Forum Post: Endless war steals from the 99%
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 5, 2011, 7:25 a.m. EST by schrubs
(74)
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Korea, Vietnam: Millions of civilians dead, 88,000 GIs dead, billions spent. Bush starts the Iraq war on the lies of WMD and causing 9/11. Obama escalates Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Trillions spent. Payoffs to Taliban and contractors. Obama redeploys thousands of troops out of Iraq into surrounding Middle East countries to be ready for the next war. Obama sends US troops and supplies to Africa. Obama sends navy task forces to Asia. Obama greatly expands military bases around the world (over 1000). Obama builds new nuclear weapons, subs, carriers, bombers, missiles. Obama gives tax breaks to millionaires. The government and media are priming the public for the next war with Iran. What happened to diplomacy?
No other country on earth spends trillions of dollars for war like the US. This money should used to create civilian jobs, lower taxes and save our homes from foreclosure. Everything in America is cut and crumbling but the military budget is left barely touched. Cuts to veterans, seniors, education, roads, tunnels, bridges, ports, colleges, hospitals, states, cities, towns, villages, arts, research, clean energy, Wall St. oversight, worker safety, fire and police departments, etc. But we're building more submarines and bombers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures
Endelss war! What more evidence do you need that psycopaths have been in charge? Wake up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgGyvxqYSbE&feature=player_embedded
There is definitly a disconnect between leaders' actions ordering people to pointless war like Korea, Vietnam and Iraq/afghanistan, and their lack of conscience, regret and remorse. Psychos indeed.
Just want to mention Libya. What did the Libyan people want?????????????????? Did they want what people of the occupy movement want or did they want western corporate democracy under the fascism of sharia????????????????? Sad truth..Dead men dont talk. Google facts about libya. And help expose the biggest corporate media crime ever.
The entire Middle East consists of countries of warring and rival tribes and clans. Europe and the US (NATO) want Libya's oil and wanted a new management to deal with. The civil revolt was the repressed eastern tribes grabbing power from Kaddafi's western tribes. Why waste a good war?
Eastern tribes against gaddafi????Are you sure?
Kaddaffi beat the shit out of the eastern tribes in his country.
Where did you hear that..I would genuinely appreciate a source. There was one tribe other than the burbers who traditionally didn't get on with the gaddafi tribe but they were with the jamarahia.
The lies in this war were like no other..I am struggling to come to terms with it..but i will accept the truth if the evidence is presented.
http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/04/24/is-gaddafi-trying-to-start-a-tribal-war/
The article explains western tribe preference, also Kadaffi's home tribe is western, 140 tribes in Libya!
There is nothing in the article that proves any tribes were against the jamarhia..They were all loyal to gaddafi till the end.. A typical missleading report from corporate media.. the rebels were corrupt capatalist pigs using alcaida whose tribes had disowned them.
No wonder the US is in so much debt, just have a look at its defence spending.
Why did the US drop more bombs on Vietnam and Cambodia than were dropped in the whole of WWII?
Why does the US use first world weapons killing people in third world countries?
The military-industrial-congressional lobby complex wants endless war, win or lose, to keep the dollars pouring in. Oops, the civilians were in the way.
Defense spending creates a ton of good jobs, both in the military and civilian sectors.
"Robert Pollin, a professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst who has compared job creation from military spending to other sectors, said dollars for defense certainly would create jobs.
"It's no surprise to say, with $700 billion ... you better be creating a lot of jobs," Pollin said.
The issue, however, is how many jobs.
A study that Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier conducted in 2009 found that spending $1 billion on health care, education or clean energy, or cutting taxes, created more jobs across all pay ranges than spending the equivalent amount on the military. Investment in education generated about 29,100 jobs from $1 billion in spending compared with 19,600 jobs from health care, 17,100 from clean energy and 11,600 from the military, according to the analysis.
"Channeling funds into clean energy, health care and education in an effective way will therefore create significantly greater opportunities for decent employment throughout the U.S. economy than spending the same amount of funds with the military," the two wrote in a study based on Commerce Department data.
Pollin said Thursday that an updated study is forthcoming — and the conclusions are the same.
Said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.: "Defense spending is a poor way to create jobs. You can create more jobs investing in other areas."
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20111106/OPINION/111060348/Spin-Meter-GOP-flips-job-creation-defense
I'd like to move defense spending to healthcare
Yes and many other civilian uses.
bring military manufacturing and production in-house, why pay their overhead on top of cost? no more private manufacturers or contractors.
agreed
Absolutely on target! Endless war is what they want for the money to pour into and bankrupt America.
Guess what their plan WAS for this decade? Military Keynesianism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Keynesianism
Interesting Keynes warned Roosevelt against military spending to boost the economy.
The US spends with its military more than THREE TIMES the sum of the military spendings of China, Russia and France together.
China + Russia + France = 227 billion dollars.
USA alone = 700 billion dollars.
We're also the world's biggest arms merchant. We start wars for profit.
Apart from the oil, google the Nubian aquifer.
Water is the new gold. Ownership of water is the new commodity.
Gaddafie constructed the 8th Wonder of the World before they got rid of him.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/03/libyas_water_supply
Amazing! The guy did good things. Agreed on future water wars.
If we still had a draft and the children of the upper classes had to serve, the loud anti-war protests would have begun a long time ago, and perhaps the war would have ended sooner, but perhaps not, it took many years to get out of Vietnam.
