Tonight I'm Going to a Going Away Party and I'm Mad as Hell About It
It's not your usual celebratory event. My daughter's boyfriend, who is in the National Guard (in large part to fund his education), is being deployed to Ukraine. Why? Because we're all supposed to fear Russia.
Technically his unit is being sent to the Ukraine to "train" the Ukrainian government's forces who have been fighting a civil war against their fellow Russian-speaking citizens living in Eastern Ukraine. The reality is I doubt the armed Neo-Nazi thugs who now comprise the "Ukrainian Army" need any training by raw US Army Reserve units on how to kill their fellow Ukranians. Unfortunately, his unit and others like them, are being used as pawns to prop up an illegitimate fascist government that overthrew a legitimately elected President with the help of the Obama administration,and in particular Victoria Nuland. From Robert Parry in an article posted at Consortium News on July 134, 2015:
As the Ukrainian army squares off against ultra-right and neo-Nazi militias in the west and violence against ethnic Russians continues in the east, the obvious folly of the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy has come into focus even for many who tried to ignore the facts, or what you might call “the mess that Victoria Nuland made.”
Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs “Toria” Nuland was the “mastermind” behind the Feb. 22, 2014 “regime change” in Ukraine, plotting the overthrow of the democratically elected government of President Viktor Yanukovych while convincing the ever-gullible U.S. mainstream media that the coup wasn’t really a coup but a victory for “democracy.”
To sell this latest neocon-driven “regime change” to the American people, the ugliness of the coup-makers had to be systematically airbrushed, particularly the key role of neo-Nazis and other ultra-nationalists from the Right Sektor. For the U.S.-organized propaganda campaign to work, the coup-makers had to wear white hats, not brown shirts.
So, for nearly a year and a half, the West’s mainstream media, especially The New York Times and The Washington Post, twisted their reporting into all kinds of contortions to avoid telling their readers that the new regime in Kiev was permeated by and dependent on neo-Nazi fighters and Ukrainian ultra-nationalists who wanted a pure-blood Ukraine, without ethnic Russians.
My daughter's boyfriend is being placed in harm's way to support a neoconservative agenda that continues despite the fact that Obama is no longer our President. For whatever reasons (maybe a "trumped-up" investigation into alleged collusion between Putin and Trump's campaign?), Donald Trump, who campaigned on lessening tensions with Russia, has done nothing to stop the continued deployment of US military forces near Russia's borders. That policy, designed to reignite a cold war, began under Bill Clinton, was advanced by George W. Bush, escalated under Barack Obama and now has been adopted by Donald Trump. Thus we have numerous US military forces and installations in the Baltic States, Poland and Ukraine. This is in addition to our troops and proxies (the so-called US-backed rebels) in the Middle East that are actively engaged in fighting and killing Russian troops in Syria.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian general killed in Syria had been seconded to the Syrian government as a military commander, Russia’s military chief of staff said on Wednesday. [...]
Lieutenant-General Valery Asapov, 51, was killed on Saturday by shelling from Islamic State positions near Deir al-Zor. He was the chief of staff of Russian forces deployed to the country and later became the commander of Syria’s Fifth Corps of volunteers, chief of general staff Valery Gerasimov said.
So my daughter's boyfriend, and many young men and women just like him, are having their lives placed at risk. They are mere pawns in a grand neocon scheme to effect regime change in Syria, and to intimidate and threaten Russia. Pawns in a game that could easily explode into WWIII all to serve the interests US oil companies, Israel and various Arab totalitarian states, the most heinous of which is Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi regime (who even Hillary Clinton admitted were backing the Islamic State and other Sunni jihadist militias and terrorist organizations) is actively waging a genocidal war against Shi'ite populations in Yemen. A genocide, by the way that has the active support of our military forces operating under the orders of our political leaders, both past and present.
Needless to say, my daughter is not very happy that her long-term boyfriend is being deployed to the Ukraine for up to 11 months, and neither am I. He's been told by his superiors that our forces are needed in Ukraine to help the "good guys" in Ukraine fend off the evil Russians. I want to tell him that he's being sold down the river, but I doubt my efforts would do any good to offset the propaganda to which he's been exposed. Any such attempt on the eve of his departure would only create strife between he and I before he is sent into what may soon become a war zone if the worst case scenario plays out.
