Category Archives: War

The Least Generation.

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If the heroes of WWII were the Greatest Generation, how would you describe those who have followed in their footsteps? I’d have to say the reviews are mixed.

Take my generation of so-called Baby Boomers.  We started out by fighting for Civil Rights. When confronted with a lame and unjustified war in Vietnam, many of our generation fought despite reservations while the rest of us fought to end wars against those who never attacked our shores. A few years later, we fought to win equal rights for women. And many of us took up other noble causes such as fighting for a cleaner, safer environment.

All of that was admirable. But what have we done lately? Moreover, what has the post-boomer generation (those who are now in their 40s and 50s) done? Let’s just say they may be remembered as the Least Generation.

While the Greatest Generation believed in shared sacrifice in order to obtain lofty goals, such as overcoming the Great Depression and overthrowing despotic dictators such as Adolph Hitler, the Least Generation voted to give themselves tax cuts. While the Greatest Generation built our nation’s infrastructure with hard work and tax dollars, the Least Generation has stood idly by and watched that infrastructure crumble.

While the Greatest Generation toiled and sweat to earn a better future for their children, the Least Generation has mostly reserved its sweat for the athletic club. While the Greatest Generation fought for labor unions and workers’ rights, the Least Generation has fought to destroy them.

While the Greatest Generation scrimped and sacrificed to maintain the war effort, the Least Generation has mostly patted soldiers on the back with a very public “thank you for your service” and privately told themselves “thank God that’s not my son or daughter.”

In recent years, politicians from the Least Generation such as Michelle Bachmann and Eric Cantor have shown they’d rather play partisan politics than do what’s best for our country. They have voted to end welfare. They have cut Medicaid, public education, Early Family Childhood Education and social services while cutting taxes for millionaires and billionaires. They have fought to maintain subsidies and tax loopholes for the world’s largest and most profitable corporations while refusing to extend benefits for the unemployed.

They have voted to cut Social Security rather than raise the cap on FICA contributions for those making more than $106,800. They’ve voted to end Medicare rather than root out the causes of inflated medical costs or negotiate the cost of pharmaceuticals with manufacturers. And they were willing to risk government default rather than risk alienating their wealthy contributors by raising taxes.

Let’s hope the next generation does better. But I’m not optimistic.

A Decade of Fear and Paranoia.

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As the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 approached, the television networks were filled with programs about the event. The best was MSNBC’s special Day of Destruction: Decade of War, Part I with Rachel Maddow and Peter Engel. It presented stories and facts that were both enlightening and frightening.

For example, since 9/11 we have:

– Created Homeland Security, the third largest bureacracy in Washington, DC.
– Created the Transportation Security Administration, an $8.1 billion agency with more than 45,000 employees.
– Created enough office space for security, intelligence and counter-terrorism personnel to fill 22 US Capitols.
– Expanded military bases all over central Asia.
– Doubled our defense budget.
– Deployed more than 2 million coalition troops to Afghanistan and Iraq where more than 4,600 US troops have been killed and nearly 33,000 wounded.
– Turned much of our military over to mercenaries and private contractors.
– Militarized our police forces as never before.
– Created the “Patriot” Act which has allowed our government to suspend many of the provisions of the 4th Amendment to our Constitution and permits the police and military to intrude in our lives as never before.
– Intentionally fomented fear and paranoia among Americans for partisan political reasons.

During the past 10 years we have spent more than $1 trillion on defense and security; money that could have been used to rebuild our decaying infrastructure, to improve the  quality of life for our citizens or to reduce our national debt. We have learned that $60 billion of taxpayer money has gone unaccounted for in Afghanistan and Iraq over the past decade. And, not surprisingly, we have learned that the US will abandon billions of dollars worth of equipment and military bases when we finally leave Iraq.

Has it been worthwhile?

Each person is likely to have a different answer to that question. But my own answer is a resounding NO! Actually, it’s HELL NO! Especially upon reflection that all of this is the result of 19 terrorists, many of whom were on no-fly lists, boarding airplanes with $5 box-cutters. The only attacks on US soil since 9/11 have come from the gang who couldn’t shoot straight; people who failed at attempts to explode an SUV, a shoe, and underwear!

Since 9/11, the US has dramatically changed for the worse.  And most of the damage has been self-inflicted.

Teapublican Lie #12.

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“The US government is going broke.”

In May 25, 2001, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform told National Public Radio’s Mara Liasson, “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”

Teapublicans have been trying to bankrupt the government ever since.

