Get News & Views Updates
Most Popular This Week
- Street Artist Charged with 56 Counts for Punking NYPD with Drone Poster
- For Pete's Sake, What's Happened to Our Democracy?
- A Sign That Obama Will Repeat Economic Mistakes
- Obamacare Architect Leaves White House for Pharmaceutical Industry Job
- Fears Confirmed: Domestic Drones 'Fly Regularly' in US Airspace
Popular content
Today's Top News
Killing For Fun; Military Madness
Killing is the key to success in military actions. Killing enough insurgents by invading and occupying US forces enables the winners to subdue and subjugate the survivors. The real winners in the Middle East are the US based corporations who seek to exploit the resources of energy and mineral rich countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran. Also the corporate war profiteers of the defense industry are making out like bandits. They furnish the killing tools, the hired mercenaries and other wasteful and expensive materials, equipment and supplies for our never-ending wars-on-terror.
Mattis has a strong resume in the military killing business. He was a lieutenant colonel in the US invasion of Iraq in 1991, directed the Marines in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, headed the US assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2004 and helped design the siege that destroyed the city and killed thousands of Iraqi civilians. Mattis also commanded the initial troops that went into Afghanistan in 2001.
Describing his feelings about the people in Afghanistan, General Mattis said, "... It's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them. Actually it's quite fun to fight them, you know. It's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up there with you. I like brawling."
Author Thomas Ricks wrote that Mattis told his troops to, "Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet."
During Operation Desert Storm in Iraq, Mattis reportedly told his troops, "It's the mission of every Marine in the battalion to send one dead Iraqi home to Mama."
Perhaps World War II Army General George S. Patton, Jr. is a role model for Mattis in his glorification of military madness and the joy of killing. Patton said "Magnificent! Compared to war all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance. God help me, I do love it so!", and "No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country, He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country." Patton also said, "America loves a winner, and will not tolerate a loser, this is why America has never, and will never, lose a war." Of course that was before our ill-fated military ventures in Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates called Mattis "one of our military's outstanding combat leaders and strategic thinkers, bringing an essential mix of experience, judgment and perspective to this important post." Asked about Mattis's bloodthirsty rhetoric, Gates brushed off an official rebuke against Mattis saying it was five years ago.
In Afghanistan, US and NATO forces casualties continue to escalate. The number of Americans killed so far this month is at least 23 with 14 killed last week. In June, 102 occupation troops were killed including 60 Americans. 1,149 American soldiers have been killed in the war in Afghanistan, and countless numbers of Afghan civilians have died. We don't do body counts of "the enemy" because, as former Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said, "death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war."
Our economic crisis is directly tied to the cost of the war. It costs $1 million per year to maintain a single soldier in Afghanistan. The 2010 Pentagon budget is $693 billion, which surpasses all other discretionary spending programs combined--while our deficit soars. We desperately need money to create green jobs, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and improve education.
President Obama replaced General McChrystal with General Petraeus as commanding general of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. McChrystal had made derogatory remarks about Obama and his administration's conduct of the war. Petraeus was head of the Central Command and will be replaced by Mattis. Obama said, "War is bigger than any one man or woman, whether a private, a general or president."
The war in Afghanistan is a big loser. Rearranging deck chairs to include one more "fun to kill" military madman will not keep it from sinking like the Titanic. Only ending the war will save Obama.
A recent ABC/Washington Post poll found that people felt the war was not worth fighting by a 53 to 44 margin. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll had 62% of the American people saying the country was going in the wrong direction and Obama's approval rating at 45% with 48% disapproval.
President Obama was the most successful politician in the US who seemed to enjoy being elected to the highest office in the land. Fulfilling his promise of peace, hope and change is a winner. However his failure to conclude killing for fun military madness will make him a loser in 2012 and doom his party in November.
- Posted in
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
183 Comments so far
Show AllSo here again the dod sends in its tag team. Were its paid plants to adhere to single screen names, we'd notice how the same few post round the clock, although they allege to hold usually blue-collar jobs in the "real" world. The slick way they use and toss numerous screen names maintains the illusion that there are larger numbers who think as they do. In reality, they are a small group of bottom feeders posing in this forum either to learn data about those of us who truly believe in improving our societies; or like the agent provocateurs utilized so often as embeds to Green or ecologically-oriented organizations, they are tasked with keeping a beat on us. They seek to know if we might manage to plan anything that could be effective in taking down their military masters, or should I say blood soaked paychecks. And they can't STAND any subjects that question their loyalties or Goddess forbid, expand the notions of what reality/society/human nature might entail. I also notice that they take pains to attack the real thinkers in this forum. I have defended others who have been the target of their vulture-like attack squads, and I have been viciously attacked numerous times.
Deception is the ugliest of sins, and whatever uniform an individual wears, it will not present cover against the law of karma.
These agents provocateurs couldn't have an opinion different from yours could they?
They are automatically threats to the homeland. Frankly, who out there cares what any of us think?
You really have become delusional, haven't you, you poor thing?
