As an opponent for most wars…I am always looking at the reasons why we go to war and why the American people turn a blind eye to it. (and yes I know all about the M-IC)…..
Now a days when the US goes to war it is not paid for by any stretch of the imagination…..the process skirts Congress and the representatives allow it to be so…..the Constitution addresses war and the Congress is suppose to authorize the action taken…..but for decades that whole process has been ignored…..and by the very people that claim the Constitution is sacred and must be followed to the letter. (I guess that means only the parts you agree with and f*ck the rest of the document)
How the United States Became a Prisoner of War and Congress Went MIA,
Let’s face it: in times of war, the Constitution tends to take a beating. With the safety or survival of the nation said to be at risk, the basic law of the land — otherwise considered sacrosanct — becomes nonbinding, subject to being waived at the whim of government authorities who are impatient, scared, panicky, or just plain pissed off.
The examples are legion. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln arbitrarily suspended the writ of habeas corpus and ignored court orders that took issue with his authority to do so. After U.S. entry into World War I, the administration of Woodrow Wilson mounted a comprehensive effort to crush dissent, shutting down anti-war publications in complete disregard of the First Amendment. Amid the hysteria triggered by Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order consigning to concentration camps more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans, many of them native-born citizens. Asked in 1944 to review this gross violation of due process, the Supreme Court endorsed the government’s action by a 6-3 vote.
Source: Writing a Blank Check on War for the President – The Unz Review
Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.
Unfortunately, the rain today is making things difficult for me; otherwise, this one would no doubt cause a seriously extensive rant, right here, right now. Though I hadn’t heard about Lincoln’s abrogation of oath, the news of Wilson & Roosevelt’s actions aren’t a surprise. It was either Woodrow, or Calvin C. of whom Dorothy Parker, when notified he had died, said, “How could you tell?”….Roosevelt was an oligarch disguised as a politician.
We’ve been ignoring the Constitution for my entire life, beginning in Korea, right up to the latest crap in Syria, etc. It’s ALL illegal war, according to our Constitution. Period.
Assholes, every one of ’em.
gigoid. the dubious
Yes and I cannot believe (an overstatement) that all these constitution purists let this happen….most of them only accept the parts they like and disregard the rest….the American way. chuq
Isn’t it funny how accurately a song can be in describing the world? Paul Simon was righter than anyone knew when he wrote that line… “A man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest.”…
gigoid
So true….chuq
The US Empire has firmly declared permanent global war; a war uninhibited by domestic, or international law. It has also all but null & voided large chunks of the US constitution…Other than America outright collapsing, how does that situation ever get reversed?
Good question and the answer is not with the presidency…
“Peace is not the absence of war, but a virtue based on strength of character.”
Baruch Spinoza
(Dutch Philosopher, exponent of the Rationalism)
1632-1677
Great quote….thanx….chuq
Every action taken by The U.S. Government during the period of WWII was absolutely necessary to (a) The survival of the nation and (b) the winning of the war. I make no exceptions. The actions were calculated, they were planned, they were executed and they accomplished their objectives. We won the war. Something arte not always pretty but are sometimes necessary. Hindsight isn’t worth a diddly damned to winning a war. We did what needed to be done and if we had done otherwise the outcome might have been that most of us would be eating with chop sticks or goose stepping.
Wars are always calculated…the objectives are another story…I dis agree…hindsight can be useful if it is a true look at past actions…causes and effects…
so having morals is a bad thing? Some of the biggest defenders of this crap are the ones that have never fought those necessary actions. Not all wars are righteous or necessary regardless of what one wants to believe.
WW2 Just happened to be one of the righteous ones.
I do not believe anyone questions that…
Oh yeah? Did you happen to receive this comment I got? —
“Sedate Me
26 April 2016 at 1800
EVERY action was absolutely necessary??? “NO exceptions”? That’s a pretty HUGE fucking blank cheque that requires absolute blind faith in one’s rulers. (Hmm, like an Emperor descended from God? Or an infallible leader of a superior people.) That kind of thinking issues Free Passes to everyone in the chain of command to do as they please without ANY contextual justification, or repercussion. It condones fundamental violations of the constitution (ie Interment camps) & the law (property theft). That thinking even retroactively excuses war crimes. And all the plain old blunders & mistakes made from top to bottom. Right, wrong, disastrous, stupid…”They had to do it” and we don’t get to question them. Ever. (Cue 45 degree angle salute)
You know, I think my burned-alive relatives from Dresden might disagree with you a little bit. My grandmother & father were supposed to be there too, but cancelled their visit a few weeks earlier. (Lucky for me!) But Dresden HAD to get bombed because…the operas were giving locals too big of moral boost while their army was shrinking backwards to the capital faster than the speed limit on the autobahn? Forget the fact the time & effort they wasted on destroying militarily insignificant targets to inflict revenge on civilians allowed our “friends” in Red to sweep into Berlin, force their surrender and set the front-line for the next idiotic fucking war. But that’s hindsight! And hindsight ist streng verboten!
But using the exact same logic, everything the Nazis & Japanese did in WW2 was also absolutely necessary so they could succeed in their war effort. Victory uber alles!
Burying my other grandmother in a pile of rubble that was a London hospital 15 minutes earlier was absolutely necessary! The Nazis HAD to bomb hospitals and civilian neighbourhoods in order to win the war. Otherwise, they’d be forced to have tea & eat crumpets at 4 PM everyday, instead of eating sausages & drinking beer. The indignity!
The Japanese HAD to torture prisoners and rape Chinese women. And just like the Americans, the Nazis HAD to put their dis-loyal citizens into camps, steal their property…and fire up those ovens to keep them warm. Otherwise, they’d be forced to drive inferior cars and wait for hours for their trains to arrive. If only the Nazis tried the “I was just following orders from my commanders who were only trying to win the war” defence at the Nuremberg Trials…a lot of good patriotic Germans would still be alive today!
