Propaganda is easy to unpack once you get down a few basic rules. One of them is this: “the louder the slogan, the bigger the lie“.
That is also the case with Veteran’s Day in which US Americans thank their veterans for their “service”.
Now even setting aside the true reasons why US Americans sign up, there is a much more important fact which the US propaganda machine is trying to whitewash: US “servicepersons” (yup, let’s keep up with the times!) ALWAYS fight in the other guy’s backyard. Always.
So they have to somehow resolve this self-evident contradiction: I fight for the other guy, in his own backyard, by fighting against him.
In order to make that one stick or, at least, to damped the cognitive dissonance, you do two things: first, you demonize the other guy while, second, you claim to “serve” for high, lofty and utterly meaningless notions like “manifest destiny”, “democracy” or even, as I heard recently, to “save the Jews from the Nazi gas chambers”.
And it works.
The bigger the lie, the louder the slogans, the more energetic the flag-waving and the bigger the patriotic-hysteria around the “gratitude” towards those who are, undeniably, hired murders (even those who do not pull the trigger, but help others do so).
Of course, no matter what kind of mental gymnastics are needed to obfuscate the true nature of what the veterans really did (and still are doing), the truth seeps under this ideological concertina wire, especially when veterans blow their brains out, suffer from PTSD, drown in drugs and booze and end up homeless in immense numbers.
So Veteran’s Day is not about veterans at all, it is about self-absolution, about just for one day pretending to care about veterans and their “service”. But crucially, this day of shame is about whitewashing murder.
Violence and lies are twin brothers always working hand in hand towards their common goal.
We can get a feeling for the magnitude of the violence perpetrated by the US servicepersons by observing the ideological intensity of the “protective shield” of lies which are needed to conceal its true nature of their actions.
I don’t know of Latin American drug cartels have a “Dia del Sicario” but if they don’t they should emulate the “The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave” and create one, celebrated with lots of flags and expressions of patriotic piety.
I personally will join those few souls who hope that the day will come when the US military will truly be what it has never been before: a force whose mission is to protect the people of the USA from foreign threats (not that I see from where this threat may come from).
Only then will the US sicarios become real soldiers.
Andrei
UPDATE: in one of the comments which the mods (rightly) sent to trash there was one question which I feel needs to be addressed: what about the Russians in Syria? Ain’t that the same?
Nope, for the following reasons:
- The Russians went to Syria not to start a war (the Empire did that), but to STOP one
- The Russians did not commit mass atrocities in Syria
- The Russians were directly threatened by “Axis of Kindness” operations in the Middle-East (what the CIA was doing in Afghanistan in the 70 it never stopped doing and was STILL at it in Syria)
- Last, but not least, the Russians did not flee in disgrace from Syria (or Afghanistan, for that matter)
So no, it ain’t the same.
The great hypocrisy that many people don’t realize is that “Veteran’s Day” used to be called Armistice Day, which was celebrating the cessation of hostilities during World War 1.
It was only during the Korean War era that the United States government changed the name of Armistice Day to “Veteran’s Day” and altered the meaning of this holiday to one focusing on “celebrating” the US military.
In short, this holiday was changed from honoring peace to one honoring war.
This holiday itself is an example of America’s Orwellian inversion of reality.
Changing the “War No More” Sentiment of Armistice Day to the War-Glorifying Propaganda of Veterans Day
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2017/11/gary-g-kohls/changing-the-war-no-more-sentiment-of-armistice-day-to-the-war-glorifying-propaganda-of-veterans-day/
Very interesting, and telling, thank you!
Thanks for the explanation Anon. It seems everything gets bastardized in the long run.
As for the Roger Waters vids, I have listened to Amused To Death countless times. Finally a celebrity getting political with a proper message.
I really have to commend the saker for this shaking up of human conscience. He is doing us a great favour by articulating this point so bravely.
To me he is saying what is encapsulated in the phrase, ‘the truth shall set you free’. Accepting that truth will provide relief and solace in the hope we can move on as better and rightly guided individuals.
It applies to many wrongs we do in our lives. We should be wise to avoid them but also to recognise and accept them and learn from them and not fall into the ignorance is bliss canard.
This is graceful and a form of grace. From a theological perspective a divine gift to repair the soul.
I’m seriously feeling that too. And what, you think it’s true? You must be in a state of grace to receive grace? I think so. I think this is what we’re perceiving. Thank you for bringing it up. There are many frankly pretty awesome potentialities here and now in the worldly realm of thought. I agree 100%. Now that I have your attention I don’t know what to say. LOL. I am waiting for magic. Peace and understanding. I want to be free to travel anywhere I want and meet people I want. And food, don’t get me started. കറിവെച്ച ആടിനെ കടത്തിവിടണോ?
Google translation,MOD:
Do you want to smuggle curry?
Also, around the same time, the Department of War was renamed Department of Defense –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_War
Yes, in Commonwealth countries, following Canada’s lead after World War II, I believe, the name of the day was changed from Armistice Day to Remembrance Day. With much the same purpose: to shift the focus from the peace that was obtained to those who died during World War I.
To add insult to injury, in my country it is also the date on which a bloodless coup was perpetrated in 1975 by the British Queen (and her MI6 page boy minders) and the CIA. The government that was ‘dismissed’ was democratically elected and enjoyed a majority in the House of Representatives. The Prime Minister at the time had intended, the next day in the parliament, to name the CIA agents operating within the country to undermine his government. But of course he never got the chance to do so.
In Canada a poem to celebrate the continuation of war is used at every memorial service and inculcated into all the school kids through endless annual repetitions:
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
I did not realize that the Flanders were in Canada (just kidding!)
Keep walking Flanders)))
Poem written 1915 on Ypres salient by Canadian doctor Lt Col McRae. (1872-1918)
I’ve collected all those WW1 poets, all sides. Tolkien was one of the most affected. I’ve read all there is also on poor T.E. Lawrence a marvelous stupid f ck with unrealized potential who clocked out early. Sorry, I digress….In Flanders fields the poppies grow.
https://youtu.be/12DXCrdf2EI
Dear Jim,
We in Australia go through the exact same rituals every year, hosted by the glorious RSL, the Returned Serviceman’s League. Then we have the address to the fallen, “Lest we forget”, and once you stop and think about, they have in fact already forgotten; they have forgotten every lie and deceit that was perpetrated on an unsuspecting people to lure them into a war that never should have been, the war to end all wars, and then they pulled the same trick again twenty years later.
“Lest we forget” should be about all those that died believing the lies of our ‘betters’. We always forget!!!
Armistice day midnight oil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOfX4Y045ww
You’re watching people fighting you’re watching
People losing on Armistice Day
You’re watching people fighting
You’re watching people losing on Armistice Day
The watchers do the wincing reporters so convincing
But the TV never lies
I went looking for a war but the only guns I saw
Never used in anger
You’re watching people fight, say they fight
Oh say they lose on Armistice Day
The fixers do the fixing the locals do the lynching the papers deny
I went looking for a headline got talking to the backline
They’d never seen the action
I grew up in the mid-west. Northwest Indiana to be exact.
My father and his brothers served in WWII.
Johnnie died in his chute after his bomber was wrecked by FLAK over Polesti.
Al did every landing from Guadacanal to Iwo.
My father was involved in the development of RADAR while on duty in the US Army Signal Corps.
Nick was in the Army training for the invasion of Japan
Veterans day was for the purpose of visiting war graves….
Anything else….
Is your imagination…
INDY
Veterans day was for the purpose of visiting war graves….
You know what is missing from your recollection?
The names of the people your brothers killed.
I think about them on each “Veteran’s Day”
and yes,
my imagination is clearly wider that yours
oh, and also this: none of your brother died defending their country.
Well, he was talking about WWII and his father and his uncles. So, they killed the Japanese and the Germans.
My family fought the Nazis and the Japanese both on the front line and behind the lines as partisans.
When my relatives from the Carpathian Mts. linked up with the Red Army, they marched on Berlin.
When my relatives marched across the Pacific, one of them, my Uncle Albert raised the stars and stripes over Mt. Surabachi.
I served in West Pac during the Vietnam War. I always wanted to know why my young adulthood was dominated by that war, which lasted 12 miserable years from my Jr Year in HS, until after I graduated with my PhD from IU after I returned and studied on the GI-bill. So I read Fire In The Lake.
My eldest son was in Gulf Wars I & II. He served on the America.
I’ve buried a buddy who was a fighter jock during Nam… He contracted prostate cancer just as his life was getting together after years of preparation.
I don’t need lessons on my country’s feckless wars…. I was there… My buddies were there….
I just finished the 40 episode series documenting the Chinese side of the Korean War…. More irrationality…
So, don’t lecture me…
INDY
So you confirm what I said: none of your relatives fought in defense of their country, they did that thousands of miles away, and you still are better at listing their names rather than the names of their victims.
Have you ever tried to establish even a rough estimate of people they murdered?
…
So, don’t lecture me…
And how about you don’t tell me what to do on my own blog?
You don’t understand Saker!
What do you mean “don’t lecture me on my blog” ? Don’t you know? They think they own the universe! And anyone or anything they don’t like they kill or destroy. They only speak one language.
So your uncle (Johnny) died while bombing Romania (you misspelled Ploiesti), a country that was no security threat to the US yet no one in your family paused to wonder how many innocent Romanians he killed before dying ands more importantly in whose interest.
Armistice descends from Latin sistere, meaning “to come to a stand” or “to cause to stand or stop,” combined with arma, meaning “weapons.” An armistice, therefore, is literally a cessation of arms.
Good cartoon. I prefer this version, though:
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q0tG_wu6Qms/VjFdZOG9r5I/AAAAAAAAB9g/y-9RGVxlh_0/s1600/1966863_601587536594463_1177965932_n.png
Haha, that cartoon is a really good one! Just like this one in the context of Syria:
/russia-please-stop/
Wounded Warrior Project Infomercials are absolutely disgusting and vile:”They were fighten for yer freedom and protecting us from terrorists..” said the country music singer with a Cowboy hat on top of his pinhead…
No they weren’t…if what the pinhead with the cowboy on says is true…why wasn’t there a draft?….Why didn’t millions of draft age young men line up around the block down from the Military Recruiters Office?…Answer:Because everyone knows it was, and still is, a massive lie.
Why didn’t Tom Brady sign up?…How bout the Gronk? Instead young men who sat on the bench during football season in high school…we’re doing patrols downtown Kabul and blown up into pieces of Chuck ground…America is a Nation of War Hawk Chickenhawk Jock Sniffing Cowards….Sean Hannity…Bill O’Reilly….Jessie Watters..
My cousin’s daughter an RN signed up…did MASH Tent duty in Aghanistan…surgery nurse….limb amputations of young Marines…one…two…sometimes…all 4 limbs…This is what she did all day…Today she is afflicted with severe PTS and is a drug addict…divorced…
George W Bush is a filthy cockroach…
I almost got into a fist fight with Bill O’Reilly at the Book Review after I called him a War Hawk Chicken Hawk Draft Dodger during his days at Marist College….
Sorry to hear about your cousin’s daughter.
George W Bush is a filthy cockroach…
America is a Nation of War Hawk Chickenhawk Jock Sniffing Cowards….
I cannot read, hear or watch videos about war criminal Bush without images of a young Iraqi girl, around 5 or 6 years old, cradled by her father with half her skull blown off by a US bomb, coming into my head. I shall never forget it because it almost made me physically sick when it came on TV — and I was thousands of miles away from Iraq.
Brave little George Bush joined the Texas Air National Guard to defend Texas against the Vietcong. Having established his ‘warrior credentials’, years later he flew to a US carrier off the US coast to strut around in a flight suit before declaring ‘Mission Accomplished.’
George Bush was and is the quintessence and epitome, for me, of the most cowardly of the cowards; the real, unadulterated, scum of the earth — the most despicable specimens of humankind — the neocon Chickenhawks then and the warmongers firmly ensconced in the upper reaches of US society and ZOG today.
Yes…I have seen that horrific photo…
I am disappointed and emotionally hurt by Saker’s post because he neglected to take into consideration the ignorance of the youth who join the American military during wartime; that would be me.
In 1966 the Vietnam War was raging on and I was an eighteen-year old kid just out of high school. I wanted to do my part to help the war effort so I didn’t wait for my draft-number to be called; I enlisted in the U.S. Military.
I gave up four years of my young life because I believed President Johnson when he spoke to the nation about stopping the spread of communism. I knew little about communism other than it’s complete control of the economy and denial of the right to private real property ownership.
My grandfather and his eight-year old son, who was my father, came to United States from Sicily in 1916 because America was “the land of opportunity.” If you worked hard, provided for your family and obeyed the laws, you could have a good life. My father worked as a welder during World War II because he wanted to do his part as an immigrant to stop the fascists in Italy.
My father said this to me when I told him I enlisted in the military:
“You see this house we live in? It belongs to mama and me. This is our home and we must protect our country from anyone who thinks they have the right to steal it from us. America fought against fascism and you must fight communism.”
My father had a fifth-grade education and did not know or even fathom the evil of Washington politics or Wall Street greed. All he knew as did millions of European immigrants, that when a government denies a people the right to be free then it must be stopped or it will be enslaved.
The children of America are not taught the truth about war because it is glorified as a noble effort by powerful factions: the weapons industry that bribes the central government and the entertainment media so they can both enrich themselves by selling weapon systems or produce heroic movies shown in movie theaters or streamed over the Internet. They are de facto death merchants and the youth are their future profits.
I vociferously disagree with the comment that Veterans Day is not about veterans; it most certainly is for me because I lived it, as did millions of my brethren, alive today or dead.
Despite the political and economic exploitation of Veterans Day, it is a solemn remembrance of the waste of young people who return to civilian life physically disabled, mentally damaged or lying in a coffin; all for a lie.
As Saint Paul said, “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” (1 Timothy 6:10 KJV 1611)
I know what Saker meant by his rant and it is completely justified and I wholeheartedly support it. But it is wrong to only speak of the evil and not of the innocent who were deceived by their government. I honor the living and the dead on Veterans Day and Memorial Day just as the Russian people honor their fallen on May 9th of every year.
My father could not have imagined the America he loved could descend into despotism and immoral turpitude. This is the fight from within we must face against; the political, social, economic and religious powers that are hell bent on destroying my father’s dream and my dream as well for myself and my children.
The “Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave” must be more than just words; it must be enabled by deeds of resolute men who will do what is necessary to preserve the foundation of our Federal Republic for which the separation of powers is critical to its survival.
I wanted to do my part to help the war effort
Let’s be clear, you wanted to do your part in the war effort OVER THERE.
Where you don’t belong
Where you were never invited
And where you were an accomplice to mass murder.
Furthermore, when you write: “The “Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave” must be more than just words; it must be enabled by deeds of resolute men who will do what is necessary to preserve the foundation of our Federal Republic for which the separation of powers is critical to its survival” you just repeat the same propaganda which got you OVER THERE in the first place.
And that is a straightforward lie: I honor the living and the dead on Veterans Day and Memorial Day just as the Russian people honor their fallen on May 9th of every year. .
Russians died in their own OVER HERE to prevent folks like you, the German soldiers, from “bringing democracy” and “defending the western values” (of the time) in their OWN COUNTRY.
Finally, “I am disappointed and emotionally hurt” is nothing compared to the MILLIONS of people butchered by the US military planet-wide. Your pain is just cognitive dissonance, not burning napalm or nuclear radiation which, I assure you, hurt a lot more.
You need to poke a lot harder if you want to get to the truth.
Andrei
Did you deliberately ignore the fact that I was 18 years old to make your argument? Did it escape you that I was ignorant of the economic underpinnings of why countries make war upon each other? How much did you understand about military conflict when you were my age back then or were you gifted with prescient knowledge?
I enlisted as did millions of others my age because I trusted what our government leaders said and did. As a mature man I know better now and I tell my story to family members and their children who are willing to listen about the evil of war-for-profit.
