I know the answer. Do you?
The best way to “support the troops” is to not send them into stupid battles in places we ought not to be in the first place.
The War in Afghanistan is going on over 15 years. Yes, 15 years. WTF? For what?
Fifteen year ago Donald Rumsfeld said Afghanistan was pacified and George W. Bush said the U.S. mission in Iraq was “accomplished.” Now the disastrous neoconservative assumptions are in full view, says Ambassador Chas Freeman. https://t.co/CKy4Hd5puc
— Consortium News (@Consortiumnews) August 21, 2018
15 years ago Rumsfeld said “Afghanistan was pacified.”
Whatever the flying F that was supposed to mean, it didn’t happen.
Here’s another Tweet that caught my eye today. It’s the best Tweet on the subject I have seen.
#War voraciously consumes resources, destroying the prosperity of nations which engage in it regularly. Consequently, war should always be a last resort, rather than a way of life. War is too easily waged by those who do not have to fight and die. #libertarian #antiwar pic.twitter.com/JHaUNap2iy
— Mary J. Ruwart Ph.D. (@MaryRuwart) August 20, 2018
Simple. Precise. And she is anti-regulation as well.
Never Ending Wars
I did not support the war in Vietnam. I did not support the second war in Iraq. I did not support the war in Afghanistan. I did not support actions in Libya. I do not support our policy in Syria.
Spare me the sap about Hitler. He is dead. And the US was attacked in WWII. But going back further, Hitler was a result of the US meddling in WWI, a war we had no business in.
ISIS is a direct result of the second war in Iraq.
US drone policy makes more enemies than it kills.
History is on my side.
Freedom Isn’t Free
Look at that lead image. When I was in the 7th grade at St. Patrick’s grade school we were “treated” to a barrage of war propaganda. One of the nuns played a song called “Freedom Isn’t Free”.
It was in support of the War in Vietnam. “Freedom isn’t free. You got to pay the price you got to sacrifice for your liberty.”
Well F that.
Support the Troops. Stop the wars!
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
These post 9/11 Forever Wars are more insidious than that. They’re a blueprint for indefinite sectarian conflict that has already spread to Syria, Libya, Yemen, and to some extent Ukraine. Seems there is a belief in the higher echelons that there are too many people on the planet, and these wars are a good way of killing/demoralizing superfluous population, not to mention enriching contractors. War profiteering is seriously big business these days.
Afghanistan is the key war because it achieves two goals. Not only was it the first of the Forever Wars, but it spreads opioid addiction around the world, another useful method of curbing population since it disproportionately affects the young.
Sure, all this war, drug addiction, and encouraged hatred toward each other makes for a depressing world, but that’s the price we pay for our glorious freedom!
It is more likely that career in politics just interests lots of INCOMPETENT people and since they are INCOMPETENT they do NOT know what they are doing so they make stupid decision after another.
George W. Bush and his government did NOT even know or take into account that there are 3 different kinds of people in Iraq (sunnis, shias and kurds) before attacking Iraq.
Same with Obama in regards to Syria because Obama supported sunni rebels who had supremacist thoughts that they are better than Yazidis, Christians and Alawites (Assad and elite of Syria are mostly Alawite which is a branch of Shias) which led to support for Sunni rebels who ended up either being ISIS or switching sides to ISIS or Al-qaida branch Al-Nusra (all Sunni organisations)
Same with Ukraine where Obama supported actual f*cking nazis because Obama was clueless that some Ukrainian speaking Ukrainians have supremacist thinking that they are better than Russian speaking Ukrainians.
Obama government supported the Ukrainian speaking rebels in Ukraine after they had a coup against Russian speaking Ukrainian president and even as first act once coming to power was FORBIDDING use of Russian language in government and teaching of Russian language in schools which instantly made 40% of Ukraine’s population second class citizens who were discriminated against.
Nonsense. You’re asking me to believe they keep making the same “mistakes” over and over by accident, regardless of whether the red/blue team is in charge at a given time. This is clearly intentional. Even if individual politicians (puppets, really) are clueless about a particular country, the military brass and policy makers pushing for these operations are not. They are not insane or incompetent, and seem perfectly happy with how things have turned out.
You need to seriously consider the possibility that these results you’ve seen repeatedly since 9/11 are the desired outcome, then begin asking questions about why that would be the case.
