...not to, as we will be told, would be "unpatriotic" don-cha-know...
Posted on 08/09/2010 7:21:59 AM PDT by IbJensen
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Can you hear it?
It’s the drumbeat for war. And it’s beating louder by the day.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Eleven United States and one Israeli warships pass through the Suez Canal.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Former CIA Chief Michael Hayden says a United States military strike against Iran “seems inexorable” because diplomacy is failing.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen says the U.S. military has a plan to attack Iran.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives last week introduced Resolution 1553 which would give Israel the go-ahead to attack Iran. The resolution grants support for Israel to “…confront nuclear threats posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, including the use of military force…”
The neocons have never seen a war they couldn’t support, no matter the President’s party affiliation.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The end is near—so President Barack Obama tells us—for former President George Bush’s incursion into Iraq. He said last week that America’s combat mission in Iraq will end by Aug. 31. But that doesn’t mean all troops will come home. There will still be 50,000 there as August turns into September. And it’s going to be 18 more months before they all come home… if he sticks to his timeline.
We can only hope 50,000 troops are enough to prevent that governmentless nation from descending further into chaos.
For those troops that do come home, it appears they will only be home long enough to change their underwear and restock their ammunition belts before heading off to another Mideast hellhole to die… for what?
To blow up suspected nuclear sites, even though a 2007 U.S National Intelligence Estimate said that Iran had halted work on developing a nuclear warhead in 2003. Meanwhile, an unclassified military report submitted to Congress in April concluded, “Iran is developing technological capabilities applicable to nuclear weapons and, at a minimum, is keeping the option to develop nuclear weapons,” as The Washington Post reported.
A May report by the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran hasn’t sufficiently cooperated to allow the agency to determine if Iraq’s nuclear activities are solely for peaceful activities.
Conflicting stories of weapons of mass destruction: Haven’t we heard this before… during the lead up to the invasion of Iraq?
If HR 1553 were to pass and Israel does strike at Iran’s nuclear reactors and nuclear sites, what then? If Iran strikes back—which President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad has said they would—and is joined by Syria, Lebanon and Hezbollah, would the U.S. then be obligated to intervene?
It would seem so. And what would be the result of such a conflagration?
Obama has pledged America’s undying support of Israel no matter what… even if he did treat Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu badly during his visit to the White House earlier this year. And Israel maintains it is convinced that Iran is working to acquire nuclear weapons.
Much of the international community also seems convinced Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon. The feckless U.N. Security Council has been trying to agree on sanctions against Iran for some time. China and Russia continue to hold out.
But aren’t Americans growing sick of war? Apparently the political class isn’t.
Nine years later we remain in Afghanistan, NATO allies are abandoning us and more and more of our troops are dying. Obama, with no clear-cut strategy to fight what he considers the good war, vows to continue fighting on, and any timelines he may mention mean little.
Seven years later we are still in Iraq, and at least a few thousand troops will remain there for the foreseeable future. Nineteen years later we’re still in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, even though the first Persian Gulf War supposedly ended with a good outcome.
Sixty-four years later we still have troops stationed throughout Eastern Europe and in Japan. Fifty-seven years later we still have troops stationed in South Korea. That war has not ended—no official peace treaty ever signed—and there have even been some drumbeats sounding from there. Just not as loud… yet.
But the recent U.S.-South Korea joint air and sea military exercises in the Sea of Japan intended to send a message to a recalcitrant North Korea—who has been accused of torpedoing a South Korean ship—antagonized China. And who can blame them?
What would we think if China or Russia conducted military exercises in the Gulf of Mexico or off the coast of New York or San Francisco? Either Obama and the Pentagon were naive to the implications of conducting war games in the area, or they conducted them intending to raise tensions in the area.
Boom. Boom.
According to the think tank Foreign Policy In Focus, there were 865 Pentagon-confirmed U.S. troop base sites located off U.S. soil in 2009. But this number doesn’t include all of the bases being used in Iraq and Afghanistan—as many as 150 more.