I acknowledge the wrongness of war but don’t “pile-on” for me being an American as you write your condemnation from the comfort of your home in sunny Florida, USA, because that is being hypocritical.
I am sorry, but while you are focusing on WHY you did what you did, I am focusing on WHAT you did at TO WHOM you did it.
That you were conned by your own leaders is not an excuse, especially if you continue to use their slogans in the first place!
don’t “pile-on” for me being an American as you write your condemnation from the comfort of your home in sunny Florida, USA, because that is being hypocritical.
First, you are not an American, you are only a USAan. Even your title of “American” smacks of imperialism and exclusiveness. As for me being in Florida (ts.. ts.. that is a petty ad hominem), I explain that quite clearly here:
/why-do-i-live-in-the-usa
But, speaking of hypocrisy, I can’t think of a worse one than BOTH a) condemning wars and b) condemning those who condemn those who conduct wars.
Or do you think that the slogan “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?” is ONLY and SOLELY to him, and not to those who “only executed his orders” (aka the “Nuremberg defense”)?
Saker, are you alright? Your are coming off as increasingly bilious and unhinged as of late.
One thing I know, if I happened to be a guest in a country that was not my own, I would damn sure watch my mouth on days they honored their veterans and war dead.
Where I come from — which is right down the road — that’s called common courtesy. Between there’s a National Cemetery, where I’ve got kin buried. Maybe next time before you lay down a rap like you did today you ought to visit it.
You are missing the point.
The issue is not honoring or not honoring the dead, the issue is whether we want to further live in a continuous lie, a lie that kills people EVERY DAY or not.
I don’t.
Also, the USA is not just “a country”. It is the one which has the unique distinction of never having fought a war in defense of itself AND one which massacred millions of people worldwide.
What you consider a lack of common courtesy is just the fact that I wrote the plain truth, with none of the obligatory obfuscation, denials, explaining away, etc.
Your entire comment is just more evidence than rather than refuting a single thing I wrote, you want to make that about me. That’s pretty lame and very telling!
You know, I went through this elsewhere today. You want to give someone a sandwich and all they want is a chip…..to wear on their shoulder. Hoka hey!
Andrei – they’re trolling you
oh I know.
but I want to show their impotence
so I let them :-)
cheers
Did you know there are Russian heroes buried at Arlington? They saved the Federal Goobermint during the civil war. Google it.
As a native american you never fought for the freedom of the country you loved. You fought to just take more from others. In other words, you are still an occupying force in MY home. Just like all the other wars you and your family fought in and passed that stolen wealth of to some inbred English aristocrats. The inbreeding is all you got out it. So, please, as long as you are on my land, act civilly to our guests from other countries. My ancestors bones are all over it and I rejoice that we put some of yours there too. Have a nice cosplay holiday.
Did you know there are Russian heroes buried at Arlington?
Alas, yes, and I take exactly *zero* pride in that.
And yes, native Americans are the only ones who fought for THEIR land.
No argument from me here, none whatsoever.
Saker
You need to stop romanticizing the Siberian Migrant-“Native Americans”.
Whether you like it or not, Europeans founded and created America. So they have the strongest claim on America-not Hindus from India…Han from China….and the Pakistani Muslims from Pakistani. The sob story about the “Native Americans” has to nothing do with returning North America back to them..it has to do with the China-Hindu colonization of American soil for greater India and greater China.
The Slavs were highly represented among the US Troops that fought against the Siberian Migrants in the American West…You should be very proud of this as a Slavic Man.
The Noble Native American is a Hollywood myth created by Hollywood…
Whether you like it or not, Europeans founded and created America.
Yeah, yeah, a country without people for a people without country, we heard that before, some things never change :-)
The Noble Native American is a Hollywood myth created by Hollywood
Noble or not, the Natives were here and it was their land. Now they are gone. Try as you may, you can’t whitewash that :-P
You should be very proud of this as a Slavic Man.
I don’t think in these categories, sorry.
The Dawn of Everything is an enlightening book about the egalitarian societies of what you imagine as Siberian’s.
To the contrary, while Siberia hosted many Turkic peoples, the largest river in eastern New England is the merry Irmak, still the modern Turkish word for river. These Turks still call the Turkey the Hinde. So yes the asiatic landmass was dominated by Chinese and Hindu civilization.
So between the battles between Land and Sea as Carl Schmitt would describe the situation, nomadic tribes roamed above China and eventually made it to the gates of Byzantium.
Meanwhile, the sea faring civilization of Pirates, stretching from Indonesia to England, and now armed with 7 nuclear aircraft carriers, are pillaging and raping same as it ever was.
I noted the same about the Saker for a longer time now. I sense that the Saker is the product of the consequences of white experience he is having inordinate problems dealing with himself. for that reason we have to deal with the decisions of the Saker relevant to tis board we all have to deal with.
Yet while I understand Some Dudes’ applied etiquette, America has been and is too great of a destructive and criminal factor in world history to be that sensitive of its nationalist persona when it comes to laying down critique.
American exploitation and general destructive activity on planet earth, building up massive momentum for the past 85 years in particular has brought the human species to its knees, to the point of extinction as we speak.
There is little that can stop the human momentum to extinction right now, save the ordinary people of planet comes to one one mind, become clear on the situation and that that it is up to them to save humanity, rise up and take over, elongating as they go the multiple forms of social organization locally to ensure that the people of all regions can meet their needs, so that the human species could finally take off on a process of social development on the principle of putting human survival and development first not the interest of this or that elitist minority at the expense of the species as a whole
If you understood human historical evolution you would see clearly what this stage actually means…that capitalism has exhausted itself, has no further positive contribution to make to human development, has exhausted all such and in seeking to perpetuate the capitalist elites in power they must carry out the horrific programs that can achieve that end…that is to depopulate the ordinary people in whose interest it is to revolutionize society and take it forward by making real democracies around the planet that develop the cooperative base on which the world comes together… not like some one nation run by an exploitative elite that the capitalists seek, but working together in independence, can disagree and even go separate ways yet open able to correct in time an come back together on that experience and development then proven to be right
democratic Independent development permits the broadest human development possible, maximizing human chances of goin on indefinitely in nature. That is not what America does. America stand 4-square in the path of human development and indefinite survival. America is the biggest threat to human survival there is. I saw this morning Bill Gates screaming to the heavens for governments around the planet to stop people criticizing masks and injections mandates, to make it illegal to voice proper opinion on these issues
But there is so much proven negative on the destructiveness of the Covid vaccine and vaccine mandates and masking, why isn’t it on the other necessary to arrest and lock away Bill Gates for his advocacy in favor of what now it clearly opposed to the peoples best health interest relative to Covid?
Recently I have been looking at how America has been relating to Black countries around the world for those same 85 years in question since 1945. It has been the most incredible of comprehensive negative oppositional programs of colonization imaginable, including comprehensive programs of general assassination that killed all African citizens the west imagined to be or progressive potential to the people of any and all African countries
The last African president killed was John Magufuli for fighting back against the Americans for his people in the Covid issue.
Then of course there were the color revolutions that tore nations apart and put them back together again as a mess to be exploited by foreign corporations for profit ripping off raw material, not in the interest of African people
In the USA, the security agencies killed every Black man they could not control. The most hurtful assassination of all was the murder of Malcolm X, one of the most truthful and impressive of all personalities I encountered in my life…that one could perceive even from a distance. Similarly with Dr. Martin Luther King. To be a honest, truthful Blackman or woman in the world walking in sync with Black people, relating to your own honestly, positively was to have a target on one back that the white security agencies duly executed
And finally the destruction a few years ago of Libya by Barack Obama was the straw that broken cleared my eyes to the truth of the world reality that humanity is on its last legs. That was the most unnecessary of all acts, the mass murder of thousands and thousands of people for no valid purpose save the profits and pints whatever of the Israelis looking to destroy all regional Muslim nations doing reasonably well. And Obama, a Black man did that…looked for all and every reason to cover his ass in the process, to cover and justify his evil. Obama killed Gadaffi a leader looking out for his country and people
How can the American people be forgiven for that, that they be avoided with their truth too, when the American nationalist persona be discussed?
The ordinary people of the world are supposed to be in the van when it comes to saving humanity at this point but we are with the rich in their vanguard as they have developed and are executing the programs of genocide death they are carrying out currently. the rich are attacking us, the ordinary people here and now. We are supposed to be fighting back, protecting ourselves against them. Who is to save the human species then?
Who are the Human species but us ordinary folk! If the rich succeed in destroying the ordinary people what would remain…who would remain? Try imagine what the rich would have to make in order to have some sort of society to go on with in the absence of the vast majority of ordinary human beings the world over. Suffice it to say that there is no intention on the part of the rich to have any of use here posting away around for very much longer. It is not in their interest to do so. They would have nothing for us to do. The only way there would be work for all to do is if the people take over, focus the purpose of work, of society as a whole to meet general need and survival, mass projects and their maintenance not for corporate profits and purposes, but for popular need
The purpose and point of work must change, will change regardless given how we have evolved and developed producing the potential we have at this point…either capitalist tyranny that leads to some fantastic Brave New World in which the capitalists use the science and technology of the age to perpetuate their social power…impregnable power with which to eliminate ordinary people, and the peoplehood of any they allow to survive. which is what the have begun to do right now
The ordinary people have no choice but to rise in turn using their vast majority to overwhelm the status quo, take over society and to make a real democracy, relevant and effective forms of which are the only ways in which the people can organize the world in ways that maximizes and guarantees the survival of the human species
I sense that the Saker is the product of the consequences of white experience he is having inordinate problems dealing with himself
Riiiiiiiiiiight!! Make that about me and give us all a collective pseudo psychotherapy.
Except I am not the one with blood on my hands and lies in my head…
you have limited your board unduly but the board does exceedingly well anyway, still relevant, many very useful articles and commentary. so I stick around. no psychotherapy forthcoming. I am noting what may be the case speculation on personal life-long experience
just let it go…time resolves everything with the exception of the elitist social realities. We are still enmeshed and may not get out with humanity intact. We are already horrifically infect by self inflicted injections that contain potential to do great, expanding damage to humanity
You have demonstrated a cruelty of words that I would never have imagined you were capable of putting to paper. Essentially you wrote:
1. All U.S. service personnel past (me) and present are mass murders and we should be compared to Hitler’s army.
2. I cannot consider myself an American but as you put it, imperialistic, exclusiveness “USAan”, whatever that is supposed to mean.
3. Despite the fact that a military draft was in place meaning we had to go, you think we should have run away to some other country like Canada or worse, risk going to prison.
4. We should not only denounce our military service to satisfy your father confessor ego but also excoriate those who never wanted war, never wanted to kill anyone (and many did not, including myself) but simply accepted as a truth what the President of the United States said about stopping communism.
There is no shame in honoring military service for its intended purpose of defending a country despite the reality that such acts were purely colonialist in nature, which were unknown to most others and me at that time.
I already wrote that war is wrong but that’s not good enough for your highness; you want me to turn my back on the memory of our fallen men and the suffering of their families and I will never do that.
You know we have little control over Washington, DC foreign policies because it’s so corrupt and beyond repair other than revolution.
Revolution, is that what you hope for Saker, civil war? Well pack your bags brother and make sure you get on the last flight back to Swiss-Miss Land so you can safely continue to tap-tap-tap on your keyboard far away from the ravages of war because there is the probability it could happen.
Revolution, is that what you hope for Saker, civil war?
Nope. Simply an end to the lies and the rationalizations for mass murder.
And yes, that is, in our times, a profoundly revolutionary goal.
Your post just proved that.
Thank you!
I’m the one calling you out the most. My truths you can’t dodge as an Amerindian. I’m part white with a couple of hundred years of insane military experience. I’m Irish Indian…an Irish disposition to drink and an NDN inability to handle it. John Fire Lame Deer said it best, “For giving us horses, we could almost forgive you for bringing us fire water”. It’s not the saker’s fault you did what you did, or even that he doesn’t recognize the return of Brave Ulysses. Let fly the bolt, we shall see. Of all the things you list….I can only tender this….You Don’t Know the Half of it Dearie Blues. So let’s dance here, you and I?
https://youtu.be/4mNHRGkq10A
(Trying so hard to stay out of this one… but) From Canada — Beau Dick says it best, or says it well, I think. Let the Snotty Nose Rez Kids lead us to his words… and yes I’m Amerindian too though not from a West Coast nation. (My Dad said once that the one good thing the Europeans brought us was the elderberry shrub.)
https://youtu.be/TUG8oEuCl0E
I’m the one calling you out the most
True, but he can hardly you to fly back to your own country, now can he?
:-)
Cheers
I agree with Saker on these two points, but also sympathise with Poke the Truth because in my youth I likewise supported Kennedy’s call for “advisors” to Vietnam.
“1. All U.S. service personnel past (me) and present are mass murders and we should be compared to Hitler’s army.”
Not only the U$ Army. The British Army is equally culpable with the US Army in committing Imperialist atrocities. The Anglo-American Military Industrial Financial Complex financed Hitler, armed him and gave him diplomatic assistance to take over Czecho-Slovakia on the understanding that Hitler’s army would invade Communist Russia. Fortunately the Red Army liberated Europe from the Nazi menace (and incidentally saved the life of a young girl who later became my wife) by chewing up 80% of Hitler’s army and occupying Berlin.
“2. I cannot consider myself an American but as you put it, USAan, whatever that is supposed to mean.”
USAan (or Usian) means a citizen of the United States, a country on the continent of America. Synecdoche is a figure of speech which means, calling the part for the whole: for instance, calling a cricket team “England”. Calling the USA “America” is synecdoche.
A revolution, yes, a genuine one, with a lot of cleaning in the highest spheres of the governing bodies. Let´s see if you are capable of recuperating your land which becomes more and more a plantation or a laboratory experiment.
That’s really cutting. Even I here was wincing while reading Saker’s replies to PokeTheTruth but if one takes a step back..and honestly looks it over.. It is the bitter truth. To accept truth we must be prepared to stop justifying ourselves.
I’m what they call a military brat. I grew up on base. My father was in spec ops, C130 gunships flying close air support to BS operations “in country” and in Laos, Cambodia etc. His 1st tour I was 10. 1966. I was the television of the grunts stacking bodies…ala holocaust optics….on the news every night while they gave the body count report as a metric of victory. I didn’t need anyone to tell me it was wrong. By the time of his 2nd extended tour I considered him a baby killer. Reality about my dad, the high school drop out with rotted teeth? No job prospects. He was one of the dummies in the book I recommended. He kept going back for the extra 86 a month combat pay. Being stuck in Stockton, California after base schools with their French, Music and Algebra classes in 3rd grade. I sh!t you not…….There were gangs everywhere and I was on the menu cause I didn’t have a dad at home as he was off fighting for the freedom of these assholes to try to kick my ass everyday. I became adept at defending myself. When popsy-poo came home? By then I hated his ass, considered him a baby killer and refused his re-establishment of authority at home. I emancipated at 16. We reconciled in 96. I brought him a book ‘Warrior Dreams’. He asked “why?” and I told him it was about healing the soul of the guys who lost Vietnam…after all their propaganda said they couldn’t lose. Pops said “We didn’t lose!”. I asked “What do you can 2nd place in a war?” So, I don’t buy the ignorance plea. People went to become heroes and be admired, worshipped, but that doesn’t happen when one country attacks another unfairly and kills children and civilians. They were spat on and rightfully so. Enjoy the holiday.
‘Warrior Dreams’.
Thanks, I looked it up and will order it.
