With the announcement of a plan to send US troops back into Afghanistan I thought I would take a look at the attitudes toward war.
When I read blogs and the comments I get the feeling that Americans as a whole are a war mongering lot…..they seem to be all for spending trillions on war materials and cheer-lead conflicts around the world.
But is my perception accurate?
A couple of people give their thoughts on our endless wars….
When I was in Congress, the least popular, least respected members were the biggest publicity seekers – the ones who were the first and quickest to run to the cameras. They were not regarded as serious legislators. Thus, I have not been a big fan of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. However, several days ago, she wrote some words on her X account which I think express the feelings and frustrations of the overwhelming majority of Americans. The following are her words:
“I’m 51 years old. I’m GenX.
“I’ve watched our country go to war in foreign lands for foreign causes on behalf of foreign interests for as long as I can remember. I was in 10th grade when Desert Storm started and my father before me was sent to Vietnam, another senseless foreign war.
“America is $37 TRILLION in debt and all of these foreign wars have cost Americans TRILLIONS AND TRILLIONS of dollars that never benefited any American.
“American troops have been killed and forever torn apart physically and mentally for regime change, foreign wars, and for military industrial base profits.
“I’m sick of it.
…
Rep. Greene is right. We should never fight another country’s war. President Reagan said we should fight only for a “cause that is vital to our national interest.”
He also said that “our troops should be committed to combat abroad only as a last resort, when no other choice is available.”
Sen. Robert Taft, sometimes referred to as Mr. Republican in the 1940s and 50s, was so respected that he was one of only six senators featured in John F. Kennedy’s book “Profiles In Courage.”
Taft said: “No foreign policy can be justified except a policy devoted without reservation or diversion to the protection of liberty of the American people, with war only as the last resort and only to preserve that liberty.”
Both Reagan and Taft used the words “last resort.” We were not anywhere even close to that point when we bombed Iran on June 24.
I am surprised that I agree with Greene on this issue….the rest of her babbling is out in right field that makes no sense whatsoever…..at least to me.
You want to lessen our deficit then stop fighting everyone’s wars for them and stop trying to be the world’s only arms dealer.
It is not rocket science…..a little commonsense goes a long way.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
As odd as it may seem, Greene increasingly seems to be going against Trump’s wishes these days. I don’t know what happened to her but she’s actually made some rational comments since that poor, elderly, senile old man was so rudely pulled off his golf course and shoved into the White House.
easy, now. It may just be that in comparison to Trump she looks amazing. Most people would.
You are on a roll today Nan…lol chuq
Sorry about the mix up….has not been a good day LOL chuq
It is confusing for she makes sense some of the time….she will be watched. chuq
Think about The Falklands. Thatcher was becoming very unpopular, and the Argentine invasion of The Falklands gave her an excuse for an ‘easy-win’ war. Why did Argentina invade? Because she suggested that she might remove British citizenship from the Falkland Islanders. That gave them the nudge they needed, and they fell into her trap. An easy victory restored her ‘Iron Lady’ popularity, and she carried on as Prime Minister. An invasion of Venezuela would give Trump a similar ‘easy war’, and overshadow the Epstein files and any unpopularity of the current administration. Watch this space.
Best wishes, Pete.
Yep I agree it is red meat for the media and for his supporters. chuq
USA has fought all her wars for her own interrests abroad, since the US Civil War, and before it. Who has benefited is a nother matter. Typically the Capitalist with shareholding in military production, but a bunch of other creeps with too much money have also cashed in, from the oil business to mining industry. This is the problem. Americans are all too easily persuaded by that argument, but war does not become justified by who benefits, only by what evil can be stopped. That too has been presented as an excuse, and sometimes it was spot on, like in stopping the Nazies. My country sided with the nazies and invaded our neighbour to benefit from the war. Did it – bollocks! We had to fight out the Nazies in the end.
We have been justifying for decades….1st Gulf War was those babies in the hospital, 2nd Gulf War was the yellow cake and now this most likely all bullsh*t. chuq
Yes. I can remember the first US – Iraqi war in the gulf. Of course, we had called the Iraq – Iran war the Persian Gulf War, so there was some confusion. The excuse for that war came from “defending the Kuwait democracy”, that was a bit thick, since it is a state revolving around an emir who has a veto to all parliamentary descisions and only male citizens are allowed to vote, while the country is run with foreign labour (mainly from Iraq at the time). It was all about oil, though Saddam had absolutely no right to meddle in a nother sovereign country and as such there was an actual moral justification for aiding Kuwait.
The W jr. wars in Iraq and Afghanishtan were senseless and pointless. Under UN sanctions Iraqi oil was already controlled and the few overloaded SCUD- missiles Saddam could send at Israel posed no threat to anyone (more peole were killed by stray Patriot defence missiles sent against these demonstrational SCUDs) . His story was over before the war begun. He had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11 and though the American public thirsted for revenge, the Iraqi people were not to blame, or obviously very interrested in fighting the Americans in the first place. The provisional government set by the US did a terribly amateur mess of their job, that caused insurrections, the birth of ISIS and eventually Iraq becoming an ally to Iran, through the Shia majority of their people. The story about weapons of mass destruction was, naturally true at first, because the US had sold the chemicals to Saddam back in the day when they did not care if he used it on the Kurds, but it was rather obvious, according to Hans Blixt, that any remaining chemical weapons had been destroyed in a haste long before the IAEA inspections.
On top of this, the Guantanamo prison became a symbol for US imperialism and conduct in human rights violations.
We Finns were with the Americans in Afghanishtan. Why it was invaded remains unclear, but it was a pointless war and differed from the Soviet invasion only in length, as it took the Soviets only ten years to gather, that they were achieving nothing. After double the time Donald made a “deal” with the Taliban that led to a historical military defeat, and he blamed Joe for it…
I can understand a retaliation for 9/11 but not for 20 years that was just stupid…..that is Donny’s way….it is everybody else fault….welcome to IST and Finland is a great place from I all I know. chuq
Greene has done almost a 180 (maybe a 90) on her idiot Trumpian views when she started. Maybe she had some come-to-daddy moment, an Oprah moment, whatever. What matters is what she does that supports what she now says. As for her reasons for her little renaiassance… I’m curious, but she’s got a lot of “damage” to fix before I buy into it.
As for war… we have (for now) a “Dept. of War”, a “Sec. of War”… and a carrier group bouncing around in the Carribean… perched on striking yet another Third World nation.. and blowing up boats, murdering (76 to date) people without consideration for criminal justice. And 50% of the country voted for this. As I am typing this breaking news is reporting the Brits are pulling out of contributing to intel cooperations in support of this nonsense.
I wrote later that her reason might be. This whole thing with the boats is crazy and criminal in my opinion. chuq
My God… that asshole was an embarrasment at Arlington.
Indeed. chuq