Two colonels, a major and me — futilely objecting to Forever Wars' greedy stupidity

© 2019 Peter Free

 

08 November 2019

 

 

The most reasoned critics of the United States' military industrial complex . . .

 

. . . seem to come from its former ranks.

 

If you occasionally read this blog, you are already familiar with former Army colonel Andrew Bacevich, Air Force lieutenant colonel William Astore and Army major Danny Sjursen.

 

Then, there's me. Peripherally, but intimately enough, associated with the Air Force for 25 years.

 

 

Not one of this group .  . .

 

. . . thinks that the American military establishment's conduct of foreign policy and perpetual armed intervention makes the slightest strategic or moral sense.

 

 

William Astore's latest comment synopsizes our view

 

He wrote yesterday:

 

 

Repetition.  Endless repetition.  That is the theme of America’s wars today.

 

It’s the system of greed-war they [senior military leaders] and we inhabit.

 

Why change endless war when certain powerful forces are endlessly profiting from it?

 

War, after all, is a racket, as General Smedley Butler knew.

 

It’s a racket that’s contrary to democracy; one that buttresses authoritarianism and even kleptocracy, since you can justify all kinds of theft in the cause of “keeping us safe” and “supporting our troops.”

 

[B]eing a citizen-soldier has gone out of style in today’s military.

 

Everyone is supposed to identify as a warrior/warfighter, which has the added benefit of suppressing thought about why we fight.

 

Eager to fight, slow to think, might be the new motto of America’s military.

 

Such a motto, consistent with forever war, is inconsistent with democracy.

 

© 2019 W. J. Astore, Democracy and War, Bracing Views (07 November 2019) (excerpts)

 

 

"Eager to fight, slow to think" is also a motto inconsistent with anything humanly worthwhile or strategically wise.

 

 

The moral? — Greed metaphorically consumes souls

 

Avarice's rabid gobbling of virtue explains Chris Hedges' insightfully angry explanations of what is happening to us.

 

Propagandized sheep consistently miss his point. Instead, we fight among themselves about extraneously concocted, or deviously interjected matters.

 

Evil's banality, as Hannah Arendt pointed out after World War II, lies in how routinely we accept perversions of minimally moral or intelligent behavior.

 

We reside in an smarts-destroying gulag of sorts. Constructed by our shortcomings. Whether those are derived from failed character or unfortunate circumstance.

 

Genetically driven, our uninsightful minds regularly blind us to the nature and consequences of what we do. We are banal creatures, at core.

 

Mental self-enslavement was the target that last century's Jiddu Krishnamurti consistently tried to fragment. He attempted to persuade people to free themselves from culture's cognitive propaganda shackles.

 

Many other spirit-talkers say the same thing.

 

The United States' current posture demonstrates how little beneficial effect such "wake up" efforts have had. Even when delivered to a comparatively rich, materially freer world.

 

Despair is, I suppose, a rational response to such repetitively displayed stupidity of mind and heart.

 

Yet, despair is a form of imprisonment, too.

 

Thus, Chris Hedges summoned prophets to keep talking. Futile though their effort seems to be.

If nothing else, an ephemeral record of slight wisdom might be left. Should any subsequent conscious beings care.