So what you list are facts? Interesting; I'll have to go back to my dictionary and look up the word. I always assumed it described truths about the world.
To which 'well-excepted' facts do you refer that I deny?
If you folks think that anybody is wasting time with agents provocateur on CD I can only say good luck with that. Why bother? Who cares what we think? That kind of paranoia is contagious, watch out you might catch some.
I don't know Rosie (or you) from a hole in the ground - and she doesn't know me any better than you (though you'd think we were all brought up together by your claimed deep knowledge of me) so I don't really know what either of you are like. I can accept that she's a nice person and a decent human being. But if you read her posts, she sounds like a bitter, disillusioned, superstitious, insecure, irritably pompous neurotic who blames Mars for everthing bad that ever happened to her - and the world. I don't belittle what happened to her to make her come off that way, if you live long enough everybody has pain. But she should be told by friends, perhaps like you, that she would have far less trouble on sites like CD if she soft-pedeled her diffused anger a bit. I feel sorry for her, but I'm afraid that only she can address her problems. That's the Rosie I respond to. If she finds responses to her words on CD so diststeful then perhaps she should watch her words or remove herself from the rough and tumble of verbal combat for a while to recharge her batteries and get a grip. In fact, I'd advise it. I've done it myself from time to time and find it quite efficacious.
I don't think America was created to be 'insane' as you claim. Could you provide some reasons why you think so? I think it became insane because of fear bred from irrational competition, superstition, and unjustifiable individual freedom to the cost of the greater community.
"We know a tree by its fruits, and yours are speaking loudly."
You hear fruit speaking? That doesn't sound right. And more importantly - My fruits speak? This is news to me. What are they saying?
JUSTICE: I believe you are an advanced soul who has largely transcended gender. Indeed, it IS all about the balance. That was the central teaching taken from Peru, and 12 days spent with Shaman who retain an ancient tradition, one the modern world would joke about... but then the Shaman is invested in healing, and thus stands in opposition to the warrior-ethos which has sickened the entire US society.
Astrology, as it's based on the great circle, is NOT a system based on polarity. We recognize a number of polar equations that operate within the circle, itself. Geometry, once understood as Sacred Geometry, explains the laws of affinity and disharmony. There are always at minimum, two points in the circle that reconcile what otherwise exists as a seemingly irreconcilable opposition.
For instance, Aquarius is 180 degrees away from Leo; but the signs of Libra, Gemini, and Aries balance with both! IF a society was taught what these 12 "paths of discipleship" represent (as opposed to the top-down authoritarian model that demands "one size fits all" as a fit concept for education), and taught children to express their inherent gifts accordingly, then Libra would produce the peacemakers to stand fast against those that argue FOR war over and over again.
Polarities are useful for pointing out how energy works and whether or not any society is balanced. Sun and Moon are the parent principles, whereas Venus and Mars, the romance stars. Saturn defines conservatives, and Jupiter, liberals; whereas Uranus would define progressives or radicals.
The Astro-Logos is an ancient, yet contemporary model; and it's one that is incredibly useful when it comes to understanding the full wingspan of human nature, in addition to what societies are capable of creating when all archetypes--like all colors or all musical notes--are drawn into harmonious expression.
Just as a few ding-dongs in this forum argue that socialism doesn't work, while the better-educated relate that few genuine models have been honestly tried... the same could be said for the type of society that could emerge if the fundamental archeytpes Divinely built into the human equation were ALL given a chance to shine.
Instead, all boys are processed into warriors in the increasingly violent US society, while most girls are expected to act like pretty Barbie dolls. Granted, the archetypes have expanded as humanity is now in the Transition phase between Ages. The Aquarian Age will be very experimental. And since Aquarius, ruled by Uranus, emerges as the first experience beyond the confining, karmic rings of Saturn... for those that survive The Transition, we can only marvel at what dreams might be/come manifest.
I lose patience with those that try to derail any mention of the bigger picture. In my view it's a thought crime to hold humanity to the old chains when these lead to not only deadly outcomes, but those that are deadly on such a grotesque scale due to high tech coming into service (if not homage) to Mars and the endless make-war state.
Thank you for your always-thoughtful posts. You are one of the males in this forum that makes me more hopeful about a potential healing catharsis to alter our sick society.
"TIRE: I believe it is a fool's errand to "argue" with you because you are stuck inside a paradigm that presumes it has the facts on human nature. I do NOT agree with your central assertion, so how is it possible that we can find common ground? When I say books have been written, I am speaking about feminist dialectic material. Can you honestly say that you've read Germaine Greer, Shulamith Firestone, Betty Freidan, or Susan Faludi?
I have an inkling of what it feels like to be Black in America, and that's because the White person (with rare exceptions) seldom seeks genuine empathy with what the experience outside of the contours of alleged norms feels like. That's my impression of your scathing lack of sensitivity for any issue that doesn't conform to the way white male academics call it."
