That Country

This Fourth of July I pray that we stop being "that country". You know, the kind of nation that we always pretend we're "liberating" others from.

We spend more on war - not defense, war - than any other nation on Earth. We spend more on war than the next 25 highest war spending nations combined. And 24 out of those 25 are our vassal states.

We occupy more nations than any other country on Earth. You weren't aware of that? Google "American Military Bases", it will show each nation that we occupy.

Oh, didn't realize that we occupy German and Japan? You thought those were our allies, with we having bases there because we're so gosh darn nice? Care to guess which state those nations have their bases in over here? Don't know?

That's because our "allies" do not get to have military bases here. That would infringe upon our sovereignty.

This always says so much more about those who do it,
then those who have it done to them.

We regard the oceans, and atmosphere and orbits of the planet as ours. We get to go and conduct war exercises any where we want. And patrols and inspections. And incursions. Other nations, were they to approach within 500 miles without our permission are engaging in "aggressive war-like actions" that demand an "immediate response".

We kidnap and hold without charges, and torture and detain, not only any one on Earth we care to, but our own citizens as well. Without trial. Up to, and including, executions. Like the Soviets and the Nazis did. Two other examples of "that country".

We let the citizenry have no rights that the government is bound to respect. Oh, yes, lip service, sure, like the Soviet and National Socialist constitutions had, but the only time you really get to speak or act freely is if you are too small, or they don't notice you.

Block a road, resist in any fashion, or be too loud, and you'll be noticed - and dealt with by black clad armored police using chemical warfare outlawed by the Geneva Convention. Yes, even on students.

I pray for an end to the tyranny of every activity needing a license, every citizen needing papers, everyone needing to have such papers while traveling any where by any means. I pray for the end of everyone needing a number, of no one being able to work or buy or sell without it. I pray that one day we live in a nation where to not comply with that is not to be subject to arrest, detention, and torture.

I pray that we can stop with the modernized camps we call prisons that house a higher percent of our population than the Soviets did in their hey day, or the Nazis did in their hey day, or the PRC and North Korea do in their hey day. I pray that sexual torture and solitary confinement of such who are sent there stop being a national joke and start being a thing of the dark past.

I also pray that I can one day read the Declaration of Independence, and not see that all the complaints we had against King George are now ten times worse under any administration that has ever ruled in my life.

Today, I would encourage everyone to read the Declaration of Independence, and try and find a complaint against King George that could not be levied against our own government over the past 50 years.

And then ask yourself why what they had the right to do back then is something that apparently no one has the right to do now - secede and form their own state. With their own freedom. With their own dignity.

Bloody Soldier Meme

I saw a facebook meme where someone had took a picture of a soldier with blood on his face and then wrote about how the soldier and his buddies were bleeding and dying so that folks back home could burn flags when they don't like the President and kneel at the singing of the National Anthem at football games. We were all supposed to feel real bad for being so naughty - or I suppose more likely, feel really bad about those who were being so naughty.

Now me, as a veteran, I think that we bleed and die for our buddies and so that fat, old men in power back home can make more profits. But that's just me, what do I know?

I also think that saying such things in a fashion as to suggest that the soldiers are all Republican voting conservatives is a bit presumptuous. The oath of a soldier is to the Constitution, not to any one particular leader, and there are soldiers of every kind of political persuasion you can imagine serving. But again, that's just me, what do I know?

Oh, here's what I know - I know that to the extent soldiers are protecting "freedom" that it MUST be the freedom to speak upon unpopular things and in unpopular fashions.

It would be absurd to say that we die for those back home to have the "freedom" to Heil Hitler or salute the flag or sing the leader's praises, or sing about how great the nation is.

Every dictator in history has given his people the "freedom" to do those things.

No, the freedom that some hypothetical soldier may be fighting for can only be the type of freedom where the lone German - however privileged some may feel him to be - folds his arms and refuses to salute Hitler.

Or the athlete - no matter how wealthy he is - kneeling instead of standing.

Or the student - the child of wealthy parents or not - burning a flag instead of saluting it.

Or any who march down a public street to express their frustration - with or without a permit telling them which street they can use.

Free speech is free to be annoying, or it's not free at all. And soldiers, to the extent they are killing and dying for it, can only be killing and dying for that kind, or their deaths are a mockery, and they are dying only for whichever government wants a nation of "yes men".

