First sentence of the article linked at the bottom of this annoying TDeaSer:

“The way personnel spin through Washington’s infamous revolving door between the Pentagon and the arms industry is nothing new.”

But Mr. Engelhardt once again pimps his “TomDispatch regular” to take cheap, Progressive, Inc., shots at the current puppet, whitewashing the Nobel Peacenik who preceded him by suggesting that this is new since the 2016 election.

[copy & paste from comments on previous Engelhardt threads about the special editorial treatment accorded him by Mr. Unz]

This worn out dissident is about as much threat to Big War as a petition that never leaves the bulletin board at the organic, upscale grocery.

Stuffing $$ into their mattresses as fast as they can grab it.

$21T missing through the Pentagon back door. Should have required accounting for every penny BEFORE the government re-opened.

No accountability, no legitimacy.

I totally agree.

But I would more aptly characterize it as a “war fraud economy”.

With the biggest emphasis on both “War” and “Fraud”.

It is a supremely evil thing to steal trillions of dollars from future generations of Americans to fight our “wars of choice” today.

Supremely evil.

A nations authentic “wartime economy” would demand of its citizens material sacrifices, in real time, to protect its sovereignty and way of life.

Nearly all Americans would willingly make those sacrifices, were war “thrust” upon us.

But lying us into “wars of aggression” in far off distant lands, is a horse of a different color.

Not only is it, Ipso facto, a “crime”, but every penny spent toward the endeavor constitutes a criminal theft.

Do not think for one second, Jim, that the ” rationales” for the Iraq fiasco would not have been scrutinized, A THOUSAND FOLD, had every American been asked , up front ,to pay for it.

Americans are extremely jealous of both their money and their (sons) lives.

This is why wars of aggression are profoundly UN American activities.

Our “neocon overlords” understand this all too well..which is why they make sure to Lie like hell,” all the time”.

It is also why they make sure to steal all the money for their wars from future tax rolls ,.better to let all the unborn Americans wake up with the bill in their laps …then face the scrutiny of today’s taxpayers.

Our national debt has exploded , to such a titanic size , so rapidly, precisely for this reason.

Its quadrupling ,to nearly 22 trillion dollars, in under 18 years,… is unprecedented in American History.

I believe the former Chief of Staff General Martin Dempsey (US Army)2011-2015 was a major player in not letting the Obama team get us into a war with Iran.

The young officers in the US Army have good intentions but then they see that the higher up “careerist first” type officers don’t care much about the troops. A lot of good Lts. and Captains get out.
I feel like someone sitting on a fence staring out at the Army and Marines and realize it is just another bureaucracy but in this one the leaders get a lot of young men (and now women) killed or maimed for life. The big shots just keep collecting their big paychecks-name of the game for careerist firsters.

It seems that the majority who do their military time then feel estranged.

Well said, Anon.

You could be from somewhere else and been sent to DC for assignment. You have a fair grasp of the situation. It’s a wartime economy, all right. Bankruptcy and ruin may lie at the end of the road, but for now, they’re vacuuming up the last morsels while they keep us distracted.

what made you think I was from D.C ,

and not from somewhere else ?

The Jewish lobby has the US in its grip both in terms of foreign policy and domestic policy.

“Conservatives” are generally afraid of standing up to the Jewish lobby. Actually, liberals are too. So is the US military. They prefer that young American men be killed in wars rather than stand up to the Jewish lobby. I am sorry but they have been bought off.

Regarding domestic policy, if you read Kevin Macdonald’s “The Culture of Critique”, Jewish leaders do not want a heterogeneous American population because they fear it would create a possible anti-Jewish bloc.

Thus, Jews have influenced liberals to want to destroy the basically White and Christian (that’s you and me) population of the US with Hispanics and anyone else.

We Americans really are – I am very sorry that I must say this – captives of the Jewish lobby.

We’re a bunch of cowards afraid to go up against the Jewish lobby. That means we are finished as a people and country. Too bad. “People get the government they deserve.”
How sad that America is doomed. Will no one stand up to save us?

Nope,

I ‘m a New Yorker .

You from DC? Or DC environs, anyway, same-same?

the premise of the title implies that those who rule us consider what is good for the USA as its be all and end all. Therefore, the premise that this is a losing war is all wrong. For the globalists, its obviously a winning war. Its up to each and everyone of us to figure out that what our rulers want takes into account little about the needs of the ruled populace they pretend to serve

Trump has done NOTHING different than the last four Presidents. Nothing at all. He’s waging wars exactly like the last four Presidents; his entire foreign policy is exactly the same; his immigration policy is the same, making the same statements and taking the same action; his attacks on the constitution are the same, his economic policy is the same (he calls NAFTA by a different name). What is different? Nothing is different, except his manner of speaking, and the media’s reaction to it.

They have been dominating the economy since WWII

I still have yet to read anything here at The Unz Review sourced to TomDispatch that wouldn’t fit smoothly into NPR or “Democracy Now!”

Self-styled “Progressives” in general seem to be the most predictable, conforming people around. Back in July, Mr. Engelhardt and Mr. Klare, another of his ponies, were snorting about the naive “Trump” to cover the Establishment’s derailment of what at least appeared to be some long overdue, respectful dialogue with Russia. Now that that’s been squelched, these Team Blue frauds have the nerve to finger the current President as being the only one in thrall to Big War.

It has been and still is a puppet show. And the “TomDispatch regulars” are stage hands.

We are not a “wartime economy”, Jim.

We are an economy on the verge of collapse because we have spent too much money making war.

Our national debt has exploded from 5.6 trillion in 2000 to a monstrous 21.6 trillion in just 18 years.

