1040 For Peace had a Zoom session the other night on strategies for peace, and I made a presentation. If you’re interested in a lively discussion on peace activism, the video is available HERE on YouTube.
In the Q&A of the session, I talked about asymmetrical warfare.
Now we all know what ‘asymmetry’ means when it comes to military conflict. One country drops a few bombs. The bombed country responds not in-kind, but in another fashion: a cyber attack, a psyops, biochemical attack, they hack into elections (thank you, Rachel Maddow, for bringing us up to speed on that!), they put LSD in the drinking water.
But I made a point which I think is very important in understanding how misguided, arguably insane, our military priorities and spending are.
Here it is.
Within kinetic warfare itself — bombs, missiles, soldiers, planes, submarines, tanks — there’s also a profound asymmetry. And the asymmetry is the difference between OFFENSIVE WARFARE and DEFENSIVE WARFARE.
First off, let’s be clear about something: Defending one’s own nation is much easier and less expensive than attacking another nation, because first of all the positioning of military assets is at the outset opposite, then what is used in the engagement of the enemy and how the enemy is engaged is dramatically different.
Okay . . .
Countless times, we’ve heard this question over and over: Why is it that the U.S. spends more on military than the next 9 countries combined?
A slightly different take . . .
Why is it the combined defense budget of the U.S. and NATO, which in 2020 came in at over a trillion dollars ($1.028 trillion) is four times the combined defense budgets of China ($237 billion) and Russia ($48 billion)?
FOUR TIMES as big!
Yet, we always hear and are now hearing even louder than ever the harangue from the generals and other military planners that WE NEED MORE! More equipment, more troops deployed, more bombs, more ships, more missiles.
MORE MONEY!
And a core justify to the latest DOD money grab is this statement, coming by the way from both the Army and Navy:
“We can’t win a war with either Russia or China.”
Wait!
We can’t win a war with Russia and China. YES . . . that’s true. But you know what else is true? They can’t win a war with us!
Maybe I’m simpleminded but this sounds to me like a cause for celebration. In some twisted 21st Century way, this is a recipe for peace! None of the major powers would dare start a war since they know upfront they’d lose.
YAY! Break out the champagne.
Now . . . that begs the question: why are our military planners crying the blues, getting all weepy, and saying we’re in big trouble?
Because here we have another example of the grotesque deceptions we’re subjected to. This one is a classic case of LYING BY OMISSION.
What did they leave out? Well, what they left out is . . .
WE CAN’T WIN A WAR OF AGGRESSION against Russia.
WE CAN’T WIN A WAR OF AGGRESSION against China.
We can’t attack them on their soil, in their sphere of influence, on their seas, in their skies . . . and defeat them. WE CAN’T WIN!
This paranoia and prevarication highlights in big bold letters exactly what’s wrong with our foreign policy, our military planning, our conquer-the-world mentality, the whole ball of wax.
AND . . . it also makes it completely clear why our DOD budgets are and will always be increasing, why our bloated expenditures on policing and bringing the rest of the world to its knees, are completely insane.
Let me take this a step further. Since that Zoom session — this morning, in fact — I extended this line of reasoning a bit further.
Here’s how that goes.
Right now our military is freaking out about the advanced weaponry of Russia. We can’t keep up. Hypersonic missiles, nuclear powered drones, high-speed aquatic attack drones, advanced electronic warfare.
Russia has left the U.S. in the dust!
Our DOD budget for 2020? $718 billion.
Russia’s military budget 2020? $48 billion.
Yes, really. Only $48 BILLION!
Let’s even factor in the differences in cost of living. Current figures show that the COL of Russia is about half that of the U.S., meaning in U.S. dollars everything would cost twice as much. Alright, 2 times $48 billion is STILL ONLY $96 billion. In U.S. dollars, to create and maintain their awesome, SCARY military power, Russia spends 13% of what the U.S. does.
THAT’S how inexpensive a truly remarkable, effective DEFENSIVE military can be designed and deployed. Why then are we spending over seven times as much for our less-than-capable military machine?
Bear in mind, we haven’t won a single war since WWII. Okay okay . . . we trounced Granada in a one-sided invasion against some lifeguards and tow-truck drivers.
The problem is obvious . . . trying to police and conquer the entire planet is bankrupting us! No amount of lying, propaganda, and rah-rah-support-our-troops PR campaign changes the truth.
WAR IS MAKING US POOR!
Isn’t time we the people put a stop to this grotesque fraud? Isn’t it time we united behind a couple simple, straightforward, obvious propositions?
Enough is enough!
We’re not going to take it anymore!
Stop the military insanity before we destroy ourselves!
We the people can do this, if we just do what we need to do.
Like Julian Assange says: “If wars can be started by lies, they can be stopped by truth.”
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