Source: Caitlin Johnstone via RT
Vice President Kamala Harris spent the weekend under fire from Republicans, which of course means that Kamala Harris spent the weekend being criticized for the most silly, vapid reason you could possibly criticize her for.
Apparently the likely future president tweeted “Enjoy the long weekend,” a reference to the Memorial Day holiday on Monday, instead of gushing about fallen troops and sacrifice.
That’s it, that’s the whole entire story. That silly, irrelevant offense by one of the sleaziest people in the single most corrupt and murderous government on earth is the whole entire basis for histrionic headlines from conservative media outlets like this:
‘DISGUSTING’ DISRESPECT: Vice President Kamala Harris ignites outrage over ‘misfire’ Memorial Day tweet https://t.co/J8VMtU2OCM
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 29, 2021
Harris, the born politician, was quick to course correct.
“Throughout our history our service men and women have risked everything to defend our freedoms and our country,” the veep tweeted. “As we prepare to honor them on Memorial Day, we remember their service and their sacrifice.”
Which is of course complete bullshit.
It has been generations since any member of the US military could be said to have served or sacrificed defending America or its freedoms, and that has been the case throughout almost the entirety of its history. If you are reading this it is statistically unlikely that you are of an age where any US military personnel died for any other reason than corporate profit and global domination, and if you are it’s almost certain you weren’t old enough to have had mature thoughts about it at the time.
Whenever you criticize the US war machine online within earshot of anyone who’s sufficiently propagandized, you will invariably be lectured about the second World War and how we’d all be speaking German or Japanese without the brave men who died for our freedom. This makes my point for me: the fact that apologists for US imperialism always need to reach all the way back through history to the cusp of living memory to find even one single example of the American military being used for purposes that weren’t evil proves that it most certainly is evil.
But this is one of the main reasons there are so very many movies and history documentaries made about World War Two: it’s an opportunity to portray US servicemen bravely fighting and dying for a noble cause without having to bend the truth beyond recognition. The other major reason is that focusing on the second World War allows members of the US empire to escape into a time when the Big Bad Guy on the world stage was someone else.
Happy Memorial Day pic.twitter.com/khOjpLZpET
— 🅱️ᴀɴɪꜱʜᴇᴅ 🚫 🅱️ᴇʀɴɪᴇ 🚫 (@BanishedBernie) May 30, 2021
From the end of World War Two to the fall of the USSR, the US military was used to smash the spread of communism and secure geostrategic interests toward the ultimate end of engineering the collapse of the Soviet Union. After this was accomplished in 1991, US foreign policy officially shifted to preserving a unipolar world order by preventing the rise of any other superpower which could rival its might.
A 1992 article by The New York Times titled “U.S. Strategy Plan Calls For Insuring No Rivals Develop“, reporting on a leaked document which describes a policy known as the Wolfowitz Doctrine after then-Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Paul Wolfowitz, reads as follows:
In a broad new policy statement that is in its final drafting stage, the Defense Department asserts that America’s political and military mission in the post-cold-war era will be to insure that no rival superpower is allowed to emerge in Western Europe, Asia or the territory of the former Soviet Union.
A 46-page document that has been circulating at the highest levels of the Pentagon for weeks, and which Defense Secretary Dick Cheney expects to release later this month, states that part of the American mission will be “convincing potential competitors that they need not aspire to a greater role or pursue a more aggressive posture to protect their legitimate interests.”
The classified document makes the case for a world dominated by one superpower whose position can be perpetuated by constructive behavior and sufficient military might to deter any nation or group of nations from challenging American primacy.
This is all US troops have been fighting and dying for since the Berlin Wall came down. Not “freedom”, not “democracy”, and certainly not the American people. Just continual uncontested domination of this planet at all cost: domination of its resources, its trade routes, its seas, its air, and its humans, no matter how many lives need to be risked and snuffed out in order to achieve it. The US has killed millions and displaced tens of millions just since the turn of this century in the reckless pursuit of that goal.
And, as Smedley Butler spelled out 86 years ago in his still-relevant book War is a Racket, US military personnel have been dying for profit. Nothing gets the gears of industry turning like war, and nothing better creates chaotic wild west environments of shock and confusion during which more wealth and power can be grabbed. War profiteers pour immense resources into lobbying, think tanks and campaign donations to manipulate and bribe policy makers into making decisions which promote war and military expansionism, with astounding success. This is all entirely legal.
It’s important to spread awareness that this is all US troops have been dying for, because the fairy tale that they fight for freedom and for their countrymen is a major propaganda narrative used in military recruitment. While poverty plays a significant role in driving up enlistments as predatory recruiters target poor and middle class youth promising them a future in the nation with the worst income inequality in the industrialized world, the fact that the aggressively propagandized glorification of military “service” makes it a more esteemed career path than working at a restaurant or a grocery store means people are more likely to enlist.