There are 268 bases in Germany, 124 in Japan and 87 in Korea. Others are scattered around the globe in Aruba, Australia, Bulgaria, Bahrain, Colombia, Greece, Djibouti, Egypt, Qatar, Romania, Singapore and Cuba, to name just a few.
The bases are draining our economy of billions of dollars a year. Isn’t it time we ended Empire America? Isn’t it time we brought our troops home?
There would still be work for them to do. Our border with Mexico is under assault.
But the military-industrial complex might not be as happy about that. Stopping Mexican paramilitary units and drug cartel thugs isn’t as lucrative as dropping bunker busters on Iran and North Korea… and maybe China.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
No, Americans are growing sick of wars that we refuse to fight to win because of the political class' cynical political calculations.
After 9/11, we should have followed Ann Coulter's advice: 'invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity', in other words, a new Crusade.
But instead, we went shopping, while a brave warrior class took the fight to the enemy (whose animating ideology was described by our leaders as a 'Religion of Peace'). And we allowed the Leftist 5th column (and some fellow travelers on the Paleo Right) to spread their 'anti-war' (really anti-American) propaganda to undermine the troops' effort (as they did so successfully in Vietnam).
So that's what Americans are truly growing sick of. Fight to win, or get out.
Because we could? Because Saddam was the bigger joker at the time?
Maybe after the 10th redeployment, someone will figure out that we don't have the manpower resources to fight boots on the ground warfare plus bankrupt the country with borrowings from China.
Or Pat Travers, "Boom Boom Boom...Out go the lights...."
Q: How will a medium sized nuclear war happen?
A: Israel is attacked with at least one nuclear missile, and retaliates not just against the offending country, but a group of others, all of whom at one point or another threatened to destroy Israel. Israel has at least 200 nuclear weapons.
Q: Why should the US care?
A: Because of a fluke in planetary weather, the jet stream has a downdraft right over the middle of America. A medium sized nuclear exchange in the Middle East will contaminate much of America’s breadbasket.
Q: Why should the US participate in keeping a war non nuclear?
A: Because Israel is *not* Iran’s primary goal. Its primary goal is to persuade or induce the United States to leave the Middle East for good. This is because Iran believe it would become the dominant regional power. Many in Iran think that without US support, Israel will just quickly wither away. Some in Iran even hold to the fantasy of creating a “Shiite Crescent”, from Pakistan to Lebanon.
For this reason, once Iran has nuclear missiles, US aircraft carrier groups are their primary target.
...not to, as we will be told, would be "unpatriotic" don-cha-know...
No one is converted to Christianity by force.
This is the same Ann Coulter who is speaking at a pro-homosexual Republican group’s meeting or festival or strip show or whatever it is they are having.
Fourth Turning - Crisis (The 4th of 4 eras in saeculum history that we are currently in the early stages of. - OB1)
A CRISIS arises in response to sudden threats that previously would have been ignored or deferred, but which are now perceived as dire. Great worldly perils boil off the clutter and complexity of life, leaving behind one simple imperative: The society must prevail. This requires a solid public consensus, aggressive institutions, and personal sacrifice.
People support new efforts to wield public authority, whose perceived successes soon justify more of the same. Government governs, community obstacles are removed, and laws and customs that resisted change for decades are swiftly shunted aside. A grim preoccupation with civic peril causes spiritual curiosity to decline. A sense of public urgency contributes to a clampdown on “bad” conduct or “anti-social” lifestyles. People begin feeling shameful about what they earlier did to absolve guilt. Public order tightens, private risk-taking abates, and crime and substance abuse decline. Families strengthen, gender distinctions widen, and child-rearing reaches a smothering degree of protection and structure. The young focus their energy on worldly achievements, leaving values in the hands of the old. Wars are fought with fury and for maximum result.
Eventually, the mood transforms into one of exhaustion, relief, and optimism. Buoyed by a new-born faith in the group and in authority, leaders plan, people hope, and a society yearns for good and simple things.
