Peace with Honor
Seven thousand American troops have been killed, and another fifty-four thousand have been injured, in the post-9/11 wars.
- Why It’s So Hard for America to End Its Wars, The New Yorker
By JM Hamilton (4-17-2021)
Somewhere in the heavens, the infernal regions, or in the ether, Osama bin Laden is looking on and thinking, Mission - Truly - Accomplished. The 9-11 criminal mastermind’s aim, all along, was to lead America, and the West, into bankrupting Middle East wars, and OBL exceeded all expectations (after he reprised the CIA’s & Mujahideen's playbook against the Soviet Union). Of course, OBL had a lot of help in bankrupting America… namely, from the US Foreign Policy establishment, hawks at the DOD, armchair warriors in think tanks (who have never stepped onto a battlefield), cowards & warmongers in the Congress, and lobbyist for military contractors, who make billions off the US taxpayer. You know, the failed American crew, who -- even now, and especially now, after President Biden agreed to pull the US out of Afghanistan this week -- will ramp up the rhetoric, to be echoed by a complicit MSM, as to all the reasons America must stay at war in Afghanistan and the Middle East.
In the coming weeks and months, the warmongers and imperialists, the generals and politicians - wrapped in flags - will all tell us that we must have peace with honor, that America cannot lose face, we must protect the hard-won gains for Afghanistan’s women, and of course, they'll play the fear card … that the terrorists are winning, and the United States is setting itself up for another attack.
What you won’t hear from the fearmongers and talking head experts is that America’s response to 9-11 was: little more than a profit making venture for stockholders in the military industrial complex, as well as Big Oil & Gas; America’s forever wars made the United States and its citizens less safe; and that the establishment sent America’s finest – the women & men in uniform – to die on the cross of empire and commercial/multinational interests. Moreover, what you won’t hear is America’s response, per the usual, was exponential overkill and destined to fail. After all, all empires eventually fall under the weight of their own hubris and megalomania. That the US, finally, has a President in the White House that appears willing to end the Afghanistan charade, and take power back from a maniacal & unelected Deep State, is nothing short of blessing for the nation. And a reminder, if Biden pulls it off, that miracles do happen.
The JMH blog, of course, does not tow the party line, nor repeat the lies offered up by the US Foreign Policy establishment. Lies and propaganda that are dutifully - and unquestionably - reported as fact, by far too many members of the MSM. So here then, the counter-narrative you are not likely to read anywhere else.
Peace with honor? What is honorable about sending seven thousand US troops to their deaths in endless 9-11 wars, with another 54,000 injured & maimed, under the pretense of fighting terror, when all it took was a single round and small platoon of men to eliminate OBL? What is dishonorable was the manner in which the American taxpayer was milked, endlessly, to finance the profit center that is the military industrial complex. Honorable? The US is now $7,000,000,000,000 deeper into debt, approximately 25% of the national debt. There is no honor in bankruptcy. There is no honor in not being able to defend a nation, at some future date, because the US Foreign Policy establishment – via fear tactics – has squandered the nation’s treasure, exorbitant privilege, and America’s goodwill abroad on endless wars. Wars fought abroad, to enrich and provide US taxpayer funded security services for oil rich dictators & commercial interests, do absolutely zero for America’s moral standing.
Afghanistan women… will forever have my empathy and sympathy. But before the US can go gallivanting around the globe - like a nation-state Don Quixote - it must first save itself and not the least among us, American women. Last I checked, the US is in the middle of a She-cession, that is an exceptionally nasty recession aimed at women. Last I checked, domestic abuse is on the rise. Gender pay disparity, along with wage and wealth inequality, is both abysmal & sickening (as is the patriarchy that profits from overt sexism and underwrites it).
But where are US war hawks’ concerns for American women, when they shed crocodile tears for Afghanistan women… ?
Answer: Nowhere to be found, just as the warmongers will not bring up any concern for the women trapped in the multitude of dictatorships America arms to the teeth every god damned day.
And the fear card… nothing sucks Americans into an unaccountable, money pit war like the fear card. And if there isn’t a legitimate enemy or foe, the establishment will manufacture one in a false flag event: See Gulf of Tonkin, see WMD in Iraq, and see the budget crippling & wholly disproportionate response to OBL.
Of course, the biggest threat to America’s freedoms comes from no outside Army, or band of terrorists, but rather, from billionaires, war profiteers, C-suites, the American war lobby, Wall Street, and politicians… all of whom appear perfectly willing to bankrupt this nation with never ending corporate welfare, tax avoidance, and war.
Lincoln said it well: “At what point then is the approach of danger expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring from amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
And another President, Madison, nailed it: “Of all the enemies of public liberty war is, perhaps, the most dreaded… War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debt and taxes; and armies, debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”
And yet, that’s exactly what failed neocons have delivered to America, continual and aimless war, and indentured servitude for all citizens (via the national debt). And a 2001 AUMF ensures a complete lack of accountability. The 2001 AUMF, an unaccountable Congress, Presidents who kicked the can down the road… now, these are things Americans should genuinely fear.
So how to put an end to the insanity that is the twin evils of endless war (have you noticed, always against nations with no real ability to defend themselves, that is nations without nukes) and nation building?
While I would never want to see a United States without its own currency, I often wonder if an America without the world’s fiat currency might make for a less warlike country and a safer world. No exorbitant privilege means no unlimited war budgets, it’s really that simple. It means the neocons & vampires are contained by the power of the purse. And that would be a good thing, since our elected leaders, presently, clearly have zero self-control when it comes to waging war.
The US should join the International Criminal Court, posthaste, and let the chips fall where they may. A couple of presidents in the docket, and future American leaders may think long and hard about when to pull the trigger on another war.
The authorization for use of military force needs to be passed by Congress, by a recorded vote, per politician, annually. No more coasting on a two-decade old authorization.
Eliminate profiteering from war. The US government should buyout the defense contractors, eliminate MIC stocks, and the running of the arms industry should come under the exclusive domain of the government. Given the incompetence demonstrated by the private sector, the government surely couldn’t do worse, and the moral hazard would be mitigated.
Last but not least, Americans deserve a study on how it came to be, that the US is armed to the teeth, with a military budget that exceeds the next ten nations combined… and yet, Americans are afraid of their own shadow? And how, America has come to dishonor its soldiers with endless wars and failed nation building? A citizen draft and compulsory two years military service - for all twenty-one-year-old Americans - may provide additional assistance in ensuring peace with honor for future generations. (If compulsory service is good enough for Israel, it's good enough for the United States.)
Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2021
