What America is creating with our heavy investments in war

I've written here, at least several times, I think, about the gross insanity of our US military spending and how obscene and even unwise to the point of ignorant it is. To briefly resprise, we spend at least an estimated 711 billion dollars per year on war, in one form or another. We heavily outspend the entire world on what we call "defense."

The two biggest factors, I think, that need to be emphasized are that, first, the United States accounts for a total of 43% of all military or "defense spending", nationwide and that a full 39% of our entire budget goes only for this spending, for all those bombs and planes and weapons. It's all negative, it's all destructive and beyond that, it's not sustainable in at least a few ways. We can't go on like this. Instead of making us strong and stronger, our military spending is not only weakening us as a nation, it is, I think it can intelligently, legitimately be argued, destroying us both financially and physically. Following are some of the worst results of all that emphasis on war:

From The New York Times today (see link below): "An American soldier dies every day and a half, on average, in Iraq or Afghanistan. Veterans kill themselves at a rate of one every 80 minutes. More than 6,500 veteran suicides are logged every year — more than the total number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq combined since those wars began." To close, I want to quote an American Founding Father because it seems so clearly relevant to where we find ourselves today, unfortunately, sadly and tragically: "Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes … known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare." — James Madison, Political Observations, 1795 Links: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/opinion/sunday/kristof-a-veterans-death-the-nations-shame.html?scp=1&sq=a%20veteran's%20death,%20the%20nation's%20shame&st=cse; http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending; http://www.realclearworld.com/blog/2011/04/us_military_spending_vs_the_world.html

The Iran we never see

It seems we always demonize enemies and supposed enemies. While clearly this video is created by a source with an agenda, they make a good point. I think when most of us Americans think of the nation Iran, we think desert and blown up buildings and their leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. We don't think of beautiful trains going through what looks like green forests. I think it's important to both point this out and see what more of this country and people are like so maybe, maybe, hopefully we don't do something paramountly stupid like attacking one more country.

Ignorant, sick, twisted, unhealthy American priorities, Part II

As the now old saying goes, wouldn't it be great if the military had to have bake sales, instead of schools? Not literally but darn near.

We think of ourselves as "a peace-loving people"

Indeed, I think we Americans think of ourselves as peace-lovers and beneficent and a peace-loving people, yet, according to author John Pilger, "Since the Second World War the US has 1) Attempted to overthrow more than 50 governments, most of them democratically-elected; ) Attempted to suppress a populist or national movement in 20 countries; ) Grossly interfered in democratic elections in at least 30 countries; 4) Dropped bombs on the people of more than 30 countries and, finally, at least here, 5) Attempted to assassinate more than 50 foreign leaders." And that's just SOME of what we've done, as a nation. We need to make it clear to all of our national leaders that this is beyond unacceptable and demand that our country stop its militarism completely and as soon as possible. It's absurd. It's obscene. The only thing it's doing is supporting the "military-industrial complex" President Eisenhower warned us of. Face it, folks, for the last 50 years, we have been the warmonger of the world. It needs to stop and the only way it will is if we demand it. Links: http://www.newstatesman.com/global-issues/2012/01/pilger-obama-war-britain; https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-War-You-Dont-See-a-Film-by-John-Pilger/164138183607202

Quote of the day

"Senior ranking US military leaders have so distorted the truth when communicating with the US Congress and American people in regards to conditions on the ground in Afghanistan that the truth has become unrecognizable. This deception has damaged America’s credibility among both our allies and enemies, severely limiting our ability to reach a political solution to the war in Afghanistan. It has likely cost American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars Congress might not otherwise have appropriated had it known the truth, and our senior leaders’ behavior has almost certainly extended the duration of this war. The single greatest penalty our Nation has suffered, however, has been that we have lost the blood, limbs and lives of tens of thousands of American Service Members with little to no gain to our country as a consequence of this deception." --Lt. Colonel Daniel Davis, a 17-year Army veteran recently returned from a second tour in Afghanistan. Link: http://www1.rollingstone.com/extras/RS_REPORT.pdf

Things Americans need to read on our Afghan War--but won't

There's a whole list, almost solely because a military officer recently broke rank and wrote one classified and one unclassified document about how the Afghan war is going far worse than is being represented by the military brass to the American people. Note that one of the sources is The Armed Forces Journal, lest anyone think this is just left-wing, Liberal, "peacenik" jibberish. Pick one, anyway, at least, if you would and see how this war is going, at least in the eyes of one American soldier. He interviewed 250 other soldiers for his reports. If you don't like or trust one source below, pick another: Links: http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2012/02/8904030; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/world/asia/army-colonel-challenges-pentagons-afghanistan-claims.html; http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/the-afghanistan-report-the-pentagon-doesnt-want-you-to-read-20120210; http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/the-afghanistan-report-the-pentagon-doesnt-want-you-to-read-20120210#ixzz1m1zIKlqq; http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/truthdigger_of_the_week_lt_col_daniel_l_davis_20120217/; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2097603/Army-Colonel-exposes-truth-lies-Afghanistan-claiming-military-leaders-let-down.html; http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/11/the-whistleblowers-report/?ref=afghanistan; http://www1.rollingstone.com/extras/RS_REPORT.pdf; In addition, there is this YouTube video, shot by an American soldier that I think is important to see. He thought it important to film and get back to us, here in the States: The note/dedication on the video by the filmmaker/poster is: "This video gives the viewer a real sense of what life is like at the tip of the spear in Afghanistan. It is dedicated to two Soldiers who were killed in action less than two months after the photographer took these photos of them..." Finally, if you go to the YouTube page with this video, there are links to more, other videos also shot by other American soldiers, showing more graphically, in some cases, what's going on over there and what they're doing and living through.