I have to admit it, Rosey, you're a hoot. First you're the reincarnation of Cleopatra, Isis, Joan of Arc, and Hildegard of Bingen all rolled into one but now you are enough of the 'earth mother' to be black and a victim of white culture at the same time. My, my but you are imaginative; and you have a bullying technique - just like the sex (can I say that?) you claim to condemn. My how irrationally masculine you actually are.
And your 'debating' technique is excellent. Pompous pronouncements supported by only superstition and hot air, followed by a refusal to consider anything that doesn't reflect your mania. Actually, the devolvment into superstition (the kind you promote) and a refusal to accept reality is a sign of mental illness. So the more you write the more you make my point for me. Thank you.
TIRE: I have a word for you, too: intellectual narcissist. You only see validity in what mirrors your own thought process, a direct reflection of your incredible short-sightedness. Suggesting that I am funny or ludicrous is a covert sexist device intended to negate the weight or merit of my analysis. If anything comes off as pompous, it's to defend against your casual slights and disguised assaults on my reasoning process. I take in a worldview that you cannot understand; and like a poet, have been graced with seeing things that the earthbound mind lacks the levity to recognize. Some in this forum are lifted by that higher understanding, others are there and like to hear it validated. You, on the other hand, would be among those that were laughing while the women of power, a/k/a witches were burned... all the while consoling yourself that it's just huMAN nature at work. You are pathetic.
I will not bother to "debate" you again. Your screen name suits you. Hope you have strong dentures. I would not want to take you away from the all-important task of biting tires. Boy, are you ever the prince of a linear universe, narrow-minded doesn't begin to define you!
The teachings of the mystics (which you think YOU are in a position to denigrate) begins with honoring THE CIRCLE. It, alone, connotes a path where there ARE no sides. So long as there is hierarchy in this world, so long as men call the shots, so long as small self-proclaimed hives of privilege claim absolute ownership... the HIGHER blueprints for our world, those based on shared codes of access and the realization that the Divinity lives in every sentient being, will be despised. Only dead spirits would argue for such logic.
Sticks and stones Rosie, sticks and stones.
'Intellectual narcissist' now; another pronouncement from the throne. Where do you dig this stuff up?
And you are not 'pompose' as a response to 'casual slights and disguied assaults on my reasoning process', old girl, as any factual or rational response could have been employed. You are pompose, Rosie, simply because you are pompose. Read what you write. That's the way it is. Don't blame me.
As for the rest of your opinion - I forgive you your ignorance and pity your illness.
Last year you too promised to stop responding to what I write. Remember? Not very well old girl since shortly thereafter you began responding to what I wrote. When I reminded you of your vow not to respond you claimed to forget because you're too busy. So much for your intellectual powers old girl. This time try to remember to stop bothering with me. But I'll remind you if you forget.
"TIRE: I have a word for you, too: intellectual narcissist."
"Intellectual narcissism" is two words, Rosie, not one word. I'll leave any cheap shots to you as that seems to be all you've got left old girl.
Well, this sounds like the ORIGINAL Max Payne who posted a year ago... then that voice went to Shawn Berry or Kyle Jamerson, and now you? What do you guys trade uniforms or just screen names? Or has the dod found a way to script your responses so that it need not pay human beings to retort the same tired lines endlessly?
I have some work to do. I wonder if a mosquito repellant would work on you?
Aim and spray "Be Gone Now" twice; and if the problem persists, call the local exterminator. You and Tom Delay probably have a lot in common.
Why would I change it to mask any opinion I might have from the lightweight likes of you? Ah Rosie, if I feared the heat I would stay out of the kitchen. Keep it in mind if you ever go into a kitchen again. I have been and will continue to be Tirebiter - an honorable appellation - and only Tirebiter. I fear not the dragon - that's you old girl if you don't know, I just sometimes despair of its hot wind.
And again, unfounded paranoia such as yours is typical of the mentally ill. Please, please, please get help before it's too late.
The fact that more than one person on a forum may see your arguments in the same light is in itself telling, and argues that the problem may well not be us, but you. But my guess is that you've never seriously considered that you might be wrong; that would require an honest assessment of what you believe and I don't think you're capable of it.
Tirebiter, if you get to see this reply, just wanted to let you know that Sioux Rose left out an important detail. She reconciled with me or that's what it looked like.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/06/09-1
Even one of her own friends, Visiting Professor, had this to say objectively about Sioux Rose.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/06/07-4
Excerpt from Visiting Professor June 7th, 2010 11:17 pm
1) She will sometimes use confrontational and disrespectful language when addressing her critics, while I try to avoid such interactions.
2) She often suggests that she has personal knowledge of certain critics who respond to her comments, while I do not express such thoughts.
3) She professes a belief in astrology and frequently includes astrological explanations in her posts, while I never do so. In my opinion, astrology does not have a factual basis or any practical use, and I think all such mythology-based belief systems are a distraction and a hindrance to a better understanding of our society and our condition--and a hindrance to any useful examination of appropriate remedies.