And who knows how many other deployments of his unit will follow after this one. So I will keep my mouth shut tonight, and hope and pray he returns safe and sound. But I'm anxious as all hell, and angry beyond words at the people who control our current militaristic foreign policy. The geopolitical games these fanatical ideologues and warmongers are playing do not benefit my daughter, me, you nor any of the thousands of men and women in our armed forces who lives are being treated as disposable "assets."
I love my country, but not the evil empire it has become. Indeed, to be honest, I abhor past and current actions of the US government. Our "selected" political leaders have preferred to pursue war over seeking peace. All of them, Democrat or Republican, are monstrous war criminals who have demonstrated their willingness to risk the destruction of our planet through nuclear annihilation out of a warped sense of American exceptionalism, greed and lust for power.
In my worst moments, I fear our last, best hope to prevent an apocalypse was cheated out of his chance to be elected President last year because the powers that be favored either a ravenous warmonger (Hillary Clinton) or a pompous reality TV buffoon (Trump) over anyone not 100% committed to maintaining the economic and military dominance of the USA around the world, regardless of the cost our endless wars have had on so many ordinary people in America and upon the far greater number of victims abroad who have suffered thanks to the perceived need to "defend our freedoms" with the blood of innocent people beyond our borders.
We have collectively descended into madness. We the people no longer have any means to reign in the excesses of our government. Instead, through a soft fascist coup, we effectively have been forced to submit to the tyranny of evil men.
God help us. It certainly seems we cannot help ourselves.
Comments
Fuck. That royally sucks.
Because if they're deploying the Guard to Ukraine...
It means that they're looking for an incident. Just keeping large numbers of troops in close proximity will spark something. Even something completely innocent, when everybody is on edge, can result in an engagement. If the US is slaughtered, so much the better for starting the war.
Yes, I do believe they are that cynical.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
WTF? Up to 11 months ? Gah.
I was in the USAR at the end of Vietnam . Half my basic platoon got sent over, but I went home and served 6 years. Not until more recently did they start sending the USNG and USAR for long or mutiple deployments.
Found this;
Did a search on Twitter and apparently have been sending soldiers over there to provide 'training ' for a couple of years. Yah, right.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Nothing changes
Sorry to hear about your daughter's bf headed to Ukraine. Trump or Hillary, I'm not really surprised.
As Oliver Stone found out, Putin understands this all quite well:
Oh how I feel your frustration with
not being able to just tell it all and let fly. My niece is Air Force, she works on F-16s keeping them in the air to drop bombs. She just returned stateside from S Korea, so glad she's out of there. When she was home in May I said a bit, not too much, but told her in no uncertain terms I want both her and her new husband out as soon as they possibly can do it. I did say while I am very proud of them, I am no longer proud of what our military does or has done.
They're heading to Germany for 3 years, and while where they are going looks very nice, they are both fully deployable there should the need arise. He's already been in Afghanistan once, and while they work in hangars and are relatively safe, I have real moral issues with what they do. I didn't elaborate on that part with my niece. I can't totally burst that bubble yet.
Grit your teeth a bit, you'll do OK. You care deeply about them both from what I can see, that will come through.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
I can understand why you're pissed.
So sorry.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Little did he know that he'd joined the International Guard
Here's hoping that it'll be a problem free deployment.
(Ukraine??)
I give up (again).
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
Jesus! Training Al Qaida in Syria was bad enough
Now this country is training neo Nazis in Ukraine. This used to be called High Crimes and Misdemeanors in this country when government officials worked with their sworn enemies! Back when when the world had a justice system people who did this would be sent to The Hague for trial.
I'm so sorry for your daughter to have to experience this Steven. And you too, especially because you know why he is being sent there.
This is a time to open up a conversation about how we can deprogrammed the young people who sign up for the military because they think that they are defending our country. As you stated, this young man and many others like him have been exposed to government propaganda since before they went to school.
