Forum Post: War is Great for America!
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 29, 2011, 10:07 a.m. EST by bklynsboy
(834)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
We blow up the world, the military-industrial-congressional complex makes trillions. We try to rebuild, they make more hundreds of billions. When the destabilized area we "helped" unravels and starts more wars, contractors make more billions.
Everything is cut for the 99% but banks and contractors profit from war. Now we're selling $11B in weapons to Iraq to continue the cycle.
US seals deal on $3.48 billion sale of missiles, technology to UAE, in the Mideast. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-seals-deal-on-348-billion-sale-of-missiles-technology-to-uae-a-close-ally-in-mideast/2011/12/30/gIQAukcYRP_story.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=cheatsheet_morning&cid=newsletter%3Bemail%3Bcheatsheet_morning&utm_term=Cheat%20Sheet
Saudis just bought $34B in US jets. Hooray! http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/29/world/meast/u-s--saudi-fighter-sale/index.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=cheatsheet_afternoon&cid=newsletter%3Bemail%3Bcheatsheet_afternoon&utm_term=Cheat%20Sheet
Military sales to Iraq: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/world/middleeast/us-military-sales-to-iraq-raise-concerns.html?hp
Smedley Butler on Interventionism
-- Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC. War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses. I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag. I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket. There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism. It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service. I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested. During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
We need his kind today!
Who would have thought Obama would continue the warmongering? Im ashamed for this country.
Just imagine if Pakistan flew a jet over, say, Philly, and blew up a building. And kiled a few kids in teh process.
All fuckin hell would break loose here. People would be in the streets screaming "Whyyyyyyyyy"
Just like Roosevelt provoked Japan before WWII with sanctions, we provoke Iran. Japan's blowback was Pearl Harbor.
Clinton bombed Osama's hospital in 1998 on false intelligence it made WMD. Osama's blowback was the WTC.
WE lied about the Gulf of Tonkein incident to invade Vietnam. It continues.
The world is run by gangsters. And we are Mr. Soprano :)
Yes! Dems and repubs continue the drumbeat of war. We just sold $5B in missiles to the UAR. PROFITS FROM WAR benefit the 1% at the expense of the 99%.
Yeah !
As long as it's not your arm chair warrior but on the line !
Talk all you want , but if you had to be in the trenches you'd have a different outlook !
[Removed]
He's a Troll.
They drank the kool aid.
War is actually terrible for America. In all the lost lives. That being said it happens and people die. That also being said I assume you have never done any type of service.
War is necessary when diplomatic efforts fail. Currently there is no country on earth that can conquer us.
Bin Laden wiped us out economically. Of course he had willing accomplices in the Bush Administration and congress. Obama and the bankers are simply icing the cake.
The MIC wants endless war, win or lose, to keep the money flowing. Next: Iran.
Bin Laden may very well be a construct of the MIC.
He won: his goals were to cut our freedoms, expend lives and treasure.
Well China could using sheer manpower but they have too much invested in us at the moment.
Especially with their trillions of US debt.
There's no force or country on earth that can conquer us. Russia is dead. China is capitalist and has trillions of our debt and is making money. They don't want war. The security threats are bullshit and to scare us into paying all our taxpayer dollars for the war machine and cut everything else. No WMD were found in Iraq. Saddam didn't cause 9/11. All bullshit intelligence to go to war and wreck another country and destabilize the region. That allowed Iran to ascend and try for nukes. Fighting 10 years in the Middle East allowed N. Korea to go nuke. More US fuck ups.
The only threats come from the people whose countries we're occupying as the invaders. What would you do in that case?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_window_fallacy
The money spent on the war effort, for example, is money that cannot be spent on food, clothing, health care, consumer electronics or other areas. The stimulus felt in one sector of the economy comes at a direct—but hidden—cost to other sectors.
This fallacy does not apply when windows get broken in another country or paid for with borrowed money.
What I'm saying is money we spend on war, with no benefit to society, is money no longer available to society. WW II was the last just war for our protection and survival. From Korea to the present, wars were solely to enrich the 1% MIC at the expense of the 99%.
Business is BOOMing. More BANG for the buck from Saudis. It's like a fireworks stand.
All for oil. We could get off oil that's financing middle east terrorism by using huge North American reserves of Natural Gas. But that would kill MIC and Big Oil that both pay off Congress.