Not that I ever worked for DOD but they can't possibly pay people to post or have a robot do it for them. People have the right to express their disagreements. How about you scream against dissenters getting strangled unless they don't agree with you? Nobody gets paid to script and most people have a computer at work these days. Whoever you had problems communicating with the past should be put behind. Why do you obsess about people you had fights with? What's up with your mosquito repellent nonsense? Do you want to continue war? Oops, you're dependent on the war machine. Never mind.
"Patriarchal programming, beginning with the false assertion that God is a guy, has crippled the human race." -- Sioux Rose
It's true, we live within a patriarchal society, which is perpetuated by churches, telling girls from a very young age that they have to be submissive to boys/men, because it is God's law. My own church, which is Lutheran, continues to teach submission of women, which is, ultimately, a control mechanism built into our society. During the Middle Ages, at least nine million women were charged with heresy and indicted, tortured to death, and often burned at the stake, and all it took was a whisper campaign to indict the alleged witch. Within the framework of the witch hunt, men were given jobs. There was a lot of record-keeping to be done between the imprisoning, torture and the trials that ended in the unjust deaths of millions of women.
At the time of the witch trials, many women were the healers in the communities in which they lived. Following this era, universities were built, and men went to school to learn to be lawyers, doctors, etc. However, women were NOT allowed to attend universities.
Women were NOT allowed to inherit, or to own property. Women were NOT allowed to vote, or to run for public office. If women worked, they were paid pennies on the dollar compared to what men earned. Still, today, women are paid less than men, even when the woman works at the same or a similar job as a man -- 70-cents to 75-cents for every dollar a man earns.
Since women lacked power and status in their communities, and weren't in a position to make the laws, I can only conclude that the men/males made the decisions and laws to keep women in their place. It's about power and control.
In addition, even today, men continue to treat women as if they are children, as if they are unable to make their own decisions about their own bodies -- having children, or not. Even birth control pills, and other birth control devices, are NOT available to women in all cases -- if the pharmacist happens to be pro-life. Again, here we are back on the subject of religion. In the case of women, the personal is political.
"Each night I am nailed into place
and forget who I am.
Daddy?
That's another kind of prison." -- Anne Sexton from Sleeping Beauty
You and Sioux are stuck in the past. I don't support oppression against women but there was also oppression against men that you feminists never addressed. Mars rules is the excuse for everything gone bad. Well let me tell you missies a lesson. Without Mars, Venus would be defenseless. Venus can blow out about love while mooching off Mars's strength to defend her so I'm proud that Mars rules and he deserves to. Even Sioux admits that Venus depends on Mars to defend her. You can't keep blaming men or patriarchy for what's wrong and you can't keep calling every bad value "male dominated". Women have more rights, more power, more fame, more care, and it still isn't enough for feminists. Feminists can't even get the definition of masculinity correct. There is a difference between assertiveness and aggressiveness, get it? Look it up in the dictionary. Being assertive is masculine, not feminine. Being aggressive is neither. Patriarchy can help keep a family together and defends it. Matriarchy can be lovely but not when it allows rebel feminists to break families apart. Matriarchy is allowing more women to abuse men and call it "revenge". Complain all you want about men abusing women but where are those feminists when women are abusing children and hiring hitmen to kill their husbands so they can wash their hands off? Doesn't look like matriarchy is safer than patriarchy.
There is really only one word that describes you: asshole. That is sufficient. You know nothing, use dribble to argue against your intellectual betters; and I'd be surprised if you ever read a serious book in your life. I believe you are a low level Homeland Security goon here in this forum to just spew whatever comes to your mind, preferably to make waves over nonsense.
There are 2 other posters who sound just like you. If you are not ONE of them using another screen name, then the dod is doing a very good job of turning out robotic human clones who all sound exactly alike, down to their mangling of the English language and completely inept spelling & reading comprehension skills.
Although powerful examples and arguments have been published here, you still revert to your knee JERK responses AS IF an opinion, unconstituted by any form of academic backing, means shit to a tree? To those who think mystical sources lack that academic backing, I'd answer that the teachings of the Masters has remained consistent for centuries (because it's based on inviolate Universal Law); and it has almost always attracted the best, most advanced minds. Western materialism and its elite backers have no patience or tolerance for belief systems that offer an alternative to Mars-Mammon rules.
And lastly, any imbecile that seeks to apologize FOR the world's most unlawful, ungodly killing machine does not deserve the slightest civility. If you are a human being, this must be one of your first journeys into that realm from the prior kingdom of reptiles or arachnids. Your ignorance combined with arrogance makes me feel incredible pity that this late in the human experiment, there still are morons like you strutting their unbearable stupidity for all to see.
I find it so interesting that you treat anyone who disagrees with you as somehow defective and their opinions not worth respect. Very totalitarian of you, Rosie. And you're so easily provoke-able too, so easy to knock off center, so close to the edge....But please keep writing Rosie old thing. You repeatedly make my point about our societal insanity seem so obviously prescient. Thanks, and keep up the good work. I couldn't have paid anyone to be a better example.
You can berate me, do your best to make me into a laughing stock... but it is ME who's authoritarian? To some very weak men, (inverted Penis envy, is it?) ANY woman bold enough to stand her ground and speak as an EXPERT in her field gets her called lots of names. Sure is easier than answering the charges!