How do you feel about giving him a print out of Smedley Butler's book which you can find online for free? This might help him and others to open their minds.
Don't any of them see or hear about how this country treats its veterans? Or wonder why so many are homeless?
This is the biggest evil that is inflicted on our citizens. Putting them into harm's way for profits. This is why the Ukraine president was overthrown. He refused to let our corporations rape him country's resources so our government put in someone who would.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
None Dare Call It Treason
Least of all the Bircher loonies who popularized that phrase!
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Sadly you are right
After reading Big Al's essay, I want to just give up. The way that people have just accepted what this country does to people in other countries and how it accepts everything that they do to us makes me want to scream!
It's not just the Birchers and the republicans, it's the people who consider themselves to be progressive democrats. They are the ones that I hold most accountable because they know better.
Look at how this article nails what these types of people are doing. We know that this shit was ridiculous when it happened, but here it is again and people are doing the same damn thing. They know better, but they are so pissed that Hillary wasn't coronated they can't think straight.
The new McCarthyism and the suppression of political dissent
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
The US engineered overthrow of Ukraine's
…elected government was a big tell for me. It was April 2014. When the coup government of NeoNazis and US puppets was introduced, I finally understood what the American Neocons are. They are part of the International Nazi/Fascist set. At some point in the 20th century, just about every country in the world had a Fascist Party. Today, you find their legacy in the US and in Israel. They're in some of the extreme right wing parties in certain Western European nations and they're as thick in thieves in Poland. They're back under the radar in the whiter parts of South America, where the Nazis took to the hills after World War II. They've been at war with Russia as far back as you might want to look, and US intelligence at the very highest levels are riddled with them — which is why they didn't bother examining the DNC servers for actual evidence of Russian involvement (there is none). Instead, they sent in their Ukrainian lackeys from CrowdStrike to execute the subversive foundation for the fake Russian hysteria across America. The Brenners and the Clappers playing their war games with people's lives.
The die was cast when the new "government" of Ukraine immediately outlawed the Russian language.
The ethnic Russians reside in the blue areas of the election map, above, and it was the Russians who elected the overthrown President in 2010. It is the NeoNazi fighters in the red areas of west Ukraine who travel east to Donbass to attack and kill the Russian population for resisting the overthrow and culturecide. The east does not attack west Ukraine. Nor did the Russians invade and attack the west Ukraine or Kiev. That's why there are no satellite photos of such an event.
Large areas of Russia were put under Ukraine's oversight by different Russian leaders, but they were all the Soviet Union. The most recent area put under Ukraine's jurisdiction was Crimea, but for the past 200 years Sebastopol in Crimea has served continuously as Russia's only warm-water naval port, leading to the Mediterranean Sea and beyond. The rest of the Russian Navy are located in the Arctic. The 95 percent ethnic Russian population of Crimea comprise the cultural home port of the Russian Navy.
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The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Well stated, Pluto
This country has time after time overthrown another country's elected government and installed the one who would do what we want them to do. The CIA has committed at least 49 coups that we know of starting with the Iraqi president in 1953. Or was it the Syrian president in 1949? It's so hard to keep track.
The number of people who our government has deliberately killed for no other reason than so that some fucking corporation can make a profit is so mind boggling that I can not find the words for how I feel.
How any person can make a decision that they know is going to see a lot of people killed is so far out of my comprehension.
The stories that we heard about after the coup in the Ukraine were horrifying. That people are still wishing that Obama was president shows how well propaganda works. Even after they were presented with the facts of what he did in 8 short years, they will not accept it.
Think about this: a building was intentionally started on fire and when they tried to escape from it, they were killed by the (neo) Nazis that our government put in place. How horrifying. The only explanation for how people can make this decision and then they go home and hug their children and forget what they set in motion. If they bother to think about it later, they have to wonder why people are still so gullible to believe anything that they are told.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Certified Nazi Reinhart Heydrich well-described by the Wizard
Heydrich was a family man and played violin quite well. He was also one of the venal murderers of WW2. Now we have Neocons with their not-so-famous emissaries of death (in addition to deployed troops).
