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Title: Why Americans Support Perpetual Wars
Source:
Activist Post/ FTP
URL Source: https://www.activistpost.com/2017/1 ... ns-support-perpetual-wars.html
Published: Oct 24, 2017
Author: Chris Kanthan
Post Date: 2017-10-26 06:41:50 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 400
Comments: 1
“With great power, comes great responsibility” – a quote from the movie, Spider-Man. However, the superpower known as America can’t stop waging incessant, futile wars. With the tectonic changes in geopolitics, the callous American attitude can result in devastating global wars. Although one can justifiably blame the elites for this debacle, equally culpable are the American people who loudly cheer or silently bless the perpetual wars. Selling a war in the U.S. is like giving out candies on Halloween. At the very fundamental level, most Americans don’t even realize that they live in an Empire. 250,000 US troops in 100+ countries around the world and a $700 billion budget? Not worth pondering. The credit for this astonishing ignorance goes to the tightly controlled corporate media and the educational system. Once the topic of Empire is completely eliminated from the vernacular, half of the logic disappears in the discussions about wars. Then the fact that the military-industrial complex thrives on wars is also totally omitted. Experts who stand to gain from wars are paraded on TV to inform the public about the great dangers of a scary foreign enemy. Then there are politicians who are all bought and paid for by the lobbyists from the military-banking-security complex. Corporate media also obediently regurgitates all the talking points of the Deep State. Americans just absorb and internalize all the biased information from pundits, politicians and the media without any filters. The question, “Can this be propaganda?” never crosses most people’s minds. So, if you don’t discuss imperialism and war-profiteering, what else is there to analyze? Only the country we want to attack. And what do Americans know about the targeted country? Virtually nothing. They don’t know the geography, history, culture or the geopolitics of the country that is being demonized. The only information people get are slogan-filled, sensational talking points, which also get recycled over the decades: Hitler … dictator … murderer … freedom/democracy blah blah. For extra effect, add in supports terrorists. That’s all Americans need to hear. Incited by a strange mix of power and paranoia, Americans cry, “Woohoo! Let’s bomb!” The other country never gets a chance to defend itself. Americans never listen to the foreign leader or the foreign media. That would just be a crazy idea! So America turns into a Grand Jury. American experts present the case and Americans always indict the defendant. Then the polls show that a vast majority of Americans are sufficiently brainwashed to support a military action, and the bombs start flying away. There is a reason that the social engineering elites broadcast World War II movies zillion times a month on cable TV. This archetypal propaganda has two myths: America fights evil and America always wins. This programming is so effective that certain words trigger a Pavlovian response in the public. If you analyze all the mainstream articles about the “enemies” we have attacked in the last few decades, you’ll see the usage of the same words, phrases and themes. Americans don’t see the patterns or the plots, since they have the memory of a goldfish. Question: Didn’t we just attack Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and Syria? Answer: No, I can’t remember! All I know is Iran is evil. The elites can sell a series of wars, one by one, and Americans will buy them. Heck, the elites can lay out the plan and say, “We are going to attack these countries in the coming years,” but it just doesn’t register. (Remember Wesley Clark’s famous 7 countries in 5 years plan? Or Brzezinski’s book The Grand Chessboard that laid out the vision for global hegemony? Or Neocon’s “Project for the New American Century” paper?). The goldfish memory along with complete apathy towards foreign affairs also result in guilt-free wars. Question: Didn’t Libya use to be prosperous under Gaddafi? Isn’t it now completely devastated and torn apart by civil war and jihadist groups? Answer: I don’t know, I don’t care! The guilt is also washed away by fake humanitarian gestures such as accepting refugees. The modus operandi is to destroy hundred homes in a foreign country and accept one family as a refugee. Or better yet, send ten families to Europe. Getting rid of a dictator and welcoming people into your country … that’s double dose of oxytocin (the empathy hormone)! There are also no tangible consequences for supporting wars. First, it’s not like the Vietnam War when regular Americans from Middle Class families fought and died. Second, America hasn’t been devastated by wars like, say, Europe in WW II. Third, the government simply borrows more money to wage new wars. Thus, if you are not going to be physically or financially harmed, it’s easy to support wars. Borrow and bomb! The military adventures are treated like TV series. If “Season 1: Libya” ends, Americans can’t wait for “Season 2: Syria.” They know that the episodes will be gripping and dramatic. Terrorists, a nation being totally ruined in a civil war, an evil dictator struggling to survive, the CIA arming and training freedom fighters … it’s gonna be a blockbuster! Just as they turn off their critical thinking while watching “reality” shows, people simply consume the Hollywood-style scripts written by war propagandists. Theoretically, people could dismantle the mainstream narratives