America: Addicted To War

It’s been that way from inception. America’s history reflects violence. It’s blood-drenched. It glorifies war. It does so in the name of peace.

America believes war is peace. It’s part of the national culture. Eventually it’s self-destructive. Today’s super-weapons make the unthinkable possible.

Hyman Rickover knew. He knew decades ago. He founded America’s nuclear navy. In 1982, he told Congress:

“I do not believe that nuclear power is worth it if it creates radiation. Then you might ask me why do I have nuclear powered ships?”

“That is a necessary evil. I would sink them all. I am not proud of the part I played in it. I did it because it was necessary for the safety of this country.”

That’s why I am such a great exponent of stopping this whole nonsense of war. Unfortunately limits – attempts to limit war have always failed.”

“The lesson of history is when a war starts every nation will ultimately use whatever weapon it has available.”

“Every time you produce radiation, you produce something that has a certain half-life, in some cases for billions of years.”

“I think the human race is going to wreck itself, and it is important that we get control of this horrible force and try to eliminate it.”

In his Der Ring des Nibelungen operas (The Ring of the Nibelungen), Richard Wagner portrayed his apocalyptic version. He did so musically. Gotterdammerung (Twilight of the Gods) prophesied the end of the world.

Einstein feared it. He didn’t know what WW III weapons would be used. He said “World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”

Bertrand Russell was an Einstein contemporary. He knew. He warned. No one listened. He asked:

“Shall we put an end to the human race, or shall mankind renounce war.” It’s the only way to live in peace. The alternative is annihilation.

The choice is clear. The wrong one assures disaster. America’s heading humanity toward it. A slow-motion train wreck looms. The big one. There’s no second chance. There’s no coming back.

Historian Harry Elmer Barnes (1889 – 1968) once said:

“If trends continue as they have during the last fifteen years, we shall soon reach this point of no return, and can only anticipate interminable wars, disguised as noble gestures for peace.”

Historian Arnold Toynbee worried about WW III. Only pigmies in remote jungles, apes and ants might be left to carry on “the cultural traditions of mankind,” he said.

According to HG Wells:

“If we don’t end war, war will end us.”

Mushroom shaped cloud finality threatens humanity. Enough of them cause nuclear winter. They block out sun for years. Doing so ends life on Earth. It’s possible. It’s chilling. It’s not science fiction. It’s real. It bears repeating. There’s no coming back.

America wages permanent wars. It does so against enemies it creates. During the Cold War, Active Defense and AirLand Battle prepared strategies for how America would fight.

Soviet Russia was targeted. Today’s it’s modern day Russia. It’s China. AirSea Battle targets both countries. More on that below.

In 1998, US Space Command: Vision for 2020 discussed America’s grand strategy.

In 2000, DOD Joint Vision 2020 called for “full spectrum dominance” over all land, surface and sub-surface sea, air, space, electromagnetic spectrum and information systems.

It did so with enough overwhelming power to fight and win global wars against any adversary. Nuclear and other mass destruction weapons would be used preemptively.

In 1961, General Curtis LeMay believed nuclear war with Soviet Russia was inevitable. He wanted thousands of missiles launched preemptively.

He called retaliation against major US cities a small price to pay.

At the same time, General Lyman Lemnitzer urged a surprise nuclear attack strategy.

Jack Kennedy expressed disgust. He walked out of a National Security Council meeting. He wanted none of it. He told Secretary of State Dean Rusk: “And we call ourselves the human race.”

Secretary of Defense McNamara categorically rejected LeMay and Lemnitzer. He should have fired them on the spot. Other extremists then and later urged the same lunacy.

Crazies have great influence today. Today’s weapons make earlier ones look like toys. Armageddon could happen.

Life on Earth could end in a day. It’s possible. It’s frightening. Rogue states can’t be trusted. America most of all.

Eisenhower warned “against the acquisition of unwarranted influence.” He named the military-industrial complex. “The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist,” he stressed.

Militarism writ large is the national pastime. It’s a national addiction. The business of America is war. It’s multiple wars. It’s permanent ones. It’s ravaging one nation after another.

It’s doing so for wealth, power, resource control, and unchallenged global dominance.

America never was the “land of the free and home of the brave.” It’s a war on humanity society. It’s a “let ‘em eat cake” one.

It’s an out-of-control rogue state. It’s ideologically over-the-top. It spends more on militarism and wars than the rest of the world combined.

Doing so lets war profiteers gorge themselves at the public trough. Doing so makes peace impossible. Warrior nations eventually self-destruct. Nations that live by the sword die by it. America’s no exception.

According too Navy Live, Air-Sea Battle (ABS) “is designed to develop force over the long-term. (It) seeks to provide decision makers with a wide range of options to counter aggression from hostile actors.”

It targets China and Russia. It “reflects the US commitment to maintaining escalation advantage during conflict and sustaining security and prosperity in the global commons.”

