One of the most common labels people use to describe what I do is some variation of “anti-war journalist” or “anti-imperialist blogger”, and I’m always a tiny bit surprised when I see it. Not because I disagree with it; opposition to US-centralized warmongering probably constitutes a majority of my content, so it’s a reasonable description. I’ve just never explicitly had opposing war in mind when doing what I do. It’s been the main byproduct of my journey here, but it’s never been my objective.
I got started on this gig making Facebook posts in Bernie Sanders groups after noticing that the US mass media were actively sabotaging his 2016 primary race. My goal at the time was the same as it is now: to help jailbreak Americans, and thus the rest of the world, from the nearly invisible power structures which are oppressing us all and driving us toward extinction. When I first started writing about the 2016 presidential campaign I didn’t focus nearly as much on US foreign policy as I do now.
The shift toward emphasis on US-led warmongering wasn’t something I planned, it was just the natural consequence of my staring, day after day, at the puzzle of how to free humanity from its chains. I didn’t understand the mechanics of empire all that well when I started out, so I meticulously studied the behavior of government and media structures and watched for opportunities to expose glitches in the narrative matrix so I could highlight them for my readers. As I got better at noticing these glitches, I found that the opportunities to go “Look! See? They’re lying to you!” most often presented themselves around the issues of war and imperialism.
This is because it turns out that endless war is an absolutely essential component of the globe-spanning alliance between oligarchs and government agencies which is sometimes referred to as the “deep state”. Exerting more and more control over world affairs is how the largest power structures on earth continue to expand their power, and this is impossible to do without using the carrot of US military/economic alliance and the stick of US military/economic punishment. US economic control isn’t hegemonic enough on its own to overcome the influence of growing economic powers like China, so the threat of military violence is absolutely essential for maintaining the power alliance. It’s the glue that holds the entire empire together.
US Foreign Policy Is A War On Disobedience
"So now you’ve got this weird dynamic where the US is constantly working to make sure that no other countries surpass it and gain the ability to treat America the way America treats other countries."https://t.co/AVJoxuLOSq
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) July 6, 2019
So endless war is a 100 percent indispensable element in preserving existing power structures. The US-centralized empire cannot exist without it. The trouble for the empire, however, is that it can’t just come out and tell the public “Yeah we need to destroy everyone who opposes our resource control agendas and dominance in key geostrategic regions, so we’ll be forcibly eliminating this noncompliant government on Thursday.” The public would never go for it, because that’s a plainly sociopathic values system which we are taught since school age that our society evolved beyond many generations ago. People would lose trust in all government institutions, and revolution would quickly foment as a result.
For this reason, propaganda is necessary. Because America is where the empire has centralized most of its military firepower and billionaires, Americans are the most propagandized people on earth. There are thousands of people whose whole entire job is to convince Americans that it is good and desirable to keep trillions of dollars in military hardware moving around the planet and killing complete strangers who pose no threat to any American.
The challenge for the propagandists is that this is plainly bat shit crazy. It’s an assignment that is both absolutely necessary and extremely difficult. When the entire world order depends on convincing millions of people that something transparently insane and ridiculous is perfectly sane and rational, you’re naturally going to have difficulty smoothing over all the plot holes in the narratives you’re selling. That’s why you’re always seeing glaring discrepancies in the narratives used to promote US foreign policy agendas. In retrospect I’ve pretty much built my career on highlighting these discrepancies.
The primary role US-led warmongering plays in maintaining existing power structures, which I first started to notice during the 2016 Democratic primaries, is on even clearer display during the 2020 Democratic primaries. You see candidates like Bernie Sanders being frowned upon by hardline centrists for promoting domestic policies which would hurt the profit margins of the oligarchs, but overall he’s being treated as a legitimate candidate and receiving reluctant coverage on mainstream media networks. Then you look at the treatment of a candidate like Tulsi Gabbard, who is campaigning on a major overhaul of US foreign policy, and she’s treated as a raving lunatic and a traitor.
“Challenging domestic policy status quo in Washington can be controversial and subject you to some attacks. But those who dissent from DC’s foreign policy addiction to imperialism, militarism and support for repression are those who are always most smeared and maligned,” Glenn Greenwald tweeted a while back.
Challenging domestic policy status quo in Washington can be controversial and subject you to some attacks. But those who dissent from DC's foreign policy addiction to imperialism, militarism & support for repression are those who are always most smeared and maligned: https://t.co/JYTJo9vXdq
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 14, 2019
You can get away with promoting things like universal healthcare or student debt forgiveness with only moderate pushback from the establishment, but wanting to scale back the forever war will quickly see you branded a Russian asset or an antisemite and canceled. The empire won’t even tolerate you interfering with their narratives, let alone getting elected. Your voice will be targeted with an aggressive smear campaign until they make sure that hardly anyone is listening to what you have to say.
The fact that we’re so strictly forbidden from pursuing this line of attack is a clear sign that warmongering is the weakest point in the empire’s armor. It’s the most essential component of the oppression machine, and its narratives are the weakest and most plot hole-riddled. If you’re interested in taking down the oligarchic machine which keeps ordinary people poor, sick and stupid, then attacking war propaganda is the most useful expenditure of energy.
American leftists and progressives have not been great at this; even those who identify as “anti-imperialist” tend to mostly stay focused on domestic issues. This is perfectly understandable, since Americans are the victims of the empire’s soul-crushing neoliberal exploitation and it is therefore the thing that is staring them in the face most often.
But the drivers of empire do not fear a push for domestic policy reform nearly as much as they fear a push for foreign policy reform. They know that the plebs can be kept poor and stupid enough to pose no threat to the oligarchs controlling all the money (and therefore all the power) by simply manipulating the system and herding everyone into controlled political opposition groups who will end up telling them “Ohh, sorry, we couldn’t get the congressional votes. Those damn Republicans!” A large public demand to end warmongering would be a much tougher challenge to manipulate around.