The growth of our “war debt” has so outpaced the growth of our GDP it has actually ECLIPSED it ,by over a trillion dollars.

That is NOT a wartime economy, Jim, ……it’s a wartime “bankruptcy”….. in the making.

Its a “train wreck” of endless, unaccountable, war profiteering which the US taxpayer simply cannot sustain.

The debt from our endless wars now amounts to $176,000.00 per US taxpayer.

Do you have it ?

How long do you think the rest of the world will opt to underwrite our debt by purchasing our bonds as our neocon leadership insists on lying us into criminal wars of aggression and bankrupting the country ?

Would you purchase our Neocon “war of aggression” bonds today …if you were China or Russia or India or the EU ?

By lying us into war, our neocon stewards have failed the nation ……..and the world.

It is an immense tragedy for us all.

How I wish to God it wasn’t true.

They ended the draft, they automated the wars. No one has any blood in the game, just money and they don’t see that. There will be no marching in the streets. There’s a reason the DC region is the richest on the planet. There’s no civilian control of the military anymore because the same generals in the White House are the same as in the Pentagon, the think tanks, the boards of the defense contractors and money is the name of the game. Congress? They pay up. Civilian control is gone. And whaddya gonna do about it? These are the people who kill people after all.

Consipiracy alert: Jack and Bob Kennedy were the last two to say “No thanks” to the latest war. Who today has THEIR balls, especially Bob Kennedy (whatever else you thought of him)? He knew what FBI, CIA and the rest of the Alphabet Soup of American Depravity was capable of and he STILL fought against Vietnam. And they killed him for it.

We’re a wartime economy, we build nothing else. I laugh my ass off at Bernie, at Hillary. They fight for the Defense sector while at the same time promoting bennies for all. Guns or butter. Pick one, can’t have both.

The pentagons plan to “dominate” the economy ?

Please .

How about the Pentagons plan to exterminate the entire solvency of the United States through perpetuating unending, criminal “wars of choice” while pilfering (right into to the pockets of our lying “establishment” elites ) tens of trillions of taxpayer dollars in the process ?

Our national debt has grown by a monstrous “$16 trillion” in a mere eighteen years.

No audits.

No accountability.

Nothing .

If anything epitomizes more , the pernicious disgrace of a nation ..its the “mind numbing” $ 22,000,000,000,000,00 national debt..these “war fraudsters” have created.

Unbelievable .

Our “war of aggression” elites should all be in federal prison, RIGHT NOW, and ALL their assets SEIZED to pay down the heinous debt their LIES created !

They WANTED these catastrophic wars……They LIED us into …these “catastrophic” wars….let them PAY FOR THEM…the whole way !

The…. WHOLE… DAMN….. WAY !

Plato – REPUBLIC BK VIII

“Come then, tell me, dear friend, how tyranny arises. That it is an outgrowth of democracy is fairly plain.”

“But when, I suppose, he has come to terms with some of his exiled enemies and has got others destroyed and is no longer disturbed by them, in the first place he is always stirring up some war so that the people may be in need of a leader”

“As for knuckle-cracking Neocons and warmongering MIC bureaucrats, sack the lot and let them take up selling shoes.”

Yes! Boots by Max Boot — but remove all Jack Bootery from his inventory first.

War is inevitable now, its admirable the Russians are doing all they can, based on their own terrible personal history of War, to march the U.S back from it as best they can.
Unfortunately dogma, ideology, racism, and the moral collapse of our own culture into blood soaked recriminations, are like narcotics affecting our judgement as we drive our tank straight at Russia screaming, shouting and waving our fists in furious anger.

” reject the madness of rampant militarism, bloated militaries, and endless wars. ”
What madness ?
In one of Deighton’s Cold War spy novels, ‘intelligence’ organisations keeping each other busy, the question of the ‘why’ is raised.
The answer ‘the only object of the game is to keep the game going’.
Both a victory and a complete defeat would make Pentagon and NATO superfluous, so the threat of war must be maintained, but also a real all out war.

We in Holland, in the 17th century, knew the risk of having an army.
We had a fleet, but a fleet cannot be used for internal dictatorial purposes.
Our relation with the Oranjes therefore was a difficult one, in times of land war we needed a military commander to create and lead an army, but as soon as land war over, the worry was ‘how to disband the army as quickly as possible’, to prevent the Oranje of the time of using the army for getting political power for himself.

This is one reason only the real proles are patriotic. They have never been anywhere. They have no basis of comparison.

After one week in Dubai I sure as shit never had a reason to return to the United States.

Jews, Asians and WASP elite spend much of their childhood abroad. They are more worldly.

These are good points. In my experience overseas experience as a teenager/young adult completely changes someone’s outlook – especially working abroad.

1) Middle-class urban white kids have often BEEN overseas growing up, at least for holidays. They are under less illusions that the rest of the world is a shithole that needs to be saved. Many middle class whites from NYC or elsewhere voluntarily move to Europe. Asians and Jews especially.

3) Jews and WASPS who are better educated and WILL ORGANIZE on campus. Ironically, they are better-off and America has done more for them then for the average white prole who loves his country and volunteers.

Safer overseas.

I lived in Dubai and spent extensive periods of time in Kuwait and Oman.

The only place I felt unsafe was public space in Phoenix, Arizona. I never came closer to a genuine random unprovoked beating-maybe worse-than standing at a bus stop when two Cholos approached me from behind. This was in public.

Never felt that unsafe anywhere else.

YOUNG EXPATS ABROAD

Had I been a wealthy WASP or Jew, I would not have moved to Dubai. I would have continued to enjoy life in a suburb and married some country club girl and inherited my parents property.