Yet, despite their efforts, the United States still has the world’s largest economy with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimated at nearly $14.7 trillion in 2010. That represents approximately one quarter of the global GDP.

Our current problem, as economist Paul Krugman has stated, is “insufficent aggregate demand.” As a result, we do not have enough revenue to cover our spending.  Moreover, much of the money spent is misallocated. To fix our economy, we need to increase tax revenue from those who can most afford it. And we need to create jobs by spending on necessary projects while interest rates are at all-time lows.

But, instead of dealing with the real issues, Teapublicans are using the debt crisis they created to destroy labor unions, to eliminate employee benefits, to depress salaries and eliminate our safety nets (the so-called entitlements).

Contrary to Teapublican accusations, these programs are not responsible for our growing national debt. Social Security and Medicare are funded by payroll taxes while our defense spending is not. 

According to estimates, our annual military/security budget is $1.1-$1.2 trillion, or 70-75 percent of the federal budget deficit. It has doubled since 9/11. And much of the defense budget is squandered through poor oversight, lack of planning and corruption. In fact, the Commission on Wartime Contracting stated that as much as $60 billion was lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade!

The US is not broke.  But if we keep electing Teapublicans, we soon may be.

Are We Still Fighting The Civil War?

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As I was reading a book about the Civil War, I was struck by the many similarities between the run-up to the war and today’s political climate. The Confederate States of America were sparsely populated and dominated by slave-owning plantation owners who resented any interference by the federal government. As one historian said, they likely would have seceded earlier, but it took 6 years for the plantation owners to convince the poor dirt farmers to fight their war for them.

On the other side, the Union was more densely populated with a recent influx of European immigrants. Many of these people had faced persecution themselves in the Old Country, and their religious beliefs were at odds with slavery. Moreover, as a result of the density of population, those in the North tended to understand that regulations and laws were necessary for everyone to thrive. Not just a few.

So the Civil War was as much the result of a conflict of philosophies as it was slavery. This conflict continued when, following the war, many former Confederate soldiers fled westward to get away from the law and order imposed by the victorious North. Unfortunately for them, they eventually ran out of real estate as settlers who believed in the law followed them west. But the philosophies of the former Confederates never entirely disappeared.

Fast forward to today. Our politics are now roughly divided into red states and blue states. The red states strongly oppose any “interference” by the federal government. And where are most of those red states? In the South and West.

And where are the blue states? In the heavily populated East, Upper Midwest, California and Northwest.

Certainly, there are pockets within the South and West where voters understand the necessary role of government. Those tend to be large population centers. But in the rural areas and smaller cities, government – especially the federal government – is viewed with disdain and suspicion.

Particularly in the West, many people identify with the cowboy mentality of old (not realizing that the term “cowboy” was originally a perjorative akin to calling someone a rustler or bandit). These people see themselves as modern day gunslingers who are standing up for their individual rights. They mostly could care less about anyone else, including the less fortunate. After all, to these people, everyone has the responsibility to pull themselves up by the bootstraps no matter the odds against it.

In the South, the story is somewhat different. Certainly resentment of the federal government continues. But now it’s wrapped in the cloak of religion. The new Christian right stems from churches that believe the Bible is literally the word of God. They selectively choose Bible verses that support their narrow views. They are anti-government (it’s the government that prevents openly Christian prayers in public schools and other public venues), anti-gay, anti-minority, anti-abortion, anti-education, anti-environmentalism, anti-evolution, anti-climate change, etc. If the government is for it, particularly the federal government, they are against it.

So here we are, politically not much further ahead than we were 150 years ago. But at least for the moment, we’re fighting with ballots. Not guns.

Warring States, Part Two

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Recently, I posted a list of wars fought by the US military.  What I didn’t include were the many more military threats intended to force trade with US corporations or to protect our corporate interests overseas.  That list would be many times longer.

In search of resources and markets for our corporate products, we have forced our way into nations all over the world – from Aregentina to Zaire.  And now that we have created the so-called global marketplace, we use the threat of military action to protect our corporate investments anywhere in the world.

That being the case, next time you hear the media refer to a foreign policy or a military deployment as necessary to protect American interests, ask yourself the following questions: 

When did we amend the US Constitution to require our military to protect greedy corporations?  What is the real reason behind the Teapublican push to replace government agencies with for-profit corporations under the label of “privatization”?  Who is really running our government?

Warring States

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The current debate about withdrawing troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, and the anniversary of Daniel Ellsburg’s release of Pentagon papers started me thinking about our history of wars. When I looked it up, I was stunned!