The Forever War Is So Normalized That Opposing It Is “Isolationism”
"Under our current Orwellian doublespeak paradigm where forever war is the new normal, the opposite of war is no longer peace, but isolationism." #war #peace #TulsiGabbardhttps://t.co/dLbW6O2bRV
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) June 29, 2019
It’s actually the same agenda anyway; the plutocratic class, which is incentivized to keep everyone else poor in a system wherein money equals power and power is relative, is the driving force behind both neoliberal exploitation and the forever war, and if you can end either of these things you will end the whole empire. It just happens that when you look at the whole picture, warmongering turns out to be the far easier and far more efficacious line of attack.
There are plenty of moral arguments against imperialism, but you don’t even need to enter into morality to see that it’s smart to make opposing war your foremost priority. The kingdom of the bastards who are grinding us all down and trying to make us poorer, sicker and stupider so we can’t muster the chutzpah to toss them out on their asses is fed by an umbilical cord of endless war, and we have the power to cut that cord by opposing war and attacking war propaganda together.
Change that, and we change everything. Ordinary humans can finally begin to make the world their own, guided not by sociopathic oligarchs but by an enlightened self-interest which realizes that the only way we can continue to survive is if we learn to collaborate with each other and with our ecosystem for the common good. This is all I’ve ever been pushing toward here. Deep down, it’s all any of us want.
__________________________
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72 responses to “Opposing War Is The Best Approach To Revolution”
“Ruling elites seem to have learned through the generations…that war makes them more secure against internal trouble.” – Howard Zinn, History of the USA.
Mr Zinn probably summed it up quite well with this 1 tiny quote.
RE Tulsi Gabbard phoney radical
https://www.greanvillepost.com/2019/04/04/bruce-dixon-tulsi-gabbard-is-a-sheepdog-greens-howie-hawkins-is-2020s-only-real-peace-candidate/
“in a system wherein money equals power” In an otherwise good article this is not true and is an often repeated error in understanding how this system works. Money does not equal power. Money is a tool to herd and control the plebes and make war easy. Control of money = power. Wall Street controls the money supply and through this the economy and the war spending. Control of the money supply makes all this possible without having to deal with the public and public opinion. No more war bonds and tax hikes. This is how we wound up worshiping wall street and why everybody looks at the stock market as the key to the US economy.
Revelations of the world-wide ” governmental slime ” trickle out now and then. This is one of them:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/07/thierry-meyssan/the-muslim-brotherhood-as-an-auxiliary-force-of-mi6-and-the-cia/
Tremendous post Caitlin. Another facet of our reality in the western world is that the ’empire’ is offshore and global. The EU has hit an impasse as it tries to federalize to become a ‘united states of europe’, with enough people waking up and questioning ‘who benefits’ with the endless centralization. Nation states, including the USA, are being subjugated into localities (business descriptors like EMEA for the sales region of europe, middle east and Africa) are telling in their trivialization of these vast areas homogenized populations to be sold to.
Despite the US military being on the face of it national armed forces the reality is it is effectively a mercenary force for the global elites, with little benefits for the American people except crushing expense. Gabbard is having a rough time with corporate media distorting her messaging but it’s worth remembering Trump stole much of Sanders support when the DNC stabbed him in the back to force Clinton as their candidate, and Trump won on that messaging. Gabbard has a good chance of doing the same with good cross ‘party’ and independent support. She may well be an establishment player (CfR etc) but I fully agree with and support everything she says right now. Here military practical experience makes it hard for the media bobble heads to disrespect her positions and that is a powerful base.
Until Americans demand and get real paper ballots and protection at the poles there will never be an honest President, Senate or Congress to represent us. As I’m sure you know our rights as voters were taken away in 2000 by the Supreme Court who instead of instilling democracy by ruling that we vote again, decided who was to be the next President all on their own and we just went along with it. And Trump “won” his post not on the popular vote but the electoral votes. The media have a strong drum beat going that reminds us every minute of every day that the US is a DEMOCRACY and if we question it we are Russian trolls or god forbid “Socialists”. Lately I have been studying Iceland and their gov and it is amazing . I highly suggest that people who are discouraged with the way things are going inside their government to look at the way Iceland and Norway run things! And as for Sanders and Gabbard, all I see are more parrots (just like Obama) telling us what we want to hear, to keep us hopeful and “beat that drum” of democracy so that we give $ to the DNC once again because they are such great money makers. For me anyone who is in the military and/or belongs to the CFR is a huge red flag.
“Because America is where the empire has centralized most of its military firepower and billionaires, Americans are the most propagandized people on earth.”
Yes, for world peace sake, the populace most in need of deprogramming is the American public. I guess we’re in awe of the color guard, the fly-over, and Bruckheimer’s production skills.
But then, it’s no trouble getting our allies onboard the war wagon. It would be significantly easier to defeat America’s war-mongering if our friends weren’t so eager to join in the destructive agenda.
When the US needs partners for
-a war in Iraq and Afghanistan
-the destruction of Libya
-poking the Russian bear with NATO exercises in Poland and regime change in Ukraine
-hilariously recognizing the “government” of Guaido to effect regime change in Venezuela
-a tag team to start a war in Iran (viva Gibraltar) …
No sweat, our allies line up eager and willing.
We’ve been good and brainwashed over here in ‘Murica. Dear less-propagandized populations, what’s you excuse?
An email from the Tulsi Gabbord campaign says they are a few thousand donors short of the goal that the Democratic Nationalist Corruption set to be allowed onto the stage of the 3rd and 4th debates. So, if you are an American and can contribute to her campaign, that would be a way to oppose war and keep at least one anti-war voice on the stage with the warmongers like Biden and Harris. It can be a small donation of just $3 or $5, as its a total of 130k donors that are decreed as being necessary.
