Alan: Years ago, retired Air Force general friend, AWC, confided: "It seems we haven't fought a good war since World War II."
Consider the following "conflicts" and note whether your "gut reaction" is one of "success."
Vietnam
Iraq
Libya
Afghanistan
Iran
Nicaragua
El Salvador
Korea
Lebanon
Cuba
Laos and Cambodia
Syria
Almost exclusively Uncle Sam's military operations are excercises in presidential ego-bluster.
To be "a real president" it is first obligatory to rattle sabers and then to stab people with them.
Nor is it an impediment that the uneducated-but-"idealistic" masses see themselves as Agents of God on whom the survival of justice depends.
Furthermore, a macabre sort of syergistic diabolism draws the masses to the demonization of (dark-skinned) "others," a ubiquitous way-station en route to a crowd-pleasing display of shock-and-awe "fireworks."
Nor is it an impediment that the uneducated-but-"idealistic" masses see themselves as Agents of God on whom the survival of justice depends.
Furthermore, a macabre sort of syergistic diabolism draws the masses to the demonization of (dark-skinned) "others," a ubiquitous way-station en route to a crowd-pleasing display of shock-and-awe "fireworks."
When it comes to Uncle Sam's perpetual belligerence, we are simians in love with monkey business.
Syria Renews Air Strikes On Town Where Chemical Attack Took Place
Email Exchange With Friend JF Over Trump's Attack On Syria... And What It Means
The Al-Assad Family And Its Relationship With Sunnis, Shiites, Russians and Jews
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-al-assad-family-and-its.html
Frog Hospital Discussion: More Than 90% Of Trump Supporters Cheered The War He Opposed
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/12/more-than-90-of-trump-supporters.html
Clearcut counterproductivity (and even self-destructiveness) have nothing to do with The Belligerence Equation.
The drive to kill people overseas starts as a prurient urge within the over-arching context of political pornography, and once the frisson achieves a certain low-level momentum (always achievable through drum-beating propaganda), culmination of the murderous impulse becomes as irrepressible as lovers thrusting toward climax.
The drive to kill people overseas starts as a prurient urge within the over-arching context of political pornography, and once the frisson achieves a certain low-level momentum (always achievable through drum-beating propaganda), culmination of the murderous impulse becomes as irrepressible as lovers thrusting toward climax.
Every president "needs" his "own little war" to occupy his place in The Lineage Of Collusion with The Military-Industrial Complex.
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_military_operations
"We Like War"
Video
"Do War's Really Defend America's Freedom
(Homage To Marine Commandant, Major General Smedley Butler)
"We Like War"
Video
"Do War's Really Defend America's Freedom
(Homage To Marine Commandant, Major General Smedley Butler)
"Why We Fight," Excellent Documentary With Ike's "Military-Industrial Complex" As Springboard
Scare The Sheep
And They Will Applaud Military-Industrial Profiteering
"Why We Fight," Excellent Documentary With Ike's "Military-Industrial Complex" As Springboard
Scare The Sheep
And They Will Applaud Military-Industrial Profiteering
Republican Lawmaker From Nevada Sends Christmas Card Featuring Fully Armed Family
The Age-Old Normalization Of Warfare Through Stupidity, Ego And Religion
The Mistaken Concept That Reducing Cultures To Rubble Results In Peace
Punishment Rarely Reforms But Instead Tends To Reinforce Wrongdoing
"Whom The Gods Would Destroy, They First Make Mad"
America the Liberator
Now is the time to recall what happens when America comes to the aid of other nations with military action.
Now is the time to recall what happens when America comes to the aid of other nations with military action.
by Gideon Levy
US President Donald Trump speaks at a press conference at the White
House on April 5, 2017. Nicholas Kamm/AFPA star is born: U.S. President Donald Trump. One missile strike and the man the whole world feared became its great hope overnight. Yesterday's Satan is tomorrow's God. From German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Israel's own Judy Shalom Nir-Mozes, and of course, Yair Lapid, they're all cheering him. Savior of children, humanist, man of conscience, modern-day Janusz Korczak, who, shocked and saddened by the dead Syrian children, bombarded their killers.
If his Tomahawks saved even one Syrian child, dayenu, it would be enough. That's already more than his predecessor did. But we must spoil the party, it's premature and over the top. The Nobel Peace Prize can wait.
Now is the time to recall what happens when America comes to the aid of other nations with military action: It always ends badly, usually in a Holocaust. The last time the United States saved the world through war was in 1945. That was the last just war. Since then, the United States, the greatest perpetrator of massacres since World War II, has caused the deaths of millions in wars meant to rescue and liberate them.
When America liberates, it sows death and destruction and causes endless sorrow. Ask the Iraqis. What wouldn't they give for America not to have come to their aid and free them from their tyrant. Their country would have been a safer and much less bloody place had the leader of the free world not decided to liberate it in a war that was dubbed, naturally, "Operation Iraqi Freedom." Ever since, Iraq has known very little freedom and much more bloodshed. The U.S. occupation of Iraq was also the catalyst for the Arab world's implosion. The poison gas of Syrian President Bashar Assad is an indirect by-product. The people of Libya will never forget their rescuer. The U.S. intervention in their civil war led to the removal of their dictator but also to the destruction of their state, which persists to this very day.