But I had nothing to lose.

This is the reality for the white prole. They volunteer because life is shit in the rustbelt slums and Podunk towns.

EXPAT POINT OF VIEW HERE-

1) Middle-class urban white kids have often BEEN overseas growing up, at least for holidays. They are under less illusions that the rest of the world is a shithole that needs to be saved. Many middle class whites from NYC or elsewhere voluntarily move to Europe. Asians and Jews especially.

By contrast, lower middle class whites have never been anywhere. They genuinely believe that the US is the greatest country on earth, having not been to Tokyo or Paris…or anywhere. They are more likley to be infused with patriotism-at least a young age.

2) Fifty years ago when Italians still lived in slums, it was easy to get recruits for the mafia. Mercenaries who simply wanted to make a house mortgage doing a job. Today, many are mercenaries. They will go somewhere and do a job.

3) Jews and WASPS who are better educated and will organize on campus. Ironically, they are better-off and America has done more for them then for the average white prole who loves his country and volunteers.

4) Gen Y and Gen Z have never known anything but prosperity. Try living in a foxhole in the desert (I have, though not a veteran) or visit a tent city there. Its a hard life.

Military officers take an oath of office to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign AND domestic. For some obscure, unexplained reason, however, they never defend us from our domestic enemies. Therefore, since they are doing just half of their job, we must reduce their pay to 50% of what they are currently making.

There has not been a war since the Cold War. And also since then, it has been safer for the military to be over-seas in the ME and Af-Pak than if they had been “serving” over here in America. The Gulf War GWOT are jokes. And all this “Thank you for your service” since 1991 Should be “Thank You for defending Israel, and being sure Opium stays in production” because that is all the military has done since.
Oh , And keep the MIC afloat, which is actually important , because the American economy truly would go bust without the huge amount of deficit financed US defense spending , never mind the weapon export sales. Arms production getting ready for WWII is what got the USA out of the Depression and continuously since then. It would fall back to that, only much worse.if we reverted to pre-WWII troop levels.

No, no, a thousand times no. Your kids and grandkids can enlist if you’re so gung ho. You can’t have mine.

Yea , Germany seems to have decided that she had no other choice that serving the devil , like these SS , and be crushed for its sins .

Where’s the wall???

The military-industrial complex and the Jewish-Israel lobby. These two villains explain America’s dysfunctional “defense” policy.

As another than the above mentioned historian wrote: ‘war is the way in which politicians destroy apparently superfluous wealth’.

This reminds me of an aphorism attributed to J.P. Morgan: “Bear markets are nature’s way of returning capital to its rightful owners.”

Par divers moyens on arrive à pareille fin.

This is a great video if you really want to see how US/Wall St/Zionist coups work. Same playbook they used recently in Ukraine, Libya and Syria. Its pretty eye opening how they’re able to use their media in these countries to turn people against their leaders, stir up division, blame violence and killings on the targeted govt. Same crap our (((MSM))) does to us here too.

Watch whole thing and pay attention.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised – Chavez: Inside the Coup

-Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC

I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses. I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we’ll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag. I wouldn’t go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are
only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

There isn’t a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its “finger men” to point out enemies, its “muscle men” to destroy enemies, its “brain men” to plan war preparations, and a “Big Boss” Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism. I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it.

I helped make Mexico, 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 benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested. During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could 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.

Trump and Obama Mirror Image Speeches on Syria: Brought to Heel By the (((Deep State)))

I read about this in 2004-ish. Back then John Williams was keeping his eye firmly on the ball on his website. It turns out he is still at it, here: http://www.shadowstats.com/

One of his charts.

I find it amazing how little notice this issue has gotten. Stagnation/decline of living standards is hidden behind this fraud.

Mr. Unz should invite him to post article about this issue. This results in huge transfer of wealth in the U.S and undermines great many Gov. statistics.

There is always a better alternative than enlisting in an army that hasn’t fought in a just war, in the last seventy three years.

A whole lotta’ truth in that video, which sends many “Murkan’s” right over the edge.

That FBI/MK-Ultra Shoe Bomber guy will likely buy a few Dozen pairs.

Jeff, if you mean how Clinton so called balanced the fed Budget?…It is a total fraud scam. Every MSM TV news praised the Bi-partisan accomplishment between Bill Clinton & Newly repub speaker of house leader Newt Gingrich and their combined federal Balanced Budget success.

Here is How they did it and why its as phony as a 3 dollar bill.

Basically Newt rallied repubs in congress, which were the first time in 63 yrs the repubs gained total control away from dems. That first time in 63 yrs May have actually been after GW was elected? Either way if not a full 63 yrs, then something like 52 yrs first time for house + senate was repubs controlled.

Clinton & Newt together conjured up a budget bill package that mainly Changed the Long held methods for the fed govnt office that determines the Actual Rate of per year Inflation…Which Rate is how COLA aka cost of living Raises were figured for Fed and State etc workers as well as, and This is Main KEY to that phony balanced part, also the rate determines how much COLA raise per month every Social Security recipient will get beginning on Jan. 1st until Dec. 31st.

Then once again an actual inflation rate is set and again Next years COLA raises get added to monthly checks…..That Long Held inflation rate figured into the actual rate, Gasoline, Electricity rates elec companies charged folks and business’s etc….Foods/Groceries….Durable goods like home appliances etc…TV sets, it included most Everything a consumer would spend money on over the prior year.

