War: the Refusal to Make Peace

Not much has changed from Bush to Obama. America has not even stopped to take a fresh breath but remains chanting the constant cadence that all of their enemies insist upon marching toward war and cannot be trusted.

All the little Countries that America has turned into Enemies insist that they are only gathering their forces together in order to defend themselves, and that if America did not persist in acting as an Aggressor it would have nothing to worry about.

If this were true, then all America would need to do would be to issue assurances that it would never resort to Foreign Invasion, Regime Change, or any too deliberate or sizable funding of dissident and rebel forces. America would only have to commit to minding its own business. Then little countries who are only afraid of American Aggression could afford to relax, and not build up armies and Weapon’s Potentials.

But America persists. They use the Diplomat Phrases “keeping every option on the Table” to mean that they will never renounce War, Aggression, Invasion – the whole Might Makes Right School of International Anarchy. One can sort of see America’s point of view – with its Economy in shambles and the Dollar on verge of collapse, it’s Largest Most Powerful Army in the World is its last and only trump card. America flexes its muscles because nothing else is left to it. One is reminded of the last days of the Soviet Union – economically impoverished, politically discredited, but they still had plenty of bombs and tanks. Well, how did that all work out?

After having seen the relatively recent American History of the United States invading Korea, invading Vietnam, invading Latin America wherever the least opportunity allowed, and then invading Iraq against the Will of the Entire World, then why would we be the least surprised that the Iranians or the Koreans would think it necessary to prepare for their National Defense? Considering that America has a solid history of Aggression, particularly against Nations that it has openly declared to be its Enemies (America never sneak attacks anybody, but precedes every Aggression with a huge Publicity and Propaganda Campaign… some better than others), it would be more surprising if such Nations did not take these Threats seriously. Yet America insists on construing mobilizations for Defense as a Threats to World Peace. What does that mean but that the World can only enjoy Peace as long as it quietly submits to American World Conquest? Peace through abject surrender. I suppose the Nazis would have argued the same thing, if the argument did not sound overly silly to them. Well, just because the Biggest Lies sound the most ridiculous does not mean that most idiots don’t still swallow them whole.

Well, the whole “Resistance is Futile” argument is only as effective as its demonstrable Truth, that any resistance would be immediately and mercilessly crushed to nothing. But America, even at its height has not been able to show such capacity. Countries have indeed been able to put forward effective defenses against American Aggression.

Oh, Peace Through Surrender reminds me of the much lauded Iraqi Troop Surge. Looking back, the most successful tactic was for the American’s to go to the Sunni Insurgency and surrender to them, promising to withdraw troops from Sunni Strongholds, and even promising to deliver arms, ammunition and payoffs of millions of dollars. Everybody knew of these details, but nobody called it and American Surrender. It was a successful Peace Deal. But what exactly did the Sunnis give up, except that they promised to stop spanking the Americans on the Battlefield? And the American General that put together this Surrender, is considered some kind of Military Genius – a National Hero. Well, then, why not simply stretch this same strategy to cover all of America’s Military and Political Difficulties – surrender to everyone and payoff everyone. Why is America pretending it still has the will to fight, when its most successful tactic in years has been to Surrender… oh, and then to so skillfully manipulate the Media into presenting it as some huge Victory! Oh, by the way, all those gains gotten by the Surrender to the Sunnis is about to unwind, as the American’s are reneging whole-sale on continued payoffs and arms supplies to their former enemies. The Brave General has moved on to Afghanistan and we can suppose he is too busy negotiating his next big Surrender then to keep to the details of his last.

This brings to mind American Trustworthiness. Korean, Iran, Iraq have been endlessly accused of violating agreements. Yet if one combs the newspapers thoroughly enough, one finds that in most every instance where some Country pulls out of an Agreement with America it is because they complain that America has not held up its end of the bargain. This is NEVER mentioned by the American Administration or the State Department. Indeed, it seems as though America reneges on its agreements simply to provoke these countries into announcing a withdraw from their previous agreements – to cast them as untrustworthy. It is a safe enough strategy as it seems obvious that the Administration and the State Department have complete confidence on how the News will be reported. Again, nothing has changed since Obama became Messiah.

American Trustworthiness has also been irreparably damaged by the Bush Presidency. Prior to Bush, Americans had always insisted that Partisan Politics stopped at the waters edge, and that American Foreign Policy was unified, and prior Treaties sacred, now and forever. Well, Bush spent his entire 8 years incognizant of any prior Treaty and behaved as though he had an entirely free hand in regards to everything. Most significantly, China policy was completely tossed out and China treated as though it were an Enemy. Indeed, how often is it in the News that America is surrounding China with spy planes and spy boots. And this is how we treat a Nation that hold most the American Debt and from whom America expects to borrow so much more. One often wonders why American Policies are so senseless… even contra productive? Almost equally damaging was America’s betrayal of agreements that had been made with Russia. It had been agreed that if Russia relinquished the Soviet Union and pursued only peaceful economic development, then America would not take advantage by expanding NATO into the territories of the Ex Soviet Union. Not only Bush ignored that, but now Obama is oblivious…. Maybe writing too many books to have time to read any, or pretending not to know about prior State Department Protocols. Oh, does anybody remember Serbia and Kosovo from back during the Clinton Years. Russia was holding fast to Serbian Rights in Kosovo. Finally a Deal was reached – if Serbia was assured that Kosovo would remain part of Serbia, allowed only to have some autonomous state’s rights, then the Russians would withdraw their Armored Divisions. It was reported in the news! But America goes ahead and recognizes Kosovo Independence! Not a single News Agency reports on this boldfaced betrayal of what had been a solemnly sworn Treaty. Now how is Russia NOT to retaliate to all of this?

This brings us to the point of this Essay, after all, and that is that I suppose there is a great deal of Special Interest, Lobbyist Money and Influence, goes toward provoking Military Tensions. Weapons Systems are very expensive, which means that a lot of people get rich when the Government awards a great many Contracts.

Really, I suppose nothing can ever change. Why? Well, however a Society IS, whatever the Equilibrium amounts to, everything arranges so that a certain powerful clique of people eventually come to harness the most salient opportunities for money making and profit. In a Society where the Politicians and Governments are for Sale, putting themselves up for bids and bribery every two, four and six years, then these aforementioned powerful economic interests can simply pay to have themselves perpetuated.

Since ‘Defense’ Spending is one of America’s last thriving economic sectors, one can hardly expect its influence on America’s Foreign Policy to lessen even the slightest smidge. Militarism has already fully subsumed Israeli Politics, and as Defense Spending increases in Europe, so will its hold on Policy (as I suppose in regards to Europe as America, that Democracy behaves the same way – that Campaign Contributions dictate all, which is the long way of saying that everything is equally corrupt, as long as Politicians must be thankful to Moneyed Interests in getting themselves elected).

You know, when they first envisioned Democracy, they were careful to implement side by side with all of the other democratic institutions strict laws against Bribery. When was it forgotten that Bribery is a crime? Instead a thousand regulations were adopted whereby Bribery could be made Legal, which Created the Being called Lobbyist – a person who has studied the law to such an extent that he can funnel money, legally, from Special Interests to Politicians, without ever wandering from the Loopholes. But that only makes it Legal Bribery, and doesn’t that make it worst? Certainly the Founders of Democracy, in both America and Europe never supposed it could all still maintain for the Public Benefit once it was allowed to go corrupt to the bone, to the point of Legalizing Bribery.

Anyway, while the War Mongers are apparently hand-picking our Politicians and dictating our Foreign Policies, we will be doomed to these senseless wars.