Your arguments FOR a sick status quo suggest that YOU have some serious problems not only with women, but with anything holistic, spiritual, or beyond the reign of Mars rules.
Only one other poster calls me Rosie, and he also has accused me of the same thing. He's used a number of screen names. Up until now I never suspected you/this screen name for just another one of his clones?
Interesting that you accuse me of being an authoritarian when you don't bother to respond to the issues as patiently related by KAY. Nor do you see that other females in this forum see exactly what I see. When your sexism is placed before you, you try to deflect it by searching for a flaw in ME for pointing the uncomfortable truth out. Typical male cowardice. I have known FEW men with genuine courage coupled with integrity. FEW. That's probably why so many in the US feel the need to own a loaded weapon. It's sad. A masculinity that is itself divorced from the Life Force, and therefore mutilated and all-too ready to mutilate. I suppose I should read the level of aggression aimed at my posts as a barometric pressure reading on the defensiveness of the individual posting. Your character assaults say more about you than the topics I share in this forum.
ANY who apologize for the US killing machine, trivialize human nature to justify violence, denigrate the one that asks you to bear witness to the deep ravages of sexism, and then seeks to make LIGHT of the VERY serious issues she's raised... has a twisted agenda. You add not an iota of Light to this world. The darkness will kill your soul, or what's left of it.
As I said, go back to biting tires. It suits you.
“You can berate me, do your best to make me into a laughing stock... “
You don’t need me for that Rosie, you make yourself into a laughing stock by your responses. Frankly even a mediocre wit could make you into a laughing stock.
“Your arguments FOR a sick status quo suggest that YOU have some serious problems not only with women, but with anything holistic, spiritual, or beyond the reign of Mars rules.”
As usual, you’ve missed the point; hidden as it invariably is behind your frustrated dissatisfaction with the world. I never argued for the ‘sick status quo’ as you suggest, only that it seems to exist. But accuracy is apparently not one of your burdens. Oh Rosie you’re so much fun.
“Only one other poster calls me Rosie, and he also has accused me of the same thing. He's used a number of screen names. Up until now I never suspected you/this screen name for just another one of his clones?”
Would you rather I called you what I really think? And why would I use another name when this one suits me (and irritates you) so well.
“Interesting that you accuse me of being an authoritarian when you don't bother to respond to the issues as patiently related by KAY. Your character assaults say more about you than the topics I share in this forum.”
But Rosie, you’re so much of a character that it hollars out for ridicule. And let Kay complain if she has an issue.
“ANY who apologize for the US killing machine, trivialize human nature to justify violence, denigrate the one that asks you to bear witness to the deep ravages of sexism, and then seeks to make LIGHT of the VERY serious issues she's raised... has a twisted agenda. You add not an iota of Light to this world. The darkness will kill your soul, or what's left of it.”
Interesting how you invent things and then require people to defend what you’ve invented. You did that last year too. It seems to be your way. You can search CD all you like but you will never find a word by me suggesting or justifying what you claim. Very Orwellian Rosie. You’ve learned your lesson well from the hated men of the world.
"As I said, go back to biting tires. It suits you."
Ah, skewered once more by your sophisticated and rapier-like wit. Why bother, Rosie, you don't do it very well. But then I bet you've heard that before.
Except when talking about feminism, Kay is ok on most issues. I think it's a mistake to be fixed too much on women's past. I would agree with Kay on what happened to women before but it if it weren't for the men who helped them, where people like Kay and Sioux be today? Enough with the male and female superiority battles.
I'm not even sure wha Rosie's real argument is, that men are evil pigs responsible for all the ills in the world? If that's her view, they she needs help.
You nailed her dark side very well. When she loses, she gets personal and does exactly as you describe. If this is what 35 years of "mystical experience" made her, then it's as good as Cheney's "foreign policy experience". I'll take a pass on mystical experience then and stay down to earth.
> There is really only one word that describes you: asshole.
You would fit that description more than me from your hate spew.
> You know nothing, use dribble to argue against your intellectual
> betters; and I'd be surprised if you ever read a serious book in your life.
I already read your books so I know who you are. Do you treat your students and children like that? Who defines your "intellectual betters" ? Wasn't it you who kept worrying about dissent being silenced and here you are wishing you could silence dissent?
> There are 2 other posters who sound just like you.
> If you are not ONE of them using another screen name,
> then the dod is doing a very good job of turning out
> robotic human clones who all sound exactly alike, down
> to their mangling of the English language and completely
> inept spelling & reading comprehension skills.
Really Sioux, what are the names of the two posters I sound like or are you just imagining again? You already admitted that you were wrong about me and you confessed. Do we have to discuss this ad nauseum or will you grow up? DoD does not produce robotic human clones to post on this site. It would have been in the news if that were true.
> Western materialism and its elite backers have no patience
> or tolerance for belief systems that offer an alternative
> to Mars-Mammon rules.