——
I’m supporting her, but I don’t think that anyone is a perfect saint arrived to save us. But supporting Tulsi seems to be a strong way of saying that you are opposed to war. And as another excellent column recently said, the goal is to get dissident ideas into the mainstream. Let the mainstream deal with having an anti-war candidate on the stage at their fake debates.
——
Interesting that she seems to have gone quickly up in numbers of donors since the first debate. Remember, that while the corporate media has been pushing war, war, war for over a decade now, the last two Presidents were both elected after opposing wars in their campaigns. Both began as long-shots. The one thing that is true in America these days is that the Establishment and their media are a long, long ways apart from the people, whom they never see nor know.
How many ISIS POWs do we suppose the Peshmerga women took while beating back that particular horror? How does one respond to an Iraqi Christian woman who begs America to “please bomb us!” crying for such “relief “ while being held as a sex slave raped constantly in an ISIS encampment, but only after all their own men and boys where slaughtered without mercy? What do we say to a girl child auctioned off for a life of sexual abuse before a pack of leering “Holy warriors”? Sorry, we no longer support “wars of aggression”? Can you tell me who it was who said “If someone is shooting at you it would be reasonable to shoot back.”? How about defending those who cannot defend themselves. War indeed.
You might notice that ISIS shoots at you using American weapons. People fighting the jihadists regularly find American, NATO and Israeli missiles and weapons in jihadist stockpiles. So, seems like the first reasonable step might be to stop giving weapons and money to the jihadists. But I suppose that would piss off the Saudis, and we couldn’t possibly ask Jared of Arabia to do that!
True there. I still favor “honoring” John No-name songbird with a catapult launch into a burning pile of tires as suggested by Caitlin in an earlier post. But there are others still around who are just as deserving of such honor.
Perhaps the second reasonable step would be to see who paid for all those brand new Toyota pickup trucks and then allowed (basically mercs) free range across the whole countryside while murdering, raping and selling discounted stolen Syrian oil by way of Turkey like so many pirates at a time when all that would have been relatively easy to stop.
who were shooting at YOU and made you a war-monger?
Human nature I suppose. It’s apparently an instinctive reaction that does not require ME personally to be a victim, the one being harmed but it does require that I do what I can to stop harm from being done if such is within my power to do so. When one loses human nature, one is in danger of no longer being human. There are actually people who will run TOWARDS the sound of gunfire, they are those who are able and willing to protect the rest of us. Ultimately, these are the peacemakers when the SHTF.
http://parentleadership.com/protect.html
It is important to remember that government interference always means either violent action or the threat of such action. The funds that a government spends for whatever purposes are levied by taxation. And taxes are paid because the taxpayers are afraid of offering resistance to the tax gatherers. They know that any disobedience or resistance is hopeless. As long as this is the state of affairs, the government is able to collect the money that it wants to spend. Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen. The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning. Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.– Ludwig von Mises, Human Action [1949]
When there is more money to be made doing something else, the oligarchs will do something else. We are getting very close to that point. The US Revolution was nothing more than our rich guys, along with French rich guys fighting against Britain’s rich guys. Today we have our rich guys, along with Britain’s rich guys, the Saudi’s rich guys and the Israeli rich guys fighting against basically the rest of the world’s rich guys.
Turkey takes delivery of Russia’s surface to air missile sytem S-400 this week, India takes delivery of the S-400 in October of next year, we’ll see if that gets expedited. Iran already has the S-300 along with Venezuela. There is basically no one left to fight that can’t fight back. Iran can certainly defend herself.
Economically, the Nordstream II pipeline goes live late this year doubling the amount of natural gas to Germany selling in Euro’s. From the sound of things Russia’s Siberian pipeline goes live in March of 2020, doubling the amount of crude selling to China in Renminbi. This is when Russia will increase their oil exports and no longer agree to OPEC’s cutback in crude exports. This creates a $40 price point for crude which is what Russia’s national budget is based around, Saudi national budget is based on a $90 barrel for crude, US and Canadian Tar Sand companies have a best case break even at $40.
China created their Petrol/Yuan system out of Singapore last year and sells are ahead of expectations. Obviously this oil bourse is selling crude in Renminbi not d0llars. IMF had a report in 2017 regarding Reserve Currencies and when you take into account non-Central Bank holdings and include BRICS banks and the other associated development banks China has created the Renminbi is making up 30% of reserve holdings. This is a report from two years ago, I would think much higher today.
This is all closer to being over than it is to lasting longer. I’m interested in hearing how this will all be explained to the masses. This is no longer having to be revolutionary, no longer need to be anti-war, this will take care of itself. It’s time to figure out what the money lenders are going to be doing in the next year. We are about to hear some serious oligarch gashing of teeth. We need to start preparing for a better planet.
how about we poop out all the plump parasites, aka oligarchs, and flus hthe toilet? BDS everyday!
why don’t we poop all the plum parasites out of our body (system) and flush the toilet????
BDS the evil everyday!
oh great, now there are two of the same…. ugh!
George Orwell knew all about this, and his warning is that if we do start to topple the oligarchs, they will start killing us and come down on us with a police state. This is already being done. As George Bernard Shaw said, “Property will not hesitate to shoot.” I’m not sure there is a safe way to wage this fight, but, for now, educating and organizing people is maybe the best option.
The empire, in order to sustain itself, needs to field an effective military force. In order to do so it needs the co-operation of its subject population. To do this it uses two levels of propaganda. The first level is for the general population. Its goal is simply their begrudging acquiescence and the payment of taxes. The second level is for the military personal themselves. The goal is enthusiastic support for imagined ideals so that the soldiers will gladly give their lives for the cause. This aspect of the propaganda program is its most important part and significantly more skill and energy is expended on it. It seeks to create a “military culture” which emphases tradition, courage, honor, and obedience. Of course this is only for the common soldier. The top brass are in on the game and know that feeding the soldiers BS is part of their job description.