War is profitable only to the Corporate/profiteer arms and material suppliers.
This is why we are here this is why you are needed.
http://occupywallst.org/forum/inside-job-documentary/
Share, circulate, educate, inspire.
Death for profits. Rebuild America, create jobs, cut foreclosures instead.
Force/Enforce realistic contract re-negotiations!
This is why we are here this is why you are needed.
http://occupywallst.org/forum/inside-job-documentary/
Share, circulate, educate, inspire.
Contract expenses are trivial compared to the money the US spends on war, military, "homeland security", foreign aid.
You've got that right and it is the responsible thing to be doing. Renegotiate and reflect reality.
Here's another you might like:
http://occupywallst.org/forum/irs-could-resellrent-foreclosed-properties/
Circulate if you agree.
Cool. Worth pursuing.
Lets do it to it.
But the military industrial congressional money pay offs must stop.
Financing Fascism: The Military-Industrial Complex and the Rise of Neo-Conservatism
By: Andrew G. Marshall
pdf 48 pages http://www.multiupload.com/0F5YEMBGVP mirror
http://www.journalof911studies.com/letters/b/MarshallMilitaryIndComplexPNAC.pdf
mp3 33 minutes
http://www.multiupload.com/B6TQ5M3XI0
excerpt: Today, and in fact, for much of our recent history, our governments in the Western world have been controlled by an unseen hand. Most of us have been aware of some aspect of this hidden hand, but cannot identify who moves its fingers and controls its actions. This hidden hand goes by many names; among the more prominent being the shadow government, the iron triangle or, more accurately, the military-industrial complex. So it is necessary to now take a look back at the history and role that the military-industrial complex has played in all our lives, and continues to play today. It was on January 17, 1961, that President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his farewell address to the nation, in which he coined this term and gave a stern and necessary warning to the American people. His use of the term ‘military-industrial complex’ was in reference to describing the intimate relationship between the military establishment, the political structure and the defense industry. In his speech, Eisenhower stated: This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
Eisenhower was great. We lost our way. Congressmen voting for endless war must be fired.
"military-industrial complex" is not the hand, it's just a finger of it, the "hidden hand" called Invisible Hand of the Market If there is something truly evil in this world, that would be it.
The POWER SOURCE of the hidden hand = the incredible advantage of CREATING MONEY out of thin air.
The bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take it away from them, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But, if you wish to remain the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create money.” – Sir Josiah Stamp, Director of the Bank of England (appointed 1928). Reputed to be the 2nd wealthiest man in England at that time.
Sure, banks are the important part of it, they are the ones that create the most profit from wars and giving credits to both sides, nevertheless, they are just a thumb of the invisible hand as there will still be many industries that will profit from it. Like the whole line of weapon manufacturing, weapon research, steel industry, aircraft industry, intelligence industry, military-industrial complex. There of cause many more non-war examples of severe negative effects of the invisible hand like big pharma, agriculture additive industry, media industry, marketing industry and the list goes on...
Who owns the military industrial CONGRESSIONAL complex, big pharma, big agribiz, the main stream media?
The ownership is very concentrated and becoming more so . . .
If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks…will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered…. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs. – Thomas Jefferson in the debate over the Re-charter of the Bank Bill (1809)
“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.” – Thomas Jefferson
The Government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credits needed to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of consumers. By the adoption of these principles, the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest. Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity. -Abraham Lincoln
Issue of currency should be lodged with the government and be protected from domination by Wall Street. We are opposed to…provisions [which] would place our currency and credit system in private hands. – Theodore Roosevelt
War is the most profitable activity on earth for the very few at the expense of the many.
Well-put. We spend about as much as the rest of the world combined on war. Everything is cut to feed the war machine. Most industrialised countries have Bullet Trains, except us. They surpass us in health, education and longevity as well as lower rates of babies dying.
Hegemony or survival America's quest for global dominance
http://www.multiupload.com/NMZ61VP3A1
In September 2002 the Bush administration announced its National Security Strategy, which declared the right to resort to force to eliminate any perceived challenge to US global hegemony, which is to be permanent
It is very frightening . .
The US is already a secondary power: it's being shunted aside and regional alliances are forming to avoid the US. We must build ourselves instead of blowing up the world for the MIC benefit.