People who preach spirituality and speaking against materialism too loudly usually turn out to be their own hypocrites and worst enemies.
> And lastly, any imbecile that seeks to apologize FOR the
> world's most unlawful, ungodly killing machine does not
> deserve the slightest civility.
The military is not a killing machine until the politicians use it to their own advantages. Did you know that militaristic feminists like you don't realize that you are depending upon the military to keep you alive so you can preach hate and intolerance?
> Your ignorance combined with arrogance makes me
> feel incredible pity that this late in the human
> experiment, there still are morons like you strutting
> their unbearable stupidity for all to see.
Translation, anyone who does not conform to Rose's arrogant and self-righteous world view is not "human" to her. How much pot are you smoking a day?
KAY Thanks for this great post. Intelligent men get it, but not the resident goons here to try to deflect the truth and preserve a status quo that represents a death sentence to so many. What a thing to argue for!
I can't help thinking your last sentence sounds like someone who is up to her ears in feelings of superiority. This was posted in the wrong place; I was referring to Sioux Rose.
Without the military, she wouldn't be arrogant or feeling superior.
Killing is not natural for a balanced being.
stringbean: I completely agree with you!
Really? How do carnivores, and even some herbivores, ever survive in nature without killing?
ERROLL: Thank you for your humanity. Any who think that human compassion is supposed to stop at some arbitrary national border, or not extend beyond their "house of worship" is spiritually retarded. We are all fibers that make up the vast and complex fabric of life. For one set of strands to go about dismantling the entire garment is a treason against Life, itself! What hubris for any human being to think that a uniform entitles him the power to destroy others! And most of these numbskulls proclaim that they are religious! That tells us all we need to know about patriarchal belief structures and their moral failures of both imagination and empathy.
You reminded me that helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson put his life at risk during the My Lai massacre, and landed the helicopter between the Vietnamese and the U.S. soldiers -- stopping the massacre, as I recall.
Kay J.
That is correct. One has to wonder if any soldier or person in the military today will ever decide to emulate, if a comparable situation arose today, what Hugh Thompson courageously did those many years ago and if any person in the mainstream media like a Sebastian Junger would see fit to report on such a horrific incident and on the bravery and incredible moral integrity that it would take for an American soldier to stand up to the brutality and ostracism of his fellow comrades which, of course, is what Hugh Thompson, who remains unknown to so many Americans, did on that fateful day in March in 1968 at My Lai. Perhaps there may be a somewhat similar situation when Pfc. Bradley Manning leaked the atrocity of what those American helicopter pilots did when they slaughtered those Iraqi civilians along with the two people who worked for the Reuters news agency. This, I believe, is what this country needs and that is for more soldiers to find their moral compass by emulating the examples of a Hugh Thompson or a Donald Duncan or a Bradley Manning by speaking out against American imperialism.
Long live the GI rebellion.
You probably saw the article by Nick Copeland about the veterans who are presently riding bikes across the country to call attention to the the wars and to the waste of human life.
From the article: "A Ride Till the End aims to raise awareness about the disastrous effects of the war on veterans, Afghani civilians, and US citizens. They believe that the real costs of war for these groups have been purposefully rendered invisible."
I agree -- "Long live the GI rebellion!"
I do blame them. In the early years of Afghanistan maybe they were naive. But it has been long enough now. Anyone enlisting has to know they may be called upon to murder women and children, whether up close and personal in the middle of a night time raid, or from thousands of miles away in Las Vegas. They have to know by now, and yet, they still enlist. They are murderers. They enlisted in order to be able to murder legally. And, their commander of operations over all of Asia has already told them, prior to enlistment, that killing brown people is fun. It is fun to kill people. Enlist now so that you can go to foreign lands and kill children.
I blame the troops. I blame them. Me. I blame the troops. They are murderers.
BABY KILLERS !!
Never underestimate the power of the average human being to delude himself over a 'cause' he sees as greater than himself. For most of them (us) a contradictory reality doesn't make any difference, not even years later. Which is one of the reasons why I suggest the majority of people in US are mentally ill.
As for your somewhat passionate opinion about the 'baby killers' (as you call them) - I'm sure it leads to endless sleepenss nights by the troops. Have you tried telling one to his face yet?
"Have you tried telling one to his face yet?"
Yes. They don't take it very well. They threaten violence. Our best and brightest.
dkshaw
A couple of months ago a young man who was working in the produce section in my small town asked me how I was doing. I replied that I was not doing too well because the U.S. military is slaughtering innocent civilians overseas in the Middle East. His response was to reach into his wallet and to pull out what I assume was his military ID, hold it up to me [he was standing about five feet away from me in the employee produce area] and said the word "troop". I told him that the only troops that I support are those troops that come out and protest against U.S. imperialism. He said nothing while I turned on my heel and walked away from him.
He's the universal soldier, and he really is to blame
His orders come from far away no more
They come from him, and you, and me
And brothers, can't you see?
This is not the way we put an end to war.
Buffy Sainte-Marie, "Universal Soldier" (1964)
O.S.
