America Wages 'Tiny Wars' to Protect US!

Hooray for the U.S.!! Our government, led by whomever happens to REALLY be pulling their strings, is actually 'looking out for it's citizens' and our economy, but I don't think it's how it appears.

As most of you know, the United States of America has been involved in quite a few 'tiny wars' as I'm going to call them. We all know that death is death, rape is rape and horrific acts of depravity and violence are just that, no matter what we want to call them. I believe the U.S. is the modern, undisputed LEADER when it comes to WAGING war, without DECLARING it.

You don't have to dig very far here on ATS to read about the connection between economic success and active wartime production and spending. Here is just ONE such thread from back in March of this year. (Thanks mrpotatohead) There are many more and the issue has been discussed a bit.

World War as a solution to economic depression

In case you wonder about the connection, here a couple articles to support this observation.

Farming in the 1940's - Postwar Economic Boom

After the first world war ended in 1919, everyone expected the economy to take off. It did.

The Post War Economy: 1945-1960

Many Americans feared that the end of World War II and the subsequent drop in military spending might bring back the hard times of the Great Depression. But instead, pent-up consumer demand fueled exceptionally strong economic growth in the postwar period.

The correlation is real and easy enough to find information about. Now for the difficulty.

World Wars are very bad for PR these days. Wide-scale killing, stuff getting blown up all over, cities firebombed, nuclear weapons...yup, 'World War' is not such a popular thing to rally around anymore.

Enter the era of the 'Tiny War.' There are probably far more accurate terms to describe these actions, but they have gone on for decades. I know that when you are getting 'shot at' it doesn't FEEL like a 'tiny war' and this is in no way to be construed as an insult to or disregard for the troops of the U.S. Here are but a few examples of these not-so-'warry' wars.

Korean War (called this one a 'police action' for the longest time)
Vietnam
Thailand
Laos
Dominican Republic
Cambodia
Grenada
Persian Gulf
Panama
Bosnia
Somalia
Kuwait
Afghanistan
Iraq
Pakistan

This small sampling is representative of just SOME of the dozens of theaters the United States has been involved in since WWII. Of course, even an 'extensive' list, will only display the actions that have been cleared for our digestion.

In one way or another, it would appear that the United States has been involved in 'War-like' actions EVERY YEAR since WWII.

I feel the reason they have been doing this is to prop up our economy. While missile designers, shipbuilders, tank creators and miscellaneous weapons manufacturers employ American folks and continue to supply jobs, the ones that really make the money, continue to get rich off the blood of American soldiers, without the negative press from a 'World War.'

The military-industrial complex keeps spinning, keeps raking in the dough, and the 'tiny wars' allow America to continue to operate in a 'wartime' production frenzy, without the sharp rollercoaster ride presented by global war, and without the PR nightmare. When it's just a 'small' action, you know, a hundred thousand troops, or less, and as long as we're 'fighting the war on terror' or whatever pud excuse they can lay on us, it's ok.

Even though our economy has been 'pretend' for many years, Americans have until just recently, enjoyed the illusion of success. Lots of new stuff, fancy cars, big homes and fresh veggies. Our benevolent leaders have insured this level of success for us by perpetrating and playing in dozens of 'tiny wars.'

It's a little sickening to me that our economy has to be based on killing. If I'm way off base here, I'm eager to hear where. I suppose I enjoy a good life as much as the next guy. I just wish it wasn't all a big lie. America makes BOMBS. That's what we do. When we make bombs for a living, it becomes really important for us to make sure there is a market for them.... somewhere.

Hit the nail on the head. Read Smedley Butlers book War Is A Racket and see how the more things change, the more they stay the same.

reply to post by KSPigpen


Hi, star, and flag 'cuzz I can.... Goin' to swim,

will be back in a few to participate in another good thread

Here is exactly what America is according to Academia and modern political science :

Fundamentally it is a corporateocracy with an elected dictator (other countries merely see their President as a figurehead and do not assign the position powers).

The role of the US government is to act as an intermediary between business and the military - assessing what is needed, what opportunities there are, future strategy and where is a collaborative effort based on economic needs and opportunity and resource needs.

The US engage in institutional and economic warfare, things such as the World Bank are institutions set up and owned by the US, they provide loans to emerging markets where opportunities and resources are available. These loans have always been backed by collateral in the form of the natural resources of the country, not so much in commodities but utilities.

The loans are then used by the developing nations as build infrastructure and modernise with dam building, roads, bridges, electricity, sewerage, etc. The proviso of the initial loan to construct these modernisation projects is that the recipient nation must engage US firms to do the building. So the loan is made, but the money is ALWAYS goes DIRECTLY to the US. The recipient nation NEVER receives the money.

As always however the loans are leaned in favour of the banks, and when a nation defaults the ownership of the assets is put up for sale, and the initial collateral (national utilities) are as part of their contract forced into privatisation as a drive to make the nation more efficient to avoid further economic disaster, and a second loan is provided in order to meet repayments sending the emerging nation into what we now ALL should be familiar with as the third world debt problem.

The utilities of these nations, their water, electricity etc are subsequently OWNED by the US, so a third world country has received a loan, which it paid directly to the US for a piece of infrastructure, the loans were designed in such a way that any default would revert ownership of the utility back to the US leaving the nation without any assets, control over their utilities and natural resources and with huge debts which would last generations. The Brazilian rain forest is in large part now owned by the world bank and is a MAJOR reason why it is being developed at such an alarming rate.

Countries such as Bolivia lost their water utilities, the corporation which owned it forced the government to ban people from collecting rain water as it was part of their contractual rights. The people revolted, the government was thrown out and the utility simply fled.

Now all of this is only ever achieved with a willing government, one which is willing to sign over their nations minerals, resources and interests for personal benefit and profit. This is pretty much how most of the third world has been run for the past 50 years - and should explain to you why so many third world nations have despots in control, they are paid off by the US.

These despots then generally remain in power through American collusion with weapons, its a win win for both - the despot stays in power and continues to sign contracts with the us supplying resources at rock bottom rates and selling out their nation for generations to come with inhumane loans and conditions.

However occasionally a country will have a revolution or will be unwilling to engage in appeasement of US interests. This is when and where the military of the United States is called in and is the prime reason for its existence -- Empire.

I can point people to dozens upon dozens of books on this, it is what Iraq was all about, it is what Kuwait was all about, Iran, Venezuela, Columbia, Nicaragua and every other conflict. (Including Rawanda which was a US led massacre, Darfur - Sudan and the revolting conduct in the Congo which has been going on as ANY student of history would know since King Leopold all of which is currently done in the effort to secure the mineral Coltan which is used in X-Boxes, mobile phones, digital cameras).

The recent activity in the Banking crisis of the world has been a systematic taxation on us all by American interests - this is clearly aimed at generating a large cash stockpile in order to engage in the next round of warfare which will of course be with China which is presenting a clear and absolute danger to the US in its TWO PRIMARY areas of interestBest - resource security and market dominance.

Best book to read on this is probably also the best book ever written - "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man " Perkins.

Cheers,