Memorial Day 2012: 11 years of fighting and dying, no matter which party is in power

At the link is an eye-opening, heart-breaking assessment of how we got here, of the lives lost on the battlefield and forgotten at home, of how much treasure we have squandered, of how little it matters what party has power and how peace-makers are marginalized.

All for money generated by war - a war built on lies and boogeymen. A war that seems to be turning it's focus homeward.

Why?

Because we have used up most of our scapegoats around the globe and most of our fortune as well and yet the machine must keep running...

www.theburningplatform.com...

“We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security.” - Dwight D. Eisenhower

“How far can you go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without?” - Dwight D. Eisenhower

As Americans mindlessly celebrate another Memorial Day with cookouts, beer and burgers, the U.S. war machine keeps churning. As we brutally enforce our will on foreign countries, we create more people that hate us. They don’t hate us for our freedom. They hate us because we have invaded and occupied their countries. They hate us because we kill innocent people with predator drones. They hate us for our hypocrisy regarding democracy and freedom. Just when we had the opportunity to make a sensible decision by leaving Iraq and exiting the Middle East quagmire, Obama made the abysmal choice to casually sacrifice more troops in the Afghan #hole. We have thrown over $1.3 trillion down Middle East rat holes over the last 11 years with no discernible benefit to the citizens of the United States. George Bush and Barack Obama did this to prove they were true statesmen. The Soviet Union killed over 1 million Afghans, while driving another 5 million out of the country and retreated as a bankrupted and defeated shell after ten years. Young Americans continue to die, for whom and for what? Our foreign policy during the last eleven years can be summed up in one military term, SNAFU – [self-snipped]. These endless foreign interventions under the guise of a War on Terror are a smoke screen for what is really going on in this country. When a government has unsolvable domestic problems, they try to distract the willfully ignorant masses by proactively creating foreign conflicts based upon false pretenses.

General Douglas MacArthur understood this danger to our liberty: “I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within.”

Any doubt that the Military Industrial Complex is as strong as ever should be removed after examining Obama’s 2012 Budget which has $900 billion dedicated to our military machine. We spent $370 billion in 2001, $620 billion in 2006, and now this liberal anti-war Democrat from Illinois is spending 45% more than that war monger Bush who was burned in effigy by the anti-war Democrats during Iraq War protests. It seems both parties are war pigs.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Much more at the link.

It's a compelling read to be sure but beware of the spin for Ron Paul at the end. Nothing against him mind you, I just don't think any one person, let alone an aging, slightly kooky, political outsider is going to be able to stop the trend of over a half century of war profiteering. I think it will take a new generation, a paradigm shift in global outlook to do that.

I think people, particularly young people, are becoming educated and clued into the farce of it all, not the least of which are our citizen soldiers. They have been used and their families decimated by endless tours of duty, poor follow-up health and psychiatric care, and economic hardship.

People just aren't buying the lies anymore. Because, really, all we have to show for our efforts is debt, social decay, economic decline, joblessness, political chaos, thousands of injured and dead and a world that has grown weary and wary of us.

So, on this Memorial Day 2012 - after over a decade of war - the best way to honor our fallen and injured war heroes (besides taking care of them and their families) is to wake up to the reality of its cost to our nation as well as the rest of the world and the nefarious, greedy motives behind it so that we might decide to put down our arms for good.

Peace

In before the rationalisers, the governmental apologists, and the vile, craven, honourless quislings, that always flock to threads like this, and insist that the government is fully justified in "protecting," people from, "the terrorists."

Never mind the fact that, "the terrorists," are wholly the creation of Western governments, and primarily the American one.

I just want to say its an honor to be able to sacrifice so much as a nation for Israel. US Memorial Day reminds me of the ultimate sacrifice made by our brave sons and daughters to make the world safe for Israel. It's a long battle, much remains to be done. Many more dead American men and women, countless billions more spent. But at least that blue-and-white flag flutters over Israel. As an American, to care about anything else would be racist and wrong. I'm proud to be a citizen of the mightiest nation in history, and to give everthing we've got to the goal of securing Israel and its chosen people, whose lives are more special than the lives of dead Americans.

I just wonder why we are still over there in Afghanistan? There is NO threat of any invasion and no matter how long we stay over there, terrorism will never go away. As long as we have religious extremists there will be terrorism. Being in the middle east is pointless. We should instead focus on keeping America safe from within.

No enemy force is stupid enough to launch any kind of invasion against the mainland US.

reply to post by muse7


Gotta keep Israel safe. That's job number one for the US government. Then there is all that phat contracting money to snarf up. Every time a helicopter crashes or a single round of ammo is fired, some necessary contractor get a product. Gotta keep the juice flowin' for the military-industrial complex. If we brought all those troops home, how would Bell Helicopter earn its keep?