Their new balanced budget plan…Discontinued Gasoline, Elec service fees, Foods and Groceries, and more I cannot now recall….Which caused announced years inflation rates to Now hover around a very much Lower, 1% to 2% per year!!!…..The actual rate of overall inflation was STILL an actual 8% to even 10+% per entire year…Like it always remained for a long time frame..

That’s main reason todays us dollar buys so little compared to just 20 yrs ago. And especially when todays dollar buy worth is compared to say, 30-40 yrs ago. Because actual rate of inflation hasn’t changed or lowered or if did not by much…No where near 1 to 2% total rate. As always claimed.

Then….In order to compile a large enough surplus saved by this plan of changed items included to determine rate of inflation, they got senate and house, repubs & dems, to vote on passage. And,
What also created so large of a surplus and was then applied ONLY to That next years fed budget which they claimed will Balance budget for first time in 40 or so years…

Was that they added up every dollar that will get saved by new much lower inflation rate, hence much lower COLA raises for 25 million fed workers, plus 75 Million Soc sec monthly checks.

For the entire period of the…NEXT 15 Years worth of savings!!!

They counted fed cash cola raises saved for entire Next 15 yrs in advance…Not even knowing for certain how many soc sec checks will still be issued etc so long into future.

I read about, at least 5-6 or maybe it was more like 8-10 yrs ago, an article written by a very well known, Ex-Wall Street investor guru guy…Can’t recall his name now, his article showed a large Graph of the estimated and very close to actual numbers if overall inflation rates remained same as typically had prior to Clintons budget scam.

He said If inflation rate was still calculated the exact same as before where all items get counted based on price rises at Gas pumps and Grocery stores etc….That Today, this was back when I read it, The typical Soc Sec check recipient would be getting DOUBLE or very, very Close to Double the current amount. Due to Compounded Cola yearly raises.

That means that Now today, 2018 era, avg soc sec checks would be even higher per month.

Aprox 75% of all soc sec checks avg around a monthly total of about, $1250 or so…Rest get less or more…Top rate I’m not sure but probably around $400-450 more or total check of around $1600 to $1,700 per month.

So for 2018 avg soc sec amount for 75% of persons getting a check, would be well Over $2,500 per month…”IF” they never fucked up method to tabulate actual rate of inflation and ergo raise rate of cola increases.

So that entire issue and so called balanced fed budget all tv news were so giddy to report as a massive bi-partisan achievement not seen in over 40+ years….Was….All a Huge swindle scam.

They cannot take and include the Next 15 yrs worth of cash saved by lower cola rates, and place it all into a one year fed budget like was done by these scoundrels…They cannot use any cash they wont even See until many years later…..Nobody can do such.

Plus what happens to every new years fed budget when they claim every dollar saved for next 15 years, so not a single saved dollar can go into next years, and next year after that budget?

So…..That so called fed balanced budget was and is a massive swindle scam perpetrated upon usa taxpeyers, and Especially upon Low budget poverty status Soc. Sec. Recipients who have been recieving Much lower monthly amounts ever since it was done….That was IIRC in 1999!!! Or what ever was Clintons final year as us prez.

And with every MSM TV spokes person who reported it as a huge success…Equally Guilty of Fraud and Lies galore.

PS: And All Our lives we were told…”be Sure to only Vote for a Dem because, the Repubs are only For The rich folk, But…Those Dems are always going to Protect your Soc. Sec benifits and checks for ever”…..Yes like how Dem Prez Hobammy, with Dems controled Both houses congress for at least two years,…Out of a total of 5 yrs time frame…Soc Sec recipients saw ZERO/No Cola increases for a total of 3 of those 5 years!…..So much for, Dems care for poor folk and repubs only care about wealthy pals and corps etc, eh. Thats when Gasoline went to as high as, $4.50–$5.00 Per Gal. and then grocery bills Doubled fastly due to higer fuel prices for semi truckers. Gas and Deisel no longer were counted in fed inflation rates, thanks to two giant swindlers, Bill & Newt.

Let’s face it: profits and power should be classified as perennial reasons why U.S. leaders persist in waging such conflicts.

Okay, then the military-industrial-complex can make huge bucks by instigating wars with Israel and Saudi Arabia. After all, the world community charges Israel of many human rights violations. And many people, left and right, find Saudi Arabia to be a loathsome nation. Surely, the US can cook up reasons to formulate wars against Israel or SA.

So, if profits are the main motive, why doesn’t the US and Military-Industrial-Complex cook up excuses to blow those nations and kill people there?

While MIC is greedy for profits, most of major recent wars have been driven more by the War Tribe than by War Trade. Iraq and Syria were destroyed because of their secular Arab modernity. Iran was sanctioned and threatened because Zionists hate that country. Though theocratic at the top, much of Iran is modern and capable of science/technology. Jews have feared Iran for that reason. Libya had to go because of Gaddafi’s independent streak. Yemen had to be destroyed because Houthi rebels have ties with Iran.

Money is a big factor, but even profits are driven by agendas and tribal interests. In THE GODFATHER, all sides vie for profits but also want OUR SIDE to win. So, profits serve tribalism in the end. Profits are not neutral. Sheldon Adelson loves profits but uses money to back Israel. He’s about profits serving the Tribe.

If profits are all that counts, the US and MIC can make huge profits with Iran by making peace and selling Iran tons of arms. Iran would love to sell oil and buy tons of top-notch arms from the US. Lots of profits there. So, why isn’t that allowed? Because the Tribe that rules the US care about Israel uber alles in the Middle East.

Regarding the video of “SS Marschiert in Feindesland”: gives one goosebumps, donnit?