Without all that propaganda deceiving people into believing that military work is something virtuous, military service would be the most shameful job anyone could possibly have; other stigmatized jobs like sex work would be regarded as far more noble. You’d be less reluctant to tell your extended family over Christmas that you’re a janitor at a seedy massage parlor than that you’ve enlisted in the US military, because instead of congratulating and praising you, your Uncle Murray would look at you and say, “So you’re gonna be killing kids for crude oil?”
And that’s exactly how it should be. Continuing to uphold the lie that US troops fight and die for a good cause is helping to ensure a steady supply of teenagers to feed into the gears of the imperial war machine. Stop feeding into the lie that the war machine is worth killing and being killed for. Not out of disrespect for the dead, but out of reverence for the living.
THE END
Yep. Not sure that any US war has been for anything other than the profits and power of the banksters or the crony capitalists, and that includes the Revolutionary War. Not denying that far too many thought that they were fighting for something else.
Obviously.
Well, … to you, all other TPBers, and myself. That’s why I hesitated a long time before submitting the article. It’s OLD news! All one has to do is read Smedley Butler’s “War is a racket”. All one has to do is simply ask themselves … “Who benefits??” — and in no time at all realize that all wars are Bankster Wars.
Yeah, she’s making ridiculously obvious points.
Yet, millions of HOORAH ‘Murikans still don’t fucken get it. What a country!!
All good and well – but other powers need to step up to the plate – and maybe they will. And…..Taiwan is next on the list. Watch this space.
Taiwan is no different than South Korea or West Germany. I hope the US Communist Controlled State Dept somehow receives pressure from America Patriots to allow the Taiwan People to come here and not refuse them entry as they obviously intend; please no 1975 Saigon disaster again. When Biden gives the Chinese Communist the country of Taiwan, there will probably be a Holocaust slaughter of Conservatives just like in Ukraine, Russia, China, Cuba, Congo, Vietnam, Cambodia and Rhodesia. A Taiwan blood bath would be on heartless stupid US Liberals hands.
Couldn’t agree more. My Chinese contact says that it is imminent and will only take one day or so to achieve the takeover.
Always so laughable how folks like you and your Chinese contact are entirely stuck in the Western framing of things.
If the [mainland] Chinese are as smart as I believe they are, they know they only have to wait until the ripe fruit falls into their lap – sometimes within the next 20 years, after the US has imploded.
I can only go on what Liu tells me ‘m’. This is what he said last week, (forgive faulty English):
“Dear Peter,
spent at least one hour collecting and analysing military trend in both sides of Taiwan straits, I get the conclusion today with many independent Chinese observers(in mainland, Taiwan island, Malaysia, US) , liberating Taiwan island/province is very near,
Chinese from China mainland, Taiwan island, US, Malaysia keep close frequent communication about this.
the troops from US already arrived in Taiwan island, navy, ground force, air force, etc , that’s why COVID surges, totally out of control, one thousand (in reality) infected per day , as the case in Japan, and south Korea.
China needn’t talk nonsense with them any longer.
all sources from PLA have been silent.
a military exercise one month ago
http://www.js7tv.cn/video/202104_246435.html
after liberating Taiwan, the old things as in China mainland 1949~1951, protect the relics, expel all jews, foreign military, spies, diplomats, end all porn/ black society/bandit/ prostitution, kill the cancer cell, show to the world how to turn a rotten society back to normal ethic,
I hope before the war break out, I can finish those emails postponed for too long.”
Who knows what is happening in this crazy world? I think USA is far from finished – long way to go yet.
That basically assumes the Chinese are as stupid -and as cornered by the US-, as the Japanese were in 1941.
Newsflash: the strategic partnership China-Russia has eliminated the resource strangulation tactic, towards China.
This
actually confirms my statement, you just ignore the longer timeframe and focus entirely on the short-term. But 5-10 years is not a ‘long way’ in geostrategic terms.
‘Not seeing the forest for looking too closely at a single tree’ comes to my mind.
Well said ‘m’. Yes I am focusing on the short term because my life is short – I am 76 and although healthy, I have COPD due to years of smoking – there is always a price to pay!
You are probably very right in the medium term – say 10 years or so – by which time my pension runs out due to inflation!
Thanks, Peter. Best to you.
No fat chicks, though.
Kamal-Mala is used to getting messages that say,” Suck Damn It,Blow’s Just An Expression” ! It’s the reason she screws up tweets .
Well, she’s not …. YOU. Meaning, she doesn’t feel it necessary to mention (((THEM))) every time she writes something.
She is well aware of the issues with (((them))).
For example, she recently wrote —> “Supporters of Israeli apartheid and mass murder are losing control of the narrative, “
Go to her website and you’ll see she is Well Aware.
.
.
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/
Support for palestine is a somewhat approved stance outside the zionist portion of the US.
“From the end of World War Two to the fall of the USSR, the US military was used to smash the spread of communism and secure geostrategic interests toward the ultimate end of engineering the collapse of the Soviet Union. ”
““So you’re gonna be killing kids for crude oil?””
Good article, just not accurate.
Just not accurate?
We await your version.
The strongest ally to communism has been the USA and that began with fighting for them in WW2. There is the official version and then the one that actually looks at the results and not the rhetoric.