with a little bit of research. No, that would ruin all the fun. Most Americans don’t realize that sanctions are acts of war, and proxy wars are just as bad as real wars. America’s sanctions cripple nations and choke the economies, since the U.S. controls the global financial system. For example, half a million Iraqi children died in the 1990s after the US/UN sanctions. As for the illegality of proxy wars, how would Americans feel if Syria sent guns and missiles to Antifa or the KKK? Without thinking through all these, Americans cheer on sanctions and arming rebels in other countries. (By the way, what’s the difference between rebels and terrorists? Depends on which direction their weapons are aimed at). There’s hardly any self-reflection in America. America’s foreign-policy establishment is like a guy who gets into bar fights every weekend, and he always blames others. Since Americans don’t care about history or geopolitics, they believe that this entertainment will go on forever. The fact is that America is like an alpha monkey that spends all day beating up younger male monkeys. This continues for a while until the alpha gets a little old and starts napping a lot. That’s when the female monkeys in the harem sneak away to enjoy some romance with the younger males. Translating this jungle reality into geopolitics, the challengers are Russia and China. And, yes, America’s vassal states around the world are already forging trade and military ties with Russia and China, and are exploring ways to get out of the Petrodollar system. America’s foreign policy cannot be based on “Harvey Weinstein Doctrine.” Weinstein thinks that because he’s rich and powerful, he has the right to violate women. When women refuse to sleep with him, he destroys their careers. America cannot demand loyalty and obeisance from other countries anymore. And we certainly shouldn’t bully and bomb countries just because they choose to be independent. Weinstein doesn’t believe in courtship, and the U.S. has lost the subtle and patient art of diplomacy. America can be an Empire or a Republic, but not both. An Empire is very expensive to maintain; it makes a lot of enemies around the world; and it sacrifices the homeland in order to desperately preserve its power abroad. America can be – or rather, can only be – prosperous and strong without engaging in perpetual wars and aggression. Chris Kanthan is the author of a new book, Syria – War of Deception. It’s available in a condensed as well as a longer version. Chris lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, has traveled to 35 countries, and writes about world affairs, politics, economy and health. His other book is Deconstructing Monsanto.
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#1. To: Deckard (#0)
We have the standard of living we do because, until the rise of China, we had conquered the economic world (by physically conquering most of the geographic world at the end of World War II). Being the world emperor brings massive benefits to most of the people of the hegemonic empire - all of them with an education who can find a niche in it. The people at the bottom suffer everywhere in the world, empire or colony, but our people at the bottom are fat, live in houses, have electricity, TV's, Internet, cars and health care, so they too benefit tremendously from the empire. The willing participants in the Empire - the allies - also reap substantial benefits by their affiliation with it. Yes, Americans have the potential to get richer and more powerful than Europeans, Japanese, Latin Americans, etc., but the people in the countries in the imperial sphere still get plenty rich, and have the benefit of the imperial peace. When you look at the poverty and violence and degradation and lack of freedom of people OUTSIDE of the Empire, you realize why people want in. The system is imperfect, to be sure. One of the inevitable imperfections is that where there is such a concentration of wealth and power, there will be those who want that same thing for themselves, and who will resist the Empire, fight it. To an extent the Chinese are that, although in truth they recognize that they can neither defeat nor destroy the empire militarily, and that their own rise depends mainly on trading with the Empire and its client states all around, so while the Chinese might prefer to be the imperial hegemon, they will try to achieve that through economic development and BUYING power, not forcibly seizing it. They are too weak to seize it, and always will be. That leaves the religious fanatics - people whose gods tell them what their own inferiority complexes want to hear: the Muslims, mainly. These people pretend to a kingdom not of this world, and hail a God - their Allah - whose supernatural might will break the armies of the Empire to hand the victory over to a bunch of gibbering goatherds and slavekeepers. Unable to develop farther than that given the limitations their inferior religious beliefs place on all human advancement, they look to God himself to break the Empire and hand the world to them. They will be waiting forever for that, and in the interim they get frustrated and kill. Similarly, those whose religion focuses on human economics - the various form of Marxist money-worshippers (who simultaneously decry the private acquisition of capital while they seek to concentrate ALL of the capital in their own hands) - these people can never enjoy the power they want outside of China either. So they pick violently at the edges of the Empire. The Empire, being global, encounters tribes and religions and fanatics everywhere who want to bring it down, and who are willing to use violence, or the threat of violence to do it. The Empire defends