Dead GI Selfies

Memorial Day is apparently to be on the 29th of May this year, but I already saw the first Dead GI Selfie of Spring.  I hadn't seen one since Veteran's Day last year - and I hadn't missed these.

Here's what I'm talking about:

Because in the most militaristic nation on Earth, only Posey McPoser
remembers the real meaning of these days.  Attention.  For her.

So not a lot to add.  But I'll go ahead and add somethings.  And yeah, I'm a vet, so I get to speak.  As are two out of three of my sons, my Dad, my uncle, both my granddads.  So quiet down.  I can speak my piece, it's what we fought for, right?

Right?

Here's the sadness.  Memorial Day and Veterans Day substantially take note of the same thing.  Which is those who have either served, or more often, served and died in the United States Armed Forces.

Notice I do not say, "those who died for freedom", as universally, except on these days, we all justly complain about the lack of freedom in our nation.

Notice I do not say, "those who died that others might be free", as most of us over 25 know that they liberated absolutely ZERO nations, nor were they even sent there for those reasons.

Notice I do not say, "those who died fighting terrorism", because frankly, those in the military are usually responsible for others wishing to harm us.  I mean, see too many buildings being flown into over in Paraguay?

But there is sadness, and that's when good men and women sign up for one thing, and die for another.  We recruit teen kids - as young as 17 - to fight and die for "freedom", for "liberation", for "ending terrorism", but then we send them over to die for "profits", for "profits" and just for variety, for "profits".

And that is sad.

And if any spouse, or even girlfriend, wanted to go visit Arlington or any other cemetery to mourn the death of their loved one, I have nothing but respect and sympathy.  And if they want to mourn while imagining that he died for freedom, truth, justice and the American Way, then yeah, sure, I've nothing to say against that, at least not to them.

Certainly not then and there.

Their hearts are in the right places, and that's sufficient.

But then along comes Posey McPoser here, and she's hardly alone.  The one who puts some heavy duty planning into her mourning.  And if that's the level she felt it, I'd be the last to criticize.

Yet it is patently obvious that such is not the reasons for her pulling out all the stops.  Contemplate the above picture.  The artful pose, the specially made blanket facing the right way - the right way for what?  The dead soldier?  The baby?

Or, oh yeah, the cameraman she brought along with her in her "moment of grief" to click the picture!  Or pictures.  You want to get several and then sort through which one is cutest.  Er, specialist!

And she's even got her head lifted and leaning forward like she's having a special moment, talking to her dearly departed - except, which are we to believe?  That the cameraman was so unbelievably rude as to interrupt such unfeigned grief for the sake of his pic?

Or that the reason she's not turned towards this stranger to ask him to leave her in peace is that - oh, yeah, that she brought him here and is specifically pretending this pose so that he can snap the right shot of it!  For her to then choose the best one and post it on her feed!

Wow.  Private Died For Nothing would have wanted it that way, huh?  Not only did his death generate a 3 and 3/8ths rise in the 2nd quarter stock price in Halliburton back in '06, but his widow - or just former girlfriend - gets to use his grave as a big old social media net to grab some sweet, sweet "likes" and "shares" and "comments".

Ugh.  I mean, really, ugh.  Just ugh.  Greater love hath no man, that he gave of his life that Posey might have click-bait.

Were I his parents, or any kin of his at all, I'd have some darn sharp words to say to Posey there.  And Merry Christmas would not be among them.

Now listen, and listen carefully, because I wish to be clear.

Any of you want to go put flowers on a loved ones grave, that's great.  You want a picnic lunch there to feel closer to him, that's great.  You want to do anything you darn well please that lets you have a bit of peace in remembering him, who the heck am I to say a word?

It's all good.

But when you drag along another to take some pretty piccies and snappy snap shots, so you can blaze them over facebook, twitter, instagram and such, not for his sake, but for you to show how tight fitting your jeans are and what a superduperexpial-atrocious girlfriend you are, well, oops, you just lost me.

And quite a few others who are too reticent to speak up, but are thinking what I've been thinking.

Grieve.  In.  Private.

Learn some decorum.  Learn some respect.  Learn some dignity.

That is all.

