .
"What peace movement?"
The Peace Dividend: The Most Controversial Proposal in the History of the World is now available both as an ebook and deluxe paperback at all of the usual outlets.
We have been fed over the past few years entirely contradictory views of Russia.
Lately, of course, we've seen a preponderance of "scare bear" propaganda and commentary.
Could this have something to do with it being appropriations time,
the annual fight over who gets what in next years federal budget?
Considering the U.S. can't pile up debt fast enough to suit its
enlightened leaders, this also means lubricating the public mind for
increasing the already humongous pile of money which goes into military
spending, that being the major component of discretionary spending.
Of
course, military spending, besides being intrinsically good regardless
of how much it distorts our national values and bankrupts our economy,
is about making American safe from the entire panoply of threats. It
seems everyone is at our throats, ready to chop off our benevolent
heads. Besides terrorists, rogue nations explicitly dedicated to
destroying us like Venezuela and Cuba, and major nations like China -- which lent us over a trillion dollars to buy military hardware to prevent them from attacking us -- there is always the little discussed potential for aninvasion from outer space.
Having said that, it's Russia that seems to get all the headlines. We have former VP Joe Biden concurring with current FBI Director James Comey that, without a doubt, even without any corroborating evidence, Russia is out to get us!
So what is the truth? Is Russia a wild and woolly beast? Or an affable and tame dancing bear?
Maybe we need some veterinarian advice to sort all of this out. Can bears get rabies?
Because
while over the past several years Russia has consistently been getting
folks from all across the globe to the peace tables, trying to resolve
diplomatically the crises created by the West in Ukraine, Syria, the Middle East in general,
we are now told that under the spell of their crazed leader Vladimir
Putin, the country is foaming at the mouth, haunted and possessed with
diabolical visions of world conquest. Did Russia get bitten by a rabid ground squirrel?
To
add to the confusion is this recently announcement, a highly
thought-provoking one at that, which should -- but won't -- result in
some serious soul-searching in the U.S.: Russia has just recently
announced it is dramatically cutting its defense budget for 2017! As thisexcellent piece of analysispoints out, you are very hard pressed to find mention of it any where in the Western media.
The
U.S. breathlessly peddles itself as the purveyor of peace, the spreader
of democracy, the guardian of justice and a harmonious world, yet it
has about 800 bases in at least 63 countries in the world -- depending on your definition of 'base', some put this figure at over 160 -- AND is increasing its military expenditures by almost 10% in 2018.