I especially like this passage: {A RIFELMAN STANDS AT VOLGA’S SHORES AND SILENTLY HUMS ALONG} (time stamp 1:04)

How was that lyrics again? {A FILTHY MASS-MURDERING NAZI INVADERMAN LIES DEAD AS A DOORNAIL AT VOLGA’S SHORES AND SILENTLY DECOMPOSES INTO DIRT}

They are not to win but to destroy. And they sure have destroyed much of Middle East and North Africa.

Middle America fell in love with the military the day that the Draft was ended. All they cared about was that their sons would be safe. Who cares about the poor kids who joined because they had no better alternative? The Powers-that-Be knew that they could not engage in endless wars as long as the military was composed of citizen-soldiers. They learned this hard lesson during the Vietnam War. There is no hope for the better unless the Draft is brought back.

July 10, 2017 “Ain’t No Such Thing as A Just War” – Ben Salmon, WWI resister

Lately, we’ve been learning about the extraordinary determination shown by Ben Salmon, a conscientious objector during World War I who went to prison rather than enlist in the U.S. military. Salmon is buried in an unmarked grave in Mount Carmel Cemetery, on the outskirts of Chicago.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47408.htm

Jan 10, 2011 War is a Lie

In talks at San Jose Peace & Justice Center and in Santa Cruz, historian David Swanson revealed the truth behind the lies that led to the wars held sacred by many — the American Revolution, the Civil War and World War II.

maybe you missed the crappy wars part,never said they’re fighting for our freedom.

“Well to date, at least Trump hasn’t started any wars” but he hasn’t wound any of them down either. On top of that he seems very keen to start a war with Iran, on behalf of his beloved Israel. Reneging from agreements designed to keep the peace also seems to be another Tump speciality, along with bumping up already overinflated defence budgets. What could go wrong with any of that?

We have the idea that war is, or should be, the exception.
Yet, forget which historian, and over what period, a historian calculated that on average in Europe over thirteen years of war there were three years of peace.
Maybe the period 1871 to 1914 created the false impression, hardly any wars in Europe.
Yet enough British warfare outside Europe
Ian Hernon, ‘Britain’s Forgotten Wars, Colonial Campaigns of the 19th Century’, 2003, 2007, Chalford – Stroud

Who wants to be used to the idea that war is the normal situation I can recommend reading
Michael Rostovtzeff, ‘Geschichte der Alten Welt, Der Orient and Griechenland’, Bremen 1961 (1924 Berlin)
Michael Rostovtzeff, ‘Geschichte der Alten Welt, Rom’, Bremen 1961 (1924 Berlin)
E. A. Freeman, ‘Western Europe in the fifth century, An Aftermath’, London 1904
Herwich Wolfram, ‘History of the Goths’, Berkeley 1988 (1979 München)
The two books by Michael Rostovtzeff were published originally in english.
As another than the above mentioned historian wrote: ‘war is the way in which politicians destroy apparently superfluous wealth’.

Surprising in Rostovtzeff’s books is that as soon as some ruler succeeds in, say, having ten or more years without war, a country prospers, science, arts and literature progress, hospitals, libraries, etc are built, as well as water and sewer systems.

I wonder if anyone ever calculated what the Cold War cost, on both sides.
Yet, for me, this Cold War was over when Chrustjow removed his missiles from Cuba, including the atomic warheads nobody, at the time, in the west knew about.

Indeed, Germany had no choice.

Operation Barbarossa Was A Preventive Attack: https://forum.codoh.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=7999
and: http://www.unz.com/announcement/the-remarkable-historiography-of-david-irving/

http://www.codoh.com

You are right She doesn’t look like H Clinton nor like Madame Albright or Jena Bush nor like Trump’s mother or Ivanka Doesn’t even look like Bannon another war monger .

And yet it’s the civilian leadership that controls the military and tells it where to go. Congress provides the funding, which it could cut at any given time. Congress could declare that the AUMF doesn’t pertain to brush fire wars across the globe – and yet it doesn’t. Congress could hold hearings with the generals and ask the tough questions – I haven’t seen them do it. The writer cites Elizabeth Warren and her boilerplate cheer leading for the military… what the military is doing is partially her fault. There’s no upside for poor civil-military relations; the writer invokes Vietnam – civil-military hostility didn’t stop one troop from being killed or maimed and didn’t shorten the war. This is simply blaming the hammer for a bent nail and ignoring the people swinging it.

Visit any military base and you’ll see more dark-complexioned, foreigner-born individuals than you do fair-skinned native-born Americans.

I agree. I don’t usually agree with Trumps rhetoric but the results seem to be working for us in ways. NATO going away would be a huge win for the American people and the world.

Apart from the cliche, “wars are for profits and power”, the other important reason to keep the troops abroad would be to prevent a civil war at home by the “God, guns and guts”crowd, who might be tempted to carry out more Pittsburgh style attacks on those who don’t fit into the rightwing narrative, as the comment number two amply demonstrates.

Hey, Astore……..how can you keyboard a screed concerning the ongoing wanton destruction of the Mideast without once fingering the conniving jooies for pushing their selfish agenda relentlessly? Your precious US military has simply been reduced to a well equipped and financed group of mercenaries hired on to operate as the attack wing of the IDF. Everyone knows it including you…….

It sure went downhill since I left the US in 1999. If you had been overseas for 20 years like I have, being a single white male with no reason to return to the United States, believe me…you’d see the difference.

Well to date, at least Trump hasn’t started any wars. Not only that, his “craziness” seems to be allowing the Koreans to decide their own fate. If they come up with an end to their war, will anyone sane in the US say no? One down, lots more to go.