“the plutocratic class, which is incentivized to keep everyone else poor in a system wherein money equals power and power is relative, is the driving force behind both neoliberal exploitation and the forever war, and if you can end either of these things you will end the whole empire.” (Caitlin Johnstone 2019)
“if pride, that plague of human nature, that source of so much misery, did not hinder it; for this vice does not measure happiness so much by its own conveniences, as by the miseries of others; and would not be satisfied with being thought a goddess, if none were left that were miserable, over whom she might insult. Pride thinks its own happiness shines the brighter, by comparing it with the misfortunes of other persons; that by displaying its own wealth they may feel their poverty the more sensibly.” (Sir Thomas More 1515).
It is remarkable to see how two statements from different eras are in a way similar.
But it is worst and worst because we are in the return of the days of Noah just before the Second Coming of Christ. So, you have to add “bad faith” to “pride”.
I humbly think a better way to take away the legitimacy of the System is to vote for independent candidates without affiliation to known political parties or to do not vote at all.
Keeping my Rosary close. Jesus is coming very soon to end all that bullshit. I have really seen enough.
Excellent article for call to more “anti war” attention! I’ve been an anti-war activist for decades when most of my family and friends were not. I was screaming my head off about the alleged WMD in Iraq and its subsequent invasion, as I was with the following wars across the globe; and now, most recently, Venezuela, Cuba and of course, Iran, including the never-ending build up for war against China and Russia.
War and its subsequent plunder is the fuel that lines the pockets of the Global Elite. It doesn’t matter who is in office, it’s the same agenda, decades after decades. When a sister of mine texted me to have a “happy 4th of July” I asked her, “what is there to be proud of in a country that eats, drinks and wages constant war against the world?” Of course, now she is angry at me! Most of my neighbors won’t talk to me about this country’s ever growing war fever. They’d rather listen to their pastors about nonsense religion and wave their flags than face the grim reality that faces us all: nuclear war, with the US as chief aggressor. What we need is a huge anti war movement like the one against the Vietnam war, when I was in high school. This is really what its about…and why the Deep State or whoever wants to keep us so suppressed. They are afraid to lose control (again) to the masses. Which means they recognize the power of the people. When will others recognize this and act on it??
That “huge anti war movement” had to do more with the draft than with moral outrage. If people had a personal stake in the danger of war, they would be aware of our wars and more angry about them. Abolishing the draft was a smart move as far as the elites can presently see, but the fate of the Roman empire was determined by the loss of personal stake of the Romans in their wars. Under the emperors it also led to the Praetorian Guard which essentially usurped control of the state even from the emperors. Plus ca change…
“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” — James Madison
Peace! Bread! Land!
I do agree with what she is saying, however it is an ongoing pattern from ancient times and moves from one imperialistic country/power to another. There is a bigger power in play
that may change things (for better or worse) and that is the FACT that the earth is getting warmer and those in power are blinded by their short sighted greed. War will continue as
land and resources are more and more limited.
Your first sentence says it all. Why do the American public accept war? Perhaps it is because within the human environment war is endemic. there has always been war somewhere. The question we must ask is why?
Some of you might run into this problem sharing information in the political season…
In the past few weeks, since late June, the Artificial Intelligence content-filters have been routinely blocking my news emails, as many have seen when looking at http://www.johndayblog.com and seeing things not in their inboxes.
Two days ago, I sent only a link to the blog, with all of the same content, and it went through, surprisingly, it went through to everybody.
It appears, that for now, the content filter algorithms can be bypassed by just sending the one link to the blog.
I’ll do that until it doesn’t work, or until 2 days after the November 2020 vote.
The content-censor filters turned off the second morning after the votes in 2016 and 2018.
http://www.johndayblog.com/
A revealing graph here:
.
Defense Spending by Country
https://www.rickety.us/2011/01/2009-defense-spending-by-country/
And an also terrifying, directly related graph:
.
US national debt per family, 1816 to 2016
https://www.darrinqualman.com/us-national-debt-per-family-1816-2016/
In my view, the fundamental problem underlying all our suicidal trajectory is that we have allowed our basic human values to be undermined and abandoned in an orgy of selfish scrambling to “get ours” by any means possible. Until this is corrected all our efforts to reform the system, stop wars, end capitalism – will be futile.
We have met the enemy, and it is us. (Pogo). Blaming others and remaining part of the problem is not an answer.
Stop the Wars.
As the Prussian military strategist, Carl Von Clausewitz, pointed out in the early 19th century : “War is the continuation of politics by other means.”
The foreign policy of all capitalist Governments, the US included, flows from domestic policies of protecting, defending, and preserving the profits, power, and privilege of the capitalist class.
Rampant US militarism and world empire building is a desperate, frenzied, and ultimately futile attempt by the US capitalist class to turn back the historic clock to May 1945, when US imperialism was master of all it surveyed, especially because it had the Bomb, and the Soviet Union did not.
Many of the US military adventures in the last 20/30 years flow from the collapse of the Soviet bloc from 1989 to 1991. This removed a critical countervailing military and strategic counterpoint and opposition to US imperialism’s worst excesses.
But the US military adventures in the Middle East have all blown up in its face – not one of them has been a “success” or has brought the “stability” craved by US imperialism and its allies, like Britain.
Meanwhile, the rise of China as a world economic power, second only to the US, has altered the world economic and geo-political landscape.
Russia also poses a threat to US world hegemony, as it remains a significant nuclear-armed competitor to the US plan to restore its unrivalled world domination.