I am anti-imperialist. I am on the more traditional American right when it comes to war. Some might call me an isolationist or a non-interventionist. I want the American military to leave every foreign base and return home, but I will never, ever throw in my lot with the likes of you. Never. That’s why even though I opposed the Iraq war from the beginning I wouldn’t be caught dead marching with people like you. People who fundamentally hate America, their own Motherland and believe it is just to spit upon a man in uniform because you oppose the war. I loathe your type. I have contempt for your type. It was your type that took over the San Francisco Bay Area (where I was born and raised) and paved the way for this Woke insanity that now has it in it’s death grip. I always sympathized with the Vietnam Veteran and I always sympathized with the hard hat union construction workers who would beat the hell out of your type in the streets not because they agreed with the war but because they hated everything they believed in. That’s the raw truth right there.
Love this though you are so wrong about me and your raw truth is your raw opinion, well, rotten. I have a different opinion. I would have never spit on anyone. I, too, was born in the Bay Area. Now it is taken over by obese drunken right wing slobs like the ones you like. One has to remember your heroes were beating people up before the war started. The knuckle draggers you coddle drove around in pick up trucks with stickers saying “Beautiful America – Kill A Hippie”. Now it’s you in the sights and you don’t like it. But it is your turn. The times swing like a pendulum and in panty waist woke Americastan they over correct. I am in no way responsible for the woke thing. In a room full of old farts they’d look at you and me and see us as the same. Glad you feel the way do. It caused me the heartiest guffaws. I haven’t laughed so much since my life military father was alive. You’re the Archie Bunker I’ve missed for years.
What makes you the bearer of the truth Andrei? Do you know the hearts of men? Are you God? You get to judge this American Veteran above, it’s your place? What arrogance? Forgive me but I will speak some truth to you. Especially since we are Orthodox Brothers.
Who are you Andrei? You are a man without a country. You are a brilliant analyst I will give you that, but you don’t have the right to judge this man. He’s been where you’ve never been. Done what you’ve never done.
Had you been born to White Russian emigres to the United States (of which I know many, including families that came over with St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco) you would not speak this way. Many of their children went off to Vietnam (yes to fight the Communists who drove them out of their Homeland). By your logic they were Nazis too.
What you just said on American Veterans Day (yes, from your home in Florida no less) is that all American Veterans are Nazis, murderers. You are painting a broad brush over a lot of Americans and of us Americans you say you admire, don’t you know we are The Grandchildren, Children, Brothers and Sisters of those Veterans you despise?
This man who just spilled his heart out to you. This American Veteran (who is just like my Godfather and is the same age as my Father) did nothing wrong. He did what he believed to be right. What he was told was right. You know what they told him Andrei (you should know this)? They told him he was fighting the Communists over there so he wouldn’t have to fight them here. That’s what he was told. That’s what he believed and there you are villainizing him and demonizing him the same way (by the way) our media demonizes Russians today. You couldn’t be more wrong about this. Yes I’m angry. You would be angry to if this was your country and an immigrant no less was denigrating your Fathers while living well here. Never would I do that in Russia, or anywhere else. Not in a million years because I have respect.
I am a Native American in every sense of the word including being a quarter Indigenous American by blood. You think it’s ok to just come to someone else’s home and disrespect them like you just did? I would never do that in your home. Not in a million years because I have respect. Where is your respect? Where is your Christian empathy? Or have you adopted the historical criticisms of the Woke without being Woke? I tell you what you sound like. You sound like the Communist Professors who hate America with a passion even though they’ve lived off it’s milk and honey never knowing want for anything their whole lives. You sound like their echo. You call it truth. I’m not afraid of the truth. I detect a lot of vindictiveness in what you are calling truth here. You are forgetting about the nuance. You are making everything Black and White. These are Good, these are Bad but you know what Alexander Solzhenitsyn said. He said the line between good mad evil goes through every human heart. God knows the heart of this Vietnam Veteran. He knows where his heart was in 1966 and I know God is merciful. He will not judge this man as harshly as you just did.
@JEinCA: “Many of their children went off to Vietnam (yes to fight the Communists who drove them out of their Homeland). By your logic they were Nazis too.”
The people of Vietnam never drove any Russians out of anywhere. For the US born children of Anti-Communist Russian emigres to invade Vietnam and slaughter 3 Million “geeks” on the orders of Nazi supporter Dulles was pure Imperialism if not Nazism.
The Vietnamese Communists under Ho Chi Minh drove the White Russians out of their country so the latter had to go and fight them in jungles of Vietnam…..? Moronic doesn’t even begin to describe your ridiculous comment.
Again, you are making this about me.
Then you pontificate off-topic.
How can I take that seriously?
You come here and disrespect him on his page. Go back to @onlyfans.com. His cyber home but that’s okay. You’re the most woke I’ve heard but as long as it’s right wing fascism it’s okay, right? I bet you native american story is as phony as them all. Let’s see, White man, NDN woman. Right? Probably Cherokee because that’s what all poor white trash originating in Arkansas and Oklahoma do. The only people with any money are the Cherokee there. Oh, you were a vet too? Awwwww.
The Vietnamese ‘communists’ who kicked the Japanese off their soil for the American promises of not allowing the French colonialists to return. No sooner than the war was ended the US used the Japanese to guard the Viets so the valiant French could return. But those reds kicked more ass than the US did. They were good enough to die to help in that good old Israeli fashion of “Why don’t you and he go fight?” Lying agreement incapable buggers.
They used the Chinese Communists to defeat the Japanese and then are still boning them in the keister. Agreement incapable? 1972 Nixon (I bet you have nudes on your wall) agreed One China. Now you, fanboy that you are of Brandon and Blinken act surprised.
Russia destroys Germany when the US, like in WW1, waltzes in at the KO countdown last moment to steal a load of shit and reap the thank yous that others deserved. Patton…..who fought his way through hundreds of miles fighting old men, old women, children, babies, while real men did the heavy lifting and still pat themselves on the back to this day as if they’d actually done anything but shit, shower, and shave over there. The 2nd Russia ended the war, Patton, oh you’d like him with his shiny boots, jodphurs with tubesocks stuffed in his BVDs, wanted to invade Russia. He had a dog too. Are you embracing Onan now?
Agreement incapable. Incapable of friendships, incapable of loyalty, of honor and dignity but still will expect YOU to give them a reach around.
Well, the only other words that you should have also used were… “i just followed orders”
never did any good tho the old nazis in Nuremberg.
Anyway, if we look at Amerikkka with the same criterium as used in the Nurember trials…
we wouldn’t have enough time and rope to make Justice.
And, just to inform you: this American Repulic (known as USA) is DEAD since long ago.
open your eyes, look around, start crying. You veterans should have started another revolution
to clean house… also long time ago.
I heartily recommend the book “McNamara’s Folly” and it’s free here:
https://archive.org/details/HamiltonGregoryMcNamarasFollyTheUseOfLowIQTroopsInTheVietnamWarPlusTheInductionO
It highlights how low IQ people were especially targeted to “serve” in Vietnam. I wonder why that would be? I guess they could be swindled that barefoot peasants with single shot rifles, no air force, or much of an army were supposed to row their sampans to NY harbor to take your parents house. These are the kind of people who still sign up for a lie.
from the movie “All Quiet on the Western Front” where a soldier takes a break from the slaughter in the trenches to visit his high school, showing the ingrained society-wide war propaganda.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSPj_G2yVz4&ab_channel=Movieclips
Private property, in my view, is an empty shell. The way things are now, no one can afford to buy a house because the one that was once affordable has been bought with $$ laundered through a Hong Kong bank. Honestly though, the concept is pretty ludicrous, and ends up feeding the system wherein people become adversaries as opposed to partners. I understand it’s an attractive narrative, but it is really as much an illusion as it is reality. Once one ‘owns’ a property, what one can do on this is quite limited; an illusion which often crystallizes around “what color to paint your house”.
You were stupid to enlist in 1966 as the US had no justification for interfering in Vietnam – a small country trying to lift itself out of poverty and previous colonial oppression by France.
The war there was just a honey pot to make $ for the MIC and politicians to pork-barrel with.
High time the US should be paying Vietnam massive $ billions compensation.
re: “You were stupid to enlist in 1966 as the US had no justification for interfering in Vietnam”
Which almost no American citizen understood in 1966, having been subjected to years of Cold War propaganda about the “communist takeover” of the world and all the “domino theory” claptrap. I was shown a propaganda film in Junior High called “Why Vietnam?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1WzxlsOsjw
We didn’t have the internet. Finding any contrary information was nearly impossible. People by and large trusted the government and the media. So to call someone “stupid” for not understanding something that only became clear years later is, well, stupid.
You all force me to call out what is stupid and downright evil, too. It is evil most odious to have killed, bombed, destroyed millions of people all over the world and not feel one ounce of shame or remorse. And that is exactly what Americans are guilty of, almost all of them. So go pray in your churches of Satan and go celebrate your Veterans days and other days of infamy. If you felt any remorse you would stop bleating “I was too young and I didn’t know” or “I was only fighting commies, gooks, etc.” You never understood then, and you do not understand now. You committed mass murder then and you will continue mass murder now if you think you can get away with it. And then you will celebrate more Veterans days.
I saw them stacking the corpses like cordwood on TV every night, proudly using it as a metric to illustrate the victory they were proclaiming. That was some outright Nazi shit. I didn’t anyone to tell me it was wrong. I grew up on base, the most fascist place in the world, the Citadel. I went to their schools. I got triple the kinds of propaganda any of you did unless you have same upbringing as I. I didn’t need a book, a movie, a priest, any organization to tell me it was wrong. I guess I had morals. I had enough inherent spirituality I guess to tell the difference between shit and shinola. The difference between you and me, I don’t get slick between the legs seeing some ass hole in uniform, nor will I crawl through human excrement to get his approval so I can get an infantry badge, a warm hand on my knee at night and then finally the eagle scout permission of being allowed to kill. There is a dark undercurrent of twisted sexuality in all of this. I don’t know how the chicken hawks in power get the same thing, but they do.
There was of course the issue I forgot to include yesterday that some in South Vietnam didnt want tin live under red control but the percentage of them is unknown. The North should have realized this and partitioned off a region for them.
As one who spoke out during a talk ( every student had to give a talk on a subject of his choice) in school against the war in Vietnam i understand Poke the Truth very well. All my class mates fell on me after I said even 2 sentences. I still tried for a few minutes to defend the people of Vietnam and their right to their self determination but was prevented from continuing my talk. Entire generation have been misled since the beginning of time. Understanding compassion and forgiveness….
Forgiveness has to be humbly asked
But yes, we should have compassion on those unable to do so.
Well as a young man you were not on your own,i had a Cousin who is now dead,he was American his Mother my aunt settled in the US as a young woman,he also joined the marines when he was 18,he went to Vietnam twice so he was a real believer,i met him a few times in my life,the thing is he was a very nice bloke,but totally brainwashed,as for your Dad when he said you must fight to defend your home,probably never crossed his mind thats what the Vietnamese were doing when they fought the Americans and the French before them who were trying to take their homes.
@JEinCA on November 12, 2021 · at 2:55 am EST/EDT
I think your comment is honest, sincerer and worthy. Of course, one can argue anything, present any situation and or opinion of another in varying ways,
But what does one want? Well, a pugnacious standpoint, where an unnecessary, virulent attack is defended speaks for itself. It is however, to be understood for what it is..
What does one want ?
Not hatred, but love
Not war, but peace,
Not arrogance, but humility
Not rage, but Light and Humour.
Do not forget, Satan abhors humour, snarling in mockery at any suggestion of it.
PokeTheTruth in quotes
So you ancestors migrated to America to flee from Fascism?
Why not stay in Italy and fight Fascism along with the rest of the Italian population?
“My father had a fifth-grade education”. Lack of education makes you easier to exploit.
“My father said: America fought against fascism in Europe so you must fight communism in Vietnam”
Communism was not controlling America in 1966, so why fight it all the way over in Vietnam?
“Hollywood is enriched by producing heroic war movies”. That is exactly the same type of Fascist war propaganda that your ancestors left in Italy.
“I knew little about communism”. Lack of education makes you easier to exploit.
“The children of America are not taught the truth”. Who decides what you children have to learn?
“I believed President Johnson”. Blindly believing people talking from Authority is a big mistake.
“In 1966 I was only 18 year old”. Is that is a good excuse to kill people in a foreign country?
“I wanted to do my part to help the war effort”. No you were manipulated to go to war for warmongers.
“Veterans Day is a remembrance of the waste of young people who return to civilian life physically disabled, mentally damaged or lying in a coffin. I gave up 4 years of my youth for a lie”. Was it worth it?
“My father could not have imagined the America he loved could descend into despotism and immorality”.
Neither were your grandfather and yourself able realize how Fascism destroyed Europe and now America.
“When a government denies a people the right to be free then it must be stopped or we will be enslaved”.
Are you then ready to fight the warmongers who have enslaved you beloved America into war debt, or are you ready to flee with your family once again?
In Denmark we have an old saying:
If you do not fight the troll´s pestering your life where you live, the troll´s will move along with you to your new destination.
Do you see the pattern now?
The state of the US military and the often harrowing reality of how its vets and servicemen (and women) are treat is cause for sympathy and pity, if not the bloody imperialist genocidal death machine that they serve. As is always the case with the collapsing empire, reality is something that in no way resembles the hollywood propaganda that has blinded americans and many in the West
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/09/23/alarming-va-report-totals-decade-veteran-suicides.html
This was so shocking an article. I knew what was up but not numbers like this and there are more I’m sure.
I think this is also a large part of what this exercise is about. The real disdain of the vet is by his/her….it now too….own government. The embarrassment the government feels of the vet, not for the vet. Part of my personal activism is this issue too. People need to wake up to the fact you’re allowed to bleed real blood for them, leave parts of you thousands of miles from home, including your sanity, and the government you did it for doesn’t give a f.
Thanks for posting.
Andrei My Orthodox Brother,
I know you are not a US citizen on principle, but you do reside in the US. Both of my Grandfathers served in the US Navy during WW2, my Godfather was a Navy Seal in Vietnam. Several of my older relatives were veterans of the Korean War. We can argue whether these conflicts were right or wrong, necessary or not but you can’t say these men weren’t doing what they believed was the right thing to do, the Patriotic thing to do as Americans for their country. I don’t think it’s fair or just to say oh well these wars were unnecessary or unjust and therefore these veterans were murderers. I think that’s extremely unfair as it would be for me to speak badly of Russian Veterans of the Chechen Wars, Soviet Veterans of the Afghan War or the Red Army heroes of the Great Patriotic War. I especially would not do that while living in Russia or anywhere in the former Soviet Union. I guess what I am saying is I have respect for Russian Veterans, I have respect for Soviet Veterans, please have respect for American Veterans, especially while you are living in the USA. They are our Grandfathers, Fathers, Brothers, Uncles, Cousins, Etc.
Every Nation needs it’s warriors and we should not shame our warriors on account of the corrupt politicians who send them off to war for whatever reason. My Grandfathers both signed up for the Navy after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. My Godfather was the son of a US Marine Veteran of Iwo Jima. He was 18 when he signed up for the Navy during the Vietnam War. He thought he was going to stop the Communists. He was an idealistic, Catholic young man raised in a very Blue Collar Patriotic region of America (Western Pennsylvania). He absolutely thought he was doing the right thing and doing his duty as an American like his Father had done.
Andrei, I have great respect for you. That’s why I wanted to tell you truly what I think on the subject. I have recently made a friend who was a combat veteran of Afghanistan (he’s a recent convert to Orthodoxy as well). He looks at America of 2021 and says, “is this what I fought for?”.
We can argue whether these conflicts were right or wrong, necessary or not
Maybe you can. I sure cannot.
but you can’t say these men weren’t doing what they believed was the right thing to do,
That argument would go for the Waffen SS too.
the Patriotic thing to do as Americans for their country.
How is it patriotic to murder people who live thousands of miles away from the USA? How is it patriotic to participate in genocide?
I realize that for many US American that is, indeed, “patriotic”, and that says everything about their true morality and ethics.
Real patriotism is not murdering people far away, but to defend your own country.
Which no US solider ever did.