No One Told Trump

Poor Donald Trump.  A victim of our nation's own propaganda.

No, no, come back.  I'm not actually bashing our President this time.  And I mean that honestly.  I saw a headline today about how he wants South Korea to pay a billion or so dollars for their missile defense, and the typically outraged replies from other power players, and it struck me all at once -

- President Trump honestly thinks those nations really are our allies!  He thinks they are our friends!

This accounted for his earlier wishes that Japan pay to defend themselves now, or Germany pay more for NATO and all his other gaffs on this issue!

He was taught - as we all were as kids - that these nations are our allies, and he bought that!

In truth, they are of course nations that we conquered and now occupy for our own benefit.  Germany, Japan, Turkey, South Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Panama, Cuba, the Philippines...etc.

Here we are waterboarding our future Philippine allies!

When you're raised in America, it somehow never crosses your mind to wonder, "How come all our allies are nations that we once were at war with?"

lol

So here's the problem that the power players have with Donald - he gives away the game. Or rather, he forces them to have to duck and weave to avoid the game being exposed.

Conquering a nation is relatively easy compared to holding it.  And the United States holds the vast number of nations it holds as much by diplomacy as military might.

Yes, yes, we make sure to have our bases in their nations - while not letting our "allies" have any of their bases here! - but more to the point, we let them pretend to be independent.  Because if we did not let them keep their pride, they'd have to rise up every ten years or so and we'd have to go to the trouble of putting them back down.

Oh, sure, some weaker nations like Hawaii and Guam and Alaska such we could just out and out overwhelm and absorb.  We sure had plenty of practice at that in the 19th century.  But for most others, best to take the more prudent course.  Holding a world takes more than might, it takes finesse.

So as tributary nations, all our “allies” are expected to agree with us on most all of our foreign policy adventures and to give us first call on their resources and productivity.  In exchange we guard them from other empires that would love to harness their work forces.

The former Soviets, now the Russians.  The Chinese.  Brazil or India, if they thought there was a power vacuum.  Indonesia.

Now along comes Trump and upsets that apple cart, not because he's stupid, but just because - and it really took me awhile to realize this - he honestly does not get that we occupy those nations!  His only error is in believing as he was taught, as we all were taught!  He thinks that we are guarding them out of kindness and that it’s time they paid their fair share!  

Most politicians rise up through the ranks, and so have time to learn this and get this.  But Donald leaped from the bottom to the top all at once and so had no chance to learn this as a governor or a congressman or even the mayor of a big city.

Had he occupied any of those positions, then he'd have dealt with some of these conquered provinces and been let in on what's what.  How to talk to them - and how not to.  How to make sure to give them a lot of lead in their leash.  Particularly the United Kingdom.

Yes, we occupy England, too, the difference being that they don't mind as their business and our business are so closely tied together that it's a coin flip as to who is wagging who!

Goodness.  I could go on.  But honestly he - and any reading this  who doubt me - need only get a map and a history book.  Look at where each U.S. Military base is - and read of which war we fought with that place before it was built.

Heck, this applies right here at home - think about how many of our cities are named after the conquered peoples or the "Forts" that held the troops that exterminated them!  Look at the distribution of bases west of the Mississippi!

We are the Anglo-American Empire, and sadly, our leader is under some false impression that we're just the main contributors to some kind of benevolent mutual aid society!  

Just Another Day of Infamy

Under the category of "attacks from the air upon military targets in nations that no state of war exists with", the United States holds the record.  A glance at the recent records shows that if not quite every day, we sure give it the good old college try.

Since 2004, and just in Pakistan, a nation we are not at war with, 2,499 to 4,001 militants and 425 to 966 civilians have been killed by U.S. drone bombing.

Just since 2015, and in Afghanistan, another nation we are not at war with, 2,319 to 3,042 militants and 124 to 121 civilians killed.

These are not the only nations that we are not at war with, but nonetheless routinely bombing both "militants" - roughly described as "any male above 12" - and civilians, including first responders and children.

Plenty of other nations, and for plenty of more years, and with plenty of more deaths have been the focus of our "drone bombing".  And who can count as high as the tally from all those who died in our bombing runs in general, from Korea to Vietnam, from Laos to Thailand, and on up?  "Death from Above", a great tattoo, but the cold reality for anyone living in the third world from the 1950s on up.