It’s “interoperable air and naval forces that can execute networked, integrated attacks-in-depth to disrupt, destroy, and defeat enemy anti-access area denial capabilities.”

Paul Craig Roberts quoted Amitai Etzioni. He asked, “Who Authorized Preparations for War with China?”

“The Pentagon has concluded that the time has come to prepare for with China, and in a manner well beyond crafting the sort of contingency plans that are expected for with a wide range of possible confrontations,” he said.

It’s a “momentous decision.” It hasn’t received proper attention. America’s posture is largely Pentagon driven.

It “stands out even more prominently because (a) the change in military posture may well lead to an arms race with China, which could culminate in a nuclear war; and (b) the economic condition of the United States requires a reduction in military spending, not a new arms race.”

“The start of a new term, and with it the appointment of new secretaries of State and Defense, provides an opportunity to review the United States’ China strategy and the military’s role in it.”

“This review is particularly important before the new preparations for war move from an operational concept to a militarization program that includes ordering high-cost weapons systems and forced restructuring.”

“History shows that once these thresholds are crossed, it is exceedingly difficult to change course.”

In September 2001, Congress approved the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF). It did so for “the use of United States Armed Forces against those responsible for the recent attacks launched against the United States.”

Carte blanche war-making authority was granted. America’s war on terror began. It’s waged on humanity. It does so out of control. It targets manufactured enemies at home and abroad.

It calls independent nations existential threats. Russia and China are targeted. They represent America’s final battleground. Challenging them risks WW III.

Obama’s no peacemaker. He’s a cold-blooded warrior. He threatens humanity’s survival. His 2010 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) reflects Bush-era strategy.

It’s old wine in new bottles. It “reserves the right” to use nuclear weapons preemptively. America’s only enemies are ones it invents. Peace is verboten. So is disarmament. They’re both non-starters.

Washington targets more nations to destroy. It invents reasons for doing so. It threatens humanity in the process. Preemptive nuclear war assures it.

America’s lunatic fringe may launch what cooler heads deplore. Elements in it have mushroom-shaped cloud delusions.

Nuclear war assures turning planet Earth into an uninhabited wasteland. Toxic proliferation already is destroying life slowly. In a generation or decade perhaps only beetles, bacteria, fungi, and other microoganisms will remain.

Ernst Mayr (1904 – 2005) was a noted evolutionary biologist. He called human intelligence no guarantee of survival. No species ever destroyed itself. Humans may be the first. Planet Earth’s increasingly contaminated.

Eventually a threshold of no return is crossed. It may be closer than most believe. Mushroom shaped finality may arrive sooner.

Higher intelligence does more harm than good. Imagine ending life on Earth for wealth, power and dominance. Imagine what no one should risk.

Imagine the unthinkable. Imagine ending life on Earth. America’s rage for war makes it possible. It’s as simple as ready, aim, bombs away.

Source:  Stephen Lendman | SteveLendmanBlog

Video: Norman Podhoretz, just another crazy neocon

Want to see what intellectual and moral bankruptcy looks like? Take a look at this video of neocon Norman Podhoretz, Rudy Giuliani’s foreign policy advisor, at his book reading appearance in New York which turned into a hostile affair. Podhoretz talks about World War IV taking as long to win as World War III, which is kind of weird, when exactly did we fight and win World War III? Further evidence that the neocons are delusional megalomaniacs. Podhoretz eventually loses it and tells the crowd to “shut up”.

Nuclear Illusion

Israel & The Iranian Oil Bourse Reality

Soon after the invasion of Iraq by the United States and Britain, the Bush administration re-converted Iraq’s oil transaction currency back to the U.S. petrodollar. Iraq under Saddam Hussein in the year 2000 required that euros be used as payment for its oil sales. This conversion by Iraq was an underlying reason for the invasion by the United States; Saddam Hussein established a dangerous precedent that threatened the monopoly of the petrodollar which had the potential to destabilize the U.S. dollar.

The war in Iraq was much more than the securing of the valuable resource of oil, for the United States it was to protect and continue the dominance by the greenback as the world’s Reserve Currency which is made possible because currently the U.S. dollar is the currency used by most nations for their purchase of oil. This petrodollar cycle is the economic mechanism which has allowed a highly debted nation such as the United States to keep its superpower status. If the petrodollar cycle comes to an end or is severely restricted then the U.S. dollar which is sitting on a precarious inflated bubble could collapse and send the American economy into a dangerous freefall.

Iran in 2003 began accepting euros as the exchange currency for their oil exports and in March 2006, Iran will begin their own Oil Bourse that will directly compete with New York’s Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and London’s International Petroleum Exchange (IPE). These two American owned oil exchanges use the U.S. dollar as their monetary exchange mechanism for the purchase of oil. Iran’s plan to establish an Iranian Oil Bourse utilizing the stronger euro for their oil trade represents a dangerous threat to the monetary supremacy of the U.S. dollar and to the American imperial prowess that the petrodollar sustains.