There is a big exception of US soldiers defending our own country, The Grand Army of the Republic 1861 to 1865. The reason we have Memorial Day.
This country belonged to the Native people which inhabited it.
Not to those who came to steal it.
Memorial Day?
As fake as Thanksgiving Day…
How about “Repentance Day”?
That would be truly noble.
How many natives died defending their land from European-Russia expansion into asia?
You tell me!
Native Russian shamans still pray to their gods and tend to their flocks. In the USA, they only appear in movies – unless they are QANON sham-ans.
Oops. Basically agree and the Holiday should get its original name Armistice Day and the Department should be called the War Department. Also the WWII Army did defend the country even if it was mainly overseas. They did not defeat Germany but the Irish side of the family contends that Hitler was doomed once my uncle John McCormick was drafted. He rose from private to Captain and got two purple hearts and two silver stars at Anzio. Given how botched that operation was he may have saved the the day. Families need their heroes.
Families need their heroes.
But do families need lies?
Andrei My Orthodox Brother,
I am writing you without using an alias now because I think this is important.
You were an Anti-Communist, Cold Warrior yourself. You worked for NATO. You mean to tell me that every American either enlisted or was drafted to go off to Korea and Vietnam was a butcher, a murderer, a Nazi? It couldn’t have been that like you at the time they saw Communism as a Godless Totalitarian Evil that was hell bent on conquering the world, including the United States? Just as Soviets during the Cold War saw themselves as defending the Motherland from the Capitalist Imperialists so did Americans who served in Korea and Vietnam and throughout the Cold War saw themselves as defending their American Motherland and supposedly Free World. I was born in the 1980’s and I was taught this in Elementary School.
As for World War II. My Paternal Grandfather was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to an American G.I. and a Portuguese immigrant names Julia. My Great Aunt (his sister) was born and raised in Honolulu and watched in horror as Japanese bombers rained down munitions on Pearl Harbor and the fleet. Both my Grandfather’s would immediately enlist in the US Navy afterwards. My Maternal Grandfather (the son of Mexican immigrants) was UDT (Underwater Demolition Team). My Mother told me he saw action in both the Pacific and Atlantic theaters and had been part of a team of divers that cleared mines prior to the invasion of Normandy. Later in life my Maternal Grandfather served in the color guard of the VFW, helping bury fellow Veterans. My Grandfathers we’re allies of the Soviet Union in WWII, they fought the Nazis and Imperial Japan…were they Nazis too?
It very much sounds to me like you have been influenced by the Communist criticisms of US history. In your words their is a deep seated anger towards America and Americans. It’s not unlike the sentiments of many anti-war protesters during Vietnam who would go so far as to spit on Vietnam Veterans returning home from the war. There was no Patriotism in their sentiments just anger, bitterness and vindictiveness. They saw everything that was wrong with America but they could not see anything other than that.
I am a Native American in both senses of the word Native. I have bother European and Indigenous blood. I have Mexican blood. I am a Mestizo. I am also told that my people were Yaqui and do you know about the Yaqui? They were targets of a Genocidal, Ethnic Cleansing campaign by the Mexican Government in the late 19th Century. I believe my Great Grandmother fled to Texas and changed her name (as many Yaquis did in America). She died when my Grandmother (who was raised in a Catholic orphanage) was young so we don’t know the whole truth but it fits with what was going on at the time. This land gave my family refuge. It gave my family life.
I love this country. This is my Motherland. What Russia was to your Grandparents, America is to me. I love this land. It has become my Fatherland, my Homeland. I love the Constitution. I love Freedom. I love Liberty.
I hate the Ruling Class. I hate the Elites. I hate their arrogant, self righteous Woke minions. I hate the Neo-Bolshevik, BLM/Antifa wannabe Commie rabble in the streets. I hate the Globalist Cabal. I hate the Empire. I don’t want it and don’t need it.
But I love America. I’d die for America. I’d kill for America. I’d do whatever I had to do to save my Motherland from those who wish to kill her. I’d off whoever I had to off to save her. Whoever I had to put against the wall and shoot I’d do it without hesitation for the love of her. Once I spoke badly of her in front of my Father in Law who had been a Patriotic Soviet most of his life and he took me aside and said to me, “You are wrong to speak of your country this way. Your country is like your Mother, she nourished you in the womb and nursed you in infancy. You should love your country like you love your Mother.”
His words are always with me. You see I was confusing my hatred of the gang in Washington for my sentiments towards my own country at the time. I (like you) was furious over the Washington backed coup in Ukraine and the Junta’s war in Donbass. I (like you) was right to be angry. I like you ended up directing my anger and indignation not just at Washington but at my American Motherland and my American Brothers and Sisters. It was my Father In Law’s words that sent me soul searching. He was a great man. Born and raised in a Central Asian Soviet Socialist Republic. He had been part of Komsomol. Then went to a university. He became a Communist Party member and did much to improve local agricultural practices on local collective farms. He loved the Soviet Union. Believed in those Marxist-Leninist ideals. He called himself a Socialist Muslim. I loved him dearly. He died too early. He taught me a lot about life, about love, about family, about loyalty and yes about love of country and Patriotism.
He taught me about nuance Andrei and I’m afraid that’s what you are lacking. The United States government and it’s international misdeeds and outright thuggery and butchery is not characteristic of the American people or even American Veterans. The psychopaths are in the Ruling Class, they are in the Government. Are there some murderers in the military? Of course but you cannot paint all American Veterans with that brush nor should you.
You know I went from suspicion and a manufactured animosity towards the Russians (because of my Cold War childhood) to loving Russia, it’s people, it’s history and even converting to it’s historical religion in a Russian Orthodox Church in the former Soviet Union. I learned some basic Russian, can speak some basic Russian and even read basic Cyrillic. I can understand where Russians are coming from on issues like Ukraine and the Near Abroad. Can you understand where I am coming from as the Grandson and Godson of American Veterans?
It very much sounds to me like you have been influenced by the Communist criticisms of US history. In your words their is a deep seated anger towards America and Americans.
Okay, another self appointed psychotherapist.
I mean, really, how can I take any of that seriously???
So you deny that you have animosity towards this country and it’s people?
I’ve been reading your blog for years. I have great respect for you, but I will also defend the honor and memory of our Veterans because my Grandfathers and my Godfather we’re exactly that. I knew these men. I was raised around these men and many other Veterans in my family (especially from WWII and Korea). These wer were not murderers. These were my Grandfathers, Great Uncles, Uncles…all of my Maternal Grandfathers brothers volunteered for the military in WWII…all of them. They were all first generation sons of Mexican immigrants.
On the other side Uncle Billy served in the USMC in Korea, Uncle Merlin was a Marine in Korea, Uncle Archie was on Omaha Beach on D-Day, Uncle Johnny was a Marine in Nam, Uncle Jim was US Navy during Vietnam, my cousin Dominic flew Apaches in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is my family. Were they all murderers?
Andrei I have been anti-imperialist, non-interventionist whatever you want to call it since I was a teenager in the 90’s. The reason for that was that I learned the history of the Serbs. I had walked into this Orthodox Mission in San Francisco established by monks from St. Herman’s Monastery in Platina, California. It had been established by Father Seraphim Rose a student of St. John Maximovich of San Francisco. It was there I learned to pray and chant the Orthodox way. It was there I learned about Prince Lazar and the sacrifice on the fields of Kosovo. It was there that I learned that Russians hadn’t always been Godless Communists but had been a deeply Christian people before the Bolshevik Revolution.
Then that bastard criminal Bill Clinton and his NATO partners in crime bombed Serbia for I believe 78 days straight and handed the Serbian Orthodox Holy Land (Kosovo) to the Albanians (the KLA) on a silver plate. It made me sick. The fact that the Roman Catholic Church never condemned the aggression against Orthodox Serbia was a major factor in me leaving the RCC and converting to Orthodoxy later on. When Russian paratroopers landed in Kosovo, I was cheering for them.
That was my political awakening as to the malevolent nature of Washington, NATO and the Empire. That was the beginning of my pro-Russian sympathies that endure to this very day. It all went back to Kosovo. For the first time I felt ashamed of my own government. I felt ashamed of my military. That was the first time. That was the beginning of it. That was the beginning of it all, but does that mean I must condemn my own family who served in the past? Where do we draw the line? I usually draw the line at the end of the Cold War but then we had 9/11 which my generation as our Pearl Harbor. Do you understand what I’m getting at Andrei?
So you deny that you have animosity towards this country and it’s people?
Yes, most emphatically, yes! I categorically deny having any such feelings towards the people of the USA or about this beautiful country.
but I will also defend the honor and memory of our Veterans because my Grandfathers and my Godfather we’re exactly that
You honor the memory of your veterans because they are your family. That is just another form of “my country – right or wrong”. You also make any rational discussion impossible since any argument would be seen by you not as an argument, but as an offense, an insult.
but does that mean I must condemn my own family who served in the past?
Don’t condemn them, that is God’s prerogative, but yes, condemn what they DID, their ACTIONS.
Most crucially, you don’t have to whitewash the ideology and lies which made all these actions possible in the first place (including Clinton’s war on the Serbian nation).
If you have a brother who broke into somebody’s home, murdered several people, and then stole their possessions, would you approve of that too just because he is your brother?
Well, B&E is what the US military has done in its entire history, murdering MILLIONS!
Are these murdered millions of a lesser value to you that honoring your relatives?
There is no euphemism for a war criminal.
How will you tell to the north koreans that USA’s carpet bombing of their cities was to free them from the commies?
How will you tell the vietnamese father whose entire family was starved to death and agent orange sprayed upon them and their fields, that the US soldiers in nam were good people?
How will you tell the iraqi widow who lost her entire family to the american invasion, that the US military were just bringing freedom. How will you tell her that her disfigured babies with birth defects due to radiation from depleted uranium bombs are a minor cost for the freedom that the US brought?
How are you going to tell the afghan orphan whose entire family was killed from apaches and drones that your kin were just serving USA?
All the arguments from the earlier comments about being thrown into jail for resisting conscription (muhammad ali went to jail for refusing to fight in vietnam, he understood very well that who was good and who was bad), being too young to understand (the child soldiers who fought in the vietnam understood very well who the aggressors were) are just attempts to whitewash the crimes.
And there is nothing called ‘socialist muslim’ inspired by leninist ideas. It’s either a believer or a disbeliever.
The Saker DOES NOT have “deep seated anger towards America and Americans.” He despises American crimes and atrocities against humanity.
Friend, the reality is that in a world dominated by lying propaganda, those who rise to the top are those who learn early the nature of propaganda and how to use it to acquire and maintain power.
Part of what they do involves brainwashing the majority to believe uncritically in things like ‘the special nature of our nation’ (it’s not just in the USA, it’s in a lot of countries); ‘capitalism’ (whilst scrupulously avoiding the fact that pure SME capitalism may be honest and good, but it’s hard to say the same of TNCs so intertwined with Governments that the term fascism is entirely appropriate); ‘bashing Russians’ (well, my grandfather insisted that the family dog in 1940 be called Joe after Joe Stalin, as at that early stage of WW II Britain’s sole ally was the Soviet Union – clearly free-thinking Welsh dissension is in my own genetic makeup because I refuse to bash Russians uncritically); hero-worship of ‘celebrities’ and ‘the rich’ – without ever asking WHY those folks are so worthy of such uncritical acclaim etc etc.
To maintain power, you have to do things which aren’t strictly ethical – it’s simply the nature of the beast. Humans just aren’t that saintly, so putting a saint up as POTUS guarantees a coup, anarchy or both.
The big issue you Americans must focus on is the powers vested in States and local districts vs the powers vested on Capitol Hill: you should try always to minimise the centralised power, since that will tend to minimise the damage of bad decisions. In extremis, in general, humans tend to put aside their differences to ensure survival. But when peace exists, centralisation just promotes corruption, grifters, prostitutes and fraudsters.
If you want to maintain idealism about ‘America’, you need to focus exclusively on what separation of powers is most likely to retain whatever it is about America you idealise. That should involve abolishing the Federal Reserve or at the very least forcibly transferring ownership to the American people, not a small number of unaccountable banking families; you need to rid yourself of your manias about ‘manifest destiny’ since I can tell you with complete confidence that the majority of the World does not consider you to be above the law, in any way uniquely special and in any way free of criminal mafias in all major aspects of the economy; and finally, you need to focus on making the geography you live in a smooth well-functioning economy for the many, not a set of armed enclaves for the hyper-rich and a daily worry about incarceration for the forcibly homeless.
Do not go there!
By your standards what happen with the Nazis is excusable! No it is not! Never will be. Carpet bombing civilian cities is not excusable dropping Nukes on civilian cities is not excusable! Raping and murdering women and children because you were told Communism is bad is no excuse for war crimes. Dropping napalm in NK flattening North Korea was a war crime, carpet bombing dropping agent orange everywhere and laying the ground with endless land mines in Vietnam was a war crime! Going into Indonesia, Afghanistan Iraq Syria Somalia, Columbia Peru panama Haiti all crimes all war crimes.After world war 2 honestly even including world war 2 we were never defending ourselves we were thousands of miles from anyone. We started the war with Japan, by preventing them from getting oil! With America war is a corporate racist racket nothing more. My father realized that when he was stationed in Japan, my brothers son realized that when they were going send him to fight in Iraq and he got out. There is no honor serving this country that whole history is based on taking anything and everything from others. Ignorance and pride are excuses for not doing due diligence . This kind of mind set is why the US gets away with this slaughter! My 2 Senators have proudly announced with all the other female democratic Senators that Afghani women must have equal rights! What a load! for 20 years none of these criminals have said a word as bush Obama trump and Biden bombed them raped them dropped white phosphorus on them. I am sorry Saker to rant but I am disgusted with my country slaughtering people 1000s of miles away for absolutely no reason other then a few corporations making bank!
Here’s one of those veterans who was lost in his own home.
https://philosopherspeashooter.blogspot.com/2021/11/nam.html
People should leave Poke the Truth alone. I was technically draft-eligible for ‘Nam, but I was older than the men they wanted, so my local draft left me alone, and I was married and didn’t want to go.
But hundreds of thousands of young men, who have been brainwashed from birth into believing the righteousness of America and in its historic mission to other peoples believed it was their duty to go to Viet Nam and fight communists. The fight against communism was presented as a continuation of the war against the Nazis, Fascists and militarists.
Two of my brother in laws fought in Viet Nam with the Marines in Eye Corps. Another was a crew chief on a B-52 based in Thailand. A fourth was in Army artillery in Germany. None wanted anything to do with the military. None actually believed there was any point to fighting the Vietnamese, even doing time in Germany. But they either submitted to being drafted into the Army and fighting in Vietnamese rice paddies and jungles, or they could enlist in none infantry services. My brother in law in Germany lucked out. He was drafted, but we thought we needed troops to confront the USSR, too.
I even have family members who have “served” in Iraq and Afghanistan. They still believe the lies.
Do not blame the victims of brainwashing for their beliefs.
Do not blame the victims of brainwashing for their beliefs.
The victims are first those who were murdered, not those who murdered.
Second, if veterans want to claim the status of victim, which I have no problem with, they should at least:
1) repent for their crimes (rather than deny their role in these crimes or call that “serving their country”!)
2) apologize to their victims their crimes rather (rather than exonerate themselves)
3) not whitewash the ideology which made it all possible
In that case, absolutely, they can claim to also be the victims.
Correct. It never ceases to amaze me how the the perpetrators want to claim the mantle of being victim after the fact and even whilst committing the fact. Americans believe in their ‘exceptional’ status and ‘ manifest destiny’ so that automatically makes it fine since they dictate the ‘rules based order’. Just look at Israel taking shots at all and sundry and then claiming they are the victims whilst claiming to be the ‘chosen’. Self awareness and introspection have gone AWOL where self entitlement is prevalent. Sadly, without those there is no way of being truly sorry for the wrongs you have committed or the ability to ask genuine forgiveness either from those you have wronged or from God.