Quote of the day--on our Afghan War

"As someone who lived and worked in rural Afghanistan (Sistan) in the years before either the Soviet or the American invasions, I can say with absolute certainty that the American government and Pentagon generals are being disingenuous when they say that what is in fact a foreign occupying army is going to establish any enduring political or social structures in Afghanistan. What we are engaged in there now is an act of utter futility that enhances the careers of Pentagon officers and demagogic politicians, and bloats the bottom line for the military-industrial complex. Lesson one is that social change is not imposed by foreign bayonets. Societies evolve and change slowly in response to their own dynamic. No amount of flag waving in this country, no amount of patriotic chest beating on the part of Americans is going to change this simple truth. When will the American people gain some historical perspective? After all, Vietnam was a teachable moment. Too bad it was squandered. One feels only compassion and pity for the lives sacrificed, both American and Afghan, for the bodies maimed, for the futures warped and stunted." --Howard, Columbus, OH (A commenter on an article online at The New York Times) Link here: http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/11/the-whistleblowers-report/?ref=afghanistan

Watch this video, listen to the artist's words and see if this doesn't still apply to America today and our war in Afghanistan. Rest in peace Phil Ochs.

US Priorities

Those are some sick, very misplaced priorities.

Supporting America's military-industrial complex

A good, brief and important video on America's corporations love of war--and the war dollars: We need to cut defense spending. And badly.

The anniversary of Ike's warning to us all

From The Huffington Post today: "Fifty-one years ago today, President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued his final, prescient warning about the rising power of the military industrial complex. More than half a century later, we find ourselves in a political system which has ignored Eisenhower's sound advice as the influence of the war industry on our society reaches a crescendo. Nowhere is this "disastrous rise of misplaced power" more apparent than in the debate about the Pentagon budget taking place in Washington, D.C." President Eisenhower's warning, in part, to the nation: "In the councils of government, 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...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. ...We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat." Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/derrick-crowe/military-industrial-complex_b_1211388.html

War is not, in fact, "human nature"

We need to educate ourselves on war

An important movie for America, made by our military veterans

A movie made by American military soldiers and veterans for the American public. It's an important, vital film, I think. Please watch for it and when you can, see it. We owe to them. We owe it to ourselves. We owe it to the country. We owe it to humanity. Link: www.thisiswherewetakeourstand.com

Martin Luther King, Jr. on America's war

"I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent." --Martin Luther King Jr. Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence. We must end America's "perpetual war." We are the warmonger of the world. It will only end if we demand it.

Quote of the day--on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom." --Martin Luther King, Jr. Link: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/martin_luther_king_jr.html

War is not a game, by any means

More and more, the American military has been advertising in the last several years to teens and young people in the country, with what seems to be an appeal to potential candidates for service with them, as though war and what they do is some kind of computer game. I found the following yesterday, making my point: "Below is a 30-second Air Force recruitment TV ad (h/t SuperBowlXX); how can anyone, after seeing this, not swoon over the greatness of drones? It’s precisely because of their constant glorification in the War on Terror that their use is virtually inevitable on U.S. soil: if they’re such fantastic weapons for stopping Bad Guys over there, why wouldn’t they be used over here?" I'll discuss the seeming, growing fascism and police state in the US here later, I promise. Link to original post:http://www.salon.com/2011/12/06/nprs_domestic_drone_commercial/singleton/

We need to stop sugar-coating war

Far from "pretty", war is ugly. War is humankind at its worse. If anyone's going to engage in it, the least we should do is be honest to the point of blunt about it. Then maybe we won't want to continually, repeatedly engage in it. Here's hoping.

The official end of the Iraq War

On this, the official end of the Iraq War, it's so vitally important to remember a few things, at least: 1.5 million American soldiers served, 4,487 American Soldiers lost their lives, 32.226 American Soldiers were wounded, $806 billion were spent on it, it was a longer war than WWII or Vietnam, no weapones of mass destruction were ever found--just as the United Nations inspectors were verifying--and it was all based on lies. (Tragically, this doesn't even take into consideration the destruction of the Iraqi country and so many Iraqi lives). Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/world/middleeast/panetta-in-baghdad-for-iraq-military-handover-ceremony.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

One more reason we shouldn't go to war with Iran

Look at this map. Besides the fact that we're already in too many wars internationally and that we've lost far too many American soldiers, this is how many bases we have, surrounding Iran.

Each red star represents a military base. Enough, you think?