Wednesday, October 08, 2014

America’s war without end

Endless war.

It’s no longer a nightmare scenario created by some doomsday futurist, but accepted policy among America’s political elites. In his latest article in The Intercept, Glenn Greenwald points out that it’s not merely blowhard pro-military Republicans who support the never-ending war strategy against terrorism, but many top Democrats as well, like Hillary Clinton, Leon Panetta and, of course, Obama. Endless war is the one area where the President can claim a bipartisan victory.

Money, notes Greenwald, is a major force behind our government’s perpetual war mentality, as military contractors reap billions in profits spilling blood in the sand. I also think that the situation we have created is like a poker game with no limits, forcing players to keep raising their bets. We need oil, terrorists live in areas where there is oil, we bomb the terrorists and innocent civilians, the people who survive our bombing become angry, more terrorists are created, we need oil…

As many others have pointed out, you can’t kill an idea with a bomb. As long as we continue doing what we’re doing, there will be new generations of terrorists seeking revenge against the West. Obama had his chance to break this insidious cycle, but for reasons we can only guess at, threw in the towel early on and surrendered to the political and profiteer’s voices calling for eternal war.

This is what America has become, a war mongering imperial power that keeps its citizens in constant fear, which allows it to both attack and replenish its enemies.

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