America's wars of liberation resemble, if not in their death tolls, those of Israel, its ally. In 1967, Israel liberated the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and ever since the inhabitants of these territories have been dumbstruck with appreciation for and gratitude to the liberator of Jerusalem and Palestine. They have never known such freedom. Before that, Israel liberated Jaffa and Haifa, Ramle and Lod, in a war that, naturally, became known as the War of Liberation. The United States liberated South Korea — two and a half million dead — and South Vietnam — four million dead. Together, six and a half million people killed in vain. And behind each such war against communism stood lofty causes and mass bloodshed.
So it might be better were America not to come to the aid of Syria's children, especially if the finger on the trigger is Trump's. On the other hand, they must be rescued, whatever it takes, and the United States is the only one that can do the job. After years of vicious warfare in Syria, there is no magic cure. Some analysts suspect, in light of the results, that Trump's Tomahawk missiles were coordinated in advance with Russia and, through Russia, with Syria, and that the strikes were in fact meant only to serve the president's domestic political goals.
But this could be a blessing in disguise. If the president sees the world cheering him for the first time in his first 100 days in office, perhaps he will persist. Perhaps this acclaim will lead to a new era, an era of action after his predecessor's beautiful, high-flown rhetoric.
Trump must turn first to Jerusalem, whose institutions do not need to be bombarded in order to exert pressure on the government. The president can achieve in Jerusalem what no missile could achieve in Syria. A reminder: The only time the United States was a partner to genuine success in uprooting an evil regime was in the face of apartheid South Africa. America did not fire a single missile. A diplomatic Tomahawk on Jerusalem would bring Trump more gratitude than did the 59 missiles of his nighttime strike on Khan Sheikhoun. Perhaps it would also save even more children.
US President Donald Trump speaks at a press conference at the White
House on April 5, 2017. Nicholas Kamm/AFPA star is born: U.S. President Donald Trump. One missile strike and the man the whole world feared became its great hope overnight. Yesterday's Satan is tomorrow's God. From German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Israel's own Judy Shalom Nir-Mozes, and of course, Yair Lapid, they're all cheering him. Savior of children, humanist, man of conscience, modern-day Janusz Korczak, who, shocked and saddened by the dead Syrian children, bombarded their killers.
If his Tomahawks saved even one Syrian child, dayenu, it would be enough. That's already more than his predecessor did. But we must spoil the party, it's premature and over the top. The Nobel Peace Prize can wait.
Now is the time to recall what happens when America comes to the aid of other nations with military action: It always ends badly, usually in a Holocaust. The last time the United States saved the world through war was in 1945. That was the last just war. Since then, the United States, the greatest perpetrator of massacres since World War II, has caused the deaths of millions in wars meant to rescue and liberate them.
When America liberates, it sows death and destruction and causes endless sorrow. Ask the Iraqis. What wouldn't they give for America not to have come to their aid and free them from their tyrant. Their country would have been a safer and much less bloody place had the leader of the free world not decided to liberate it in a war that was dubbed, naturally, "Operation Iraqi Freedom." Ever since, Iraq has known very little freedom and much more bloodshed. The U.S. occupation of Iraq was also the catalyst for the Arab world's implosion. The poison gas of Syrian President Bashar Assad is an indirect by-product. The people of Libya will never forget their rescuer. The U.S. intervention in their civil war led to the removal of their dictator but also to the destruction of their state, which persists to this very day.
America's wars of liberation resemble, if not in their death tolls, those of Israel, its ally. In 1967, Israel liberated the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and ever since the inhabitants of these territories have been dumbstruck with appreciation for and gratitude to the liberator of Jerusalem and Palestine. They have never known such freedom. Before that, Israel liberated Jaffa and Haifa, Ramle and Lod, in a war that, naturally, became known as the War of Liberation. The United States liberated South Korea — two and a half million dead — and South Vietnam — four million dead. Together, six and a half million people killed in vain. And behind each such war against communism stood lofty causes and mass bloodshed.
So it might be better were America not to come to the aid of Syria's children, especially if the finger on the trigger is Trump's. On the other hand, they must be rescued, whatever it takes, and the United States is the only one that can do the job. After years of vicious warfare in Syria, there is no magic cure. Some analysts suspect, in light of the results, that Trump's Tomahawk missiles were coordinated in advance with Russia and, through Russia, with Syria, and that the strikes were in fact meant only to serve the president's domestic political goals.
But this could be a blessing in disguise. If the president sees the world cheering him for the first time in his first 100 days in office, perhaps he will persist. Perhaps this acclaim will lead to a new era, an era of action after his predecessor's beautiful, high-flown rhetoric.
Trump must turn first to Jerusalem, whose institutions do not need to be bombarded in order to exert pressure on the government. The president can achieve in Jerusalem what no missile could achieve in Syria. A reminder: The only time the United States was a partner to genuine success in uprooting an evil regime was in the face of apartheid South Africa. America did not fire a single missile. A diplomatic Tomahawk on Jerusalem would bring Trump more gratitude than did the 59 missiles of his nighttime strike on Khan Sheikhoun. Perhaps it would also save even more children.
[Gideon Levy is a Haaretz columnist and a member of the newspaper's editorial board. Levy joined Haaretz in 1982, and spent four years as the newspaper's deputy editor. He is the author of the weekly Twilight Zone feature, which covers the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza over the last 25 years, as well as the writer of political editorials for the newspaper. Levy was the recipient of the Euro-Med Journalist Prize for 2008; the Leipzig Freedom Prize in 2001; the Israeli Journalists' Union Prize in 1997; and The Association of Human Rights in Israel Award for 1996. His new book, The Punishment of Gaza, has just been published by Verso Publishing House in London and New York.]
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