war on terror – The Burning Platform

On the Violence in the Middle East…

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

Like most of the world, I have been considering the Israel / Gaza slaughter with fascination and a sense of dread. Did Israel allow the events of October 7, 2023 to happen? It appears so. Were the savage acts of Hamas sickening? It appears so. Have the ensuing actions of Israel in Gaza been devastating? Yes.

Have the reactions of the general public in nations around the world, and on the internet, become increasingly polarized? Definitely.

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Geopolitical expert and former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter has predicted Israel will lose this war, and deservedly so.

At the height of the hysteria during the build-up to Operation Desert Storm®, and in the jingoistic fever of the newly coined War on Terror®, Ritter claimed Saddam Hussein had zero Weapons of Mass Destruction®. Ritter was right back then, so, now, I pay attention whenever he addresses global tensions.

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RICH MAN’S WAR, POOR MAN’S BLOOD

“War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.” – General Smedley Butler

I don’t need your civil warIt feeds the rich while it buries the poorYour power hungry sellin’ soldiersIn a human grocery store

Guns N’ Roses – Civil War

Whether it is a distinguished general who came to his senses in 1935, after doing the bidding of the monied interests by initiating conflict throughout the world to fill their coffers with blood money, or a rock & roll star fifty years later writing a hit song about the exact same theme, the song remains the same. The wealthy always benefit from war, the poor always die in their wars, and politicians are bribed to continually foment conflict, hate, and railing against whoever their puppet masters choose as the enemy of the moment. This is not a recent development, it has spanned centuries, just the sums of money feeding the military industrial complex are now astronomical.

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Caught in a Trap: We Can’t Go On Together With Suspicious Minds

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

A few months ago, one of my offspring texted and asked if I had read or heard anything about the new Elvis movie that was playing in theaters at the time. When I said “no”, they responded back that they had seen the film, that it was very good, and these words: “I didn’t know Elvis was that big of deal back then”.

So allow me some latitude as I’m going somewhere with this…

In my mind, I thought: “Really? How could my kid not know? Elvis Presley was considered the “king of rock and roll”.

On the other hand, maybe it wasn’t so odd. After all, Elvis music was not played around my kids when they were growing up; and I, personally, have only considered the man, vaguely, as an American historical icon.

I considered my own cognitive associations involving Elvis:

– My dad had some Elvis gospel and Christmas albums.

– I have heard most of Elvis Presley’s songs at one time or another.

– I eventually learned that many Elvis songs were first performed by other musicians and blues singers.

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The Great Reset: An Ancient Faith Continuously Renamed

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants.

– Albert Camus

Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.

– Voltaire

The writings of antiquity claim Mankind’s desire to unite the world began six millennia ago on the plains of Shinar, starting with the Tower of Babel. That may be true. But, in any event, and whether or not history rhymes or repeats, be assured of this: Nothing is new under the sun.

Grand events have cycled throughout history. In America, they seem to climax around every 80 years. For example, eight decades ago the nation was soon to enter the Second World War. Going back another 80 years, the country was on the brink of the U.S. Civil War, and a little more than 80 years before that was The Revolutionary War.

In recent decades, however, the birth pains of conflict have paired to modern technological progress – including advancements in global communications, banking, and warfare. These innovations, in turn, have delivered new creations of collective centralization; to wit, the emergence of international financial and political institutions, the League of Nations after World War I, the United Nations after World War II, and the emergence of the global panopticon in the wake of 911 and the ensuing War on Terror®.

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An American Nobody Rides the Apocalypse

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

During an afternoon escape from high school in a Ronald Reagan world, I opened a Bible that was sitting on an end table in a doctor’s office. The physician was a specialist located an hour away from my hometown and was to advise on a Septoplasty procedure for my deviated septum. It was nothing serious –merely the result of mishaps which occurred, primarily, in martial arts and wrestling.

While paging through the Bible, I flipped to the back because I was an impatient soul back then. It wasn’t the first time I had scanned the pages of Revelation, nor would it be the last, but on that day I was simply waiting. The third verse of the first chapter said: “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand”.

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WHAT WOULD COOL HAND LUKE & VIRGIL HILTS DO?

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry

“If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.” – Samuel Adams

After observing the reaction of the America people, over the last two months, to a virus that will not kill 99.97% of them, I wondered how could a country created upon the blood and courage of patriot farmers and leaders who knew they would hang if their revolution failed, have degenerated into an infantilized nation of obedient slaves to un-Constitutionalized authoritarianism. It saddens me that a country borne by revolutionary means against an overbearing authoritarian monarchy has turned into a nation of bed-wetters curled up in their basements sucking their thumbs, begging government overlords to protect them from a virus.