Since our Declaration of Independence, the United States of America has been almost constantly at war. In fact, not counting the Cold War and relatively minor deployments intended to protect American “interests” abroad, the US has been at war all but 33 years of its 236 year history!

Now you may try to justify those wars (as I used to) by assuming they were the result of our desire to spread democracy around the world and to defend human rights.

You could use that argument. But you’d be wrong.

After wresting the continent away from Native Americans, Great Britain, France, Spain, Russia, and Mexico, our military has spanned the globe. Few of our enemies actually attacked us. More often, wars resulted from a perceived threat to our future and security, especially that of our large corporations. Following is a partial list of military actions involving the US:

1775-83 – Revolutionary War
1776-1915 – Indian Wars
1798-1800 – Quasi-War (undeclared naval war with France)
1801-05 – First Barbary War
1806-10 – Mexico
1810-18 – War with Spanish Florida
1812-15 – War of 1812
1815 – Second Barbary War
1824 – Puerto Rico
1838-39 – Indonesia
1840 – Fiji Islands
1841 – Samoa
1843 – China
1844-48 – Mexican-American War
1853-54 – Japan
1854 – Nicaragua
1857-58 – Utah War (dispute with Mormons)
1859 – Mexico
1861-65 – Civil War
1863-64 – Japan
1866 – Mexico
1866 – China
1867 – Nicaragua
1868 – Japan
1871 – Korea
1873-96 – Mexico
1889 – Kingdom of Hawaii
1893 – Kingdom of Hawaii
1898 – Spanish-American War
1899-1913 – Phillipine-American War
1900 – China (Boxer Rebellion)
1914-17 – Mexico
1915-34 – Haiti
1917-18 – World War I
1918-19 – Mexico
1918-20 – Soviet Union
1941-45 – World War II
1945 – China (vs. Japanese)
1950-53 – Korean War
1955-75 – Vietnam
1957-75 – Laos
1965 – Dominican Republic
1968 – Laos & Cambodia
1975 – Angola
1983 – Grenada
1989 – Panama
1991 – Gulf War
1992-96 – Bosnia and Herzegovina
2001-present – Afghanistan
2003-present – War in Iraq

Moreover, since the end of World War II our military, led by the Central “Intelligence” Agency, has overthrown numerous democratically-elected leaders throughout the world. As a result of this incessant meddling, millions have been imprisoned, tortured and killed. For example:

1953 – In Iran, the CIA overthrew democratically-elected Mohammed Mossadegh and replaced him with a brutal dictator, the Shah of Iran.
1954 – In Guatemala, the CIA overthrew democratically-elected Jacob Arbenz after he threatened to nationalize the United Fruit Company, in which CIA Director Allen Dulles owned stock. The right-wing dictators who replaced Arbenz killed more than 100,000 Guatemalans.
1957-73 – In Laos, the CIA carried out approximately one coup a year trying to nullify Laos’ democratic elections.
1959 – In Haiti, the U.S. military helped “Papa Doc” Duvalier become dictator.
1961 – In Dominican Republic, the CIA assassinated Rafael Trujillo, a brutal dictator supported by Washington. But only after his business interests began competing with our own.
1961 – In Ecuador, CIA-backed military forced democratically-elected President Jose Velasco to resign.
1961 – In Congo (Zaire), the CIA assassinated democratically-elected Patrice Lumumba.
1963 – In Dominican Republic, the CIA overthrew democratically-elected Juan Bosch and installed a repressive, right-wing junta.
1963 – In Ecuador, CIA-backed military overthrew President Arosemana. A military junta assumed command and began abusing human rights.
1964 – In Brazil, a CIA-backed military coup overthrew democratically-elected Joao Goulart and replaced him with a brutal junta.
1965 – In Dominican Republic, a popular rebellion tried to reinstall Juan Bosch. The revolution was crushed by CIA-led U.S. Marines.
1965 – In Indonesia, the CIA overthrew democratically-elected Sukarno. His successor, General Suharto, massacred 500,000 to 1 million civilians.
1965 – In Greece, with CIA backing, the king removed George Papandreous as prime minister for failing to support U.S. interests in Greece.
1965 – In Congo (Zaire), CIA-backed military installed Mobutu Sese Seko who exploited his country for billions.
1967 – In Greece, CIA-backed military overthrew the government two days before elections. The ensuing “reign of colonels,” backed by the CIA, tortured and murdered political opponents.
1967 – In South Vietnam, the CIA helped identify and murder 20,000 alleged Viet Cong leaders.
1969 – In Uruguay, notorious CIA torturer Dan Mitrione ascended to power becoming so feared that revolutionaries kidnapped and murdered him a year later.
1970 – In Cambodia, the CIA overthrew popular Prince Sahounek and replaced him with Lon Nol. The move strengthened the Khmer Rouge, which rose to power and massacred millions.
1971 – In Bolivia, CIA-backed military overthrew leftist President Juan Torres. He was replaced by Hugo Banzer who had more than 2,000 political opponents arrested, tortured, raped and executed.
1973 – In Chile, the CIA assassinated democratically-elected Salvador Allende. He was replaced by General Augusto Pinochet, who tortured and murdered thousands of his own countrymen.
1975 – In Angola, the CIA helped launch a war killing more than 300,000 Angolans.
1979 – In Nicaragua, following the fall of CIA-backed Anastasios Samoza II, the remnants of his personal National Guard became the Contras, who fought a CIA-backed guerilla war against the Sandinista government.
1980 – In El Salvador, following the murder of Catholic Archbishop Oscar Romero, the country dissolved into civil war. CIA-trained death squads roamed the countryside, committing atrocities and killing 63,000 Salvadorans.
1983-89 – In Honduras, the CIA taught Honduran military officers how to torture people. The notorious “Battalion 316” used the techniques on thousands of leftist dissidents.
1986 – In Haiti, following the exile of “Baby Doc” Duvalier, the CIA rigged elections in favor of another right-wing military strongman. The CIA-created National Intelligence Service (SIN) suppressed popular revolt through torture and assassination.
1990 – In Haiti, after leftist priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide captured 68 percent of the vote he was deposed by CIA-backed military which brutalized the country.
1993 – In Haiti, as chaos grew, military dictator, Raoul Cedras, is removed on threat of U.S. invasion. Aristide is returned to power only after being forced to accept an agenda favorable to the country’s ruling class.