We have our own Nazi's in structure: TPTB. They wear 3000 dollar suits and imported silk ties. I imagine that foreign affairs, for these horribles, is like fantasy football--whose team of murderers can kill the most people. Then compare the numbers over bottle of Dom Perinom.
Again there is no proof that Russia invaded Ukraine
as you stated. Just like there is no proof that Russia shot down the plane that was flying in Ukraine's airspace. This country has never shown satellite photos of the Russian equipment that could have shot it down. The evidence showed that it might have been shot down by an Ukrainian jet. There have been reports that stated the plane was rerouted from its flight pattern and deliberately put in the flight path for it to be shot down. Many of the people who were on this plane were scientists who were on their way to a conference on AIDS treatments. Again, what type of person could make the decision to allow that to happen? Sociopaths! That's who.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
With four geostationary satellites over Ukraine
…the US has solid and detailed visual images of flight MH-17 being shot out of the sky. There is no question in my mind, none at all, what they show. And why. I feel certain that the Dutch know, as well as the former owners of the now defunct Malaysia Airlines. Just a year earlier, Malaysia Airlines was known as "the safest airline in the world," until a rapid series of freakish and unexplained accidents doomed it. Perhaps if Kuala Lumpur had not recently tried the United States for war crimes….
It goes without saying that the US satellite images of the final moments of flight MH-17 were not produced for the investigation, which would have shown who was responsible. Despite the lack of conclusive evidence, Russia was sanctioned.
[Edit final sentence for clarity.]
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
@Pluto's Republic
Please plaster this all over the universe! People don't seem to realize at all what we're dealing with and even if they seem to have some idea, keep reverting to a 'politics as usual' mindset and approach...
These are psychopaths, long ruthlessly gaining and exerting power, self-identified as such by their attitudes and actions, devoid of the capacity for empathy and of the sort of long-range extrapolation of potential consequence (beyond that toward the achievement of their own personal goals) which defines 'humanity' and enables our survival as a species.
If something doesn't matter to them, it doesn't matter at all; they're just too exceptionally clever to suffer from their own actions, even if all 'lesser beings' perish and the global life support system with them.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
at all costs -- STAY OUT OF THE MILITARY!
This is why all thinking parents need to impress on their children: At all costs -- STAY OUT OF THE MILITARY! The "goodies" aren't worth the downsides! And if there was ever a day when the National Guard existed to defend our freedoms and ways of life, it has long since ended. The National Guard has ceased to be a civilian militia and has become the same sort of mercenary organization that the regular military is.
The Founders knew that any standing military was bad juju. And they were right......
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
It's just one more way the PTB
have us by the balls. And the fewer decent jobs there are to pay off all that college debt or even a living wage, the more "volunteers" they have. I did not yet really "get" the full picture of just what this country was when I joined in 1985, nor even when my niece did in late 2012. I fully agree with your sentiment, but I see how hard it is to resist.
My options back then were quite frankly more open, I joined in many ways to escape a dysfunctional family and to "figure out what the hell I wanted to do." Hers were much more limited by 2012, and even when I wanted her to just finish college and get the degree, I could no longer tell her that would get her a good enough job to support herself and pay of the debt. All bets were off by then, as they are now. And the savages that own us know it, they planned it as far as I'm concerned.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
@Steven D - I couldn't imagine how awful a military service
would turn out, when my son decided to join the Air Force in Jan 2001. Shortly before a Mr. GWBush was inaugurated. I had no clue who and what GWB was or would be. We all were not born and raised in the US, we parents didn't work for an American employer, my son came here at age 12 already be damaged by three different languages in two different countries and school system. When we came to the US it was the fourth cultural and language influence on him. Too much. He had difficulties academically in highschool, but did graduate. Then a divorce and his first college year a failure. He jobbed himeself senselessly through life.
When he had gathered enough courage to go to college again there was not enough money. It was just my own little income. So, some recruiter from the Air Force must have done a good job and convinced him he would be a good soldier/airman. He joined because he could get tuition help through the GI Bill. Just eight month after basic and technical training 9/11 happened, then all that happened to the guys was preparation for the invasion into the Iraq war and combat situations in the Afghanistan wars. My son was with the first ground troups invading Iraq. He was involved into combat. Never told me exactly for years to come what happened, but he was in Nasaryia, Kirkuk and Baghdad.