Fighting capitalism and imperialism is one and the same thing. The two are indivisible. Fighting the capitalists on domestic issues is inextricable linked to fighting them on foreign issues. The one flows seamlessly from the other. Only by overthrowing the US capitalist class, especially, can the world be made a safer place, as it poses the greatest threat and danger to world peace and the world’s working classes. But Socialism must conquer ALL OVER THE WORLD to truly bring about a harmonious, War-free world based on production for need not greed, peace, protection of the environment, and a classless society.
true only to the extent that socialism means no rulers (1%) who rule the rest (99%) against the 99%’s will.
war is the ultimate instrument for 1% to maintain their rule over the 99%.
A Workers State will be just that : a State run by the working class, and in the interests of the working class, who constitute the vast majority of every capitalist society.
It will be workers democracy along the lines laid out in Lenin’s seminal work “The State and Revolution.”
It will have absolutely NOTHING in common with the Stalinist caricatures of “Workers’ States,” which were, in truth, totalitarian dictatorships in the interests of a parasitic bureaucracy, topped by the one-man, one-party dictatorship, of the kind we now see in China and North Korea.
War is the inevitable, unavoidable product of a capitalist system based on competing nation-states and private ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange. Socialism will abolish nation-states, and private property, in favour of a World Socialist Federation based upon international solidarity, cooperation, and a rational sharing of the world’s natural and productive resources in the interests of the people, rather than profit.
The guiding principle of a Socialist society will be “from each according to his ability, to each according to his work.”
Eventually, when Socialism morphs into the more advanced Communist form of social organisation, the new, higher principle of “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” will prevail in a Stateless, classless society.
War will become a fixture in Museums in such a society, along with poverty, exploitation of man-by-man, money, and the State machine.
Music is a brilliant way to spread a message. Why not make this song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01-2pNCZiNk number one on music charts all around the planet, here are the lyrics:
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again, why’all
War, huh, good god
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing, listen to me
Oh, war, I despise
‘Cause it means destruction of innocent lives
War means tears to thousands of mothers eyes
When their sons go to fight
And lose their lives
I said, war, huh good god, why’all
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing say it again
War, whoa, lord
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing, listen to me
it ain’t nothing but a heart-breaker
(War) friend only to the undertaker
Oh, war it’s an enemy to all mankind
The point of war blows my mind
War has caused unrest
Within the younger generation
Induction then destruction
Who wants to die, ah, war-huh, good god why’all
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it, say it, say it
War, huh
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing listen to me
it ain’t nothing but a heart breaker
(War) it’s got one friend that’s the undertaker
Oh, war, has shattered many a young mans dreams
Made him disabled, bitter and mean
Life is much to short and precious
To spend fighting wars these days
War can’t give life
It can only take it away
Oh, war, huh good god why’all
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing say it again
whoa, lord
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing listen to me
it ain’t nothing but a heart breaker
(War) friend only to the undertaker
Peace, love and understanding
Tell me, is there no place for them today
They say we must fight to keep our freedom
But lord knows there’s got to be a better way
Oh, war, huh good god why’all
What is it good for you tell me
Say it, say it, say it, say it
huh good god why’all
What is it good for
Stand up and shout it nothing
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Barret Strong / Norman Whitfield
War lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
An easy way to do it, I assume, would be buying it on iTunes which I just did.
Why is it so difficult to live in peace together as equals on this beautiful planet of ours? Anything else doesn’t make any sense, even if you only have half a brain, I dare say that you don’t need a brain to know that! A basic human need is to be loved, killing each other won’t make this happen! Let’s say NO to war forever, starting right now!
war is more than good, downright absolutely essential, to the ruling parasites, across the borders.
they and the people aka 99% are two opposing forces. there’s no “WE” with one interest.
I have a better song for you to use as an anthem against War, and, more importantly, FOR the creation of a new Socialist society, as there can be no peace on this planet until capitalism is abolished. The song is John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
I’m not convinced that, even if US imperialism were to be reined in, that would directly cause the plutocracy to be overthrown. A world with a weaker neoliberal-plutocratic US and stronger neoliberal-plutocratic BRICS is perfectly possible and indeed desired by the elites of BRICS. Changing the balance of power between countries will not automatically change the domestic policies of those countries. Many ‘anti-war’ figures are OK with that, since they have authoritarian, reactionary or neoliberal views themselves.
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The reason FP opposition is less tolerated than domestic policy opposition is that it’s so much easier not to tolerate it. Those crushed by neoliberalism in the US are part of the American political community and hence naturally receive at least a little attention and solidarity, whereas those crushed by US imperialism abroad are not and do not.
war is not just against the outside. war is ALWAYS against the plebs inside and outside the US, for instance. war is not between nations or religions or races. war is ALWAYS between the ruling and the ruled. borders are meaningless.
yes, imperialism/colonialism and oppression across the borders are one and the same thing.
We have to change the narrative by changing the intent. War is an ingrained primitive tribal response– but now we have nuclear clubs–also the biggest business on the planet–for some [US/Israel]–it is a way of life.
War only exacerbates the problems and creates more terrorists–thereby perpetuating the industry. Our new narrative has to move from punishment to healing–both the victims and the perpetrators. We do it to stop the genetic cycles that have waged war through known human [and possibly unknown] history.
What does it mean to heal. We have to move from our top-down control culture–to one of individual initiation and soul development. We are more then cogs in the wheel–we individual spirits and need to recognize and express our divinity–build our communities and families–and Shepard the earth in the best way possible.
Healing also means recognizing those who are sick and bring them into a supportive environment with which to heal. The Hawaiians recognize God within each individual with the word “aloha”. We are all uniquely special–all with our own individual plan.
Healing also means being honest and forgiving with ourselves and those around us. We must speak our truths and seek input and consul from the surrounding community. We will build our communities because that is what provides opportunity, security, and sustainability.