Excellent reference to a most relevant and timeless classic.
By blaming the troops, you exonerate the politicians who made these wars possible. Bush and Obama love you.
Martian Bachelor
Your belief is totally false as it ignores the fact that both of them are wrong. Perhaps you have not been in the military but the oath that one swears to when entering the military gives allegiance to the U.S. Constitution and that obeying the orders of the President of the United States and "the orders of the officers appointed over me" is contingent upon whether those orders that they receive follow the regulations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Various sections of the UCMJ such as 809.ART.90 [20], 891.ART.91, 892.ART.92 [1], 892.ART.92 [2] all clearly state that those in the military must only obey those orders which are lawful. As Prof. Lawrence Mosqueda, who teaches at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wa., had stated in an article in CounterPunch in 2003:
"In each case, military personnel have an obligation and a duty to only obey Lawful orders and indeed have an obligation to disobey Unlawful orders, including orders by the president that do not comply with the UCMJ. The moral and legal obligation is to the U.S. Constitution and not to those who would issue unlawful orders, especially if those orders are in direct violation of the Constitution and the UCMJ."
Prof. Mosqueda went on to quote former U.S. Chief Prosecutor Robert K. Jackson, who prosecuted German soldiers and officials at the end of World War II in Nuremberg, Germany, when he noted:
"The very essence of the [Nuremberg] Charter is that individuals have intentional duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience imposed by the individual state."
Prof. Mosqueda writes of Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, New York, and Jules Lobel, Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh, saying that:
"Under the UN Charter, there are only two circumstances in which the use of force is permissible: in collective or individual self-defense against an actual or imminent armed attack: and when the Security Council has directed or authorized use of force to maintain or restore international peace and security. Neither of these now exists. Absent one of them, U.S. use of force against Iraq is unlawful."
The above quotes most certainly apply to the illegal occupation of Afghanistan also.
In short, your last sentence can be turned around as Bush and Obama certainly love the fact that the majority of the robots in the military today blindly and meekly obey the unlawful orders that they are given. As I mentioned on another post, what this country needs are soldiers who will emulate the examples of soldiers such as former Green Beret [yes, of all things, a Green Beret] Donald Duncan who noted in the powerful documentary Sir! No Sir! that:
"I was doing it right but I wasn't doing right."
Or former Marine Dan Felushko who correctly observed in the book Desertion and the American Soldier 1776-2006 by Robert Fantina that he deserted from his unit because:
"I didn't want 'Died, deluded in Iraq' over my gravestone"
That accurate belief can certainly be applied, of course, to what is going on in Afghanistan.
The United States needs more soldiers like Hugh Thompson who risked his life and that of his crew in a place called My Lai in March of 1968 in Vietnam when he told his helicopter gunner, after their helicopter had landed, to fire upon their fellow American soldiers if they were to fire upon him when he went to see if there were any Vietnamese left alive in that drainage ditch where over 300 Vietnamese had been slaughtered by our less than moral soldiers.
I submit that if the soldiers of today have an ounce of brains they would be protesting and speaking out by saying NO to American imperialism. One must make a clear moral distinction between those in the military who meekly and willingly obey the unlawful orders that they are given and those who rise up [such as those in the IVAW today and in David Cortright's classic work Soldiers In Revolt: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War] and say No to the dogs of war.
Parades should be given and statues built and medals handed out to those soldiers who have courageously spoken out against what their country has done. But in this country where the knee jerk response is always "support the troops" those types of actions, though entirely logical and justified, will probably never happen as supporting the troops will always mean supporting the robots who stupidly and foolishly obey the orders that they are given.
Long live the GI rebellion!
Did you actually read my sentence before responding. Let me help you out. I'm not blaming the troops, you included. I'm blaming the politicians who put you in there. I may not have served in the military but I know what life is like in the military because I've grown up getting beaten up and fighting militaristic men and women. Come on over to Colorado Springs and see how you see like it. I'd move elsewhere but I'm used to it out here.
> I submit that if the soldiers of today have an ounce of brains they would
> be protesting and speaking out by saying NO to American imperialism.
It will take more than just the soldiers protesting but they can make a difference.
> In short, your last sentence can be turned around as Bush and Obama
> certainly love the fact that the majority of the robots in the military
> today blindly and meekly obey the unlawful orders that they are given.
Robots don't do the fighting. There are unmanned vehicles and drones but they are controlled by humans not doing the fighting. When you enlist, you obey but at what point do you get to make a valid argument for disobeying, not that I mind it? We can complain about soldiers but about the military wives who need them there so they can keep bragging about their hubbies being in the war. I don't support the wars that politicians drag the military into. I only support the military to defend us.
Royce
Too many of our young people are drawn to the military for two reasons: 1) it's a job, and 2) they desire to fight for America's freedom.
Well, I admire their desire for secure employment and the self-assurance a paycheck brings. In fact, for 70 years it ranks as the country's longest running subsidized jobs program. But we know very well that we could do better. Certainly, if America's war industry suddenly had to lay off workers while retooling, those workers' unemployment benefits would last ad infinitum.
