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A World Without War |
By
Stephen Lendman |
| Throughout this writer's entire life, US direct and/or
proxy wars raged - today more than ever in multiple theaters worldwide. Imagine living over 80 years without knowing a single day of peace. Without conflict, mass slaughter and destruction. Without valuing human life and welfare more than the spoils of war. America is a warrior state - more ruthless than any in history. It wages wars on an unprecedented scale, besides successful and failed regime change efforts by coups, assassinations and other means. US imperial policy threatens humanity's survival like no nation ever did before - with weapons of unimaginable destructive power and lunatics in charge willing to use them. They make the unthinkable possible. Policymakers in Washington deplore peace. They glorify war. They plan new ones while current conflicts rage. The business of America is war - multiple, endless direct and proxy ones. They're waged for wealth, power, resource control and unchallenged global dominance. War profiteers gorge at the public trough like never before in history. Serving them makes peace impossible. Adam Smith once said governments are "instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor." Wars are waged to make them richer - at the expense of most others. US-style imperialism differs from earlier forms. It dominates other nations globally - on all continents. It appropriates enormous amounts of wealth. It uses money to make more of it - gaining market and resource control, exploiting labor at the same time. Nations are pillaged for profit. Populations become disenfranchised. Local cultures become mass-market consumer ones. Agribusiness replaces local farming. Competitive industries are eliminated. Foreign investment crowds out local capital. Dominance legitimizes capital's divine right. Plunder assures obscene profits. Capital accumulation demands more. Unchallenged power and limitless profits matter most of all. War profiteering created America's military-industrial complex. Lots of players cash in. Politicians are bribed to permit it. Naked aggression is official US policy. America hasn't fought a legal war since WW II. Neocons infesting Washington today intend endless wars against one nation after another. Obama currently wages direct or proxy wars on Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Donbass, Palestine partnered with Israel and now Yemen - plus destabilizing activities in dozens of other countries worldwide. Imagine if swords were turned into plowshares. Imagine the benefits of peace over war. Militarism comes at the expense of corrupted leaders, ruthless ones, a culture of violence, lost industrialization, crumbling infrastructure, and suffering millions at home and abroad. It benefits Wall Street, other corporate favorites, and America's super-rich at the expense of most others. It makes America unfit to live in. It turns its streets into unsafe battlegrounds. Its phony war on terror is war OF terror on humanity. Ending wars could produce a bonanza of homeland benefits. Imagine spending America's resources for universal healthcare, education to the highest levels, ending homelessness and hunger, assuring employment and a living wage for every working American, and rebuilding the nation's crumbling infrastructure. Imagine following constructive instead of destructive policies. Imagine a nation to be proud of - a model for all others to emulate, instead of one increasingly scorned, despised and feared. America's founders deplored democracy. John Adams wanted "the rich, the well-born and the able" to run things - no one else. John Jay (America's first Supreme Court chief justice) believed those who owned the country should run it. Ordinary people didn't matter then or now. Yet the Constitution and Bill of Rights are hailed as epic democratic achievements. Why when their provisions benefit privileged Americans alone. It's unclear if what Franklin Roosevelt proposed in his last (January 1944) State of the Union address would have mattered if enacted into law. He urged a second bill of rights. He said the initial one "proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness." His solution was an economic bill of rights guaranteeing: -- employment with a living wage; -- freedom from unfair competition and monopolies; -- housing; -- medical care; -- education; and -- social security beyond what the landmark Social Security Act afforded retirees, the disabled, and other qualified recipients. Roosevelt wanted more, including: -- "A realistic tax law - which (would) tax all unreasonable profits," corporate and personal; _ "A cost of food law" with floor and ceiling price limits; and -- reenacting the October 1942 stabilization statute - pertaining to prices, wages and salaries affecting the cost of living. He said "true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence." Hungry unemployed people "are the stuff of which dictatorships are made." He urged a second Bill of Rights "for all - regardless of station, race or creed." Politicians don't talk this way today. Their policies are polar opposite what Roosevelt proposed. The way bipartisan neocons today erode vital benefits, perhaps enacting measures he proposed would have disappeared altogether by now. America's resources feed its war machine. They benefit bankers and other corporate favorites. Neoliberal harshness and force-fed austerity harm those most in need. A society prioritizing militarism and corporatism above all else doesn't care. The world's richest country is the United States of I don't care. It exploits the vast majority of its citizens. Increasingly they're on their own, out of luck. Monied interests alone matter. A race to the bottom shuts out most others. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III." http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs. |
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