So it’s cease and desist–No More War–we’re going talk this whole thing over and get the War addicts–out of the room. No more games–no more special interests–no more spying. This is it–we may not get another chance–the imperative has to be the evolution of species towards am harmonious resonance with the earth and the cosmos–it’s the hero’s journey–and the first step is to go inside!
Peace
GaryS
you think “they” don’t know what you and most people know??????
“War is the health of the State” — Randolph Silliman Bourne. See http://randolphbourne.org/rb-bio.html for the tragic life of this antiwar hero.
Actually, war _is_ the State. And the State is war.
It’s always good to recognise the propaganda that leads us into war. David McBride (like Chelsea) is a fake whistleblower – and wow! what a lot of stories his fake whistleblowing has generated. The media are having a field day. Amal Clooney is now in on the act – not saying she’s fake, she’s just been sucked in like, seemingly, the vast majority of others judging by the fact that not a single person has chimed in with me on this very obvious fake whistleblowing.
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An obvious agenda: We need to loosen the Rules of Engagement. Yup, we need to loosen the Rules of Engagement so that when we go to war we can do whatever we like. Good, eh?
The other agendas: Haven’t analysed – perhaps someone else who’s “woke” may do it?
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We can tell by what David pushes in this interview. See analysis below.
https://youtu.be/C13xxDBflbk
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It seemed like they didn’t want to end the war. They were just doing the same old things and showed PowerPoint diagrams but it was clear they didn’t want to end the war.
Comment: I’d regard this as a truth-of-war cliche that is exactly the kind of thing you’d expect from a disinformation agent: a little bit of anodyne truth – which may not even actually apply in this case although no doubt it does.
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The good cop bad cop routine:
The cops were ace in that they provided all instances of David’s efforts to report his complaints to his superiors but then bad when they told him the “government doesn’t commit crime”.
Comment: We can’t make the cops look all bad cos they’re with us so we’ll make a really good point about them to mitigate the bad point we’re obliged to push out. It’s all a bit pat, isn’t it?
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They kept the Rules of Engagement tight – numbers of dead Taliban low while numbers of dead Australian soldiers high. They thought they looked good at the funerals but they didn’t care about the soldiers dying.
Comment: This is very unconvincing but we can see an agenda, can’t we? The Rules of Engagement need to be loosened! Too many Australian soldiers are dying. Iran looming?
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He printed out documents late at night and the printing could be traced to him.
Comment: No kidding? Obviously, he would have known this so couldn’t he think of another way if he wanted to do it secretly? Not only would they know he printed them but they would have known he was in the building out of his normal hours. Reminds me of Chelsea. According to Wikipedia: “she saved the material on CD-RW and smuggled it through security by labeling the CD-RW media “Lady Gaga”. She then copied it onto her personal computer. The next day, she wrote a message in a readme.txt file, which she told the court was initially intended for The Washington Post.”
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A typical propaganda technique is to push out an event as one thing but then have it turn out later to be another or even yet another. In truth, it is neither of the first two or three things but something else altogether that does not make the media, Watergate being a prime example! In the case of Watergate (although admittedly I’ve hardly researched it) I wonder if we’ll ever really know the truth.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/09/10/watergate-deep-throat-myth-mark-felt-215591
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Two other examples where they push it out as one thing but it’s another (if not yet another) are the 1980 Bologna station bombing and the post-9/11 Anthrax attacks.
https://occamsrazorterrorevents.weebly.com/other-events.html
you don’t smell right. who do you work for? with what agenda? no need to answer. it’s more than obvious.
I don’t know what you’re referring to. What specifically makes you suspect me?
According to the judgement of Nuremberg: “War is essentially an evil thing. Its consequences are not confined to the belligerent states alone, but affect the whole world. To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”
Simply put, aggressive war is the ultimate crime because it encompasses all other crimes. Quite worthy of elevation as top priority issue.
agreed. my own political journey has been similar to yours. war is the instrument that the evil uses to subjugate anyone who disagrees with and challenges the evil. it is the ultimate opposite to democracy and justice. take a look at the war-mongers, and their agenda is more than obvious.
now, how do you challenge the war-mongering power? BDS is not the best way. it’s the only way.
Combating propaganda is what this is all about. In so far as the war mongers control the media then getting the truth out there is extremely difficult. If if you do many people will simply not change their minds due to, so called, patriotism.
Governments are not worried by a few Caitlin’s because the deck is stacked and they have control of the game.
Imagine if ((THEY)) called for a war and nobody showed up to fight it, for them.
Anything designed for a useful, noble purpose can also be hacked, corrupted, and hi-jacked, which “Defence” certainly has. The early, perpetual, indoctrination of “U.S. Patriotism” and flag waving has created and ensured generations of loyal brainwashed warmongers.
There are many soldiers who found out the hard way that “….military men are dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns…..” just as Kissinger stated.
Only when we lose interest in killing others in Banker Wars, and simply refuse to participate in profit & power agendas, will the true meaning of Defence be understood and used only as a last resort.
False flag events spawn false wars spawned by fear and anger, of which both are very convincing emotions for the war machine.
I think the phenomenon of a false flag may be a bit of an historical myth. Any recognised or semi-recognised false flag I’ve looked at including Pearl Harbour, the 1980 Bologna station bombing and 9/11 are all false flag HOAXES, not “genuine” false flags, that is, death and injury were staged.
