“Naturally the common people don’t want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, IT IS THE LEADERS of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is TELL THEM THEY ARE BEING ATTACKED, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. IT WORKS THE SAME IN ANY COUNTRY.”
One can fast forward to some of our own nation’s so-called ‘Wars’ after WW2: Korea, Vietnam and of course Iraq. In all of these instances, the public was sold, hook, line and sinker, the fear card that our entire way of life would come to an end if we did not fight. And fight we did, or should I say in the case of Iraq ‘And attack we did!’ This ‘guns and butter’ approach only succeeded, each and every time, of helping to further the slow timed bankruptcy process, both fiscally and morally.
Eugene Jarecki made one of the greatest documentaries in 2005 entitled so appropriately ‘Why We Fight’. This is a must-see for all Amerikans, especially our high school kids. The film is that powerful! Three years after his film, Jarecki wrote a great book The American Way of War, covering how and why our corrupt leaders do what they do. Folks, it has always been and will always be about serving The Empire, what this writer always refers to as The Military Industrial Empire. In Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick’s The Untold History of the United States the creation of what was named The Cold War was by this same empire… the military industrial one. Goering’s quote from the above scores it all. The ‘sheep’ need to be led so that the uber-rich who run things can maintain their place at the head of the world’s table. It was never really about Russia or China or Iraq or now Iran. No, it was and is always about DUH MONEY! Marine Major General Smedley Butler was correct in his 1935 essay War is a Racket- The money talks and few wounded walks.
The sad reality is to look at this ‘Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee’ two-party system which has handcuffed our citizenry for so long… and will always! Through the embedded media they will rant and rave at each other for the cameras… a ‘Food Fight’ by mostly millionaires or wannabe ones. The Democrats will stand firm and tell the suckers how they ‘Will fight for you’, and then sell us out time and time again. The other party, more dastardly and yes, much more dangerous, will promise to protect the suckers from all interlopers, and how ‘Family Values’ are secured inside of the flag… the flag they hold hostage. Meanwhile, both phony and hypocritical parties laugh all the way to the bank and future lobbyist or corporate positions after they serve. It is always been we working stiffs who have to pay the bills… for obscene military spending or other corporate gifts for the empire.
That is why we fight… and die!!
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