Therefore, you have a serious new dynamic in the global economic condition that is currently being dominated by the United States. A successful Iranian oil exchange would possibly bring on a radical devaluation of the U.S. fiat currency which would in-turn increase for the United States the costs of maintaining a military preponderance throughout the world. For the neoconservatives within the American establishment, a successful Iranian oil exchange would threaten the economic viability in their belligerent conquest of the Middle East.

A successful Iranian Oil Bourse would create a shift away from the U.S. petrodollar towards the stronger petroeuro in the world’s oil markets. China, Russia, and the E.U. are working with the Iranians to make this a reality. If the United States tries militarily to stop the Iranian Oil Bourse and secure the continued dominance of the petrodollar, the potential for “blowback” from the Chinese is enormous. Iran is China’s principle oil exporter; therefore, Iran is an important strategic partner for China. China’s oil giant Sinopec Group has signed a US$70 billion oil and natural gas agreement with Iran. China holds over 600 billion dollars in U.S. Treasury Bills along with other assets which could be dumped as part of a retaliatory process too American aggression against Iran, thus creating a dollar crisis where other countries who hold large amounts of U.S. dollars in reserve would quickly dump their dollar assets.

The State of Iraq was conveniently fabricated into a military threat by the neoconservatives within the Bush administration as part of an aggressive ideology [PDF] that focused on the use of American military power in strategic areas of the world. In the Middle East, in particular, the neocon philosophy also tightly coincided with the security interests of Israel.

The current tensions between the United States and Iran over Iran’s Nuclear program has very little to do with nuclear weapons much like the illegal invasion of Iraq by the United States and Britain had very little to do with WMD or terrorism. Iran has not violated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, in fact, under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Iran has acted within the parameters of international law. Iran’s nuclear program is legal, and is a rightful exercise of an independent sovereign nation.

The IAEA is engaged in an apparent double standard when it disingenuously voted on Saturday February 4, 2006 to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council over dubious concerns regarding Iran’s nuclear program. Under American pressure, an international crisis is nefariously being created. The IAEA have not found any evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, yet Iran is being referred to the U.N. Security Council in similar fashion as Iraq was concerning their nonexistent WMD.

The consequences for this manufactured crisis with Iran is easy to predict, the result will be that nations in the future – outside of the West – that want to develop nuclear programs will do so in secret outside the rules and regulations of the Non-Proliferation Treaty like North Korea, Israel, Pakistan and India have done. Nations that develop nuclear capabilities in secret are not threatened or punished while nations like Iran that develop a nuclear program within the laws of the Non-Proliferation Treaty are subjugated to false accusations and intimidation.

Unfortunately, for Iran the political reality in the United States cannot tolerate a nuclear Iran because it potentially presents a threat to the security interests of Israel as Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) recently revealed. President Bush has also signaled that the United States would defend Israel if Iran for whatever reason attacked Israel. Even if Iran were to respond to an initial attack by Israel as part of an act of self-defense, the condition of American politics and its subservience to Israeli interests [PDF] would place the United States square in the middle of another unnecessary war in the Middle East which would probably prove to be detrimental to the economic well-being of the United States.

America’s political establishment and its acquiescence to Israeli strategic concerns could prove to be detrimental to actual American interests. Israeli interests in American foreign policy as it pertains to the Middle East essentially control the behavior in both the Republican and Democratic parties. If the U.S. gets involved in a war with Iran, it will most likely do so under the circumstance of an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, and to the subsequent insistence by Israeli cohorts within America that U.S. vital interests in the region coincides with Israel’s security requirements.

There is little doubt that Israel will attempt to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities. It will be similar to Israel’s raid on Iraq’s Osirak nuclear facility in 1981, but on a much larger scale. This massive first strike by Israel deep into Iranian territory would most likely quickly degenerate into a major conflict with the potential to drag other Muslim nations into the conflagration and into another general Middle Eastern war.

A conflict between the United States and Iran would be counter-productive to U.S. vital interests on many levels; politically, it would further isolate the United States with the rest of the world. Economically, it has the serious potential to burst the bubble that is the U.S. economy. Geo-strategically, it could bring on an unfortunate confrontation between the United States and China, and it would most likely place the United States in direct military confrontation with other nations in the Islamic world. There is no sustainable strategic benefit for the United States to get itself involved in a war with Iran.

There is currently much news in the MSM about the supposed threat that a could be to all freedom-loving democracies in the world. As the War Party prepares yet again the American sheep to get ready for a confrontation with Iran, their exercise in “creative destruction” and their determination to initiate “World War IV,” as of this moment seems to be a sad possibility. Foreign entanglements do indeed carry a very high price.