It was clear after the first deployment into Iraq, he didn't want to be deployed a second time. He applied to go to S.Korea for one and a half years voluntarily just to avoid getting into other combat situations in Iraq. After 5 1/2 years of his six year contract he developed clear signs of PTSD, but he managed to be released honorably nevertheless. His long-distance girl friend, who did her bachelor and masters while he was serving, dropped him after he left the military. I guess he was not good enough. So, the real trauma didn't show up that badly for a long, long time. Doesn't mean it's not there.
Anyhow, my condolences to you and your daughter and her bf.
Til today I blame myself to not have followed my natural instincts to warn him more strongly of what it means to join the military. My son himself was opposed to the Iraq war and even did speak up on his permanent base in Montana beforehand to his commanders. They were impressed about his courage, but of course it didn't make a difference. He had to go. Today he in his darkest hours blames me and his father that we both didn't seem to be opposed to the military service and wanted him to join the military, because he was a failure academically in college and then didn't find meaningful jobs.
I never got over these accusations and they are only partly correct. I didn't warn him enough. I also was proud because it was the first time my son (seemed) to have made his own decision (but it was under strong manipulative influence of the recruiters). So there is this little fine line to not oppose and not saying anything vs. clear warnings. Today I wouldn't stay "neutral" anymore and would warn him. But that's unfortunately now a fait accompli. I failed as well.
I visited my son in his basic training in Lackland AFB. He behaved like a Japanese Robot. A completely scared and different person. I have no clue what they do to the recruits, but I think that it is something pretty bad. German TV had once made a report of the military drills for the soldiers in basic training and - according to our understanding - that is a terrible way to teach the soldiers to kill and not feel guilty about it. Our correspondents of ARD German TV in Washington DC interviewed quite some combat soldiers of the Iraq war, who were suffering under PTSD, and produced a maningful story about it. I never told them about my own son.
OK. Stephen D I hear your heart being in conflict and have a lot of empathy with your situation. Let's hope there will be no combat situations involved during your daughter's boyfriend deployment. It's not going to be easy to go through that and less easy to "forget" about them.
They psych them from the get-go
Total authoritarianism, total control, totally intended to break down the personality and remold it into a total tool who will obey orders without taking a split-second to think. Even if the order is to shoot to kill.
We have fallen a long, long way from the unruly enlistees that von Steuben had to drill into the Continental Army - the first thing he found out is that Continentals would not do what they were told just because they were told to. First he had to explain why they should do something, and then they would do it.
That takes too long for our Masters of the Universe, so they break minds.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Very sorry for your son
and for you. I really am.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
It seems that what the
It seems that what the Oligarchy wanted to do and failed in 1935, they have accomplished since 1980 over time and look at us now. I feel for you Steve, to know what the kid doesn't, but having to not say it.
Our whole system with the neocon/neo-liberal agendas shows that the Oligarchy is in total control and playing their fiddles. Sad part is that their agendas cost the lives of others.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
The 'Draft' must happen again.
It is the only way we can have a real anti-war movement again and while many credit protests against the war for stopping it, especially when Vietnam vets joined but what really stopped it was when everyone (except of course those could afford deferments by going to University) had 'skin in the game'.
Much like how when the govt. started spraying toxins on marijuana fields in Mexico it didn't seem to matter until the realization that the sons and daughters of these judges and lawmakers might likely get poisoned they got concerned, only then.So the selfishness of the few worked in the favor of 'the many' but not because of anything other than because they all had 'skin in the game'. Their 'hip' university children might be endangered.Time for concern.
Which reminds me,many years ago while living in Boulder Colorado I came across an interesting article in the local newspaper 'The Daily Camera' in a section called 'This day in History'. Apparently people at that time were complaining about the ever growing horse manure from all the carriages in downtown Boulder and extrapolated that in 'x' number of years the manure would be almost six feet deep, upon which the the Mayor, five foot five inches tall, "...said action must be taken!"