As for American freedom and the military...is it just me, or are more of our civic celebrations being appropriated by war honorees? I appreciate those who fought to protect this country in self-defense, but I would call Vietnam, Grenada,Iraq 1 and 2, and Afghanistan as expeditionary forces. Expeditionary forces do nothing to protect freedom; they assert empire.
Too many of our young people are drawn to the military for two reasons: 1) it's a job, and 2) they desire to fight for America's freedom.
If they actually believe number 2 . . . God help them.
'Don't Tread on Me' is a slogan I recommend to the Afghans. They could put it on a flag, along with the figure of a coiled snake about to strike. They could carry it into battle against the U.S.
That flag has been used before, however, actually by Americans themselves. But its been half a century since Americans actually subscribed to those words. The thing: they are as valid today as they were 200 years ago when the original American Patriots used them.
We have met the enemy, and they are us. Walt Kelly, Pogo (in reference 2 US/Viet Nam)
If blood makes the grass grow then why hasn't Iraq & Afghanistan become a verdant savannah and full of lush golf courses where the locals can earn a proper living for rich Americans by being caddy's? -- Oorah!
Ah, screw it... comment deleted... nothing more than hot air just like all of us...
This article, and the psychotic quotes of the new military madman placed into a position where he determines the life and death of others explains why I use the euphemism "Mars rules." Mars is related to the first chakra where raw, primal urges are found. In the I ching, the first hexagram/kua is supreme Yang, and it represents the primal life force that is projected through the masculine side of the Living Equation. In the tarot, it's symbolized by the Ace of wands, a rather phallic symbol. Both powers are intended to work in balance. Unfortunately, America's homage to war and warriors places all things living at risk.
There can be no life without balance, the great dance of Chi; nor is Creation ONLY the reflection of the masculine yang force. In the I ching, the 2nd hexagram signifies the Supreme Yin, and in astrology, the 2nd sign (after Aries, the first) is Taurus, represented by Venus, the natural partner and counterpart to Mars.
When a society is utterly built around homage to Mars, it contains the seeds of its own destruction because in only alloting worship to the masculine side of the Divine force, such things as the power to destroy (seen in the insane build-up of armies, armaments, with valuable assets transformed into an obscene array of diabolical tools of destruction... these priorities suggest an ersatz religion) destabilize the entire living template. No respect for life, the nurturing principle (associated with the Divine Feminine) is tolerated.
The US is under thrall to dark powers of utter destruction; and it operates like an addict who never owns contrition for his destruction of Japan or Vietnam. To the contrary, it's gone on to build yet more heinous weapon systems while rushing around the world claiming others to be THE offenders, using that patently false rationale as its justification for using its own WMD on so many others. Millions. And still the death machine marches on... and moral misfits like Mattis are given titles and respect! He should be placed in a mental institution!
A few posters in yesterday's Tom Engelhardt article likened war powers to the penis, to the masculine need for dominance; and that is very true. Not too many in this forum see what I see in terms of the parallels between state-sponsored torture (with sexual & pornographic elements), the levels of rape/domestic abuse in the US, the ubiquitous "consumption" of an overtly misogynistic type of porn, the worship of weapons (NRA & gun-love), and the vastly perverted forms of calamitous ecocide turning countless priceless areas into growing dead zones, stains upon the body of the Earth Mother, Gaia. The common thread to all these acts is a twisted sense of power, one that exalts naked force at the expense of every decency. It is Mars, god of war, unleashed upon the world.
UNTIL there is an equal appreciation and understanding of the Divine FEMININE Essence, all this folly will continue. Of course Earth Mother is an immense power in her own right, and She is already sending climatic signals that the old ways will come to an end, with human consent or otherwise.
The time I recently spent in Peru studying the Shaman tradition validated what I have related in this forum for 3 years about the uber: Mars/maculine orientation that has thrown much of the world out of balance. The US leads the pack. The worship of force generates one inevitable outcome, that: "He who lives by the sword dies by it." Not exactly a sane policy of "defense."
Mattis will carry as his karmic legacy, the price of being an accomplice to the senseless murder of countless innocents. His cavalier disregard for the lives he feels privileged to take suggests that he's never loved, and seems to own a teenage morality that sees human beings as little more than blips on his computer war-game screen. More karma goes to our national ledger for putting such despicable persons into positions where they can do incredible harm.
More karma goes to our national ledger for putting such despicable persons into positions where they can do incredible harm.
Ditto Obama. He's as great a killer and as rotten a human being as Mattis, even if he (Obama) has never actually fired a shot.
Obomber is a mass murderer just like those who pull the triggers/ push the buttons in fascist amerikas gigante terrorist acts- Afghanistan, Iraq ! At the top the war criminals are still at it, they will go down with the failing empire ! Those who seek the higher ground will rise from the ashes of the failed empire ! Take your choice !!!!!
siouxxrose> As always your comments are meaningful and enlightening. Thanks for sharing your views and knowledge....especially your perception of the discussions.