The privileged are just trying to hang onto, entrench and strengthen their privilege by any means they can grasp at. Just as they always have.
Inventing “enemies” and scary, always imaginary, Hobgoblins are how they do that.
More fundamentally, and much more problematic for the West, is that its’ privilegeds’ machinations to achieve the above, have now resulted in a West so far removed from the ideals that once made it the Shining City on the Hill; that it no longer is a better place than the Muzzy states.
“They,” the Muzzies, are just better than us by now. That’s how far we have sunk. Hence, “they” will win, since noone rational will be cheering for, and supporting “us” anymore. We’re just a fat leech that’s in the way. With nothing of value to contribute, aside from purely material things that are entirely the inertial result of values, institutions and traditions that are now effectively dead.
All “they” have may be Sharia Law, but while perhaps a bit light compared to the combined musings of Moses and Jefferson, it is surely a vast improvement over ambulance chaser “law,” or whatever arbitrary drivel is invented for the benefit of “elected (or not so in the EU) officials,” legislate-from-the-bench progressive yahoos and similar manifestations of pure rot.
They have smaller, more effectively restricted governments than we have. Which is why Afghans can grow poppy if they wish. Just like Americans could too, back in the civilized era. Now Americans sit in jail, in order to enrich political contributors in the “incarceration” industry. Yup, “they” get to live free and tend to their poppy fields, while “we” are in chains… Which pretty much sums up “us” vs “them” at this stage of the West’s decay.
They have proper guns. As in, guns sufficient to ensure government stays limited enough to leave their poppy fields alone. And to ensure tax rates don’t get out of hand. Not “pea shooter for me if I jump through enough hoops, nukes for you, thaink yooo massa foi my fjiiidumz!!”
And so forth and so forth.
Bottom line is, “they” are just better than “us” by now. As in, comparatively, “we” suck. And nature has a way of dealing with suckage. It’s called replacing it with something that works better.
It is still safer to be in combat in Iraq or Afghanistan than a weekend in Chicago…
Afghanistan is our new Vietnam. For those interested, attached is large file of the secret Pentagon Papers released by Daniel Ellsberg to the NYT. You will be furious if you take the time to read. It is rather long but it delves into the quagmire known as Vietnam. It also mentions a suggestion by lower echelon official that there was a short window of opportunity where the USA could extricate itself from the Vietnam war and still save face. A shame that so many people died in a screwed up war. The Pentagon Papers attachment is fairly long. If interested, save to your ‘favorites’ and just read a chapter from time to time. This paper is a real eye-opener.
It seems most veterans agree with you Mish, at least to some degree:
OT: Here’s a tip for you guys reading Mish: If you click on the Venus swimsuit ad, and then click on the string bikini for further “study”, then when you go back to Mish ALL the advertising will be pictures of pretty young Venus swimsuit models in string bikinis. Much better!
Glad to see someone is still focused on the important stuff!
The USA does not have a voluntary army. Volunteers work for free. The USA has a mercenary army. People who happily go to foreign countries and kill their innocent women and children for money. I don’t support our troops. I loathe them.
What should we have done after 9/11? How about put locks on airplane doors? The parents of the tens of thousands of dead and injured troops can at least take pride in one thing: their sacrifices didn’t make a lick of difference to our freedom, but they have added shareholder value for Lockheed and Boeing!
Sorry to hurt folk’s feelings here. But f*cking wake up.
You forgot Raytheon, Jon.
Man, you sound like proper Militia Man! I’m impressed!
The US military is merely the action branch of the military-industrial complex. It is their job to use up ammunition and offensive weapons thus requiring the manufacture of new weapons. Which increases the profits of the companies that are part of the MI complex.
Russia Russia Russia
Putin didn’t move NATO to the Russian border after Secretary Baker promised Gorbechev that NATO would not take one step east.
Putin did not interfere in the 1996 Russian election, to get Yeltsin elected.
Putin did not overthrow Yanukovich.
Putin did not try to overthrow Assad, causing the death of some 500,000 Syrians, as well as turning millions into refugees, as well as helping to destabilize the EU through the migrant crisis.
Russia Russia Russia.
And in other news; a scary Hobgoblin did scary sounding things in a galaxy on the opposite side of the Universe.