Today’s older Americans recognize this as the mood of the Great Depression and World War II, but a similar mood has been present in all the other great gates of our history, from the Civil War and Revolution back into colonial and English history.
Recall America’s conception of the future during the darkest years of its last Crisis: From “Somewhere over the Rainbow” to the glimmering Futurama at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, people felt hope, determination, and a solid consensus about where society should go: toward spiritual simplicity (home and apple pie) and material abundance (bigger, better, and more homes and pies). All this seemed within reach, conditioned on a triumph that demanded unity from all, sacrifices from many.
...from The Fourth Turning (Chapter 4)
Sometimes in the modern world, it is necessary to die, not for dire national security needs, but for government policy preferences.
The problem is that we never go in to “win”.
******
Right you are.
It is an evil thing to do to send young men to die in a war not meant to be won.
And the Ozombie doesn’t want thousands of young JOBLESS men with military skill BACK in this country. HE IS GOING TO SEE TO IT THAT THEY DIE.
Can’t have their evil precious ‘revolution’ with them back home.
Thanks to a progressive Woodrow Wilson we were shoved into France to fight a war that should never have been fought.
The war was lost due to the heavy reparation tab that was loaded on the backs of the Germans. That singular act was the cause of WWII.
Once the USSR was attacked FDR’s duty was clear: shove us into the war to save Soviet Russia.
We lost again due to the fact that the American traitors gave Stalin Eastern Europe and the scientist prisoners to re-arm.
Had we decisively won WWII there would have never been a Korean War or a Vietnam War. All of the problems we are saddled with today, including a loser progressive like Obama, would have never come to pass.
Any wars continued or started henceforth should be considered nothing less than smokescreens.
Sounds like a scenario for the USA to take its final bow and leave the world’s stage.
*Thanks to a progressive Woodrow Wilson we were shoved into France to fight a war that should never have been fought.*
So Wilson sunk the Lusitania? Wilson shot Franz Ferdinand?
*The war was lost due to the heavy reparation tab that was loaded on the backs of the Germans. That singular act was the cause of WWII.*
The ‘stab in the back’ by the post-Wilhelm government was more at fault than the reparations tab.
*Once the USSR was attacked FDR’s duty was clear: shove us into the war to save Soviet Russia.*
Hitler attacked Stalin in June. Nothing happened on our end. I guess it took FDR six months to setup the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor which—inexplicably—lead Hitler to declare war on us.
*We lost again due to the fact that the American traitors gave Stalin Eastern Europe and the scientist prisoners to re-arm.*
Yeah, right, Churchill had nothing to do with it.
*Had we decisively won WWII there would have never been a Korean War or a Vietnam War.*
How would a “decisive” victory prevented France from losing Indochina?
That is an interesting interpretation of what I wrote, that would seem to point in the opposite direction.
Already, America has been caught in the paradox that either we defend Israel with conventional means, or Israel defends itself with nuclear means. By defending itself in this way, the US would directly suffer, both with the cut off of Middle East oil, and with contamination dumped on Middle America.
And that is not the end of it. A “successful” medium sized nuclear war then opens the door to other ones, such as between India and Pakistan, India and China, China and Russia, North Korea and South Korea and Japan, and probably more than that. And no guarantees that nobody will throw some at us, either.
The bottom line is that many of the countries of the world are belligerent and irrational. Our choice is either to keep their spats small in scale, or let them grow until we are caught up in more world wars. Just going home and closing the door won’t work anymore.
Are you reading The Fourth Turning right now?
Just about at the end. Reading how to prepare for the Crisis phase. I marvel at how precient they have been since the book was released in '97.
“carnival barker that sells snake oil and get rich quick secret plans”
Yes, I’m afraid there is a lot of that on a lot of “conservative” sites, unfortunately.
Hank
The sad thing about this book is I borrowed it from a friend when it came out and forgot to return it. I haven’t read it. Maybe I will read it and send it to him.
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