I probably shouldn’t have said ANY of the above, but this kind of blanket self-justification is what drives war, atrocities, and damn near every act of evil on the planet. What “we” do is good because “we” are doing it. What “they” do is bad because “they” are doing it. Even if it’s the exact same thing!”
Yes I saw it
Yeah, it was definitely as righteous as organized murder & mayhem gets.
But that still does NOT mean EVERY action was right, justifiable, or even just the best strategic move. Nor does it mean you don’t have the right to question actions then, or now. (Wait, who won the war again?)
EVERY action was absolutely necessary??? “NO exceptions”? That’s a pretty HUGE fucking blank cheque that requires absolute blind faith in one’s rulers. (Hmm, like an Emperor descended from God? Or an infallible leader of a superior people.) That kind of thinking issues Free Passes to everyone in the chain of command to do as they please without ANY contextual justification, or repercussion. It condones fundamental violations of the constitution (ie Interment camps) & the law (property theft). That thinking even retroactively excuses war crimes. And all the plain old blunders & mistakes made from top to bottom. Right, wrong, disastrous, stupid…”They had to do it” and we don’t get to question them. Ever. (Cue 45 degree angle salute)
You know, I think my burned-alive relatives from Dresden might disagree with you a little bit. My grandmother & father were supposed to be there too, but cancelled their visit a few weeks earlier. (Lucky for me!) But Dresden HAD to get bombed because…the operas were giving locals too big of moral boost while their army was shrinking backwards to the capital faster than the speed limit on the autobahn? Forget the fact the time & effort they wasted on destroying militarily insignificant targets to inflict revenge on civilians allowed our “friends” in Red to sweep into Berlin, force their surrender and set the front-line for the next idiotic fucking war. But that’s hindsight! And hindsight ist streng verboten!
But using the exact same logic, everything the Nazis & Japanese did in WW2 was also absolutely necessary so they could succeed in their war effort. Victory uber alles!
Burying my other grandmother in a pile of rubble that was a London hospital 15 minutes earlier was absolutely necessary! The Nazis HAD to bomb hospitals and civilian neighbourhoods in order to win the war. Otherwise, they’d be forced to have tea & eat crumpets at 4 PM everyday, instead of eating sausages & drinking beer. The indignity!
The Japanese HAD to torture prisoners and rape Chinese women. And just like the Americans, the Nazis HAD to put their dis-loyal citizens into camps, steal their property…and fire up those ovens to keep them warm. Otherwise, they’d be forced to drive inferior cars and wait for hours for their trains to arrive. If only the Nazis tried the “I was just following orders from my commanders who were only trying to win the war” defence at the Nuremberg Trials…a lot of good patriotic Germans would still be alive today!
I probably shouldn’t have said ANY of the above, but this kind of blanket self-justification is what drives war, atrocities, and damn near every act of evil on the planet. What “we” do is good because “we” are doing it. What “they” do is bad because “they” are doing it. Even if it’s the exact same thing!
Your points are valid, well-presented and noted with appreciation. But it was a tought time for everybody and everybody suffered loss but the battles had to be fought and the war had to be won and it was. It was tragic to say the least and I am sorry for your loss just the same as I am sure some others may be sorrow for the losses suffered by my own family and some of our neighbors during that harsh time … but if we had done anything differently the outcome would not have been the same. I am sure of that. I am pleased that you have spoken out so vividly and shared your thoughts with us. Thank you for taking your time to do so. I am sure whoever reads what you have written will benefit. Thanks again. Let us hope this kind of horror never happens again.
Sorry, I got a little “riled up” there. (German blood -eh?)
Perhaps I take the killing & maiming of family members a tad too personally. But both my grandmothers REALLY should have died, but somehow lived to spawn me. Both sides of my family got the rare “privilege” of trying to kill each other (fairly successfully) in BOTH WW’s. Growing up with the horror stories of those who survived is why I have a very different perspective on war (Even the “Good Wars” like WW2) than your average American who considers war a Holy Sacrament.
Aside from the poor saps sent to kill & die, (& “disloyal” citizens put in concentration camps) everybody in North America spent the war on the couch bitching about the indignity of having to trim back their automobile use, thanks to gas rationing. This is why America has NO aversion to war. America’s war record from 1900 on is (minus Vietnam) a very long string of lopsided victories while suffering no “collateral damage” at home. Hell, war is so sacrifice-free now, you don’t even raise taxes to pay for it! On the flip side, it’s amazing how getting your assed kicked in a war really curbs the urge to start another. (See Germany & Japan since WW2.)
But my major objection is the unquestioning faith in military/political leadership. WW2 is by far, the most glowing example (especially in Japan) of America’s leadership at it’s very best. But even then, there are examples of major SNAFUs, horrible decisions and outright war crimes that are, if not worth condemning, certainly worth questioning. War isn’t a package deal. It’s a series of separate decisions, often with little or no central coordination.
It was absolutely possible to win that war without doing all these things in the way they happened. My dad told me that, virtually EVERYBODY in Germany knew the war was lost after Stalingrad….other than the Fuhrer, the SS and most of the military leadership. Their obsession with winning essentially “strategically retreated” all of Germany down into the Fuhrer Bunker. Meanwhile, Japan’s similarly victory obsessed leadership gave Japan it’s first (but not last!) taste of the “nuclear power experience”.
But it’s the obedience, the lack of desire and/or inability of citizens to question their leadership that allowed those leaders’ egos to swell to the point where they did what they did. This is a vital lesson America must, but hasn’t, learned from those fascist countries. Sadly, it may take living in a pile of rubble for a few decades.
No problem…we all get a bit miffed from time to time….