Thanks Andrei,
They also must share their horrible mistake of enlisting with their own kids and others. Teaching them killing far away people who poses no threat whatsoever to the USA is a crime and cowardice. This crime does not make the USA safe but it makes the rich richer and the poor poorer, and eventually will destroy the USA from within.
Again thanks for your humanity,
And they should also be demanding reparations for all the nations wronged and looted by Anglo-American imperialist war.
A few years ago, on Tax Day, some fiends & I were passing out literature to the office lunch crowd encouraging people to address the issue of grotesque military spending (Move the Money). I encountered this guy, who said he was a veteran. He started to walk away, and when I said “I apologize for your service”, he came back and started talking. We had a good conversation.
I wonder, did he ever repent for his “service”?
Lets celebrate el “día del sicario”!!!Thats a good one Andrei.
I has a good laugh.
When you put on the uniform and pick up your rifle, you promise to kill whomever your officers say to kill. Deep dive into the wisdom and political and social prejudices of the leaders of your country who managed to gain power. Actually democracy even is no excuse for fighting for a corrupt cause, and if a decision is made to not even think about the motives of your leaders who sent you on the mission to murder some fathers and sons in a far away land who you never met? History will be told to you twisted to serve the justification of the war makers.
One must be willing to look beyond that because official history is a balm to cover a terrible wound on your soul.
I am afraid I do not honor the wisdom which motivates the average soldier as he goes off to war. Basically he wants to be able to tell stories of heroism and adventure to his sons and grandsons upon return, like his father and grandfather told to him, and upholding clan and tradition is a powerful force hard to turn away from. It’s certainly a badge which gains entry to a “band of brothers” upon return. To me, it’s more noble to consider carefully before joining up, and after joining up, be willing to desert if forced to violate your conscience.
This is a today issue, not just historical. Russia will not back down in Ukraine- its their back yard. The deep state has complicated reasons for preventing Russia from becoming the regional dominant power, and weaves the usual spell of your craven enemy will back down if we show courage and confront him with the threat of war, all the while saying “I am not asking for war with Russia” oh but you are, like Churchill with the war guarantee to Poland. So Russia reacts, (hey they are craven and are not supposed to move if confronted by a resolute display of US power- right?) Two consequences. 1,Unrestrained escalation to regional or global nuclear war, and 2, ignominious back down of the US confronted with overwhelming escalation dominance of Russia. Seems like 2 is our future if some reasonable people don’t stop the meme – It’s always Neville Chamberlain, 1938, and if we only stand up to tyranny, the craven enemy will slink home humbled. OK, Maybe not.
When you put on the uniform and pick up your rifle, you promise to kill whomever your officers say to kill
That is not necessarily true. The order given by your commander has to be legal, both in terms of your own code of military justice AND in terms of international law (incl the laws of war and the Geneva Conventions).
Also,
This precludes any “acts of aggression” which, under international law, are the highest crime possible. Please see here:
https://www.internationalcrimesdatabase.org/Crimes/CrimeOfAggression
and here:
https://crimeofaggression.info/
Please don’t be concerned that veterans and active duty military personnel will never fight on their home ground. That they never have (and please don’t someone start bleating about “The Revolution” which was a natural continuation of genocide) in the past is true, but it is also true, witness the comments, that they are getting more and more confused. Confused and heavily armed. Look how easy it was for billionaire coward Trump to whip “veterans” into a frenzy, one of whom got shot dead for her troubles.
Yup, veterans are STILL used by the very same people who send them to fight on their behalf.
Another group of nutters are the bikers who cruise around with flags (USA, POW, Don’t Tread on Me) on the noisy metal heaps (aka Harleys) with the look “I am ready to go to war for Da Man!” not realizing that geriatric flag-waving looks even more silly than regular flag-waving…
Andrei you don’t understand that a lot of those bikers were Vietnam Vets who felt that they were used and forgotten by their own government. That was a common theme when I was a kid in the the US. Like I said there’s a lot of the story that you are missing.
I believe it is known as flag shagging…
I sometimes take a different view to our host, but on this one I’m 100% in agreement.
Anyone who has any doubt, I suggest you visit the Imperial city of Hue (in Vietnam) and talk with the locals. During the American War, as they call it, people, mostly women and children, took refuge within the walls of the Imperial City; it was a world recognised heritage site and they believed they would be safe. The US knew this, but none the less carpet-bombed the Imperial City, which had no military value. 10,000 innocent people were murdered. Much of the Imperial City is still in ruins. I was astonished to hear American voices amongst the sightseers. I wanted to deliver a history lesson, but my wife stopped me – she said enough blood had been spilled on these grounds.
Thanks for that! We went to the war museum I think we were the only Americans there. Every American should go to see just what we did in Vietnam not from the white washed Washington perspective but from the Vietnamese perspective, they should do the same thing in Cambodia. We saw as much as we could but at some point we had to stop in was devastating. I am so thankful to my brother for fighting against this war and when drafted he went into the peace corps rather then Vietnam
Susan: Cambodia is an especially sad case. They were not officially in the war, but the US dropped a greater tonnage of bombs on Cambodia (and Laos) than was dropped in WW2. The bomb craters litter the countryside like pock marks. Its also sad because I find the Buddhist nations of SE Asia so calm and friendly.
Depiction on top reminded me of one I did in 2015
This one:
http://fotovision.no/GLP1/DemocracyRED.jpg
Kent
Yup, that is a very good one too, thank you Kent!
I rebel against it – if the British killed 800k civilians after ‘the guns stopped hounding’, for political gain, they should be taught that their government is as close to Satanic as this Buddhist can push Christian language into himself!
I have to speak up for Poke the Truth’s comments.
All of us in that generation were damaged by the Viet Nam war. Some of us went. Some didn’t. Of those who went, some came back, and some didn’t. But we were all damaged.
During a recent trip to Viet Nam, I walked out of a visit to the War Museum in downtown Saigon shattered. That such horrendous things could be done beggars the imagination. But done they were.
Not everyone in my generation was gifted with a contrary nature. Not everyone thrilled to read poet e.e. cummings’s line, “I will not kiss your fucking flag.”
As I accumulate the years, compassion figures large. Compassion for those on whom the horrors were perpetrated, and compassion for those who did the perpetrating.
We were all damaged.
Dear Hal
I get what you are saying, but here is how I think about it: if veterans or, in fact, an entire generation was deceived (which, of course, it was), then the least we can expect from them is to stop waving the flag and speak about “serving their country”.
I mean, really, they have to chose, they can’t have it both ways.
Also, what happened did not just happen. It happened because of a specific worldview and ideology, which either is endorsed or condemned. Again, every veteran has to decide that for himself.
Any veteran who comes to terms with the truth of what he did does deserve our compassion (I wrote about that here: /thanking-vets-for-their-service-why/) but not anybody’s gratitude.
Evil is evil – no matter what ideological justifications it wraps itself in.
Your last words hit me hard “we were all damaged”. In other ways, so was I (I also believed lies).
But the only way to recovery, to healing, is through the truth, not denial.
I had an uncle who was drafted into US Army in 1942 and hated being sent to Europe, like most of his fellows. But military discipline (involuntary servitude) made it impossible to talk openly about this. After all, enemies were out there. He was raised Orthodox as you and I, and he once mentioned that he had resolved not to kill someone else if asked (and was near, but never on the front lines), but that if it were God’s will that his time had come, he would die knowing that he was innocent of causing the death of another human being who also didn’t want to be there.
The Saker
Please know that I agree with you. Personal responsibility has to be embraced. That comes first. Then the reasons. We all have them.
The US is not yet ready to host a Remembrance Day for all her veterans. Not yet.
A quick buy-in on the Russian/US equivalency: There is none. Russia did not act poorly in either Syria or Crimea. In both cases they stepped in to defend (in Syria the elected government and in Crimea Russia herself), and they did so in the face of what appeared to many as an overwhelming force on a roll.
Dear Hal
I would add that the Russian nation has A LOT to repent for, maybe not as much as the USA, but still quite a lot. And I think that the truth about Russian/Soviet actions, both inside and outside Russia, must be told, even if that offends some (you get a lot of that nowadays: “how dare you criticize my grandfather who liberated Berlin!” and the like.
We are all human :-)
cheers
“War is hell.” General William Tecumseh Sherman.
Sherman retired and lived out his life in New York City. Occasionally he would be visited by servicemen who served under him. Some maimed, all poor, many addicted to the soldier’s friend, opium, administered after the numerous surgeries resulting from pounding grapeshot on their many fields of battle. There was never enough opium. He always gave them something, a greenback or two. And sent them away with his blessing.
We don’t usually see this, the back end of war. War is hell.
I suggest a visit to the Hanoi Hilton. It dates from French colonial times – even has the guillotine the French used on the locals. For American visitors, they will see the McCain Room – including photographs of him eating a Thanksgiving turkey with his friends.
Apart from that, its a very sombre place with some very hard to read stories.
Saint McCain’s last supper, lol. The feces filled cage flying “war hero”. Truly if there were justice in life he would have been in an American prison for this:
Look at the disaster caused by John McCain on the flight deck of the USS Forestal. He accidentally fired a rocket that hit a fuel tank of another A-4B fighter plane and the resulting explosions and fires killed 134 and wounded 161. His father, the Admiral, saved his career and the story is now cleansed of any blame attributed to McCain. But the facts known by the survivors will never be buried.
Aircraft lost: seven F-4B Phantom II; eleven A-4E Skyhawks; and three RA-5C Vigilantes; 40 others damaged.
That was without the missile actually exploding. Just a chain event of fuel tanks exploding all over the deck until a bomb actually did explode.
McCain started that fire by causing a “wet start” in his jet which involves flooding his engine with fuel before starting. It’s a dangerous and juvenile stunt that is intended only to cause a plume of flame that flares off. This is why his Daddy’s effort to save him from ruin and the brig was such an accomplishment. Good riddance, McCain.
I understand Trump saying he liked his war heroes uncaptured.
“… He accidentally fired a rocket that hit a fuel tank of another A-4B fighter plane and the resulting explosions and fires killed 134 and wounded 161…”
“…Aircraft lost: seven F-4B Phantom II; eleven A-4E Skyhawks; and three RA-5C Vigilantes; 40 others damaged…”
that speaks volume about absolute incompetence and stupidity, about total lack of intelligence and common sense. If you add at it the lack of responsability for the acts commited an their consecuences…
This makes him a perfec candidate for a Career as a politician (senator, governor, congressist, something of that kind)
I wonder what this man did after his service in Vietnam…
What a laff riot bro! I wonder too….smh.
Amazing post Saker. I’ve always been amazed at the mental gymnastics and indoctrination needed to make people believe that wreaking havoc in foreign countries is somehow a heroic or altruistic endeavor, or justifiable as a necessary means to somehow protect the USA. And even if the “servicepersons” can be themselves considered victims of indoctrination, it cannot compare to the sin of committing murder, or enabling said murder. People have even gone to jail for refusing to serve, so there is no excuse.
Oh, and on the Día del Sicario, well, Mexican narcos have elevated a saint of their own, Malverde, to whom they have built chapels, along with generous donations to the Papist Church and to local communities. The grunts tend to favor the Santa Muerte instead, which is basically idolatry of Death itself. So, no flag-waving, but a lot of misplaced piety involved in trying to whitewash or deal in a personal level with a rather violent and ruthless lifestyle.
All true. And, Pablo Escobar, always presented himself as
1) a philanthropist
2) a patriot
Which is exactly what the leaders of the USA have all done (from the days of the robber barons to today).
And he even presented his actions as part of a “war”.
Just read/watch the interviews of Popeye, his favorite Sicario.
(I wonder how many US veterans are aware of these undeniable facts, probably less than 1%)
Pablo, Pablo Escobar.
LOL!! Correction made, thanks Amarynth!
Before anyone says “Thank you for your service”, they should be required to read Nick Turse’s book “Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam”. I only made it half way through the book before I had to put it down. The atrocities that the empire warriors committed in Viet Nam would make any normal human being sick to their stomach. The massacres that are documented in the book show the true evil of the USA.
I now understand why the vets are experiencing PTSD and committing suicide. When you murder innocent women and children for no reason, killing everyone in the villages just because…. They must be haunted by the evil they committed and when they die, they can look forward to an eternity in hell.
“Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam”
Thanks for the book recommendation, I will get it for myself.
Free here:
https://www.pdfdrive.com/kill-anything-that-moves-the-real-american-war-in-vietnam-d159746448.html
e-pub, mobi or pdf
U.S. Army veteran here. Imagine being glad handed and getting a pat on the back for my “service “. The problem is you know things.
You know about the thousands and young Iraq men grabbed off the streets and given a rifle right before a conflict that were willfully buried alive while trying to surrender to the 1st ID. We could hear the screaming, the banging, and the discharge of rounds in an attempt to let us know they were still in the bunkers.
https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19910912&slug=1305069
But we had the missions of bringing democracy back to Kuwait and they were in the way of a fleeing Republican Guard unit. Thank God the democratically elected emir of Kuwait is back on his throne and the democratic republic of Saudia Arabia is safe.
I prefer to stay home on veterans day and only really like to talk to old army comrades. Only they are capable of understanding the good times and the bad.
You know about the thousands and young Iraq men grabbed off the streets and given a rifle right before a conflict that were willfully buried alive while trying to surrender to the 1st ID.
Yes, I do. Just as I know about the massacre committed by the US forces in the highway. And just as I know that as a result of their “liberation” over a MILLION Iraqis died.
Thank you for your honesty, that I admire and thank you for.
One day in Saigon I purchased a T-Shirt that has the main title of the book on the front, and in smaller print, My Lai Massacre, also on the sleeve there is a score “civilian casualty body count”
Really good quality T-shirt and print made by Vietnamese young generation that tries to commercialize and remember at the same time.
I wore this t-shirt in Western Europe, in the streets, at work.
Notably, we live in a very selectively tolerant or ignorant society: not one single person will ask why in your right mind are you wearing a T-shirt with “Kill Anything That Moves”
Same goes for Free Assange.
Yet this week, I have met a young 25 years old bright minded guy that like to discuss obstacle course running, I asked him if military service was still required, would he gladly join? Yes but found our military too weak and if asked where he would like to enlist to “get his daily dose of exercise” he replied: the USA military. There you go, ideology matters not a single thing here.
Next I’ll try print my own t-shirt with something stupid along the line of “The prophet says: booster shot for the BLM’s”, Childish for certain. But so are most slogans that infiltrate our daily lives. See if I get beaten up, called a nutter or in the best case have a chance on and open conversation in a queue.
There are those who refuse to partake in the poppy circus. Nemanja Matic, a Premier League footballer, refuses to wear one every year due to NATO genocidal wars on Serbs. Also a number of Irish players refuse to wear it too.
May I recommend Douglas Valentine’s “The Phoenix Program”.
Thank you!
The Phoenix Program (and Valentine’s book about it is the best) was a sub-plot to the longer running Operation Gladio. The best book about the latter is “Operation Gladio” by Paul L Williams, a Roman Catholic somewhat surprisingly. There is also “The Jakarta Method” by Vincent Bevins, about USAmerica’s anti-communist crusade and mass murder in Indonesia in the early 1960s. This was a direct precursor to the Phoenix Program later in Vietnam.
Thank you but the techniques applied by Phoenix were developed by the CIA and Edward Lansdale in the Philippines and by the British in Burma (somewhat less violently). And of course, Phoenix like its Philippino predecessor relied very heavily on the anti-communist zeal of numerous Roman Catholic militias, death squads and leaders (Bill Colby, convert William Westmoreland, Ted Serong et al.).
Needless to say, the French in Vietnam had put in place a system very similar to Phoenix with Einsatz teams, interrogation centres, and centralised intelligence collation and processing coordinated by French counterintelligence. The experience of torture proved handy in Algeria a couple of years after Dien Bien Phu.