Originally posted by FailedProphet
reply to post by muse7

 

Gotta keep Israel safe.

Personally, I'm sick of the relentless psychopathy of the Israeli government, and AIPAC.

Remember, respect the fallen.


You folks can hate tomorrow.

beez

reply to post by beezzer


Who's hating here?

Originally posted by muse7
reply to post by beezzer

 

Who's hating here?

Your answer.

Originally posted by petrus4
In before the rationalisers, the governmental apologists, and the vile, craven, honourless quislings, that always flock to threads like this, and insist that the government is fully justified in "protecting," people from, "the terrorists."

Never mind the fact that, "the terrorists," are wholly the creation of Western governments, and primarily the American one.

11 years of nothing but the same, over and over. If Obama is elected again, we already know how things will be. If Romney gets in, well, i'm hoping most people can see that there isn't much of a difference there. The only one talking about making real changes in the direction our country is going in is Ron Paul. Whether you like him or not, it doesn't make my statement any less true.

reply to post by beezzer


No hate there, just the cold hard truth.

reply to post by beezzer


I don't see any "hate" here. Memorial day is a good time to reflect on the fallen from various angles.

We owe it to the dead to examine the possibility that they died for lies or at the very least for unsatisfactory ends.

Calling somebody a "hater" for not toeing the government line is pretty weak.

Originally posted by FailedProphet
reply to post by beezzer

 

I don't see any "hate" here. Memorial day is a good time to reflect on the fallen from various angles.

We owe it to the dead to examine the possibility that they died for lies or at the very least for unsatisfactory ends.

Calling somebody a "hater" for not toeing the government line is pretty weak.

I could give a tinkers damn about the government.

My thoughts are for the fallen. Regardless of the reason, brave and noble men and women sacrificed themselves

Not because someone in DC said to do it.

But because they thought it was the right thing to do.

reply to post by beezzer


Fair enough. Soldering is an honorable profession and the fallen deserve respect.

Of course they deserve a day of reflection.

But don't be using that for an opportunity to paint those you disagree with as "haters." They simply hold a different view from you, and one that may or may not be more accurate. But its not and never has been about hate, and you should know better.

Originally posted by FailedProphet


But don't be using that for an opportunity to paint those you disagree with as "haters." They simply hold a different view from you, and one that may or may not be more accurate. But its not and never has been about hate, and you should know better.

In return, please don't use the dead as a platform to excise hate on a political ideology. There is reason and cause enough to vent one's spleen without bringing in the noble dead into it.

Originally posted by beezzer
I could give a tinkers damn about the government.

My thoughts are for the fallen. Regardless of the reason, brave and noble men and women sacrificed themselves

Not because someone in DC said to do it.

But because they thought it was the right thing to do.

The only problem with that attitude, is that the government hides behind it, and uses it as a means of convincing people to participate in additional wars.

Personally, I don't know of any more effective way to support the troops, than by making sure the government only sends them to get themselves potentially traumatised, maimed, or killed, when there is a genuine and exceptionally strong reason for it.

Apparently it's being a hater if, rather than valuing soldiers' deaths, I actually have more interest in keeping them alive. I'm still trying to figure out the logic behind that idea.

reply to post by petrus4


Soldiers, warriors are not idiots. They are not stupid. They are not blind sheep obeying a central command authority.

Whether you agree or not with what they are doing or why they are doing it, is moot.

THEY agree with what they are doing, why they are doing it.

For those soldiers who don't agree, they get out. Which is fine. Their choice, their perrogative.

Originally posted by beezzer

I could give a tinkers damn about the government.

My thoughts are for the fallen. Regardless of the reason, brave and noble men and women sacrificed themselves

Not because someone in DC said to do it.

But because they thought it was the right thing to do.

"But because they thought it was the right thing to do."

This single statement should be sending up red flags as to the condition and integrity of the public media. Because of a lack of honest, accurate information, these men and women are giving their lives as an offering to the gods of corporatism. These wars have nothing to do with defense, freedom or protecting our way of life. These wars have everything to do with profits, fraud, drug trafficking and theft of foreign natural resources.

Our youth are missing the facts and being hammered with propaganda.

reply to post by beezzer


There is no hate in the original post. It is not wrong to stand up and say the Emperor has no clothes, that it is all folly and fake.

It does more honor to our fellow citizen soldiers for us all to stand up and say they are indeed sacrificing and dying in vain.

Originally posted by beezzer
My thoughts are for the fallen. Regardless of the reason, brave and noble men and women sacrificed themselves

Not because someone in DC said to do it.

But because they thought it was the right thing to do.

It's a failure in civic duty to not question a call to war. It should be the absolute last resort in defense of our nation, not in pursuit of nation building. And certainly not in pursuit of corporate profits.