Here’s an idea. If Americans are as serious about wanting peace as most claim, maybe we could stop meddling in the internal politics of other nations. Then we could take half of our massive defense budget to solve real problems like poverty, climate change, diminishing energy resources, air and water pollution, and health care.

But given our propensity for war, that will probably be viewed as unpatriotic.

The Perpetual War Machine.

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As President Eisenhower was leaving office, he warned, “We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist … Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

Consider the warning unheeded.

For 2010, the U.S. defense budget is $692,000,000,000 – more than the total of all 194 other nation’s combined. And that doesn’t even include the money being spent in Iraq and Afghanistan! By comparison, in 2009, the 2nd largest defense budget belonged to China at $98,800,000. And the defense budget for Russian Federation stood at a paltry $61,000,000.

Yet, as our nation struggles with high unemployment and decaying infrastructure, Republicans continue to push for more military spending along with the use of more military contractors such as Halliburton, KBR and XE (aka Blackwater). All the while, they rail against the growing deficit.

What about that makes any friggin’ sense?

Well, apparently it makes sense to former President George W. Bush. According to former Argentine Prime Minister Nestor Kirchner, Bush told him that “all the economic growth that the U.S. had had, had been based on the different wars it had waged.”  Wow!

So, according to Bush, our chief economic stimulus is war?! No wonder he ignored the warnings of 9/11. No wonder he invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. It was part of his plan for economic growth!

If our economy is based on war, then why, during the two longest wars in U.S. history, aren’t we thriving? Why are so many Americans unemployed? It would appear that Bush’s war theory makes as much sense as Reagan’s trickle down theory.

I have a better suggestion for improving our economy. Let’s cut our $692 billion defense budget in half. We’ll still have a budget more than three times the size of any other nation – enough to ensure our place as the biggest, baddest bully on the planet. And we’ll have money to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and invest in new industries that create jobs for people without killing others.

Who Are We Afraid Of? (Part II)

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It was recently announced that the U.S. military budget ($692 billion for FY 2010) now exceeds military spending by all other nations combined. That’s right. We now spend more on defense than all 194 of the other countries in the world! And that doesn’t even include the money we spend on Homeland Security, or most of the money we spend on intelligence gathering. (A recent expose’ by the Washington Post reported an estimated 854,000 people work in the secretive information gathering business in the U.S. No one knows how much money is being spent on the endeavor.)

There can be only two conclusions from that data: We are the most powerful nation in the world. And we are the most paranoid; maybe with good reason.