Yes, the Philippines. Is there a text you can recommend that best illuminates that sorry tale?
I’m not seeing the Philippines book here, I’ll show you in a sec, but I spent my formative years at Clark AFB. Scuttlebutt there was, and I’ve since read it, was Edward Lansdale exploited the fears of the locals but snatching the last person in a column, off a trail and then poking two holes in the jugular, shaking said person upside down to drain as much blood as possible as they were scared to death of vampires. Here is Max Boot – The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale And The American Tragedy In Vietnam.
Edward was in Vietnam right after Dien Bien Phu. When the accords were signed he was throwing nuts and bolts into the oil storage for the Hanoi public transportation systems. Then he branched out. What a crazy SOB….he is the story of the Ugly American and other books and movies. We had Singlaub, Secord, Oliver North, Heiny Aderholt and others at the dinner table when I left home.
https://www.pdfdrive.com/the-road-not-taken-edward-lansdale-and-the-american-tragedy-in-vietnam-d195265379.html
Also available as audio books on YouTube for soothing bedtime listening .
Missing bullet point – the Russians entered Syria at the invitation of President Assad, the leader of the Syrian Government.
Also, the Russians were invited to come to Syria by its legitimate, democratically elected government. You forgot that one in your update. When has USAmerica ever been invited in such a way?
@cirsium
@Sarcophilus
Of course, you are both right, but our flag-waving friends will claim that there were invited to every country they butchered, so I decided to forgo this argument in order not to get bogged down or distracted from the main point.
Also, the Soviets made claims of being “invited” in several countries (Afghanistan was the latest), and since our flag-waving friends will conflate “Soviet” and “Russian”, that was another reason for me not to mention that.
Cheers
Dear Saker,
The propaganda and resultant ignorance is all-encompassing, and I estimate has been for over 80 years now.
Nevertheless, some of the most remorseful, peaceful, and God-conscious folks I met in USA were former vets. I had one such roommate in college. With time, maturity and reflection, many saw the truth through their experiences on the battle-field – that they were deceived, it was not about communism or fighting any -ism, but a lie. They had been used.
It is reflected in the high suicide rates after all wars, of unquenchable guilt and loss.
And efforts many make to educate their fellow citizens about the lies, and to fight the satanic system.
I come from a sub-Saharan African country where the British once boasted they killed 1 in 3 of its men, so I am no friend of imperialism or unjust wars.
But I still sympathize.
Some of best allies we have now, to help change (no matter how little the chance) blood thirsy war nation of USA are precisely war vets.
They have “street cred” per Empire propaganda, and can sway undecided many on the illegalities and immoralities of these senseless wars.
In addition to that war vet roommate, a man who opened my naive eyes decades ago was the website of this vietnam vet named Brian Wilson:
http://www.brianwillson.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Willson
Wilson’s a real hero, with incredible sacrifices (run over by a train while protesting, and losing his legs!)
The brainwashing was HUGE. Even before TV, a telling historic panic was caused by Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast (1938). In fact radio may have been a greater seducer than TV, and it made FDR with his distinctive and mesmerizing voice. Bernays and his ilk really plugged the nation into the Matrix by WW2. So which people under the age of 40 really had a chance, in conjunction with deliberately poor education and falsified history? And some were that dumb, believing in lies of MSM, in more trusting ages (up to Vietnam?)
Our real issue is with certain elites who keep churning out cannon fodder, generation after generation.
Many vets have repented, apologized (some travelled all way to Vietnam to do it in person) and reject war itself, in spite of coming from martial traditions. The internet age has sped up transfer of knowledge, allowing more to see the truth. So attack the system, and unrepentent vets, but many vets, especially those on this forum, appear to not be the problem..
If some still hold on to (falsely) trumpeted ideals of Empire, it may not be that they support Empire but yearn for the true ideal in a just (non-hypocritical) nation. Hope springs eternal, even after suffering through 50 generations of criminal elite. The meek shall inherit, and part of our task is to hold aloft a candle, even in exceptionally dark and cynical times.
PS – I would add to your Update that Russians were INVITED by the legitimate government of Syria, which represented the overwhelming majority of the population. So it was a just war to help defend an oppressed weak claimant against blatant AZ aggression
Nevertheless, some of the most remorseful, peaceful, and God-conscious folks I met in USA were former vets
ME TOO!! And I would add that most of my readers and supporters are from the USA, and from the “Vietnam generation” (whether they fought in Vietnam or at home, as Jimi Hendrix used to sing!).
And I also know that they understand why I write what I write, at least many of them do.
Several vets have already posted comments today (see above)
Some get offended, which is human and understandable.
But my goal is not being popular, my goal is to be truthful.
I try my best.
Cheers
Saker,
Any comments on military chaplains?
Something strange there. Also strange to hear a priest blessing troops during Sunday service.
There is a photo of an American military chaplain blessing the young troops at the War Remnants museum in Saigon. I found it memorable even amongst all the other poignant reminders of that terrible war. And, of course, the Animals’ song “Sky Pilot” was a masterpiece.
He blesses the boys as they stand in line
The smell of gun grease and the bayonets they shine
He’s there to help them all that he can
To make them feel wanted he’s a good holy man.
Sky pilot… Sky pilot
How high can you fly?
You’ll never, never, never reach the sky.
Actually that does not mean that he blesses their actions, but that he invokes God’s mercy upon them.
I actually admire military chaplains, and I feel very sorry for them.
Wasn’t an important point left out? The Syrian government invited , or asked, the Russian to come in and help. Or did I get this wrong?
Yes. A fundament primary point.
Russia was requested by Syria.
And to date, seem to have resisted “mission creep”.
Infuriating those who want to see Russia smack Israel Turkey and even the US.
Russia seems to be involved to remove the terrorists…. Moderate, proxy, rabid, whatever complexion
No, you got that right
you just did not read the comments section or what I wrote about this :-)
It was mentioned by The Saker in one of the comments responding to one comment, that Russia came to Syria by invitation and more. It was very good response.
Thank you for saying this truth. We know how profound it is and how is so dangerous to expose this reality.
Please keep me in your prayers.
And thank you!
Andrei
And this today: 80% of Americans in some poll want to invade China to assist in their civil war on the side of Taiwan. They always have packaged it that way ala Korea ala Vietnam…I googled it and only 1% of Americans are in the military and I bet they don’t support it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GnzorPZAHY
The sad truth is that US Americans don’t hate wars, they hate LOSING them, which is a huge difference.
Funny how USA defines winning. I guess it’s a sports thing, count the points at the end then go home and have some beer.
Correction on the poll…..52% not 80%. Weird thing is it’s gone up 12% since the guy who pooped his pants at the Pope’s RV camp and farted on members of the royal family took orifice in January.
Yes we all must agree with Andrei.
The US has become a running dog for UK & EU interests and some of its own internal corrupt elites who should be in jail or face the rope. And I think that time is coming.
Most Americans who join the US military are naive and dont realize what they are getting into – but some like Tulsi Gabbard saw the light.
But when they do see the light after period of service they are in a position to sabotage the system.
The sooner that happens the better.
The US is in collapse mode – those who think they are running things don’t realize whats going to hit them soon.
Nor to those in EU or UK.
If I was a politician there Id be worried at this time about the large amount of army equipment that has been liberated by personnel. In UK alone the amount is staggering according to my sources let alone US.
Im sure it will be put to good use soon.
As a New Zealander, we still call it Armistice Day, regardless of what the official designation currently is, and it still has a strong pull to WW1, which affected so many families and opened their eyes to the brutal futility to senseless armed conflicts. Politicians try and pull the event towards military propaganda but most people just don’t buy it, other than conservatives with their warped view of “military Glory”. If you get a chance, watch Peter Jackson’s film “They Shall Not Grow Old” – a biopic of WW1, gleaned from over 100 hrs of original film, cleaned up and colourised – the only commentary is from interviews with surviving WW1 vets. It is stunningly brutal in it’s simplicity – centred around English soldiers, but, as Peter said – the experience would apply equally to any other soldiers involved on any side.
I’m Vietnam War era – seemed to spend most of my time at University on anti Vietnam War protests. I was called up in the draft, but told them what to do with their call up papers – we weren’t subject to being shipped off to Vietnam like the poor bastards in Australia and the USA, but there are principles to uphold – armed invasions of other countries under specious reasoning not being one of them. We would also go down to the trains taking other draftees to the army camp and tell them they didn’t have to go……..several got off the train!
I did join the Naval Volunteer Reserve several years later, but that was because they were involved with coastal and fisheries protection, something close to one of my ideals..
Australia, as a “mini USA ” seems to have an official line similar to the US – any conflict the US is in Australia is not far behind. People exposing war atrocities of Australian SAS troops in Afghanistan get a drubbing in the MSM, but there are enough ex regulars who were sickened by a – being there …b – being associated with what these troops did. Most people seem to reject the propoganda that they should be there at all, but, like the USA, Australia now has governments that are totally out of synch with what people actually want!
That is a very fine and interesting post, just different, there are several on this thread, excellent
@The Saker : Do you think there would be a point to reading Michael Hoffmans’s Judaism strange gods if i’ve already read his Judaism discovered?
No, not really, his masterpiece is Judaism Discovered. The other book was written before that.
The Saker is right, you only need to read Judaism Discovered
All true Andrei.
Not much to add except to recall a conversation I had some time ago with an engaging commenter, Dr NG Maroudas, about US love of military adventures.
In the conversation I mentioned the US Civil War and Sherman’s march through Georgia.
I’ll expand on that: Americans, or USAians if you prefer, have no hesitation in bombing other countries because they’ve not experienced war and all its horrors on their soil ie they’ve not had a war ‘over here’ for over a century and a half.
There is no collective memory of the depredations of war. The average americano or americana has no idea of the horrors that war can bring. Sure, US servicemen come home to tell stories, or come home dead or injured from time to time, but the full horror is not felt. The landscape has not changed, homes remain standing, there’s water, from the taps, food is plentiful, the shops are open, and there’s a party on Friday night. Apart from the — mainly private — sorrow felt by the families involved, nothing has happened to disrupt the lives of the community.
This lack of experience — and hence collective memory — makes them shielded from the real slaughter and ruination brought upon by war; and thus susceptible to propagandistic manipulation and conditioning by the PTB who truly understand their psyche. It is telling that in this war-like USA there are events to remember — and to a certain extent romanticise war — modern war, war of the 20th century but no national reflection on, to my mind, one of the most significant events in the country’s short history: the Civil War when their country split into two and Americans fought Americans.
Perhaps the rekindling of memory of what Sherman did to Georgia would make the Americans less jingoistic — and undermine the plans of the PTB. Hence its consignment to the backburner of US history.
Down with the arsonists of war… – Stalin
Today was a good day. This hill was the best place to spend it on. I once posted ‘General George Armstrong Custer Was a Pussy’ on Myspace and got a lengthy kudo from a childhood hero and fellow native american….we don’t really say that, we say NDN, Jimmy Carl Black of the Mothers of Invention. Read ‘Son of the Morning Star’ to see what really happened at the Battle of the Greasy Grass. They always say in honor to the wasichu general we didn’t scalp his white ass. Not true. He cut his hair off just before the battle. A presentiment maybe? His wife was a couple of hours away awaiting him for dinner at the riverboat that had brought him there. His underlings Captain Frederick Benteen et al and those useless Fs, who he hated, he split them up and allowed them to become besieged. He could hear the battle from the tipi of a favorite squaw he was boning. He was supposed to ride in at the last minute to save the day. He came to save the day a little to late. Be sure to watch the Battlefield Detective episode that shows that they didn’t surround themselves with the dead horses and fight to the last man. They threw down their weapons and ran like their women in every direction, far from the battlefield, hiding in gullies. The Feds later said they were outgunned with superior weapons! LOL. The forensics show that almost all wounds were delivered with primitive stone tomahawks and a primitive kind of mace at close quarters. They all had multiple breaks in the forearms and crushed skulls. Close up, superior warrior kind of stuff against a cowardly enemy who had just killed and raped women and children easily enough. We menfolk were royally pissed off. Here is NDN Johnny Cash’s song ‘Custer’ that Jimmy Carl Black so loved. God we were magnificent that day. https://youtu.be/jPHGZTmVKKE
I don’t absolutely agree with the Saker on his subject. As individuals we live under the lawful authority of government and must at certain times serve in the military as required by law, and so this service becomes obligatory. Presently there is no draft and military service is usually voluntary, nonetheless it is a duty of citizens to fill the ranks of the military, and so without a draft there still remains a necessity of some citizens, for whatever reasons, submitting to this ongoing call for servicemen.
—It is not an argument to say there are bad people who join the military, or that the military does bad things. We must obey the lawful authorities, otherwise there is no rule of law and we are contributing to the break down of society, which devolves into anarchy. Anarchy is absolutely nothing like the world we have now, the comparisons are one sided. To suppose that bad government and unjust wars are worse than anarchy is wrong because, although an unjustified war of aggression is like anarchy to its victims, there still remains the limiting factor of the will of the acting authority — in other words, the big despot keeps the little despots in check — and bad governance, again, is not the same thing as no government at all, which is a total chaos. Partial chaos, or an approaching anarchy, might seem to be a total chaos, but only up to the point that total chaos reigns.
—There remains the question of those who have murdered, and those who are murdered. Murder, homicide, remains a crime of mankind from Cain until now, and submission to the authorities does not free us from the higher calling of our ethical nature as men, murder remains murder at all times. For those of us beholding a decaying empire, these crimes of imperial aggression, including murder, completely pollute everyone and everything, even the smallest child, because all men are one, we all hold responsibility, and all must bear the consequences. The recipe, which is repentance and forgiveness, means that the murderer must embrace the murdered and ask forgiveness, and the murdered must forgive. These roles apply to all of us, but repentance is a gift from God, and forgiveness is Divine.
As individuals we live under the lawful authority of government and must at certain times serve in the military as required by law, and so this service becomes obligatory.
Yes, we are supposed to obey the law. But that is PRECISELY why you cannot just accept any order from a superior. Nuremberg took care of that.
Also, there are laws of war, and they forbid the murder of civilians or, for that matter, the destruction of the infrastructure needed to sustain civilian life.
It seems impossible to clearly articulate contrary arguments since the balance of the scales tilt toward the crimes of this civilization, and this is our reference point, this reality. I suppose from a philosophical point of view the objection I have to your argument is actually an equivalent argument; one is for the left side, the other the right. The middle path of reason is to obey the law, including the divine law of conscience, at all times, and a diversion from this middle path, either to the left as a rejection of the divine conscience, or to the right as a rejection of authority, both end in hell.
Modern militaries have lawyers specialized is the laws of war, international humanitarian law and other legal instruments. In an ideal world, commanders should consult with such legal specialists. But, of course, that becomes meaningless in a country whose entire foreign policy was always based on the highest international crime possible: aggression.
And I won’t even go into the Abu Ghraib, Bagram or GITMO crimes….
And, clearly, the CIA is above any and all laws.
Americans invade your country and kill you then make a movie about their soldiers getting PTSD. However, someone in the comment section who feels the movies ain’t enough is looking for sympathy here. I honestly hope he never finds it and the PTSD continues for life. Innocent people lost their lives because of your stupid decisions when you were 18, you and your commanders should be at the Hague.
The Hague does not have enough room for them. But there are plenty of available lamp posts in America itself.
Their social obedience is greater than their moral integrity, and this is common. Some people are just meant to say “yes sir”. Their mistake is choosing the wrong boss.
Their deserved guilt and PTSD ought to serve as a single to other socially obedient + morally weak people: If you choose the path of a sheep be wise to choose the right shepherd.
It is hard for me to regard US military servicemen as any more honorable than mercenaries. They kill for money, a trifle at that. Heroes indeed.
On the other hand, individuals who are repentant and seek to atone for their sins ought not be turned away at the door nor castigated and punished, they should be obligated socially to fulfill their further duty.
