AMERICAN GENERALS!

AMERICAN GENERALS!

(Asia Times/Frazer Chronicle)

I get it, I always have.....every country in the world today, and probably yesterday as well, needed an armed force as a deterrent to attack, as a means to keep the peace and to insure our way of life. The military leadership of the United States and countries across the globe walk a tight line that never can be stepped over, otherwise we would have military governmental control, and history has shown us, time after time, a military leadership, in government, never succeeds.

George W. Bush was a war monger, Dick Cheney was a war monger, many in the Bush white house and many connected with the Bush administration were war mongers. Nothing, I repeat, "nothing" good ever comes from war. Sometimes war is necessary, sometimes war is justified, but the facts are not altered.....nothing good ever comes out of war.

Most generals are and always have been overgrown boys who like to dress up in military garb, strut their "stuff" and play soldier and war games. Many are narrow minded men who see little past their collective noses.

They are a rather secretive bunch, with an eye towards knowing more than the enemy, the political process, and for damn sure the people of the United States. Their job, "according to them," is to keep us safe, to protect our way of life, and to secure our shores.

United States military leaders are supposed to work for the Commander in Chief.....that would be President Barack Obama. They are supposed to advise the Commander in Chief with regards to military matters, usually through the Secretary of Defense, but at the end of the day, the president makes the final decision.

I don't necessarily agree with the process, but what the hell, it seems to have worked more or less for the past 200 years and more. There have been presidents that have governed the country with a kind of iron fist, so we need to be aware. The U.S. can't win a war against the entire world and it's obvious that we need to reevaluate our thinking with regards to whether we are truly the "police force" of the world.....to my way of thinking, policing the world is an impossible task, and we are simply fooling ourselves in thinking that we can.

PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKES:

George W. sought to control pretty much the entire world with the threat of military strikes, "shock and awe," and "gee" that didn't work, unless you call a war in Afghanistan that has been going on for 10 years and more a success. Oh ya, Iraq wasn't really a success, and you could talk to anyone on the streets today and they'd tell you so.

I have become aware of things over the past several years, things about my country that I am not proud of, like "U.S." interests, like how we covet other countries natural resources, like how we want to spread "our form of governance," you know.....the free market, and the land of the free and the home of the brave. Poppycock.

The Pentagon has never seen a government that didn't agree with us, with our way of making money, or with our way of life, that they figured shouldn't be taken over.....by us, "for their own good, as well as ours." History books are full of how our government and our military operates with regards to those countries that don't see "eye to eye" with the United States.

Where does this attitude come from, let's put it this way, "not from the peace-nicks" standing on street corners with signs protesting the countries overseas involvement(s). The attitude is bolstered by political groups that figure it's America's way or the highway, by industry that signs multi-billion dollar defense contracts.

And the attitude comes from some of the very generals that are duty bound to answer to the Commander in Chief, the President of the United States.

WHERE WOULD WE BE WITHOUT WAR?

An interesting question, one that many generals don't ask and one that military industry never asks, although a simple enough question. Where would our collective energies go if we didn't have war, if we weren't pre-occupied with some silly war effort that most of us don't feel, that most of us don't think about and that most of us don't pay for.

What about the trillions of dollars that has been spent on war efforts since 1946, what about the hundreds of thousands who have died, the millions disfigured and the almost insurmountable cost incurred by injuries.

I'll tell you, we'd have more and better schools, better roads, more help for the elderly, the poor, the under educated and those suffering illness. There wouldn't be homeless people, crime would be better managed, our borders would be safer and we'd be a more productive country.

Of course we'd have to supply our generals with some sort of toys to play with, some war games to keep them sharp, but we wouldn't need to make war, or look for war because we'd have done away with it, our generals would simply play war.....nobody would die.

CONSCRIPTION, THAT'S THE TICKET:

A military draft that would end almost all wars, I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want my son, or my daughter, or my sister or brother, or my grand kids going off to war. What part of "they shoot at you" don't people understand; why in the world would I want anybody that I know today, to be whisked off to Afghanistan to fight "the enemy."

We have planes, ships, cannon and all other manner of weapon to dispatch whatever enemy we might have in the world today. And the inventors keep coming up with bigger and better weapons to kill our "enemies" with.

I have yet to see a terrorist with a plane, "since 9-11" to fight American superiority in the skies. I have yet to see a terrorists ship bombing any shorelines.....in the world, yet, the U.S. has, and is spending billions of dollars of planes, ships and guns.

Today the U.S. has an all volunteer military, those people that choose to "defend" our country, our freedom and our way of life.....kind of like Superman, "truth, justice and the American way." What a load of crap, mostly the exact reason these young people volunteer is because they think the idea of war is romantic, adventuresome, the "I'll take my chances attitude" that all young people have.

Does anybody take exception at how miss guided that attitude is, at how these young people are being taken advantage of by these "old fart" generals. War is to be avoided at all costs, ask any surviving member of any World War II military outfit, their advice is free for the taking.

Want to stop war.....start a conscription draft, that my faithful readers would spell the end of the madness and the beginning of enlightenment.