Some ways the USA has supported communism
*Allying with the USSR in WW2
*Allowing the Bolsheviks to flee Russia to the USA
*Killing efforts to root out communism in the USA
*Forcing China into Korea
*Did Vietnam fight communism or encourage it? I would argue the latter
*Paying for communist China’s industrial revolution and modernization
Roosevelt was a communist.
I am sure others could add to that.
That is a laughable statement. Propaganda escape is not easy task.
The late Butler Shaffer:
“What does it do to an otherwise psychologically and emotionally centered person to have one’s training as a systematic killer of strangers become the highlight of his or her life.”
Yep, I’m starting to see the light as of late. Especially with DC surrounded by troops. Remember that if shit goes hot, they will not be on the side of everyday folk that want to be left alone
30 thousand a year to”Defend America” 30 million a year to throw a baseball every 5th day. That should be all some young kid should need to know what they think of him.
Aaaaaand, here’s your Dementia riddled President praising Empire. Talks about the 7,000+ who died in Afghanistan/Iraq … they died for DEMOCRACY AND FREEDOM dontchya know? Lot’s of libfuk talking points throughout.
How these scumfuks live with themselves is a Mystery of Mysteries.
What’s up with Dementia’s Mr. Magoo level squinting?
If you watch this Demented Fucker please be aware you’re wasting 22 minutes of your life you will never get back. NOBODY watched this. The speech was viewed by a whopping 560 people that tuned into the White House YouTube channel. BWAHAHAHAHA!!
And those 560 were likely ordered to watch, or were tuned in but taking a crap or doing something useful instead of watching.
A few days ago Dementia was in Tulsa. This is what he said;
“Terrorism from white supremacy is the most lethal threat to the homeland today.”
Not China. Not Russia. Not Iran. Not North Korea. Not runaway debt. Not the looting and destruction of American cities. Not even Covid. But, WHITE SUPREMACISTS!!
He also promised the Kneegrows his Administration would make efforts to help in “black wealth creation” … increasing federal contracts to “black or brown owned” businesses by 50% … ending “racial discrimination in housing” … and setting aside $10 billion in infrastructure spending to rebuild roads and schools in black neighborhoods.
So now you know where you stand if you are White.
The Court just ruled again that racial set asides are RACIST. But whenever the court rules in favor of the Constitution or makes a Conservative, Just Common Sense SJ decision, the Left just plows ahead with Racist Cultural Communism like a bulldozer clearing farmland for a new development and the System doesn’t move a finger to uphold the 14th Amendment and the Court’s anti-racist rulings . It’s like, OK we Judges made a Just ruling but y’all have to enforce it yourselves without Legal or Law Enforcement if you dare.
Well since a great part of the world has expressed dissatisfaction with the presence of the U.S. in their countries , let them feel our absence (our greenbacks too ). I’m all for the idea . Russia , China….”tag you’re it ” . Hell you can’t build democracies (if that even were the idea ) in countries where tribal , familial alliances disallow getting along in the first place . The middle east is an 8th grade king of the hill clusterfuck , and the brainchild “Arab Spring” only destabilized most of north Africa and led to muslims scrambling all over hells half acre . The Iron Fist is understood in the mideast . Besides all this , those folks love to rumble with each other and any pacts or treaties entered into may , like the setting of the sun be dropped at the next suns rise . Medieval mindset of people who have had the 20th , and now the 21st century thrust upon them before they were ready .
Too simple ? Yeah well , it felt good to type .
Why would that be too simple? They had people buffaloed into thinking that it takes a great deal of sophistication to comprehend how our “national interests” had to be defended everywhere on the globe – as though anyone who didn’t understand why we should defend Germany was a simpleton. Fuck that noise. Simple makes sense. Bring our troops home. Now. We’re in a supposed “mutual defense pact” with Estonia, for God’s sake. I haven’t seen any Estonians defending us against invaders crossing our southern border.
You are correct. You are a simpleton. What happens in sovereign nations is none of the USA’s fucking business. This self-righteous bullshit that it is the responsibility to interfere and bring corrupt American ‘Democracy’ to the world is as criminally arrogant as it is disgusting. Fuck off already, you were never invited.
It’s interesting that Google’s diversity head can write negatively about Israel and it hasn’t cost him his job. It SHOULD cost him his job – not because I care about Israel, but because the woke police need to get face the same consequences they inflict on normal Americans.
If it weren’t for their double standards . . . .
If anything being in the military was an education into how badly the Government does things. I can always tell when someone hasn’t served or worked in Government. They are the ones who think that the Government is the answer to problems. One thing I learned was that the Air Force could win wars all by itself. The Navy probably could also. Yep, it’s a racket.
I was a Soldier 12 years and I never knew a GI who said I want to die for my country. The guys we lost did not give their lives for their country, they lost their lives serving their country. I get angry that many times a specific death could have been avoided by better planning; and a specific battle avoided by better planning; and the whole damned global mess could have been avoided if the CIA had shot or strangled Kissinger, Soros and Gates before 1965.