I’m very ambivalent about the whole Korean thing. What happens if the North Korean regime falls and Korea is unified under the southern regime – essentially the same scenario that happened to Germany? Will our military stay there? Something tells me that the Pentagon and whatever administration is in power at that time will answer yes. That would place an American ally with American soldiers right on the border of China. Is that a good idea? I don’t think so – it seems a lot more dangerous in the long run than having, as we have now, a buffer between us, even if that buffer is one of the crazy Kims with their Baby’s-First-Nuclear-Arsenal.

Superpowers (by which I mean any country with nuclear weapons) need to not border one another, especially when one of them is the United States.

I hope you’re not one of those “peace through de- moralized military “people .It’s not the fighting man’s fault we’re in all these crappy wars ,it’s the politicians……..Or would you rather have our soldiers spit on when they go out in public ……Major?

I would prefer that people stop all this “they’re fighting for our freedom” bulls**t, as it is transparent nonsense. “Our troops” are certainly not fighting for our freedom. If they are, they’re doing a really lousy job, because they’ve been fighting nearly non-stop for 17 years now, and yet we are getting steadily less free.

Yes, the inclusion of MLK as a moral exemplar was a speed bump.

This piece is sort of like a military campaign that is well executed all the way up until the end nears.

Then some shit bird tosses something into the punch bowl.

“Full disclosure: I like Warren and have made small contributions to her campaign. “

Unfortunately, the deep state obviously considers these wars “wins”. Failing to recognize that the enemy, in fact, rules us, helps continue the inevitability of that rule

{If war is such a good racket why has the US worse off…}

Depending whose ox is being not-gored.

US – as a country of your average American taxpayers – is definitely worse off: relentlessly growing national debt, higher and higher t taxes, deterioration of infrastructure, loss of purchasing power.
Because the negative changes are small, they are not generally noticed.
But it is clear, if you know where to look, the country is gradually falling apart.

On the other hand – US as the top 1%, the rulers, the connected etc – is doing great.
Top 1% now own about 40% of wealth in US.
The gap has widened over the years and keeps widening
For all practical purposes the American middle class has disappeared or disappearing depending where you are.

“Middle class” husband and wife both have to work to raise 1 or maybe 2 kids.
Many moons ago just the husband worked and Americans easily raised 3-4 kids.

Completely agree.

“The character and charisma long ago associated with the pioneer or the small farmer — or carried in the 1960s by Dr. King and the civil-rights movement — has now come to rest upon the soldier.” This elevation of “our” troops as America’s moral heroes feeds a Pentagon imperative that seeks to isolate the military from criticism and its commanders from accountability for wars gone horribly wrong.”

You mean, that Dr. King? the one who largely copied his “I have a dream speech” (from Republican Archibald Carey Jr.), plagiarized his doctoral thesis, was a serial adulterer, and who denied the deity of Christ, the Virgin Birth and the bodily Resurrection, all while claiming to be a Christian preacher– a man who at the same time saw fit to “instruct” Americans about the content of their character on other matters?

You don’t have to be a Christian, nor believe in faithful marriages, fundamental and orthodox Christian doctrine, or the integrity of academic papers to see that your use of MLK here, is based upon the same moral and ethical logic that demands respect for the military, while shielding it from criticism. It’s the same game of constant and escalating virtue signaling.

Trump didn’t fill his Cabinet with the type of people who would be eager to pursue his promises of troop withdrawals. It was alarming to see the inflow of generals and bankers.

The biggest reason these wars go on and on and on is there is no draft. Anyone who was alive during the Vietnam era knows this to be true. It was the anti-war, which in reality was the anti-draft movement that put an end to the quagmire which was Vietnam.

Any one who will admit the truth knows we here in America do not care about anything that does not concern us. As long as I don’t have to go fight and die in some shit hole country, I really can’t be bothered with such things. The “haves” will never worry about the fate of the “have not’s”.

The Empire is assured a steady stream of new “volunteers” as we have shipped our jobs and manufacturing over seas. The poor with no prospects for a career, or even a job in anything above the fast food industry see the military as their only hope for any kind of a future. Charlie Daniels states in his song Long Haired Country Boy “A rich man goes to college and a poor man goes to work”. To be brought up to date, the line needs to be re-written as “A rich man goes to college and a poor man goes to war”.

The Empire(and its lap dogs the media)learned it had brighten the image of the armed forces. No more stories of soldiers being spit on and called baby killers when they returned home. It now would be yellow ribbons and waving flags for our soldiers returning home to a hero’s welcome.

If you think this perspective is incorrect, imagine the average college student, the ones who had to take the day off from school when Trump was elected would react if they received the following in the mail:
Greeting: You are hereby ordered for induction into the Armed Forces of the United States and to report at Local Board No. 54, 24800 Mission Blvd., Hayward California on November 30th 2018 at 6:45 A.M.
Willful failure to report at the place and hour of the day named in this Order subjects the violator to fine and imprisonment.

Good for the Military/Industrial complex…Not for us.

Yes, well said, but one quibble: “Invest” in Wall Street? haha. At least with our ridiculous winless wars we get to keep some sliver our our technological base. Wall Street is purely parasitic…

Wars in the Zionist template are not meant to be won, the wars are fought to terrorize both the American people and the people of the targeted country and thus increase the governments control over America and increase the profits of the Zionist banking cabal that perpetrated the wars.

Read Orwells 1984 in the chapter on why wars are fought and as Orwell says , wars are not fought to be won, they are fought to control the people and chew up the resources of the countries in both sides of the conflict and keep the people on both sides in a state of terror from a created terror threat, just as it is here in America aka Oceania.