According to Wikipedia, “as of March 31, 2008, U.S. armed forces were stationed at more than 820 installations in at least 135 countries.” Of course, we have large numbers in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq. But we still have 52,440 in Germany, 9,660 in Italy and 35,688 in Japan more than 60 years after WWII. We have 28,500 in the Republic of Korea more than 50 years after the Korean Conflict. We have 9,015 in the United Kingdom (are we expecting a repeat of our Revolutionary War?), 47,236 in East Asia, 3,362 in North Africa … the list goes on.

Given the state of our economy, what could possibly justify the expenditures? If they’re not needed, we’re wasting an incredible amount of money. And if they are, we need to change our foreign policy, because we must be the most hated people on Earth.

Why Do We Allow Republicans To Ignore Election Results?

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In 2008, voters repudiated conservative politics by electing Barack Obama as President and voting for overwhelming Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate. But, based on the actions of Republicans, it would appear that they have simply chosen to ignore the results. The House has passed bill after bill in order to live up to the campaign promises. The President has repeatedly reached out to Republicans. Yet the Senate Republicans have stonewalled virtually every initiative with parliamentarian tricks. They have placed secret holds on more than 100 Presidential appointees. They have threatened to block many more. And they have used filibusters a record number of times.

This level of obstructionism is unprecedented in U.S. history and voters should make Republican candiates pay for it this November. But according to early polls, it appears that the Republican strategy may work. Voters are angry at incumbents – all incumbents – not just those who have stalled reforms. And voters are angry at President Obama for not doing more about the unrelenting gusher of crude in the Gulf of BP. Never mind that the cozy relationship between Bush/Cheney appointees in the Minerals Management Service allowed BP to apparently cut corners with safety. And never mind that the best minds in science and in the oil industry seem stumped as to how to proceed.

It would seem that many in the public won’t be satisfied until the President dons a diving suit, descends a mile under the surface of the ocean and personally shuts off the wellhead himself.

Seriously, people, there are only four submersibles in the world capable of operating at that depth and none of them are owned by the U.S. Moreover, they are incapable of doing any more than the underwater robots. So the problem has spilled into the ocean and onto Obama’s lap.

Like the financial crisis, the unemployment crisis, the immigration crisis, the national debt and the two on-going wars, the oil gusher is a mess created by the Bush administration. And the Obama administration has been left with the job of cleaning it up. To make matters worse, the Republicans in Congress have done nothing to help.

If there’s any justice in American politics, the Republicans will pay at the polls. But I suspect an uninformed public will reward them for their antics. Republicans will then be able to obstruct even more reforms. And voters will continue to wonder why nothing ever seems to change in Washington.

© LaMaster Propaganda – All rights reserved.

Who are we afraid of?

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Following the end of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, we have no military foes.  (At least not in a traditional sense.)  The Soviet Union is gone, replaced by Russia and a host of independent states.  China has gone from being a perceived enemy to our out-sourced manufacturing state holding billions in U.S. bonds.  And Germany and Japan have not been allowed to rebuild significant forces since the end of WWII. 

The only perceived threats are the failing state of North Korea, which has a large infantry and a few nuclear-tipped missles that are incapable of reaching our shores, and Iran, which has a smaller infantry and a nuclear bomb in the making.  In addition, there is nuclear-armed Pakistan with a government under seige by fundamentalist Muslims. 

True, it’s possible that our relationship with Russia could deteriorate enough that we might eventually have to worry about its nuclear aresenal.  But that would seem to be unlikely, and we have far superior technology along with our own enormous nuclear arsenal.

So, I repeat, who are we afraid of? 

What could possibly justify our continuing expenditures on military weaponry?  We spend more on our navy than the next 13 nations combined.   And, in total, our military expenditures exceed the next 11 nations combined! 

We could trim tens of billions of dollars from our weapons procurement budget and still be more than adequately prepared for any potential threat.  Indeed, one could argue that we could use that money more effectively to prevent poverty and other conditions that lead to war.  What if there were good schools for poor Muslim children and respectable jobs waiting for them after they graduate.  What if that helped them achieve the self-respect they are looking for?  Would they still consider blowing themselves up in a suicide attack? 

What if we relegated the neo-cons’ misguided “Plan for A New American Century” to the garbage bin of history where it belongs?  What if, instead, we quit trying to dominate the world?  What if we quit using our lone superpower status to support the imperialist designs of our large corporations?  What if we quit using our political clout and collective wealth to exploit the natural resources of less developed nations?

Or what if we used a portion of our enormous military budget to pay down our national debt?  Yeah, I know.  Why on Earth would we want to do that?

© LaMaster Propaganda – All rights reserved.