We are a nation beset by problems, many of which are the predictable results of unregulated capitalism, human greed and selfishness, a monstrous and out-of-control Military Industrial Complex and a wildly distorted sense of who we are.
This is a precarious moment in our history, not because of terrorists, Muslims or jihadis, not because of the Chinese or the Yeminis, or any others, but because of our own inability to quit acting like selfish, myopic, militaristic fools.
The warmongers take it to be their God-given right to bomb anybody who displeases them or who has something they want to take by force of arms. Because of them we have become the biggest terrorists in the world.
Hillary Clinton called.. for a sharp escalation of the war against the.. Islamic State.., embracing some ideas championed by Republicans and rejected by President Obama.
“It’s time to begin a new phase and intensify and broaden our efforts to smash the would-be caliphate,” [Clinton] said in a major foreign policy speech... “This is a worldwide fight, and America must lead it.”
Hillary Clinton calls for ‘new phase’ in war on ISIS
These people want war because it enriches their friends and makes their lives more exciting. Like papa Bush said, he was so bored by peace he wanted to quit being president. Life's hardly worth living if we can't murder, bomb, torture and kill. They've manipulated our fears to turn us into a nation of shameless warmongers, war profiteers and lunatics.
Last year, the US military was running special operations in 147 countries, which represents roughly 75% of the entire planet. According to Special Operations Command spokesman Ken McGraw, the numbers are record breaking and represent a massive jump from the numbers seen during the Bush administration.
US and NATO military operations have grown exponentially over the years, as the western nations have taken it upon themselves to police the world and use that position to their benefit at every possible opportunity. The fact that military agents have been deployed to this many different areas in just a year reveals that the US empire is involved in an even deeper war than most American citizens can imagine.
United States Military Agents Deployed To 147 Different Countries in 2015, 75% Of The Planet
Our 1% have taken it on themselves to dominate the world militarily – and we've let them get away with it. What kind of assholes does that make us? The biggest.
We've allowed the 1% to use our fear to drive us insane. Our CIA recruited, trained and armed Al Qaeda to fight the Russians. Then they turned on us, after we abandoned them, and we then destroyed millions of lives in an uncontrolled fit of revenge and fear-driven stupidity. As part of that, we inexplicably invaded Iraq, who had exactly zero to do with it. Our foolish attack on Iraq, the idiotic disbanding of the Iraqi military, the outrages our military machine shamelessly perpetrated at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere destabilized the Middle East and created ISIS, including the training and arming of what were termed the ‘reasonable jihadis’ who we now must destroy in yet another fit of revenge and fear-driven stupidity. We won't even take in the refugees WE created. We here in the Land of the Brave have allowed our horrible 'leaders' to turn our nation into cowards and monsters. Many of us, and not just republicans, are now certifiably mad.
In reality, US and western policy in the conflagration that is now the Middle East is in the classic mould of imperial divide-and-rule. American forces bomb one set of rebels while backing another in Syria, and mount what are effectively joint military operations with Iran against Isis in Iraq while supporting Saudi Arabia’s military campaign against Iranian-backed Houthi forces in Yemen. However confused US policy may often be, a weak, partitioned Iraq and Syria fit such an approach perfectly.What’s clear is that Isis and its monstrosities won’t be defeated by the same powers that brought it to Iraq and Syria in the first place, or whose open and covert war-making has fostered it in the years since. Endless western military interventions in the Middle East have brought only destruction and division. It’s the people of the region who can cure this disease – not those who incubated the virus.
Now the truth emerges: Here’s how the US fueled the rise of ISIS in Syria and Iraq
Creating monsters and then having to destroy them is a game warmongers love to play - for fun and profit. And we keep letting them get away with it. How stupid are we?
These heartless bastards keep punching us in the lizard brain and we keep howling, 'kill 'em all!’ And of course while we're lost in a fever of fear and loathing, they are keeping us from changing anything that matters and laughing all the way to the bank. Does no one notice that the more we do this the worse it gets?
After the attacks in Paris, the world is again challenged by fear. With every bombing, beheading and mass shooting, the dread spreads, along with the urgency of defeating this nihilism.But no less a challenge for the civilized world is the danger of self-inflicted injury. In the reaction and overreaction to terrorism comes the risk that society will lose its way.
History is replete with examples of the power of fear and ignorance, to which even the great can fall prey. Franklin Roosevelt calmed a nation in bleakest days of the Depression, but he also signed the executive order imprisoning tens of thousands of American citizens for the crime of Japanese ancestry.
In our time, disastrous things have been done in the name of safety: the invasion of Iraq, spawned by delusion and lies; the creation of an offshore fortress, sequestered from the Constitution, to lock up those perceived as threats, no matter the cost and injustice; an ever-expanding surveillance apparatus, to spy on the people, no matter the futility.
Al Qaeda and the Islamic State did not compel us to shackle ourselves to a security state, or to disgrace our values by vilifying and fearing refugees and immigrants.
New York Times - The Price of Fear
Nothing good comes from being driven by fear or from ignoring the plainest and simplest lessons of history.
x YouTube VideoThese 47 Democrats Just Voted to Send Syrian Refugees Back to their Imminent Death
Let us be compassionate not fearful, wise not foolish, welcoming and loving not hateful. Let’s stop bombing the world and give peace a chance. And let's try to learn a little something from our relatively recent past – if we can.