Now, let them echo the message of Smedley Butler and call for a moral foreign policy/grand strategy/military doctrine for their country. Let the common citizens feel the painful regret in their voices, as they appeal to the citizens to demand the government to transform its foreign policy into a morally legitimate version of itself.
If you want forgiveness for your moral sins then earn it and give your country a real service, and do it at your own risk for zero dollars. Earn it. And if they do, then they should be given their forgiveness and respect. This is what their country needs from them at this time more than anything. It would take what a hero is made of to do it, so there is the red carpet leading back in from the cold.
Help manufacture the broad public will for a moral grand strategy solution for America, that is what we need right now more than anything.
I dig this one the most. I think to listen to this poem In Flanders Fields will be a healing experience for all of us. We all must heed these messages, all our ancestors on whatever side. Standing together doesn’t mean we’re going to fight anyone, but war itself. There are many powerful souls here and we don’t want to attract too much attention but we can be honest and open with one another in a rock tumbler fashion and arrive at a smoothness. An imperturbable place where we can all just accept war for the horror it was….was….Let’s all of us at least be peaceful here. I’m the worst of everyone, have no manners can’t take me anywhere. Peace. In two minutes the war is over. https://youtu.be/K6BlOkpdkg8
When it comes to anti war and social commentary songs, Midnight Oil have an entire catalog:
“U.S. Forces”
U.S. forces give the nod ……It’s a setback for your country
Bombs and trenches all in row Bombs and threats, still ask for more
Divided world the CIA Who controls the issue?
You leave us with no time to talk You can write your own assessment
Sing me songs of no denying
Seems to me too many trying
Waiting for the next big thing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w29r322jqlY&list=RDZNteNUNRlz0&index=7
And
”Short Memories”
Conquistador of Mexico
The Zulu and the Navaho
The Belgians in the Congo
Plantation in Virginia
The Raj in British India
The deadline in South Africa
The story of El Salvador
The silence of Hiroshima
Destruction of Cambodia
Short memory, must have a short memory
The sight of hotels by the Nile
The designated Hilton style
With running water specially bought
A smallish man Afghanistan
A watch dog in a nervous land
They’re only there to lend a hand…
(Short memories….)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNteNUNRlz0
”Forgotten Years”. (about the years between WW1 + WW2)
Few of the sins of the father, are visited upon the son. Hearts have been hard, our hands have been clenched into fists too long. Our sons need never be soldiers, our daughters will never need guns. These are the years between. These are the years that were hard fought and won.
(All performed at “Oils on Water” Sydney Harbour 1985.)
Remark:
US military men are even bombing hospitals where “doctors without borders” are working and had put their white flag outside.
US military is bombing usually infrastructure of a country they invaded.
During the 2nd world war US military even bombed old buildings in Italy whose belong to the ancient times and where no military was. The same goes to for example Dresden in Germany, which had been bombed into stone whereas no military was there hidden.
Do not young men join the military for the sake to get some more money (the the scandal in Iraq!!) or to be able to go to college and/or university ?? At least I have something heard about this point from an US friend. Personally I don’t know.
“UPDATE: in one of the comments which the mods (rightly) sent to trash there was one question which I feel needs to be addressed: what about the Russians in Syria? Ain’t that the same?
Nope, for the following reasons:
The Russians went to Syria not to start a war (the Empire did that), but to STOP one
The Russians did not commit mass atrocities in Syria
The Russians were directly threatened by “Axis of Kindness” operations in the Middle-East (what the CIA was doing in Afghanistan in the 70 it never stopped doing and was STILL at it in Syria)
Last, but not least, the Russians did not flee in disgrace from Syria (or Afghanistan, for that matter)
So no, it ain’t the same.”
Also, regarding Russia in Syria, unlike the Western powers who were backing an illegal regime-change colour revolution/proxy war, Russia involvement was requested by the Syrian government to help defeat the al Qaeda/ISIS terrorism threat that was causing havoc in the country.
To add to the differences of Russians being in Syria:
–They were there by invitation instead of inviting themselves
–They have enough historical awareness to see themselves as protectors of the birth place of the (orthodox) church, a role they have seen for themselves for centuries.
The Russians are not looting oil, destroying crops etc in Syria
The Russians are not paying and arming the very terrorists they claim to be fighting in Syria
A further point to your updates: The Russians did not “invade” either Afghanistan or Syria; in both cases they were invited to assist legally recognized governments under attack from US/CIA organized, armed, funded, and trained religious fanatic terrorists who were destroying their civic infrastructure. No government ever “invited” a US/NATO invasion of it’s territory.
In ancient times, warriors gathered on the battlefield and dealt one on one. Only those who needed to fight were there. No one else. There were no civilians. After the battle, the villagers would eventually come to pick up all the wounded and war booty. You had to have balls and overcome the fear of the opponent who was waiting for you with an ax in his hand. You can pay homage to such fighters at the grave. Today’s wars have about 70% civilian casualties. Regardless of the type of weapon. The percentage is valid for American interventions in the last few decades. I don’t see any warrior honor that anyone should worship. Americans, of course, are free to pay their respects to their dead. The rest of the world has its own opinion about Americans and their culture of death.
I joined the US army at 18 in 1975 to learn to fly helicopters. This was at the end of the Vietnam war and I managed to serve in peacetime. Many young men join the military for a education and training as there are no opportunities to do so in the private sector. It’s always the poor individuals who end up on the short end of the stick.
The only thing in the US today is financial services, insurance, etc. We make nothing here anymore. Go to college and end up massively indebted. Work at Macdonald’s? Kids today have no future in the USA.
The biggest takeaway from Afghanistan is that more service members died from suicide than combat. That’s the real sad part.
“Many young men join the military for a education and training as there are no opportunities to do so in the private sector. It’s always the poor individuals who end up on the short end of the stick.”
I hope I can be totally honest here. I didn’t join for money or education. In fact, I never thought I would see the age of 21. I came from a violent, gang ridden neighborhood. I had nothing to lose. At the time the Army gave me everything, even the clothes on my back. I enjoyed the training and the disciple.
Once at my unit it was tremendous to go out on the town with my section. We always rolled at least 15 deep and ruled any bar or club we were at. You always had someone at your back. We did what ever we wanted and if there was a problem we would just put a fist in it. Bouncers and police, we would fight them too. Plenty of women, booze, and drugs as well. Quite a few were into ‘roids. We were the outcasts of society but once we put on the magic uniform it transformed our thuggish culture into something heroic. American culture glorifies violence. We love it but most are too cowardly to actually do it so most pretend and hide behind their bullshit morality. Watch any movie or news story, the media hands the murderer stardom. It is kind of like being in a cult.
My dear friend
Here is a poem by Caitlin Johnstone, an Australian journalist who lives in the USA.
It is called, Welcome to Planet Earth. It follows references to books by Yuval Noah Harari, in particular his book Homo Sapiens.
Welcome to Planet Earth,
where books written by dead men
tell the living how to live.
Where children who do not know how to live
teach their children how to live.
Where children pray for miracles
using minds that are made of miracles
with clasped hands that are made of miracles.
Where children wander in search of God
upon feet that are made of God
looking with eyes that are made of God.
Where giant-brained monsters swim the seas
and we fill their bellies with plastic
while searching the stars for aliens.
Where poison blackens the air and the water
because we all need jobs to stay alive.
Where we can’t stop dropping bombs on children
because it’s somebody’s job to make those bombs.
Where thunderous beauty is overlooked
and paved over with a parking lot
for a shop that helps women feel beautiful.
Welcome to Planet Earth,
full of elephant tears and whale bones,
of metal beasts and flesh machines,
of forest graveyards and bulldozed dreams,
of vagrant witches and shopping cart saints,
of sprouting seeds and unrecognized potential,
of unanswered questions and pregnant suspense.
Welcome to Planet Earth,
where we haven’t quite yet figured out
that we are home.
And another poem written a few years ago (2004), by an author whose name I don’t have. But it is very poignant. Although it is called, A Baby’s Lament, it could just as well be called Another Bugsplat.
.
A baby’s lament
“Do you remember killing me, my friend?
Surely you must?
I was just eight days old.
But then why should you remember me, just one of the many children you have slaughtered?
But I was wrapped in a nice new blue blanket.
You still don’t remember me?
I was being carried in the market by my mother.
You murdered her too.
Of course you don’t remember, there are so many bodies, so many lives you have ended.
Not you, you say?
Wasn’t it you that paid for the missile that took my life.
Don’t you remember?
It came from the taxes you paid.
Do you remember now?
Money you regretted paying, because you need something else in your life: some gadget, or toy.
You remember, you paid the wages of the man that aimed the missile at our market that day?
You voted for the man that gives him his orders.
The man you asked to protect you from me and my mother and the other million or so that you have slaughtered.
Do you still not recall?
I had a given name, but you know me as “collateral damage”,
Remember, you were gifting us your democracy that day?
Your democracy of depleted uranium.
Or was it in self-defence that you murdered me?
Or was it revenge for something I didn’t do, years before I was born, knew nothing of in my innocence?
You tell me: which ‘just cause’ slammed my body into the dirt?
Did you think of me today as you went about your life, my friend?
Did you wonder what I might have become had you not slaughtered me?
Had not smashed my soft bones and crushed the new life from me?
Did you talk of me with your family?
Mention my murder to a colleague?
Spare me a thought as you filled your car at the station, ate your evening meal, watched T.V., Tucked your children into bed?
Did you see my face today?
Did you wash my blood from your hands today?
It’s still there, my friend, and always will be.
Did you pray to your God today?
Did you do anything to stop this murder today?
Did you protest? Did you march? Did you withhold your tax? Did you rage against the slaughter of innocents?
Did you spare just a passing thought for me today, my friend?
Remember I had a name?
My name was collateral damage.
I was eight days old.
Wrapped in a blue blanket.
And you killed me. Don’t you remember?”
Iraq, 2003. How quickly we forget, or choose not to remember. How very selective we are in what we report, in what we suppress, and in what we choose to believe. Harari thought of humans as becoming ‘God-like’ in their power. In my despair, I tend to think of them as more ‘Satan-like’. The more powerful. the more devilish. Evil is everywhere.
Here, we shall soon be caught up in the Christmas rush, even in this age of multiculturalism. Christianity still has a foothold, but only just.
Here is a case in point of what the article described:
(Tucker Carlson Video embedded in the article)
http://www.womensystems.com/2021/11/gop-rep-turner-tucker-carlson-spar-over.html?m=0
It’s amazing how many facts this guest lies about throughout the whole segment.
Tucker takes him to task on a few of them, but you can see it goes in one ear and out the other with quick dismissal, as if precalculated for maximum soundbyte effect.
Meanwhile, we are wondering if Biden is going to let this growing tension around Ukraine blow up into a major event. Someone with a clue on the US side needs to reel NATO deployments back in before they get bitch-slapped by Putin.
They are probably arguing that a little war will be good for the US economy. No, it will further undermine confidence and trust in a post-Covid world economy reeling with supply chain and vaccine mandate issues.
How can war even work if we wanted it to? When we can’t even get civilian logistics back running? With many thousands of military personnel kicked out for refusing the vaccine, and more suffering post-vaccine injuries?
These conditions would t me to accelerate reliance on nuclear weapons, to make up for a weak conventional force. Our war hawks are disconnected from geopolitical reality several times over, and again in assuming.a military ramp-up in Ukraine is a good idea.
Not to mention calling Ukraine a democracy is offensive when everyone who studies it can see it is a vassal state for the US to harass Russia on the shared border.
The Atlantic Council and friends are just upset that Putin outflanked them in the pipeline politics game with Nordstream 2, and the earlier Crimea referendum to join Russia, saving Russia’s warm water navy base there.
Pipeline strategy children should not be setting military policy in the west. They are setting up to get a lot of people killed over the question who gets the natural gas side deals.
I watched Carlson interview that congressional idiot and his flippant remarks about NATO alliances, Ukraine and how Russia threatens the U.S.
He is a dog whistle for the weapons industry and has no idea what war is and will bring to the shores of the U.S. if stupidity rules over commonsense. This is why the American people have to take political action and get these fools removed from power before he blows himself up and the rest of the world.
I am amzaed how people even dare to defend their military service for the US in the time of freely available information on the crriminal wars the US waged. Talking only about Vietnam obfuscates the staggering reality of it:
US bombing of NKorea: 81% of NKs cities completely destroyed. Millions died.
Laos: US dropped more bombs than in ww2 by both sides. Several 100.000s dead.
Yugoslavia: 100.000 dead. Ample use of DU ammo resulting in widespread increase of cancer and birth defects.
Iraq wars: 3M died. A further 1.7M dead by sanctions. Heavy poisoning of whole areas by use of DU ammo. See Fallujah.
Various coups and indirect involment in dozens of countries: Millions dead.
Estimated amount of victims of US wars/coups/sanctions since WW2: 25-30 millions.
Indeed go on and spout that you fought for your country. You are nothing less than a non-repentant murderer then.
Russia went to Syria to put a stop to western war mongering, the war in Syria was no local war but an international war.
Love the cartoon where the grim reaper knocked on Ukraine’s door and out came a huge Russian bear, that was very funny LOL.
Saker
Since you made a comment about praying.
I’m a big believer in praying…because sometimes that’s all one has left. It is important to metaphysically-spiritually send your soul to a higher plane of existence so as to purify one’s soul of the satanic filth and disease omnipresent in America.
But we still have to come back to the decomposing corpse known as America. It is absolutely urgent to BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!!!…If it was up to WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT it will be an eternal occupation of the Middle East…forever wars. And this is the great evil of Evangelical Christianity…and Christopher Hitchen’s degenerate atheism…and America’s new religion:‘George Floyd Worship…Floydism….
Everyone needs to convert to Russian Orthodox Christianity…The Jesuits are homosexual pigs…
Anyone who wishes to understand Chinese determination should watch the 40 episode series…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOf2RfEefHg
It is apparent that Mao and his entourage were focused on rebuilding China and were caught unawares by the onset of the Korean War. Ditto for Stalin and the Stavka.
Mao’s strategic acuity is showcased in this series….. He realized that MacArthur would attempt a landing, with the most likely place being Inchon… and his experts recognized the conditions necessary, and the possible dates in Sept-Oct…. Stalin was not interested in intervening and delivered promised supplies and equipment in a niggardly fashion… believing it wasted because he was also focused on domestic issues, and problems on his western front vis a vis NATO.
Had the Chinese crossed the Yalu then, and established a blocking force to counter any attempt at a landing the result would have been the same as the attempted landing in 1953, TNATO had to give up the attempt because the risks were too great vis a vis the possible sucess.
Had Stalin chosen to support the Chinese via mass movement of the soviet airforce’s WWII piston fighters, they could have forced re-unification of the Korean peninsula before the end of 1950.
Stalin could have further flanked NATO by entering the north half of Hokkaido, claiming it was continuing the war against Japan, which refused to surrender and sign a peace treaty with it, and claiming it was entitled to occupy Japan as the US was, because it was promised same at Yalta.
Of course, this did not happen.
But…..
The Chinese recognized the threat the US would make to China itself, should it occupy all of Korea and have troops on the Yalu, and despite having no airforce, no artillery, and being poor as church mice, sent it’s forces across the Yalu, endured privation, and fought NATO to a standstill.
Anyone who thinks the Chinese, now the world’s largest economy, will cave to NATO posturing, when it has naval superiority, Air superiority, and a much larger army, is fooling themselves.
AND…..
NATO has created a trading bloc consisting of the following countries….