No draft, minus all those deferments money can buy, is the only way perpetual war ends. When the children of Presidents and members of both Houses of Congress are subject to the horrors of war personally, then peace has a chance. Selfishness can be exploited for the better good of all, and if ever there was a selfish society we are it.
One final disclosure, I am a proud 'draft dodger' of the Vietnam war, I never went to kill, or terrorize people in other Countries and I avoided prison by fleeing to Canada. A Vet friend of mine when told after recovering from sever powder burns from powder bag explosion in his bunker that he was being sent back to Vietnam told the Officer that he would shoot the first person that handed him a loaded weapon he got discharged from the army as 'a person with 'psychopathic tendencies' (aka a good soldier in his words).
I also gotta add that I'm tired of hearing people castigate people like Trump or Cheney, or anyone else by calling them 'draft dodgers', they were too much of a coward to earn that title. They were/are like those that start fights but will not fight themselves.
They took away student deferments . . .
when they started the lottery. If you had a low number and were in college they would deal. You could complete your degree in return for accepting various obligations.
It took more than money to buy your way out. You needed political connections to get into someplace like the Texas Air National Guard (W. Bush, Lloyd Benson's son) where you could keep the border safe from the Mexican air force.
@aliasalias
Apparently, going by what I've recently read as, in some cases, posted here, there has been 'no need for' a draft, because they have enough volunteers (generally because of people being unable to afford college/university/unable to find employment elsewhere) and there had been 'no need' to draft women at this point, one can safely assume for the same reason.
However, when need for more bodies was determined to exist, they began to 'grab' from 'reserve forces' such as the National Guard and increasingly, the Coast Guard, and various within the military have been urging for women to have to register for the draft now that they're permitted in combat positions. I would think that this subject would not arise if the draft were not being considered as possibly 'needed', considering that the world's largest military is stretched into most of the world's countries, and that a further list of many more - and larger - countries are on the 'to invade' list.
(I'm too lazy to look this stuff up again right now, particularly as my system has just been switched over to Linux Mint (which is great so far, apart from having to sign in again every time I leave it for 10 minutes,) and everything else is gone, so no records remain of anything I'd recently looked up, although the really bad connection - which appalled my helpful brother - remains. So I'm having my 2nd coffee instead.)
Edited for 2 letter-typos; guessing that even Linux can't prevent my glitches, dammit!
And re-editing to make the point that of course big donors and the influential of all sorts will be able to ensure that anyone they need will not be drafted whenever the draft is reinstated.
The Psychopaths and Parasites That Be and their lackeys get away with increasingly obvious and wide-spread murder of expanding categories of Expendables at home and abroad; a little thing like automatic exclusions for anyone important to anyone 'important' will be one of the least of anyone's worries and likely one of the everything that'll be censored out of all mention anyway.
And it would certainly not surprise me if the draft process was used to control entire domestic demographics likely to contain dissidents. Would it really surprise you, especially if you thought about it?
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Think about it.
You already know this is not true:
In deployments like Afghanistan, for example, there are many more paid contractors than volunteers. That's how they make up the difference between what they have and what they want. (They never report the hires in their numbers. Not even their deaths.)
In addition, there are fewer and fewer qualified volunteers. (Americans are too fat and unhealthy from all the high fructose corn syrup, not unlike the way livestock are fattened.)
Modern warfare is moving away from the voluntary meatpuppet paradigm. And Robots can do it so much better without the PTSD. The tactical kill targets will shift to the civilian populations of the opponent, like Hiroshima or Nagasaki, or even like Mosel or Raqqa. Plus, civilian kills are a key component of chaos warfare, which all sides have been using in the Middle East, along with weaponized refugees.
The draft would have done the trick, but it's too late for that now. Besides, the MIC would have never allowed it.
After deployment, the volunteers kill themselves at the rate of one per hour. I hadn't checked that number for awhile, but I can now report that instead of slowing down, the daily rate of suicides among volunteers has been ticking steadily up.
I think the least we can do is to look at it intellectually, without filters or euphemisms, and recite the truth about it, very very plainly, every single time it comes up.
As an aside, thanks for your kind comments here and there. They mean a lot to me.
