Military
When is Enough Enough?
The proposed federal budget for FY 2020 has been released. The big winner, again, is the Pentagon and the weapons industry. Endless wars produce endless military spending.
Most Americans know we spend a lot of money on the military and wars. Many of them blindly believe this is necessary to protect the country. But the more we spend the less safe we are. In addition we are not winning the wars. As William J. Astore. USAF LT COL (Ret.), has written,
“When it comes to the “world’s greatest military,” the news has been shocking... as the U.S. military spans the ...
Socialism Supports the Troops… So Why Not the Rest of Us?
This year a number of candidates for state and national offices are running as democratic socialists. Many of these candidates are women and minorities. AND they are being successful in the primary elections! It appears that younger voters are looking for real solutions to our problems and are not as susceptible to meaningless attack ad labels.
Bernie Sanders is a democratic socialist. But Bernie does not intend to change the structure of the economy. Rather he simply advocates making the economy work better by being more inclusive. His support for universal healthcare, ...
“Supporting” the Troops Hypocrisy
“White House Takes Aim at Financial Protections For Military,”
“The Trump administration is taking aim at a law designed to protect military service members from getting cheated by shady lending practices.”
National Public Radio, August 13, 2018.
“Mulvaney Looks to Weaken Oversight of Military Lending,”
“The Trump administration is planning to suspend routine examinations of lenders for violations of the Military Lending Act, which was devised to protect military service members and their families from financial fraud, predatory loans and credit ...
Stories We Tell Ourselves
“Who's dying for your freedom in this land,
Who pays for the cost for the liberties you demand
Is it for freedom, or our comfort and convenience,
Who pays the cost for the convenience we demand”
Excerpts from the song “Is it for Freedom?” by Sara Thomsen
On Memorial Day we eulogize the military service members who were sacrificed by our many wars. We tell ourselves these brave Americans died to “defend freedom” and protect our way of life. Implied in these stories is that our many wars were necessary and justified. But too often these stories ...
Cuba: Some Historic Perspective
“Right actions in the future are the best apologies for bad actions in the past.”
Tryon Edwards, 19th century American theologian
Normalizing relations with Cuba is long overdue. For over 50 years we have tried to change the government and social structure of this small, poor nation. Our animosity toward Cuba has been irrational, unnecessary, and contrary to our founding principles of liberty and democracy. President Obama's move toward normal relations was just the beginning.
American involvement in Cuba began long before Castro and the current socialist ...
THE ROGUE NATION
1950
The United States foments and launches the Korean War. Contrary to the popularly held falsehoods that America was in Korea to protect freedom and democracy, the war was to perpetuate already existing U.S corporate resource exploitation in the Philippines and the Korean Peninsula. U.S. political and business leaders hoped for a share of Korean gold and tungsten.
Americans Herbert Hoover, William Randolph Hearst, J. Sloat Fassett, Ogden Mills, J.B. Haggin, John Staggers and beer baron Adolph Coors had achieved controlling interests in Korean gold mines where the ...
THE SKY IS GREEN AND GRASS IS BLUE
THE SKY IS GREEN AND GRASS IS BLUE
This is the now famous photograph of the “Napalm Girl” and of the Vietnamese children fleeing because aircraft from the United States of America were dumping the chemical weapon napalm on their village. Napalm was designed to stick to the human body and burn off the skin.
This is a photograph of a Vietnamese woman holding a child who has been burned by napalm. The dropping of napalm and Agent Orange by the United States over Vietnam is likely the greatest use of chemical weapons in world history. Thousands of Vietnamese ...
SENDING MESSAGES
Two big news stories of the last week are the missile attack on Syria and the “mother of all bombs” being used in Afghanistan. The juxtaposition of these stories with the April tax filing deadline is so ironic it demands comment. These two attacks on other countries are classic examples of why we have budget problems. These stories also speak volumes about who we think we are, vs who we actually are, as a society.
The U.S. attacked an airbase in Syria with 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles in response to the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government. Our ...
Build Diplomacy Not Bombs
“Even though tiny – only 1 percent – the leverage that foreign aid exerts on behalf of U.S. security interests is incredible.” Lt. Gen. Dan Christman, U.S. Army retired.
“...if you don’t fund the State Department fully then I need to buy more ammunition...” Gen James “Mad Dog” Mattis, Secretary of Defense, testifying as Commander of the Central Command in March 2013 before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The Trump administration's budget plan calls for increasing military spending by $54 billion (about 10%). This will be “paid” for by ...
THE URGENT NEED FOR SKEPTICISM
1953:
Few Americans remember the CIA orchestrated coup that overthrew the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran. Dr. Mohammad Mosaddegh won the election in 1951 and began implementing reforms to benefit the citizens of Iran. With the full support of his people, Mosaddegh nationalized the Iranian oil industry which had been under British control since 1913 through the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (now BP - British Petroleum). For 40 years the corporation had plundered the oil wealth of Iran, leaving her people with next to nothing.
Naturally, U.S. based corpora...
