Bombs over Baghdad... Again.

President Obama has authorised the bombing of targets in Iraq. This makes the fourth consecutive president to do so, and to what end? The almost continuous bombing in this country has not led to a peaceful situation. It has not led to those Iraqi people respecting the US government, it's military, and by extension the citizens of the country. It has not led to the amicable end that is being touted as the reason for all the strife.

In response to the threat of Islamic State(IS, ISIS, ISIL) members multiple countries are coming together to figure out a way to combat those they consider terrorists and threats to their national security, at least that is what is being told to those paying for the actions.

In a Newsweek article Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary reported a daily cost of 7.5 Million dollars, and the total cost reaching somewhere near $500 Million beginning just on June 16th. All of this again adds to the totals of wartime spending which the CBO reports at costing after inflation and interest in the range of $6 Trillion overall.

All of this, taxation, wasteful spending and creating enemies has an effect that ripples through time and will again come back to haunt future generations.

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles"

Although Eugene Debs was an Anti-Capitalistic Union Socialist, rising to run for President of the US many times, he had a certain truth about War. It is never those that declare war that are required to fight it, Why?

This is a quote from a speech in Canton Ohio speech in 1918.

"Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder. In the Middle Ages when the feudal lords who inhabited the castles whose towers may still be seen along the Rhine concluded to enlarge their domains, to increase their power, their prestige and their wealth they declared war upon one another. But they themselves did not go to war any more than the modern feudal lords, the barons of Wall Street go to war. The feudal barons of the Middle Ages, the economic predecessors of the capitalists of our day, declared all wars. And their miserable serfs fought all the battles. The poor, ignorant serfs had been taught to revere their masters; to believe that when their masters declared war upon one another, it was their patriotic duty to fall upon one another and to cut one another's throats for the profit and glory of the lords and barons who held them in contempt. And that is war in a nutshell.

They have always taught and trained you to believe it to be your patriotic duty to go to war and to have yourselves slaughtered at their command. But in all the history of the world you, the people, have never had a voice in declaring war, and strange as it certainly appears, no war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people.

And here let me emphasize the fact — and it cannot be repeated too often — that the working class who fight all the battles, the working class who make the supreme sacrifices, the working class who freely shed their blood and furnish the corpses, have never yet had a voice in either declaring war or making peace. It is the ruling class that invariably does both. They alone declare war and they alone make peace.

"Yours not to reason why;

Yours but to do and die."

That is their motto and we object on the part of the awakening workers of this nation.
If war is right let it be declared by the people. You who have your lives to lose, you certainly above all others have the right to decide the momentous issue of war or peace."


http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eugene_V._Debs.

Ultimately this speech would lead to the imprisonment of Debs for his active opposition of the United States Government's use of conscription to fill ranks and boots during its intervention into World War 1.


"On Sept. 14, 1918, Judge D. C. Westenhauer issued his sentence, sending Debs to prison for ten years. An appeal by Debs to the U.S. Supreme Court failed and in April 1919 he entered the Moundsville, West Virginia, state prison (which housed some federal detainees) to begin serving his jail term. Two months later, he was transferred to the Atlanta federal prison from which he ran his fifth and final presidential campaign. In the 1920 election, Debs captured his highest vote total ever (913,664), but the Socialist party's total vote percentage dropped to three percent.

On Christmas Day in 1921, the man who defeated Debs for president, Warren G. Harding, commuted his sentence to time served and Debs returned home to Terre Haute. Debs continued to speak and write for the socialist cause during the next few years, but was in poor health due to his prison experience and the effects of his grueling work schedule throughout his adult life. He died in Lindlahr sanitarium just outside of Chicago on Oct. 20, 1926." via The Anarchist Encyclopedia.

*NOTE*

I do believe it is in the best interest of people to be aware of those that fought against the issues we are still seeing today. I do not, in any way, agree with Mr. Debs on his notion or belief that Socialism is a better social and/or economic system than Capitalism,but I do acknowledge his work in the Non-Intervention, Anti-Conscription, and Human Rights Causes. We may not agree on everything 100% of the time but we should recognize those that put effort into beliefs that we do hold in common.

Why are Americans Joining Islamic Groups?

I was asked today by a coworker if an attack could be made by the group ISIS on American soil.
Of course it theoretically can happen. As traction is gaining with ISIS and it seems a "No War" situation is growing ever smaller, American Citizens are joining the ranks of this group. The Department of Justice has apprehended a few hopeful "wannabes" as they either tried to leave or have returned from places like Syria and Iraq. Recently one was even killed fighting with an ISIS linked group. We have seen in recent weeks tweets and news stories of people claiming to be ISIS members showing a flag and note at the gates of the White House and another leading police on a car chase with a ISIS flag displayed out their car window. These could be legitimate members of this group or another, and it could just be people claiming to be but not actual members of  these groups wishing to cause a stir and strike fear in the minds of the citizens.

This leads us to the title point "why would these people join the ranks of a group notably violent towards religions and peoples of certain geographical locations? Why would they give their lives for a cause of violence in the name of some distorted religious view?

It may be those that have found their own view of Islam in whatever fashion they accept it or it could be in some odd way a chance to gain notoriety in themselves. I do not presume to know what drives people to the choices they make. But it is an interesting question to be sure.

In talking with this co-worker he had also asked if any event took place do I think it would be a large scale attack or small. I have to say that for myself I do not really worry too much of the scale of what may or may not happen. It may be small on the scale of a suitcase explosive or it could be on par with a 9/11/01 attack, I think it is a non issue at the size or scale of whatever happens. I don't think it would take much at this point to excite Americans into a religious genocide against every self-described follower of Islam. With the amount of fear conditioning and propaganda being broadcast it wouldn't take much to start a war on all of Islam, in my opinion, although I surely hope I am wrong.

Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations

"...In spring 2008, inspired by the Vietnam-era Winter Soldier hearings, Iraq Veterans Against the War gathered outside Washington, DC and testified to atrocities they witnessed while deployed in the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. This video captures the powerful words and images of this historic event.

Well-publicized cases of American brutality like the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the massacre of an entire Iraqi family in the city of Haditha are not isolated incidents. Instead, they are the logical consequences of U.S. war policy.

Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan preserves and honors the participants' courageous contributions in or to ensure that people arounf the world remember their stories and struggle. The 1 hour edited video features 13 veterans from three days of testimony given by over 70 men and women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The footage addresses such issues as the U.S. military's callous disregard for civilian life, the torture of detainees, the culture of racism that's inherent in a military occupation, gender discriminations, and the health crisis facing today's veterans..."

See also http://www.ivawarchive.org/wintersoldier

Adam Kokesh and other Veterans give their accounts of their time in the United States military in the Occupations and Invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. These accounts bringing these Vets to their ultimate decision of dissent from the practices of the US military in the expansion of the Empire and the ever long war in those countries. 

Lest We Never Learn A Lesson

Memorial day is here again. A day set aside by the government to acknowledge all the troops who have died in service to the government, to remember their sacrifice to uphold the want of the expanding empire and to ensure domestic tyranny is broadcast internationally. A day to recognize those that protected opium fields in Afghanistan, oil fields in Iraq and Kuwait, who intervened in matters not involving them. A day to yell "support our Troops, just don't allow them to come home!" This is a day that people get their panties wet for the stars and stripes and all of the men and women, sometimes children that have been killed in duty to the Government of the United States. That sounds a bit harsh doesn't it? Think about it though, is it true? Do these service members serve you, or do they serve the government? When was the last time your orders to the "Nation's Service Members" was answered? 

Smedley Butler, one of the most decorated US Marines penned this essay "War is a Racket".

"WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the 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 very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.

How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?"

Continued here.

Butler saw this after his years in service and this was written as a warning leading up to World War 2. He saw that through war peace is not ventured towards but thrust aside like a broken toy by a child. Butler wrote his feelings of despair for this nation and all others so conceived to annihilate others for the interest of the governments in control. "So...I say, TO HELL WITH WAR! 

Lest We Forget

There are a lot of reasons people adore this day. Maybe a family member or friend died in the struggles of war, maybe a person lost friends, brothers, or even their own sanity, fighting for a lie, deceit and ultimately what was never to be had.  I have always questioned the motives of soldiers. you would ultimately have to agree with the ways in which the system works to be a part of it, in any capacity.  Why have you resigned your self to die or to kill based on any amount of information? Why have you sign away not only your life but every right to your own body? Why have you allowed a few people who call themselves your government dictate what you will do, who is your enemy, who is allowed to live and who must die? Why have you let your mind be deceived to belief the great lie that stifles peace and breeds more war?

What if we did forget? What if we have forgotten how to be humans by being brutal savages to others? What if we have forgotten the value of life? What if we have forgotten how to be civilized and how to resolve differences without force, without killing one another.

I say we have forgotten. And damned if anyone is willing to stop and think, maybe the way to peace isn't in dropping bombs, it isn't in destroying villages halfway around the world but by working towards peaceful ends to mutual problems. I am called idealistic, Utopian, a dreamer to think that people in other lands would be interested in peace with us. Well no, I don't suppose after generation after generation has grown to be controlled by this country, threatened and harmed by this country they would very much like to resolve to peace, it is the bed our government and their strong-armed subservient drones have made for the rest of us to lie in along side them.

 Lest we Forget

This day is set aside to remember those who have died in duty to their government. But what do we do to remember those that have died because of our government soldiers. What of the Vietnamese villagers killed at the hands of our troops? What of the Syrians, the Kuwaitis, the Iraqis, Koreans, what of all those killed by policies set by our government and enforced by their troops? Have you ever set to think about those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for those that claim to pay a sacrifice? It is the subjective value of life that is a real hurdle for some to get over? The ability for some to value the life of one person over that of another and to justify their death in relation to some unknown and unseen meter of safety in on country over another. In all instances life is lost, it is the real test of a personal philosophy to drop this hypocritical value of life.

Lest We Never Learn A Lesson

What will this nation and all other nations be if they never learn form the horrors of war?  What is to become of children brought up in a perpetual state of hate for foreigners? What is to be said of the eternal conflict between lands, waging battle after battle until but a few peoples remain to be enslaved by the larger of surviving regimes? What if we never learn our lesson?

Remembering and Honoring are two different things.

I can remember my grandfather and his stories of the Korean War he served in. I can remember his talks with me about his sacrifice and his realization of what it was worth. I can remember him telling me about the blood transfusion after being shot and the lifetime struggle with the disease it left him. I can remember him telling me to not honor his service but to remember that sometimes it isn't worth losing yourself to gain a few dollars. I can remember the day we put him in the ground. No flag draped casket, no military band, No folded flag, no mention of military honors, not because he had none but because that wasn't who he was, it was just what he did and what he had to live with and regret.

If you want to remember the troops, bring them home. Shut down the military industrial complex, shut down the 300 bases in 190 countries, stop fueling future conflicts with hate for prior ones, stop sending men to kill and die for a corrupt government and stop trying to impose a tyrannical empire over the world for the blood lust of those who claim superiority and control.