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The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Until our youth reject
service in any branch of our military, they are subject to the protection of the 1%.
Mama's don't let your children grow up to be soldiers. It's the only road to peace.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Of course the austerity economy feeds the military
So few jobs, so little pay, absent chances for advancement in private industry. For a lot of enlistees, the military looks like a way out of the continuous squeeze of hard times and frustration.
That's how they've fed the Beast
….for thousands of years.
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The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
yep, and when they are frustrated being out of the military
service and still don't find meaningful jobs, they get ridiculed for being so dumb to have joined.
So, no thanks. Better for all involved to keep their thoughts to themselves.
mimi, spot on
what choices do many returning veterans have upon re-entry into civilian society for employment? Not many. They can get minimum wage jobs just like everyone else trying to find work. They can and do become homeless from despair, they can and do kill themselves because of PTSD residuals, but often they join Murderers Incorporated such as Blackwater.
yes, I know, out of personal experience.
just the last part I was spared. My son refused any job in security services where he would have to carry a weapon.
Thank. God.
or go into police work of some kind
Exactly, AE.
The same will be true of border police, prison guards, etc., anything that results in the 1% being protected from the 99%. That's where the jobs will be for people until they get robots to kill us because they have no conscience. This is what we need to watch out for, among many other things.....
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Well Steven, since there is no God
we're sunk two ways.
We need to be aware of two things and what we do about them IS up to us in terms of getting counter-information rolling off the presses of blogs like this one on a daily basis...
1- the CIA and all the other 'intelligence agencies' have a war agenda and are behind probably 90% of the Russian fingerprints on computers etc. That's why these stories keep breaking down under scrutiny.
2- the Democrats are knee deep in helping these agencies fool the public... see https://theintercept.com/2017/07/17/with-new-d-c-policy-group-dems-conti... Rachel Maddow being at the top of MSM commentators is a problem because Dems think she is golden, and she is one of the biggest mouthpieces for the faux Russia stories.
"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin
Maddow seems to have swallowed
the Party's Russia-bait, hook line and sinker. I don't know, but I suspect that her celebrity status, coupled with the size of those paychecks she's been getting, might have a lot to do with it. You don't get to be a Teevee Personality by bucking the system too hard.
native
@native
If you recall at the time, the station had fired off all of its progressives except Maddow. Personally, at the time, I thought that she was to be the 'token liberal', but it came to seem evident to me that she was likely the only one retained because she may have been the only one prepared to abandon both journalistic integrity and patriotism to help impose propaganda campaigns on those followers who still trusted her enough to wallow them whole just because she was the (well-paid) one convincing them.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
The psychology of a militaristic nation
I shuttered when Bush went to war and then started the propaganda about "supporting the troops". Our country moved far along the militaristic axis at that time. Consider that his decision was illegal, immoral and would cause the deaths and maiming of tens of thousands of civilians. Consider then that "serving your country" was the psychology to convince young people to actually go out and do the killing. As soldiers in the field know, the reality is not political but one of following orders, staying alive and protecting your buddies. And yet you become the machinery of death, and in so many cases of US action, the machinery of a morally unjustified destruction of a foreign culture, genocide. The solution is to make war nearly impossible and to hold the civilian leaders responsible for the results of their actions. In a fair world all of the criminals in the Bush administration would have been incarcerated. Any congress critter that voted to authorize the war would be incarcerated. That's right, the war was an international war crime, and voting for it makes you a criminal. Instead, there is no justice whatsoever, oops we made a mistake, he didn't have Weapons of mass destruction, but everyone thought so. Consider that this does not even come close to a valid excuse, it was a war crime. But no outcry from the Left, the Right the Middle, from no one. We have become Sparta. We will not stop ourselves and our sycophant allies will not stop us. So who will? The are only two possible outcomes, the world unites and tells the US to stop it, or violence escalates to an unimaginable level. North Korea is the test case.
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
....
Was just listening to Flagstad singing the Immolation Scene
from Gotterdammerung. Entirely too appropriate to this and related discussions!
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Who will stop us?