itself violently (and generally successfully), but that inevitably means forever war. To give up the empire MEANS to give up our standard of living and to give up our ability to call most of the shots over all the world. To lose the Empire means to lose the Imperial Peace, which is precisely. It is't TRUE peace, because of the endless violence at the margins, but it is MORE peaceful for MOST people than any alternative. And in the real world, that's as good as it gets. So, that's why the Empire always has to fight, all the time. Not big wars, but endless police actions at the fringes: to tamp down the latest fanatics or movements who hate it for existing, who hate it for ruling, and who hate it because it dominates their gods and shows itself to be a god above their god. They attack, and for the good of all of the rest of us, they must die. That means deploying forces and always fighting somewhere. It's expensive, but relative to the economic growth and size of the empire, it's really no more expensive than the police forces that are needed internally everywhere to keep it. In truth, the Imperial Forces ARE the police forces - the world belongs to the Empire, and the people who attack it are criminals. So the Army and Navy and Air Force and Marines are cadres of military police that club down the various criminals around the world who want to tear apart the imperial system. For my part, I do not consent to the dismantlement of the Empire. My standard of living would drop precipitously were America to no longer rule the world, and the prospects for my children and grandchildren would be greatly diminished from where they are now. I am willing to pay taxes, and that a substantial portion of those taxes to be used to maintain the military force necessary to maintain the Empire and crush out all threats. I accept that means forever war somewhere in this big old world, because there are always criminals. And given the benefit of the imperial peace, I view those who break it by attacking imperial forces as being murderers and criminals, not people with a real sovereignty or religious justification. The world Empire is, essentially, right. The people fighting it are evil. I favor spending the money to crush out all organized resistance everywhere more quickly, to bring down the costs. but most people are more passive than I am. So therefore we will have forever war abroad, just as we will always have crime at home - in both cases it is simply criminals trying to take what is not theirs from others. It is the job of the police - be they the NYPD or the US Marine Corps - to crush out all such crimes against law and order. That means we will always have police violence, and we will always have border wars. and while I wish it could be otherwise, it can't be. I don't feel guilt, remorse or regret about it. Ruling the world is hard work, and we do a better job of it than any OTHER Empire ever did, or ever could - or, given nuclear weapons, ever will. Nuclear weapons change the nature of our imperial rule. The world will accept it, or the entire of humanity will burn. We will NEVER surrender the crown and will wipe out humanity instead. So what's the point of fighting, given that. Surrender, submit, join the system, and find your place in it. It is better to be a productive, educated, healthy, taxpaying Imperial citizen like me, than to be a dirty fanatic living in the 11th century worshipping a moon god who is weaker than my God AND my Empire, both. It is better to be an American, or Czech, worker in the Empire than to be a thrall in a Chinese or North Korean sweat shop. To take up arms against the Empire is no different than shooting the cops. The Pax Americana is good. To take up arms against its soldiers is to shoot the police. That's evil. People are always gonna do it. And those people always have to be killed off. Which means forever war is inevitable, on the fringes, where it belongs. We fight gangs in the ghettos precisely because we DON'T want them making life worse in Greenwich or Paris or Prague. It's not hard to see when you look at it this way. Intellectually, you want to fight the Empire, even though it is the source of much that is great and good for you. This is because you are contrarian and wrongheaded. But that's ok. The Empire is pretty free and you can be aas wrongheaded and hand-wringing as you like. Take up the gun against the Empire - present an actual PHYSICAL threat to Imperial rule, anywhere in the world, and you have to be killed. And my tax dollars go to making sure that the police, armed forces and intelligence services are there to do the killing. The inviolability of Imperial Rule is the first principle that holds the whole system together, for my, and your, benefit. To attack the source of your peace and prosperity because of fantasy ideas that have lost on the field of battle is to have the equivalent of an autoimmune disease of the intellect. To put it bluntly: the Empire IS the peace and IS the prosperity, and I am willing to engage in forever war against those who would bring it down. That's why we will have forever war: because people like me are willing to fund war forever in order to maintain the Empire, which we recognize is the source of our prosperity, peace and comfort. Most of the world recognizes this too, which is why most of the world is allied with the Empire and within it. And that's a good thing. There are always outliers. Once it was the USSR and Mao. Today it's North Korea and Iran. We have to just keep fighting them until they wear out and are crushed. The Empire must expand until the whole world is within it. That is what is best for everybody. Statism is peace.
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