The war on terror is a created lie, the Zionist controlled U.S. and Israel and Britain and NATO created ISIS aka AL CIADA to provide the excuse to fight a threat that they created by the Zionist controlled deep state and Israels attack on the WTC which led to the 17 year war against the created threat.

America will never have peace as long as America is under Zionist control which it has been since 1913 with the passage of the Zionist privately owned FED and IRS, which gives Zionist bankers the ability to create money out of thin air to fund their wars and the IRS gives them the power to tax the America people to pay for the Zionist wars.

Free America from Zionist control abolish the FED and the IRS.

Like Eric Margolis said, you don’t win a war by killing people. You win a war by achieving your strategic objective. Now, absent that, what the hell’s the point? 1) Bushels of Money; 2) Perpetual Chaos. And that pair would make Trotsky and his backers proud. So, we haven’t come far, only deeper.

“As for knuckle-cracking Neocons and warmongering MIC bureaucrats, sack the lot and let them take up selling shoes.”

Who’d wear them? They’d explode.

You seem to have missed it, but Trump campaigned on an anti-war platform. The real story is how the Deep State/Cabal turned him around, and how irrelevant elections are.

Trump wasn’t turned around he is just a lair. He is a member of the Deep State.

Democracies fight wars as necessary, whereas Empires are constantly at war to preserve a power structure with them on top. Winning the war and getting it over with is the goal in the first case. Not losing a war and maintaining a threat to your opponents is the goal in the second. This illustrates why empires eventually fall: it takes a constant expenditure of energy to try to dominate everyone and the empire eventually can’t back up its’ non-stop bullying.

It’s not military weakness that is causing the US to slowly lose wars. Military reforms wouldn’t make US forces vastly more effective and capable of “winning”. The problem is the political context under which the military is employed. As long as the US is engaged in building and maintaining an empire, the situation won’t change.

And another:

https://a.disquscdn.com/get?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.twimg.com%2Fmedia%2FDi-NDu2XoAUSh6i.jpg&key=9qFiHdP41K6ADQbPq1VDSw&w=800&h=440

A cartoons that says it all:

“presidents like George W. Bush have waged a set of brutal wars”

Not a bad example, but pretty conspicuously the only one given. I’m guessing he lives in a timeline in which Democrats were sometimes manipulated into failing to curb the warmongering excess of their thoroughly evil Republican predecessors. I won’t hold my breath waiting for him to credit Nixon and Reagan with ending the two longest-running wars of the 20th Century.

Another place the US military is winning is in defending the US Dollar.

If any ME oil producer suggests going off the dollar standard they get whacked . That’s what happened to Saddam Hussein (Iraq) and Muamar Gadafi (Libya) and the threat to Iran. Recently Mohamed bin Salam (Saudi Arabia) just got a strong reminder of who is in charge and to stop favouring the Petro/Yuan.

The existing US Dollar world currency reserve status has a lot of advantages, since world trade has to be priced in it, and world traders have to buy it. Take away this demand and the dollar is only backed by the US economy (permanent deficits) and its value plummets.

If for example the dollar lost 50% of its value then the US could no longer fund on credit ME wars, the MIC , special interests, welfare etc. as it is doing at present. The dollar would have to return to its true value making the US an entirely different place.

Apart from the political impact, outsourcing would shut down, profits would disappear, the military would have to pull out of bases around the world and ME wars would stop . The US public would have less purchasing power, having to get used to living at the level of its social development indicators (for example PISA test scores) somewhere in the region of lower ranking European countries.

Or, to put this article more economically: The USAmerican empire continues on the irreversible path to which all empires come eventually: decline and fall. Meanwhile, the new imperial sun rises in the North/East. The nazis’ Tausand Jahre Reich lasted about twelve years, counting from their initiating false-flag – the Reichstag fire – to the fall of Berlin to the Red Army.* How long for ‘the New American Century’, counting from its initiating false-flag, 11/9/01? (British notation…) Twenty five years? Thirty? Less?

And as usual with standard-issue disintegrating empires, only a few can see clearly what’s happening. And no-one – but no-one – can do anything effective to stop it. If you like ‘classical’ music, listen again to the insane march episode in the first movement of Shostakovich’s 7th Symphony, ‘The Leningrad’. Perfect encapsulation of the inevitable fate of empires.

What’s that you say? The USAmerican empire isn’t a standard-issue one? “This time it’s different!”? If you think that, then clearly you’re not one of the few who can see clearly what’s happening – as usual. Wake up soon!
________________

* Sure, the piddling USuketc. forces got to West Berlin about the same time. But does any sane, properly-informed person still think it wasn’t the Russians who did the serious heavy lifting in WW2

“All Wars, are Bankers’ Wars!”

“Cannon Fodder, Growing Up for Vietnam”
source: http://www.americanwarlibrary.com/a44/cf.htm

If war is such a good racket why has the US worse off today then it was in the 1990’s between the Cold War and the War on Terror?

The nineties seem implausibly prosperous today.

There was no deficit after the Clinton administration.

No such thing as “losing wars”. They’re meant to be sustained for as long as possible.

Judging by the quality of their policies, the shoes they might sell would hardly be wearable. I suggest sending them all to Saudi Barbaria or another place where their ilk is in charge.

Makes sense: You haven’t lost the war if it never ends.

Kind of ironic that America’s biggest export business is subject to having its supply chain crippled on any given day by America’s largest rival. As another great American hero once quipped, “Stupid is as stupid does.”

