Obama plans more wars. The
peace candidate can't get enough of them. Hawkishness defines his agenda.
So does belligerently transforming independent regimes into client ones.
The business of America is war. Permanent war is policy. Peace is abhorred.
Preventing it is prioritized. So is controlling Eurasia's vast oil,
gas, and other resources unchallenged.
War profiteering depends on conflict. It's the American way. Post-WW
II, it's been that way. One war leads to others. Proxy ones are waged.
Sums spent are enormous.
Post-9/11 alone, estimates run into the multi-trillions. A June Brown
University Watson Institute for International Studies (WIIS) "Cost of
War" report said up to $5,444 trillion was spent and projected with
all related expenses and obligations included.
In their book titled, "The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost
of the Iraq Conflict," Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes explained costs
way beyond official numbers.
Wars incur many costs besides Pentagon budgets. They include medical
care for injured combatants and veterans, federal benefits provided
veterans, expenses for veterans paid by state and local governments,
construction in occupied countries, supplemental budget and hidden add-ons,
black budgets, intelligence costs, national debt interest related to
war, weapons R & D, and other categories few people consider.
Among them - the macroeconomic consequences of militarism and war. They
include lost industrialization, crumbling infrastructure, other neglected
homeland needs, and suffering millions at home on their own, uncared
for, unwanted, ignored, and forgotten to assure steady funding for America's
war machine.
Military spending also affects debt, interest rates, jobs, investment,
and neglected public needs overall. The more spent on war, the less
available for more productive sectors. An overall macroeconomic loss
results.
Moreover, so much hidden, unaccountable war/militarism related spending
occurs annually that perhaps trillions more should be added to the above
figures.
WIIS said direct and indirect war costs "have been consistently minimized,
misunderstood, or hidden from public view." So have the shocking human
costs and enormous future obligations. Undiscussed, taxpayers don't
know where their money goes, how much, for what purpose, for how long,
or why.
They've been lied to, cheated, and made to believe wars promote peace,
democratic values, and national security.
America today is more than ever unstable, unsafe, and threatened by
its own government pursuing policies harming the public interest.
According to Obamaspeak, America is "the greatest force for freedom
and security that the world has ever known."
Martin Luther King once called America "the greatest purveyor of violence
in the world today." Imagine what he'd say now.
It's an out-of-control menace threatening humanity. It's the world's
leading human rights abuser. Lawlessness defines its agenda. So doesn't
waging war on peace to assure unchallenged global dominance.
Chalmers Johnson said we can have empire or democracy, but not both.
Rome made the wrong choice and perished. Before his death, he said America's
heading for "a military dictatorship or its civilian equivalent."
He explained facts too important to ignore, including:
a nation with no threats permanently at war;
unaccountability on all policies at all levels;
the most secretive, intrusive, repressive government in our history
under either party;
homeland social decay;
an unprecedented widening wealth disparity;
a de facto one-party state with two wings;
the absence of checks and balances;
a secret unaccountable intelligence establishment with near-limitless
black budget funding;
(Note: despite 16 spy agencies, the Pentagon created another called
the Defense Clandestine Service to work closely with CIA. It'll focus
on major targets to assure "officers are in the right locations to pursue"
key military aims.)
a dominant corporate-controlled media serving as a quasi-state ministry
of information and propaganda;
a cesspool of unchecked corruption, stemming from incestuous business-government
ties; and
a more out-of-control military-industrial complex than perhaps Eisenhower
ever could have imagined.
America, said Johnson, is plagued by the same dynamic that doomed past
empires unwilling to change. Ahead he feared authoritarian rule, loss
of personal freedom, and ruin.
Waging endless wars combined with neglected homeland needs and police
state laws to quash dissent assures it. The worst of all possible worlds
awaits.
Target Syria
Syria looks like the next war zone. Western generated insurgent violence
is prelude to what's planned. So are multiple rounds of sanctions harming
ordinary Syrians most.
On February 28, Reuters listed them. Briefly they include:
targeting Syrian officials, embargoing arms, freezing assets, and banning
travel;
prohibiting imports of Syrian oil and imposing fines on firms investing
in Syria's oil industry;
sanctioning Syria's main mobile phone operator (Syriatel), the country's
largest private company (Cham Holding), Addounia TV, and three construction
and investment firms linked to Syria's military;
additional sanctions on Syria's oil and financial sectors; companies
targeted include Sytrol and General Petroleum Corporation;
banning exports of equipment for Syria's oil and gas industry, as well
as surveillance equipment;
sanctions on additional Syrian officials and groups;
banning trade in gold and other precious metals;
prohibiting cargo flights from Syria;
suspending relations with Syria's central bank;
freezing assets of Syrian security forces and barring dealings with
them; assets under US jurisdiction were frozen; and
prohibiting US citizens from investing in or exporting services to Syria.
EU countries, America, Turkey, Arab states, and Australia acted individually
or jointly.
Now there's more. On April 23, The New York Times headlined, "US Sets
New Sanctions Against Technology for Syria and Iran," saying:
Computers, social media, and cellphones are targeted. Obama called it
"one more step that we can take toward the day that we know will come,
the end of the Assad regime that has brutalized the Syrian people."
He acted by diktat with no congressional approval. An April 23 Executive
Order headlined:
"BLOCKING THE PROPERTY AND SUSPENDING ENTRY INTO THE UNITED STATES OF
CERTAIN PERSONS WITH RESPECT TO GRAVE HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES BY THE GOVERNMENTS
OF IRAN AND SYRIA VIA INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY"
Primarily targeting Syrian and Iranian entities, US firms are also instructed
to obey them.
At the same time, EU nations banned luxury product sales to Syria that
allegedly can be duel (military, civilian) use.
Moreover, EU and US officials keep wrongfully blaming Assad for insurgent
violence. On April 23, The New York Times headlined, "UN Observers Prove
Little Deterrent to Syrian Attacks," saying:
Security forces "engaged in a bloody game of cat and mouse against (UN)
observers on Monday, seeming to punish cities like Hama after the monitors
left for daring to protest, and adopting a low profile as the monitors
visited the Damascus suburbs."
The Times supports all imperial wars and others planned. It reliably
serves as Washington's de facto ministry of information and propaganda.
All the news it claims "fit to print" isn't fit to read.
Since early last year, Western and regional states provided insurgents
serving imperial interests with arms, funding, training, and on-the-ground
direction. Assad's blamed for confronting their violence.
Like other articles, commentaries and editorials, The Times piece was
full of misinformation, distortions, and ball-faced lies. "Activist"
stooges are cited or quoted. Events on the ground are manipulated and
falsified to assure violence (blamed on Assad) continues.
What's gone on for months will continue seamlessly. Monitors on the
ground can't be everywhere. At issue is who they represent. Will their
reports be credible? Or were they handpicked to assure what Obama wants
to hear?
Washington planned Syria and Iran regime change years ago. Sanctions
and insurgent violence alone can't accomplish it. Western intervention's
coming. First Syria, then Iran, and later other targeted regimes.
A nation glorifying wars and violence assures endless conflicts. Its
way of life heads it for eventual demise. At issue is will humanity
perish with it? The possibility is real and frightening!
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge
discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News
Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time
and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy
listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/
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