Only us can stop us. Revolution. We are going the path of the Roman Empire in so many ways. It is usually easier to change a government from with than from without. The cost will be violence. But broadly supported Revolution is much more effective than foreign invasion. This lesson has not been learned in the U.S. From Iran in the 50s, Allende later, to Iraq and especially, the ultimate test of failure from outside intervention: Afghanistan. The MIC will continue dominant unless they are gradually defunded (unlikely prospect at this time).
among the constitutional amendments i think
we desperately need is one forbidding the deployment of militia -- the National Guard -- anywhere outside of the United States, and forbidding any kind of coordination between the Department of Defense and the National Guard in order to reorganize NG units directly into Armed Forces units for deployment outside of the US. the DoD shouldn't even have access to the NG's enlistment database. the NG mobilizes and fights ONLY in US territory. yes, the federal Armed Forces should coordinate that if there's an actual invasion, but otherwise the institutions should be separate, other than perhaps the Armed Forces should control/oversee weapons procurement and training, to ensure the forces are compatible in the field should the unthinkable happen, and some lunatic nation actually attempt to invade the US.
and if there is ever a draft -- and incidentally, i think the constitution should ban conscription, it's just a particularly unethical form of involuntary indentured servitude -- enlistment in the NG should be irrelevant as regards one's "eligibility".
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
I don't believe that's physically possible.
Not with this geographic set-up in the isolated hemisphere. Think supply train and staging. And, whose Navy would they use?
I've heard the question posed to American generals. They run the scenarios. Can't be done.
Spending big money on "national defense" has always been a bit of a hoax.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
nor do i, really.
and that's really my point, i guess. the constitution needs to permit some kind of rational defense from invasion, not because it's ever going to happen, but because otherwise the relationship between the NG and the federal armed forces becomes farcical. the planners must be able to plan for such an event, just for the institutions to maintain some internal sense of sanity and purpose. my scheme merely makes a concession to that institutional requirement in order to accomplish the much greater good of keeping the NG at home where it belongs.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
What about natural disasters?
The National Guard was supposed to be the second line of defense/aid against such (right after the various humanitarian organizations). "Repurposing" them to bulk up overseas invasion forces strips the country of that defense, and the results are the disasters we've seen in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. This was noticed and commented on as long ago as Katrina, but not only was fuck-all done about it, the "repurposing" was increased.
And so here we are, utterly helpless to aid American citizens against the ravages of Nature because we sent our defenders off to assist in murdering brown people somewhere else.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
quite so.
one of the things i found most unforgivable about Christopher Hitchens's transformation, post-9/11, into an angry advocate of a crusade against islam, was his eagerness to dragoon American National Guard units away from their homes and families and communities and send them off to kill in behalf of his outraged personal sensibilities. how, exactly, this horrifying "responsibility" should have fallen upon those particular shoulders, of all the billions on the planet, he did not elucidate. he seemed deliberately unaware of the actual function of the NG, which is unsurprising -- the closest they have in the UK is the Territorial Army, which is similar but not the same. (It was an interesting little cultural hiccup when The Office was remade from a UK version into an American version. In the UK version, the loony militarist beta-wannabe-alpha character was indeed in the Territorials, who get about the same amount of respect as the NG typically got back during the 80s and 90s -- weekend warriors, childishly enamored of war, many of whom could not even get into the regular army, etc etc. By the time they were remaking The Office, nobody in the US was mocking the NG. Too many of us knew too many of them, who were bearing the brunt of our murderous imperial policies -- having volunteered to serve as a home guard and then been (effectively) conscripted into serving as our Foreign Legion. It's worth noting that many of these folk are actually highly-valued members of their own communities -- including medical staff, EMTs, and so on. Many are also, unlike typical conscriptees, people in their late 20s to early 40s, with children at home wondering why Mommy or Daddy is so far away.
I cannot overemphasize this: Those people did NOT volunteer to be Imperial Troopers. Their service and patriotism (nevermind their economic desperation, which was often the primary motivation for their "volunteering") were exploited and abused by the Bush administration.
Now, of course, the business has been normalized -- anyone volunteering for the Guard should understand that they will likely be sent abroad at some point to fight in the Forever War.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.