As much as I enjoy shooting holes in inanimate objects and seeing stuff blown up into little pieces, I want to see my country (what’s left of it anyway) drastically reduce the number of its foreign military bases and cease provoking China and Russia with its adolescent shenanigans. Cutting our losses and leaving Afghanistan after 18 years of folly would also be a plus. Japan, South Korea and most NATO members are sufficiently grown up to handle and fund their own military affairs and adventure wars without an American presence and logistical support. As for the ME, withdraw completely and allow them to return to type. Trade with them only as necessary and stop importing their cretinous minions to the US. The US military needs to be repurposed to a robust defense of North America, border and port security and maintaining freedom of movement in sea lanes in cooperation with other nations. As for knuckle-cracking Neocons and warmongering MIC bureaucrats, sack the lot and let them take up selling shoes.

American leaders lose and lose and lose because Congress is composed of chumps with no balls like Ro Khanna.Look at this half-assed stab at reinventing the wheel to CIA specifications

https://fellowtravelersblog.com/2018/10/23/ro-khanna-five-principles/

The world has already set the rules out in gnat’s-ass detail, and the US is bound by it. Just say so, for chrissake.

First of all, what he seems to be getting at with ‘restraint’ is codified in binding black-letter international law and case law. The right to self-defense is subject to necessity and proportionality tests, and invariably subject to UN Charter Chapter 7 in its entirety. See Article 51. Instead of this waffle, just say, the president must commit to faithfully execute the supreme law of the land, specifically including UN Charter Chapter 7.

Second, national security is not a loophole in human rights. Under universal jurisdiction law, it is a war crime to declare abolished, suspended or inadmissible in a court of law the rights and actions of the nationals of the hostile party. Domestic human rights are subject to ICCPR Article 4 and the Siracusa Principles. Instead of CIA’s standard National Security get-out clause, state explicitly that US national security is respect, protection and fulfillment of all human rights.

Third, internationalism is OK as far as it goes, but he doesn’t deal with the underlying issue: CIA has infested State with focal points and dotted-line reports, and demolished the department’s capacity for pacific resolution of disputes. You need to explicitly tie State’s mission to UN Charter Chapter 6, and criminalize placement of domestic CIA agents in State.

Fourth, Congressional war-making powers are useless with Congress completely corrupted. Bring back the Ludlow Amendment, war by public referendum only, subject to Article 51.

So purge these eunuchs and get us a law’norder candidate. Like a Grayson.

Well to date, at least Trump hasn’t started any wars. Not only that, his “craziness” seems to be allowing the Koreans to decide their own fate. If they come up with an end to their war, will anyone sane in the US say no? One down, lots more to go.

I might add,m that his Russian rhetoric is actually pushing the EU and Russia closer together. Bye Bye NATO?

“would you rather have our soldiers spit on when they go out in public”

I would rather have soldiers (not OUR soldiers) take responsibility for their actions instead of the “I was just following orders” cop out. They should not volunteer for anything going on right now, and they should refuse unlawful, unconstitutional, or immoral orders if they are already in the military. After all, these are humans capable of thinking and making moral decisions. They are not GI Joe dolls

I hope you’re not one of those “peace through de- moralized military “people .It’s not the fighting man’s fault we’re in all these crappy wars ,it’s the politicians……..Or would you rather have our soldiers spit on when they go out in public ……Major?

How has the civil-military relationship changed in the last two decades? Despite bending on social issues (gays in the military, women in more combat roles),

Who is that bending to? Certainly not ordinary civilians, the chattering classes perhaps.

From the tenor of the 1st 3 paragraphs, one could get the idea that the Central Bankers have America right where they want her, by the short hairs. Yes folks they have us, and we’re on the fast track to bankruptcy, and foreclosure. If you think I’m full of it look into the situation in Greece. That poor nation, with help form the Fed, is being cannibalized by the Euro Central Bankers. Greece has been forced to sell it’s national assets, and treasures, everything on, above and below ground. The deadly and terrible fires which captured world headlines for a few weeks this summers were to cover the screams of 11 million Greeks as they watched their natural resources auctioned off to foreigners (Greek citizens were barred from bidding) at discount, pennies on the dollar. Even the Royal Jewels of Greece were sold. Don’t believe me, read up on it.
Yes I believe the wild fires in Greece this summer were not so wild, or natural. The fires were a false flag used to steal attention away from the rape of a once great nation. Nothing but a false flag. A gift form the heartless Central Bankers.

Soon they run up out of the forces. And compulsory military service id the end of their fun.
Stupid Cupid.
How are those differences different. When two navy ships cried ,that they were allegedly attacked ,so the US can declare more war on the North Vietnam.
Real and bloody attack the ship Liberty and many deaths , resulted , that, pres. Johnson shitted himself only and peacefully. ….

“American” leaders persist with these stupid wars because they don’t fundamentally share a connection with actual Americans. They are like foreign monarchs who don’t speak the native language. Hence, they don’t really care about the locals.

For a small fraction of the enormous amounts of money Pentagon gets every year any half-competent political technologist in the US can promote Devil himself as a Savior and make people believe it.

It is very hard to give any credibility to someone who donated to Warren. Is this the sort of piece that is designed to discredit the argument it ostensibly sets out to advance?

Too true. Trump also promised to go after the pharmaceutical corporations but has instead appointed industry insiders to the regulatory positions. He also bought into the Republican tax cut mania with his foolish corporate tax cut. I suspect that Trump’s weakness of character has made it impossible for him to effectively oppose Washington’s usual suspects and their usual policies.

You contribute to Warren? Amazing.

You seem to have missed it, but Trump campaigned on an anti-war platform. The real story is how the Deep State/Cabal turned him around, and how irrelevant elections are.

Another issue is whether or not the US military, especially its flag officers, are even minimally competent. One suspects they are not.