I guess it shouldn’t be surprising after decades of government public school indoctrination where U.S. History facts have been usurped by feelings, diversity and gender agendas pushed by less than mediocre teachers. Government controlled education hasn’t taught children to think critically or question authority, but to obey rules and allow emotions to drive their actions. When multiple generations have been programmed to feel, rather than think, using panic and fear to make them do as they are told isn’t a difficult task. This pandemic reaction is a testament to their decades long propaganda and misinformation campaign. Rather than developing herd immunity the country developed a herd mentality.

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On Viral Attacks by Benevolent Benefactors

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

What catches us by surprise hurts us double.

– Seneca

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.

– C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology (Making of Modern Theology)

I remember once in college we had a class discussion on how ancient Rome expanded primarily out of fear of being conquered. In other words, the Romans believed their best defense was a strong offense: they engaged in the hostile takeovers of their enemies to avoid being conquered themselves.

This calls to mind the interaction between the emotion of fear and how it relates to the survival instinct. Undeniably, these will often supersede the loftier considerations of ethics and law; and they apply equally to individuals, gangs, groups, corporations, cults, and governments.

The desire for control is rooted in fear and perhaps greed. In many cases, these may even be rooted in pride.

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The Cost of the War on Terror

You will find more infographics at Statista

Since the September 11 terror attacks in the United States, the U.S. has racked up costs of almost $6 trillion in its War on Terror. This is according to a new Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs analysis. Unlike official estimates from the Pentagon, the study takes into account not just Department of Defense costs, but also spending from across the federal government – past and obligated spending for war veterans’ care, for example.

The human cost of the wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq is also significant. The upper estimate for deaths caused directly by these conflicts (on all sides, civilian and military) is over 507 thousand. The lower estimate is hardly small, either, coming in at 480 thousand.

Towers to Heaven: The Alchemy of Prophecy, Terror, and Unity

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).

– Revelation 9:11

At the end of last month, I read an article that claimed Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation was foretold by a “20 Year Old Movie”. The film was a 1998 thriller entitled “Enemy of the State” starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman.

My curiosity aroused, I selected the show from my electronic catalog and watched it unwind; similar to the way I once queued up songs on jukeboxes in the halcyon days preceding the matrix.

In the film, Gene Hackman played an Edward Snowden-type National Security Agency (NSA) contractor gone rogue who revealed to the viewers the U.S. government’s high-tech surveillance capabilities. Two decades ago when the film was released, the surveillance grid disclosed therein would have seemed far-fetched. But not today. Now, in the aftermath of 911, the Patriot Act, and the Snowden revelations, those capabilities are not only common knowledge, but are the subjects of ongoing daily headlines.

The antagonist in the film was played by Jon Voight, a power-hungry NSA bureaucrat who assembled a team of technology experts and security agents that blackmailed Congress and even murdered a senator. The politician was killed to aid the passing of a Patriot Act-style bill that would have, in effect, drilled the final screw into the coffin of the Fourth Amendment.

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MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

That’s funny. There was virtually no terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Libya prior to 2002. The war on terrorism implemented by Washington DC Neo-cons has sure done wonders – for the military industrial complex’ profits.

You will find more statistics at Statista

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Violence Begets Violence: The Orlando Shootings and the War on Terror

Guest Post by John W. Whitehead

Until we start addressing the U.S. government’s part in creating, cultivating and abetting domestic and global terrorism—and hold agencies such as the FBI and Defense Department accountable for importing and exporting violence, breeding extremism and generating blowback, which then gets turned loose on an unsuspecting American populace—we’ll be no closer to putting an end to the violence that claimed 50 lives at an Orlando nightclub on June 12, 2016, than we were 15 years ago when nearly 3,000 individuals were killed on Sept. 11, 2001.

Here’s what I know:

While U.S. politicians have been lecturing American citizens on the dangers of gun violence and working to enact measures that would make it more difficult for Americans to acquire certain weapons, the United States, the world’s largest exporter of arms, has been selling violence to the world, equipping nearly half the world with deadly weapons and profiting to the tune of $36.2 billion.

Blowback, a CIA term referring to the unintended consequences of the U.S. government’s international activities, is a reality. Chalmers Johnson, a former CIA consultant, repeatedly warned that America’s use of its military to gain power over the global economy would result in devastating blowback. We failed to heed his warning.

The 9/11 attacks were blowback. The Boston Marathon Bombing was blowback. The attempted Times Square bomber was blowback. The Fort Hood shooter, a major in the U.S. Army, was blowback.

The Orlando nightclub shooting is merely the latest tragic example of blowback on a nation that feeds its citizens a steady diet of violence through its imperial wars abroad and its battlefield mindset at home, embodied by heavily armed, militarized police and SWAT team raids.

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