Exactly: the greatest lesson the MIC learned from Nam was to kill the draft. Now mercenaries make up hole and volunteers are burned out with repeated tours.
cut the military budget
Absolutely! But congress is paid off by the lobbyists and military companies have smartly put factories all around the country for political support.
Get used to the idea of WW3 because that's a certainty without a peace president.
Oblama was and is a puppet of Wall st. He will never defy the military industrial complex.
Ron P.aul will end the wars and bring the troops home.
Will anyone else?
It's like American's are so desensitized about perpetual war that they (ironically) label P.aul as an isolationist for wanting to use diplomacy instead of drones and bombs.
The dumbing down of America via the corporate controlled media and government indoctrinated schooling has left the country bereft of critical thinking.
On target on everything! I posit that we already are in WW III; a new configuration consisting of many small ongoing conflicts. No other country on the globe is involved with war to the extent of the US is. Huntsman is anti war too, to his credit. Poor Eisenhower. OWS's problems are due to the black hole of the MIC sucking up the GNP and should incorporate endless, unneeded war in their platform foremost.
Need your help. pl. click the link and sign the petition to send the message to politicians and fix our economic problems. Need millions of signatures to get politicians attention and make this work. Here is the link:
http://www.change.org/petitions/members-of-congress-and-senators-fix-the-economy-and-balance-the-budget-now?pe=d4e
I believe defense must be cut significantly more than stated .
WHAT? Civilians in Vietnam died not in the US.
what's your point?
they are a communism.
the 99% was all of the vietnamese people.... in theory
War is sometimes necessary. And if we stopped spending money on our military how could you create jobs with the money? GIVE IT TO COMPANIES? YOU SAD YOU HATE THAT.
Spending money on civilian industry creates 3 times more jobs than the military. Vietnam wasn't a threat the US, as was Korea. All bullshit for war industries to make money. Same with Iraq and AfGhan and Iran.
OMG yes they were! USSR and the communist ring were VERY dangerous.
Vietnam, korea, piss poor nations 15,000 miles away in the 1960's a threat to the US???????????????? Only the US in the entire world?????????? No other nation felt the need to attack them in the entire world??????????IT WAS BULLSHIT WARS FOR PROFIT.
really? Explain the Communist invasion of Hungary in the 50s. that threatened europe. The US also had over 3,000 people slaughtered by Korea (they kidnapped international diplomatic agents). The US told both to stop and look.
Communism was an unsustainable system that collapsed upon itself. Russia tried to conquer Afghan. the graveyard of empires and it went bankrupt and failed. We're next. The USSR no longer exists. Are you aware of that?
Yes I am saying the communists were a threat to the US. During the 1950s and 60s.
Russia was decimated after WWII, it lost millions of men, it was invaded and could barely hold its satellites together. The US had the Bomb, was untouched in WWII except pearl harbor and we were the world's strongest. All the propaganda of Russia being a threat was bullshit to scare everyone into blindly paying for the military industrial complex that EISENHOWER warned against in his farewell address. We're still being scared by govt and media: bullshit WMD in Iraq and Saddam caused 9/11: all proven lies and bullshit. It continues with Iran as a nuclear threat, more bullshit to scare everyone into another war. That's what the military industrial complex/Fox/Koch want: endless war, win or lose, for profit. THAT is what eisenhower warned against in the 1950's.
USSR had twice as many atomic bombs then the US by 1962. The USSR was a strong nation with a population of over 100 million at the time. And In fact Mr. Conspiracy theorist the UK had over 4,000 citizens kidnapped by soviets under claims that they were "spies" in order to interrogate innocent people. AND IF FACT the US communist party rioted for over 2 months damaging millions of homes which was USSR supported. the WMD in iraq ARE NOT the same as the USSR because the USSR even threatened and I QUOTE "WE WILL BARRY YOU!" in a UN meeting to the US and admitted to a huge atomic stock pile and developed the hydrogen (heavy water) bomb before we did.
All Russian planes (Aeroflot crashes), trains, boats, subs (Kirsk), bombs, nuclear reactors (Chernobyl), cars (Moskovich), machinery, space ships were designed like crap, fell apart, didn't hold up and were unreliable. Furthermore, no concern was given to operator safety. They were paper tigers. Most of their stuff, although in large numbers, was put together with spit and chewing gum. The proof is, Mr. I Swallow Propaganda, they disintegrated and we're still here.
You may say that, but how come the USSR was able to defeat Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Acadalia, Finland, Hungarian Independent Capitalistic Movement, the GDN, and the Iran TGY?
While we couldn't win a single war against the communists?
You lost credibility in your 1st 24 words. Bush caused 9/11 ? sigh.
Fact: No wmd found in Iraq. Fact: Saddam Hussein had no part in 9/11. In fact, he didn't like Bin ladden. fact: these were the reasons stated for the iraq War by BusH-Cheney-Powell. Gulf of Tonken incident once again.
Agreed!
Eisenhower warned against the Military Industrial complex. Now it includes lobbyists.
Blowback. A word not found in American dictionaries, but felt on its streets.
Indeed. Chalmers Johnson. Clinton caused a little blowback when he bombed Bin Laden's hospital in '99 under the wrong excuse it made WMD. 9/11 blowback.