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Perhaps slightly counterintuitively, I think the power elite are happy for us (that is, those of us sufficiently awake to know what a false flag is) to perceive them as being very capable of committing false flags rather than false-flag hoaxes. It’s a way of intimidating us into thinking they’re so powerful that they will kill (and get away with killing) their own people for their own agendas. I find it very interesting that while the phenomenon of false flag is known, if not greatly (but, in fact, falsely applied), that of false-flag hoax is virtually unknown – except by the YouTuber subculture and generally that subculture only recognises Sandy Hook, Christchurch et al as false-flag hoaxes not 9/11, Pearl Harbour and Bologna station.
https://occamsrazorterrorevents.weebly.com/other-events.html
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I have not seen anyone else recognise Pearl Harbour as a false-flag hoax, only one other recognise Bologna station as a false-flag hoax and only a small percentage of 9/11 truthers recognise 9/11 as a false-flag hoax – of that percentage none of those are in the prominent truther community. Simon Shack worked out over a decade ago that death and injury were staged on 9/11, however, the prominent truther community has not picked up on that – from a decade ago! Admittedly, although I read Simon’s stuff some time before it did still take me awhile to catch on myself but then he probably could have approached the event from more angles to make his argument more convincing (which I’ve now done).
https://occamsrazorterrorevents.weebly.com/3000-dead-and-6000-injured-a-lie.html
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People tend to use the terms psyop (psychological operation) and false flag interchangeably but think about it – if it’s a psyop why would they kill the people for real? It’s very, very obvious that they can fool us into thinking people died when they didn’t so if it’s a psyop why would they do it for real? Then it’s only a semi-psyop. Psyops are in the intelligence manuals. There are rules to these things – they’re not allowed to kill people and it’s just so not their MO. They absolutely luuurrve fooling us and they’re very, very good at it.
Great article Caitlin! Tho I do prefer “more stupid”.
This is great, Caitlin. I would give this one blog post alone a Nobel Prize, and it should be required reading for every American. I can’t wait to share it. But if you don’t find the real bigger truth while you still have time in this life, your whole life will have been in vain. And this is what is going to happen when you think you have succeeded with your mission in life, if you are still around when the time comes:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Thessalonians+5%3A1-3&version=NASB
Don’t be put off by me using the New *American* Standard version for that, by the way. It just happens to be considered the most literal of all translations of its kind, and I would use any one that qualifies as such.
If your God will punish everybody who doesn’t worship him personally and explicitly, and does not appreciate anybody’s well-intentioned efforts to benefit one’s fellow-humans unless that person worships him personally and explicitly, then your God is no more worthy of respect than the plutocracy and empire that CJ is writing against. There is just no principled reason to oppose US tyranny and murder if one worships a tyrannical and murderous deity. A hypothetical God worthy of respect would be sufficiently selfless and just to reward those who seek to benefit their fellow-humans regardless of their belief or non-belief in him personally. Of course, no kind of God actually exists, so worshipping any kind of God is stupid, but worshipping your kind of God is also evil.
“Not bad,” F. Foundling. There was a time when I would have heartily agreed with that. But it doesn’t matter how smart or well intentioned you are. You could have an I.Q. of 250, multiple doctorates from the best universities in the world, and decades of experience helping the less fortunate and serving the world, but you do not understand the reality of the situation properly. Nor can you, nor can you even want to, nor could I either, ever. On our own, that is. True apprehension of the truth of the matter can only be given by God, not acquired through unaided human striving, or nullified through even the most effective seeming rejection.
This subject is the truth, however, the ultimate truth. All this other truth seeking us truth seekers seek is only secondary truth by comparison, temporal vs. eternal. It can be good, but it can only leave us lost forever without the ultimate truth.
And make no mistake: Caitlin’s true long term goals and hopes for this world, commendable and desirable as they are, will never occur, ever. A definite end is coming.
I even wish that certain aspects of the truth were not true, and that certain things would be done differently, but I know they are true nonetheless, so I can only report that.
Your “judgment” of God is not true, but is only based on a fallen, flawed human perspective. It is a very common impulse, however, so those types of statements are also nothing new.
May God bless you all.
P.S. I probably will check back a time or two, God willing, 🙂 but please note that I deleted my subscription to this thread to cut down on the emails in case I don’t.
So basically, what you’re saying is that even though you’re right and I’m wrong both morally and factually, you nevertheless can’t substantiate your position with any rational argument – instead you declare rational argument to be useless when it comes to such matters, because human reason is flawed (whereas your own assertions supposedly reflect the flawless perspective of the deity your worship, even though you can’t prove that to be the case). Under these circumstances, there’s no point in any discussion or conversation between us, since discussion and conversation require rational arguments to be meaningful. You can’t expect other people to believe in the divine flawlessness of your positions for no reason at all.
Since God is sly and leaves no evidence, people have to make up an idea of God out of their own perceptions and desires and project their vision upon the universe and beyond. A God who tortures sentient beings for all eternity because they do not adhere to a particular, rather weird theology in detail (for which no material evidence can be shown) is an expression of extreme, fantastic hatred which is hard to understand. While most of the people who adhere to this belief seem well-behaved in daily life, one has to wonder what is going on in them inwardly, where a permanent Hell seems to be set up and worshiped. What would they do to us if they could? I confess I don’t understand it or know what to do about it. In any case cultivation of such thoughts might help explain people’s addiction to war, imperialism, oppression, and exploitation.
“But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’” Luke 16:31
Lots of verbiage, none of it really new or surprising. You could have literally been standing in the tomb witnessing when Christ rose from death, and you still would never understand or change. Same goes for me and everyone else. So there will be no reasoning with you no matter what I say.
However, since you close with something like “cultivation of such thoughts might help explain people’s addiction to war, imperialism, oppression, and exploitation” how exactly do you explain me now and all my statements about Caitlin’s work? Surely you don’t think I’m here as a supporter of such things.
And speaking of “evidence,” not that anyone is persuaded by it – ever – the resurrection of Christ is certainly a fact of history like any other in one sense. Most people probably don’t even know about this guy from Harvard worth looking into: https://www.google.com/search?q=simon+greenleaf+skeptic+turned+believer. Pretty big stuff actually, but that too will not convince you of anything either, or anyone else – ever.
