Have Central Banks Crossed the Line into Tyranny?

Under Ronnie:
1. Wall Street continued to buy up local hospitals for incorporation.
2. 1986 Amnesty law.
3. Saving and Loan Bubble.
4. Beirut Bombing 1983.
5. Happy Military Industrial Complex.

Scott MacLoed, “Key Marine sentry says gun was unloaded when Beirut bomb truck came”:

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Oct. 27, 1983 (UPI) – A key sentry during the bomb attack that killed 221 U.S. servicemen had no magazine in his rifle when a truck loaded with explosives barreled into the Marine headquarters, a Marine officer said today.

Col. Tim Geraghty, commander of the Marines in Beirut, said two days before the attack they had been warned that a car bombing was imminent. Asked if there was any culpability on the part of sentries, Geraghty, replied, ”No.”

“Rules of Engagement and Non-Lethal Weapons: A Deadly Combination?”, CSC 1997:

The Marines entered a country about the size of Connecticut that contained three million people, 17 officially recognized religious sects, two foreign armies of occupation, three other national contingents of peacekeeping forces besides themselves, and some two dozen extralegal militias. Over 10,000 people had been killed during the preceding eight years. Lebanon was a country where criminals involved in indiscriminate killing and every other type of conceivable illicite activity, issue political manifestos and hold press conferences. The Marines found themselves in a lawless quagmire where there is no shortage of endemic surrogates willing to carry out hostile acts against the U.S..[39]

To couple this extreme environment with the anarchy of an unsupported government and the high anxiety following the assassination and massacre and call it peacekeeping is stretching the limits of that definition.[40] The Marines were not going into a benign environment at the request of all parties involved and there was no peace to keep. A more accurate and appropriate definition of the Marines’ mission would have been that of peace enforcement.[41] The difference in mission definition is significant because peace enforcement missions have a much more robust set of ROE than does the primarily defensive mission of peacekeeping. Nonetheless, the Marines were interposed between the IDF and the populated areas of Beirut as peacekeepers and directed to take up positions at the Beirut International Airport (BIA). The JCS instructions to the U.S. European Command (USEUCOM) explicitly stated that the U.S. forces would not engage in “combat.” It went on to say that, in accordance with USEUCOM PROE, the U.S. forces were directed to exercise restraint and to use force only in self-defense so not to escalate any conflict, endanger innocent lives, or to become enmeshed in factional infighting.[42] In essence, the military mission of the Marines in Beirut boiled down to a symbolic “presence.”[43] Mandate compliance was assured by USEUCOM issuing highly restrictive ROE.[44]

Thus, the United States Marines embarked on a mission in which the ROE forbade the use of force unless a hostile act was committed. These ROE contained language such as::

When on the post, mobile or foot patrol, keep loaded magazine in weapon, bolt closed, weapon on safe, no round in the chamber.

Do not chamber a round unless told to do so by a commissioned officer unless you must act in immediate self-defense where deadly force is authorized.[45]

The restrictive language of the ROE led the Marines to believe that they had to take the first hit before force was authorized. These restrictive ROE, started on 28 September 1982 and remained in effect for three MAUs (32d, 24th, and 22d) that deployed to Lebanon.[46] This set of ROE became known as the “White Card ROE” because of the white paper used in making the ROE pocket cards.[47]

As pointed out earlier, the Marines erroneously assumed they were going into a permissive, or at least benign, environment. This error soon became apparent as the situation visibly changed in front of the Marine’s eyes. Between October of 1982 and February 1983, many previously absent young men began reappearing in Beirut — it was assumed that they were members of the Syrian and PLO forces that had been evacuated just the preceding month. The Marine presence went from tacit acceptance to “hard” stares, taunts, verbal (slang) assaults, the appearance of Khomeni posters everywhere, and rock throwing incidents.[48] Since no response was authorized, the marvelous restraint shown by the Marines was interpreted as a lack of resolve by the factional elements which encouraged them to up the ante.

Ask not for whom the Voltaire quote was directed, for it was directed to thee.

Still not getting it!

Description of youtube video:

My imagined version.

According to Roger Waters, Barrett came into what was to be THE Pink Floyd’s last practice session with a new song he had dubbed “Have You Got It Yet?”. The song seemed simple enough when he first presented it to his bandmates, but it soon became impossibly difficult to learn and they eventually realized that while they were practising it, Barrett kept changing the arrangement. He would then play it again, with the arbitrary changes, and sing “Have you got it yet?”. Eventually they realized they never would and that they were simply bearing the brunt of Barrett’s idiosyncratic sense of humour

Worse still, they do care if they don’t. They keep caring. Don’t tell After-the-Fact Warrior.