China Russia DPRK Laos Cambodia Myammar Cuba Nicaragua Bolivia Argentina
Venezuela Pakistan Afghanistan Uzbekistan Mongolia Turkmenistan Tajikistan Iran
Now codified in a new trading agreement…
Which likely will include Peru Brazil Mexico Panama Costa rica Thailand Vietnam Malaysia
Seychelles Mauritis RSA Namibia Zimbabwe Kenya Zambia Ethiopia Algeria Morocco Tanzania
Madagascar
The Russians had best re-organize SovComFlot into a Russian COSCO for the purpose of carrying goods between and among this group, because the USN will refrain from interdicting it’s ships, as it refrains from interdicting Chinese ships…
What will you do when crude approaches $ 200/boe next year??
INDY
I have seen war, up close and personal and too many times. Will I fight again? Yes, as old as I am I have forgotten nothing of warcraft and if my peaceful little village is attacked I will fight again. Am I proud, or ashamed, of my memories? Who gives a shit, I don’t, I just live with them, good, bad, indifferent. All I will say on this subject is you can’t write what I write in my most of my books without having been there and done that.
That being said, it looks more and more like war is coming to our little village of Sevastopol. It’s the little things, for instance we need to prepare for winter and get the leaves etc. up, bagged and gone and the yards deep raked and seeded. This fall we can’t find a single man to do the work or even help us, neither of us are young anymore, so we’ve done it ourselves. All the young and even middle aged men are not to be seen on our streets now. This is not ‘privileged information’, it is plain as the nose on your faces.
If war does come our little village will be the recipient of a vast herd of cruise missiles, sent simply as a point of honor since just over 7 years ago we prevented SehSha from establishing the American Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, which was the sole goal of all the death and destruction in Orcland back in ’13-’14 which defacto led to the ongoing war in Novorossiya.
I don’t know what our chances are of survival and besides, not a thing I can do about it, neither my wife nor I will ever leave Sevastopol come what may, this is our home. However, in the event of a missile attack we are personally going to see just how good Buk, Pantsir, S200, S300, S400 and S500 are. Our hope is they work well, reason being we are less than a klick from half the Black Sea Flot in harbor plus a good sized base less than a klick away. Cruise missiles may be bragged as having pinpoint accuracy but reality is reality and the splatter affect will be in existence, of this we have no doubts. So be it, our fates are permanently linked to the fate of our village. The worst thing is I’ve already been ‘contacted’ about helping in the aftermath of whatever attacks are made on our peaceful city, I’m a native US English speaker and known in this little village, loyal to same so one can extrapolate that out as far as one wants.
While we do worry of the possibility of war we do not fear war. We’ve already done what we can to prepare in the way of supply and such so not much else can be done. All we can do is hope cooler heads prevail and war will be prevented….this time. But we also have no doubts that eventually yes, a full blown war between Russia and SehSha is in the cards. Russia bows down to no one and that is the one thing SehSha will never, and can never, accept.
Auslander
Author http://rhauslander.com/
Never The Last One. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1521849056 A deep look in to Russia, her culture and her Armed Forces, a vision few outside of Russia will ever see.
An Incident On Simonka paperback edition. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1696160715 NATO Is Invited To Leave Sevastopol, One Way Or The Other. Yes, NATO was in Sevastopol and Krimea almost five years before Maidan commenced.
Auslander, my friend,
Your sounding today, to the perceptive, gives us pause. Crimea and Sevastopol prepared for imminent war.
And there are hundreds of Tomahawks in the Black Sea aboard US and NATO ships and sitting in US missile defense launchers in Romania and elsewhere in the region, as you indicate that are meant for your city, Sevastopol.
The muscling up of Biden and the Pentagon is delusional preface to a clash of forces. There is no tactic the US can use that will result in less than enormous losses America will sustain. The US officials think only Ukies and Russians will perish.
In most prior wars, the US only realized its vast losses after a decade or two. Today, with the weapons Russia has amassed to respond to an attack, the losses will be in tens of thousands in days not years. The US doesn’t have enough coffins ready to bring home their 200s for what they are instigating with Russia.
Be well. Stay safe. Duty may soon call you again.
Larchmonter, my long time friend and comrade,
Yes, the times don’t look good. One can hope, and pray, that cooler heads stop this madness but this time I have my doubts. I and we are fully aware of the numbers of ‘defensive’ missiles based on the west coasts of the Black Sea (among other areas around the Sea) and we are also fully aware that the switch from ‘defensive’ to offensive for these batteries takes but a very short time. One can hope that someone has eyes on to report any changes, but even so, will the warnings come in time and will the warnings do any good? I don’t know, that is not within my range of expertise or knowledges. Then we have what are actually floating around in the Black Sea, albeit if their launchers go active the crew’s lives will be measured in seconds, not minutes.
This time, however, I fear the true horrors of war will be brought home to at least the coastal areas of SehSha and this will be a truly cataclysmic cultural shock to vast areas of SehSha. I can but imagine what for instance NYC or Atlanta would do if their water and sewer plants were hit, there is really no need to ‘carpet missile’ the actual cities although I’m sure whatever military bases, main transport choke points and bridges that are in the general areas will be visited also. Within but a few days there would be fighting in the streets over water and for that matter food and this fighting would lead to a total breakdown of command, control and supply by what comically passes for ‘government’ in many areas of SehSha. Think anarchy in a country that has not seen anything whatsoever like true violence for 150 years. It won’t be pretty, and this is a vast understatement.
Let’s both hope this does not happen, that whoever is controlling POTUS pulls back and lowers the tensions, but my fear is this time they won’t, it almost seems that they lust for the horrors of war, steadfastly thinking these horrors won’t visit them. How wrong they are. As the saying goes, be careful what you pray for, you might get it….in spades.
If duty calls one more time we will both answer that call. Threaten my city, my gorod, my family, my beautiful children, well, the consequences are on your soul and conscience, not mine.
Auslander
“Russia bows down to no one and that is the one thing SehSha will never, and can never, accept.”
You sir are correct. Blessed Russia has tried to talk, negotiate and were even ready to agree to the most humiliating terms in order to avoid war. The Empire wants complete control and obsequiousness. This Russia will never do. I’ve a feeling once the violence starts the world will finally appreciate the patience and restraint the Russian forces have shown thus far. The Empire has mistaken the willingness to negotiate for weakness but what has always happened once Russia has finally been backed all the way into the corner?
I’m happy to hear your family has made some preparations and wish you well. I hope there will not be war but like you I am not optimistic. If anything good comes out of this perhaps the Empire of thralldom will be finally broken by Russia and the world can begin again with fairness and peace.
May God bless you, your family and your people.
1812, 1853-56, 1914-18, 1941-45.
1812. Paris occupation.
1853-56. Withdrawal from Sevastopol to outskirts. Return late 1856.
1914-18. Revolution that shook the world.
1941-45. Occupation of Berlin and eastern part of Germany, over 40 years.
You forgot to mention that Russia was invited by the Syrian government to help i Syria. Russians already had a military base there…
The evilnesses of the USA began with the dropping of the atomic bomb on civilians on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These horrible acts continue to this day by different methods with the same inhumane results.
Wrong. It began with the displacement, exploitation and ultimately brutal murder by weapon and disease of the native americans.
agreed
Good evening everyone, first I’d like to congratulate Mr Raesky for his (once again) sober, in-depth analysis and would, once again, like to go straight to the point once again.
One aspect of what he just underscored and I believe is prominent in US history is the fact that many (or maybe most) of it’s veterans that perished abroad where in fact being instrumental to imperialism and thus working as hired murderers, using their skills (N natürlich being rewarded and facing risks) far away from home, what wouldn’t be anything to complain but as a matter of fact most time they are effectively working to reinforce imperial politics abroad by violent means.
And this propaganda that Mr Raesky underscored works heavily down here in Brasil, stronger during Bolsonaro’s rule due to closing ties with the US, therefore many (most?) brazilians truly believe the US veterans where soldiers that were being martyred for a brighter world etc. Meanwhile, this same person that watches TV or his/ her cell phone and gets marveled due to the truly splendid job the US does around the world spreading freedom and democracy, outside his own door or even inside his house extreme poverty due to violent and crude recolonization is wide open as blatant for anyone that has eyes to see. As I said not for once, recolonizations brought old brazilian social issues to extreme. And propaganda and ideology, as once said Althusser “alienating people from their very real and material life conditions”, keep trying it’s best to avoid the absolute collapse of our society due to cá catastrophic neoliberal experimentation. Cheers from Vale do Ipiranga (RJ).
That the US is like other empires that have seen better days, and are collapsing in moral, social, and economic squalor is undeniable: that the US is worse in some way than Qin China (the ultimate horror story of cruelty and incompetence), France, Britain, Ottoman Turkey, Tsarist Russia is eminently deniable. The ra-ra Slavophile cartoon accompanying the post has an oddly 1914 feel to it (Russia as a muscular young bear facing down the US merchant of death). Didn’t the CIA a few years back publish a series of scenarios for the end of empire – from the British “soft landing” (leave if you’re not wanted) to the disastrous fight-every-inch of the way of France and Portugal?. The real problem in the US is the destruction of reality mediated (an appropriate word) by the University-Marketing complex. Perhaps Middle America will eventually realise the folly of empire:
A scrimmage in a Border Station —
A canter down some dark defile —
Two thousand pounds of education
Drops to a ten-rupee jezail —
The Crammer’s boast, the Squadron’s pride,
Shot like a rabbit in a ride!
No proposition Euclid wrote,
No formulae the text-books know,
Will turn the bullet from your coat,
Or ward the tulwar’s downward blow
Strike hard who cares — shoot straight who can —
The odds are on the cheaper man.
Rudyard Kiplking
I think that Veterans’ day should be one where veterans – their descendants – and relatives, commemorate the way the US treated other countries, including visiting death and destruction upon them. It should be a day of atonement for the sins of a country founded upon the annihilation and genicide of others, one that then saw fir to become a rapacious Empire full of self-righteousness.
A good veteran, or family member, or descendant should on this day spare a few hours to send heart-felt apologies to those counties we did so much to destroy. It should be a day where gifts and cards of remembrance and atonement are sent to people in Vietnam, in Cambodia, in Laos, in the Phillipines, in Iraq, Syria Somalia and especially Libya. one should do it as an act of atonement for the country that did – and still does – so much unbearable evil in the world – all in our name, whether we realized it or not.
I think that only when the old warriors confess they served for the wrong causes 9whether their fault or not), only then will the rest of the world come to accept this country as also containing much good within it.
I think a day of Truth and Reconcliation wouldn’t hurt and may even heal many a lost and broken heart.
IOW, Veterans’ day (or may be memorial Day) should be treated as Yom Kipur – kind of. At least the idea of it – a day of asking for forgiveness and forbearance including fr acts that were done in one’s name with or withut their active participation and/or knowledge.
Those in hot spots like the Middle East should realize that a US attack or intervention these is really in many instances not a American one but some EU or UK ones, be it on behest of a govt, banks, investor, corporate entity etc…
Rarely does it have anything to do with the US.
The attacks on Iran and Syria are somewhat related to Israel but more to money-changers in the EU who are often working with others and also aimed at effecting Russia.
The whole state of affairs in appalling.
Adrei, the Russians did not invade Syria, but were invited by the Assad government. And this is a substantial difference.
i’m happy to say there are 2 huge wholes in your reasoning:
#1) You dont mention at all the propaganda machine that works 24×7 in the USA. If you are 16-25 and have lived your whole life in the us of a, you have been living a lie your whole life. How can you pretend those people are doing a reasonable choice when they join the armed forces? the US armed forces finance movies, video games while the msm tells those 16-25 guys 24×7 how lucky you are to having born in the USA (remember bruce spring-stein?) And if you are poor (being poor in USA is different than anywhere else) the armed forces offers you to pay college and education so you stop being poor for just 2 years of your young life. Summing up, those who join up the usa arme forces are like those who murder someone when you are highly drunk or something like that.
#2) You forget about the veterans that having seen what a big inmoral lie USA-made wars are, have come back to us soil to speak up against all the pressures they are under. Those people deserve some praises. As well as Chelsea Manning. Oliver Stone, was a war veteran famous for a war movie exposing the insanity of war: take a hill one day, leave it next day and come back the next week to take it back. They also made other movies denouncing the mistreatment of veterans. Remember Rambo, First Blood?? the zionist wont dare to make another movie like that.
Dear Adrian,
Sorry but First Blood marks the beginning of the Reaganite fascisation of the Vietnam War memory. A poor forgotten hero of countless My Lais is forgotten and despised by his ungrateful country. Now the reason he is despised is not so much the collective awareness of the size of the US military’s crime but the fact that Rambo LOST to the caamunist peasants.
It is here that the rebuilding of the fake myth of American heroism begins – with the lachrymose effort by a Bulgarian immigrant Kotcheff. Rambo is a powerful symbol of a state-sponsored criminal and no whitewashing can ever change that.
It is rather curious, the explosive response in the comments section to this article. It appears that it is proof on how deep seated the military pride is in the American consciousness.
Americans don’t seem to realise how militaristic their society and their attitudes are. It really does take an outsider to notice this these things.
A few years ago, I made a series of trips to the USA. One of the things I hoped to understand was “Is the Average Joe really a war mongering devil?”. You see, I could not reconcile the decent life loving American as depicted in Hollywood and the effects of US foreign policy around the world, with the millions dead in incessant wars.
So I made a series of trips in which I travelled from East to West coasts, by air, train and road. Went to cities and small towns, met whites, blacks, asians, latinos, native Americans. I spent maybe a year in aggregate.
One thing that really struck me was the obligatory “thank you for your service” salute anyone who met a veteran would inevitably give. I noticed preferential treatment for serving service members from everything from airline boarding to restaurant service. The military really is revered in the USA.
Then things started to click. I realised that this military pride mindset was no accident. It was created in order to sustain the forever wars the country was engaged in. Americans might complain about their taxes, or their politicians lying to them about this or that. But when comes to a war, it was sacrilegious to oppose it. Everyone had to “support the troops”, including sending his own son to die.
So, back to the original question that I sought to answer when I went to the states. I found that Americans are not evil, they are decent hardworking people. They just have been manipulated and their good natures taken advantage of. They know their politicians lie all the time. They lie about the economy, social policies, etc etc. But somehow when it comes to Bad Russia or Bad China….oh, they swallow it hook, line and sinker.
Now to you, American, I speak to you personally. Our lives are in your hands. I only wish that your inner good natures would also gain some wisdom, so that less people around the world have to die for your naive belief in your politicians.
I am an 2x OIF 2x OEF veteran that has grown to despise America and just about everything that it stands for. Yes it is quite scary how people are so quick to say “thank you for your service!” when they find out I served. I don’t even get upset about though, just let them indulge in their naïve altruism and take advantage of whatever discounts they give (and no I don’t go out of my way for them, but will take advantage if its available) I am all about taking advantage of people who otherwise see someone like me as their enemy, as that sentiment is mutual.
To me, Americans are evil, fake and cowardly all at the same time. If they know their government and MSM lies yet will blindly believe any negative narrative about Russia and China, you can’t tell me these people aren’t evil. I guarantee most of them won’t be signing up to “defend” Ukraine or “defend” Taiwan anytime soon. Most won’t even be qualified anyway haha.
Thank you The Saker for peeling off the layers one by one on this subject.
Every sixteen year old should be able to fully understand this thread, how to apply it comes down to those “values” if that word still has meaning these days. I’d say we take values back to the individual level.
To all the USA ex- and future “service” people: greetings from Flanders’ fields where my ancestors worked the ground and fished the waters till Iceland, suffered wars, lost assets, collaborated and resisted and probably were as clueless as most are today with internet and capability to search deeper with regard to why wars happen.
Service man, woman and x, please do us one last “service” and get those nuclear warheads out of our backyards.
It’s a really urgent matter! To save the planet, human kind and all..
And when next war is due and it looks like it is going to actually last more than a couple of hours, Please still consider not to come over and “save our ass from evil” one more time here across the water, conventional military build up is also very bad for the climate no matter who “wins”.
I refuse unconditionally to “thank” vets for their service. Invariably I apologize for their work to kill for the death machine in the name of profits for the war supply manufacturers.