Romans 1:3-4
You choose to believe what you want. There is zero evidence for the existence of God in our own image. The universe/multiverse is God. I ran out of my church the day they started their fire and brimstone intimidation propaganda. But you are right nothing you say on this subject would be taken seriously by me.
The resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is as much of a historical fact as the miracles of any other religious figure like Mohammed, Gautama Buddha etc. – meaning that their adherents have asserted that they have happened, and that’s all the evidence there is. I dare say that even the historical existence of Jesus is somewhat dubious, let alone any other more specific fact about him.
You are quite right, however, that even if I did personally witness Jesus or anybody else perform what appears to me to be ‘miracles’, I still would not consider that to be a proof that he is divine or a representative of the divine, or that *everything* he says about himself or the world is true. After all, a ‘miracle’ means just something that I can’t explain, and its performance is evidence of more power and knowledge than I have, but that does not by itself mean *infinite* and *perfect* power and knowledge, let alone automatically implying infinite and perfect *goodness*. Indeed, even if every assertion of fact in the Bible were true (leaving aside the contradictions within it) and even if your Yahweh were both existent, omniscient and omnipotent, that still wouldn’t prove that he deserves worship, morally speaking. Might does not make right. Your beloved fictional psycho might torture me for all eternity, but he would still be a psycho – indeed, that would just prove that he’s a psycho even more.
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Concerning your agreement with CJ – people have different reasons to be inconsistent in their morality and principles. Unfortunately, many will condemn psychopathic actions when committed by somebody they perceive as alien, while excusing the same actions when committed by somebody they perceive as one of their own. While you obviously consider the Yawheh character to be ‘your own’, you happen not to accord the US government and elite that same status for some reason. The latter can have many possible causes, and I can only guess what they are in your case – they might be too secular for your liking, or too ‘left-wing’, or associated with an ethnicity or regional identity different from your own. At any rate, your approval of Yahweh’s supposed future eternal torture of CJ, Anarcissie and me indicates that your primary reason for criticising them is not opposition to inhumane and brutal actions as such.
As for that Simon Greenleaf fellow from the 19th century – no, I wouldn’t call that especially ‘big stuff’. Apologists using sophistry to support their religions are nothing new or impressive. His ‘legal’ arguments appear to have been as ridiculous as one would expect. BTW, Wikipedia claims, citing an academic source, that he had never been a sceptic either.
I think the initial root of the USA MIC/MSM/Lobbyist Run Congress-Elections, was the fear of property owners losing their property. A couple hallmarks developing that fear were the French Revolution and most importantly the Bolshevik Revolution. Those were real threats to the elite. Following that we arguably took some joy at the mutual slaughter of both the Germans and Soviets in WWII. Then of course carried on with Korea and Vietnam with the propagandist warning of the domino-effect. Needless to say all this was bullshit as the Chinese/Vietnamese/Russians all now have their own form of Capitalism. But we are still at it with Cuba and Venezuela. The Middle East wars seem to be more driven by resource control and Israel and MIC profits and weapons development. Hopefully, we can get off this insane train and adopt a social democracy and the forever war money can come home to support citizens. We need to replace the MIC with a Societal Improvement Complex.
The weakness of the imperialist government is not keeping the narrative credible, but being able to afford to keep the military running in ever-expanding role of empire’s policeman. This is exacerbated by Trump’s very expansive pressure on Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, North Korea and Cuba, while still fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya, not forgetting the potential threats in Africa, Turkey and Ukraine.
The upgrading of US infrastructure like roads, bridges, the electricity grid, homes for people, has just had to wait. The feeding of money via banks and hedge funds into the fracking business, which has NEVER made a profit, indeed a $280 billion loss, has helped keep the price of oil down and the economy functioning, but the longer it goes on, the more strained it all becomes. Eventually something will break (Stearns Lending filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday, and Deutsche Bank is having a major restructuring effort) and the frackers will be shown up as unprofitable and then we will see the biggest debt-fueled binge ever come to a grinding halt and the US will lead the world into the biggest Depression we have ever seen. The only question is whether Trump will start WW3 in response, or simply commit suicide.
Just finished Chalmers Johnson´s Sorrows of Empire, really recommend it as a blow by blow of how US morphed into an empire. the base building in the middle east alone is massive. How they do it ahead of invasions, its all planned way in advance. He wrote it in 2004, and another; Nemesis before he died. He was a professor who had access to military planning documents, and a great sense of history.
Another way to approach the evils of US war and militarism is to create a popular wave to reduce military/national security budgets drastically, say for example by 60%. Without these budgets, the wars and the undermining of other governments would not be possible. The public has to be educated—is it possible?—to understand why the whole society is suffering because of these budgets—education, health, environment, decaying infrastructure, civil rights, social safety nets, the mass media….
how do you get the war criminals in DC to reduce war budgets?????
While the neo-liberals are singing the praises of the Mueller Report, Aaron Maté exposed Mueller for the con-artist he is:
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Crowd-Strike-Out: Mueller’s Own Report Undercuts Its Core Russia-Meddling Claims
By Aaron Maté, RealClearInvestigations
July 5, 2019
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2019/07/05/crowdstrikeout_muellers_own_report_undercuts_its_core_russia-meddling_claims.html
You are right. Foreign intervention is the key to this interlocking system of domination. The Romans did it until their overburdened empire finally collapsed under its own weight. But, then, they didn’t have nukes.
Nuclear weapons add to the weight. They are very expensive to build and maintain, and are mostly useless, just as a sledge-hammer is useless for killing flies. Rome lasted for more than 2000 years, but, as you say, they didn’t have nukes.
The same people who are destroying the U.S. and the rest of the world today, are the same sameones who destroyed the Roman Empire. But then, I bet you already know that.