AMERICA'S STAND-IN!

AMERICA'S STAND-IN!

(Asian Times/ Common Dreams/Frazer Chronicle)

"My man".....I'm so glad that there are people out there who will take the heat, are willing to slay the dragon, defending our country, and all that goes along with that effort. I'm well past the defending age, having reached the "age of majority" almost 3.5 times ago, and anyways, I have my television schedule to consider.

I however can understand the attitude of a substitute, and the purpose of one, having been one off and on for well over 40 years. A substitute is kind of like a utility player on a baseball team, he's not real good at any position, but can play almost any position fairly well.....kind of like a "stop gap" guy, somebody not as good as the starter, but tolerable.

A proxy.....a stand in, the man/group who, for a price, is willing to deflect all sorts of crap, and among other things will take the losses that come with the territory of what a proxy stands for. For the purposes of this blog, the proxy I'm talking about is military, all military and nothing but the military.

Proxy's use all sorts of clandestine operations to achieve goals and objectives that the "agent" of an "event" wants. It's been going on for centuries, these proxy conflicts and wars, all the way back to biblical times, and the achievements garnered have help build nations, tear them down, and mold history, and effected the lives of almost every single human being that ever lived on face of the earth.

I guess a person might say that Blackwater Security Consulting "might" be viewed as a proxy entity, members of their "consulting team," possibly thousands, were in Iraq where the "shooting and body bag counts" happened on a daily basis.

It is estimated that the military contracted forces in Afghanistan now made up of a little more than 50% of all United States personnel. Contractors, security consultants, or whatever the Pentagon likes to call them operate under vastly different rules then the United States military, what they do often times is outside the parameters of what either the United Nations forces, or American forces want to do or accomplish, or do they!

And the raise in non-military personnel "employed" by the United States is at its highest rate ever, this according to the Pentagon. Sadly under President Barack Obama's watch, there has been an increase of 23% in the number of these "private security consultants or contractors that work for the Defense Department.

During the time that the United States was waging war in Iraq and Afghanistan there was a whopping 242,657 contractors working the two stages. And now, with U.S. forces (mostly) out of Iraq, and war efforts focused on Afghanistan, there still remains????? in Iraq, and over 100,000 in Afghanistan.

CHANGING WITH THE TIMES:

Some would argue that the employment of security consultants or contractors is nothing more than the changing times of how wars are fought in the world of the 21^st century. I seem to recall a Secretary of Defense, one Donald Rumsfeld wanting the U.S. military "meaner, sleeker, and smaller." Gee Don, I don't think your vision worked, unless you call what is left of Iraq, and what seems a never ending war in Afghanistan.

Rumsfeld didn't initiate security consultants or military contractors, but he sure did bring the idea into the 21^st century. Under his command, there were more private personnel fighting, doing security, rebuilding, and feeding our troops then at any other time in America's history.

Wars have always been waged for ideals, for land, for a way of life, for treasure, and out of fear, they have never been fought because it was fun. The weapons might change, but the face of war has never, nor will it ever change.

The face of war is a bloody, lacerated mess.....and nobody wins, that's right, nobody ever has won while waging war. It's funny, but most people will tolerate war if it's to help the oppressed, or to defend a "homeland," but everybody hates a bully boy attitude when it comes to waging war, no matter the size of the country, it must be a just war.

PROXY WARS ALWAYS GET OUT OF CONTROL:

Proxy wars are always based on deviate ideas, do not consider morals and rarely care about the overall results. Proxy wars might start down one path and then might change several different times during the course of the battle.

Proxy wars are always about a hidden agenda, they are always about our own interests, and what will do the United States the most good. President Obama is new at this proxy war game.....but he is learning. All over the Middle East, his administration has scrapped "for the moment" full scale invasions; he seems now to be embracing a multifaceted, light-footprint brand of warfare.

The fact of the matter is that the United States is a war-mongering imperialistic country, intent on world domination, the likes of which has never been seen during the entire history of the world. It's all about the money, the minerals and control.

Both Afghanistan and Iraq are perfect examples of how the United States supports proxy wars, unless you figure that the Pentagon didn't support both countries back in the 1970's and 80's. And guess what, the Pentagon is funded by us, the American taxpayer.

War is never the answer to any question, or actually any problem, no kind of war is ever devoid of mess, of cost, of rape, of pestilence, and of death. It's funny, as a people we figure that we have come so far; yet, we are really just inches from where we were 2000 years ago.