But December 7, 1941 is a "date which will live in infamy".  You know, because Japan, a nation we were criminally blockading (and ask how we'd react if we were blockaded) bombed our fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor, in a territory that we had stole from the native peoples.

The death count was 2,403, and all American sources I found list them as "non-combatants".  You know, because while they were in the military we weren't technically at war with Japan, just stopping their oil supply.

Ponder that.  If you aren't American, you need only be 12 and a male to be a "militant" and worthy of death.  But if you are American, then being an adult on a warship in full military uniform and tasked with occupying a conquered territory and waging undeclared war on a friendly nation makes you a "non-combatant".

Japan, for attacking us "by surprise" and not "declaring war first" made them so evil that it was supposedly morally justified to use atom bombs on two of their cities killing hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Nice celebration cake.  This won't ever backfire on us.

We, for attacking half a dozen nations "by surprise" and not "declaring war first" makes it....just another day.  And God only knows what over-the-top reaction we'd have if Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq or any other such decided to use atomic bombs to take out Pittsburgh and Miami.  Because, gee, after all, you know what the estimated troop losses those nations would suffer by invading us are?  Heck, they'd have no choice but to drop the big ones, right?  Right?

Japan, so all of you memorializing December 7th, 1941 will know, only took over nations that were under the dominion of European powers.  They were, so they claimed, "liberating" them from the European powers, which at that time, controlled most all the Southeast Asian nations and to some extent, even China.

Even Hawaii could be said - and was said - to be occupied by the United States.  The people there in the Kingdom of Hawaii never having agreed to be took over.

Now, I'd be the first to admit that the Japanese government was full of crap.  True, the places they invaded and took over had been groaning under oppressive rule, but the Japanese were not liberating them so much as "taking over the exploiting" of them.  And often times, in a crueler fashion.

But for those of you who don't delve into history so much, please know that not every nation was sad to see the Japanese kick the Europeans out, though they were also later glad to have the U.S. kick the Japanese out.  Then sad again when the U.S. and French and English tried to stay and exploit again, and happy when the Russians and Chinese kicked some out.

I guess no one likes being conquered, no matter the motives.  Even when it's called "liberation".

And just as no one in Southeast Asia enjoyed being "liberated" by any power, so do the Middle Easterners similarly fail to enjoy being "liberated" by us.  Especially when "liberation" - like when Japan did it 75 years ago - just means "give your resources to a new power, and let that power kill you indiscriminately and have say over who leads you and what your laws are".

We can't say that Japan was wrong 75 years ago unless we damn ourselves as wrong today.  And we can't say we are right today, without admitting Japan was right back then.  If bombing without warning when a nation harms you is a thing, then Japan did then only what we do now.

And heaven help us the day one of these nations does get some nukes and a delivery system to carry it here.  I, like everyone else, will surely be incredibly sad...at the consequences of our nation's own actions.

The Goose and the Gander

Do you support the policy of the United States in drone bombing various "targets" around the world, even though we are not at war with those nations, nor have any trials been gave to those targeted?  Do you find movies like "Eye in Sky" a great portrayal of how so long as we wrestle with it a bit, it's okay to do what we got mad at the Japanese for doing in 1941?  

Here then for your review is a special treat.  I, your humble and amicable anarchist, have gone into the future, so I can bring back a news blurb from that time, and you can see if you find it to your taste. 

Here you go:

The Bruces.  Bringing the total drone bombed this year to 822.

5 AUG 2072 (Springfield, MwAD) - The latest in the ramped up series of drone bombings by the People's Republic of China killed four and injured five early this morning in Rochester, a poorer suburb of Springfield, the capitol of the Midwest Administrative District.  Beijing has released a statement saying that Tibetan Nationalist Choden Ho was discovered to be hiding in the suburban home only after months of intensive tracking of him.  "We take reports of collateral damage seriously, and regret the unfortunate loss of life.  Yet the assessment was made, at the highest levels, that this would be the only opportunity for bringing justice to the man most responsible for the Hong Kong Blinder Bomb last year."

The virus bomb was believed to be responsible for the deaths of 2,284 people in Hong Kong last May, and an additional 35,000 plus permanently disabled, in what is believed to be the largest single terrorist attack (using a virus) to date.  Significant parts of Hong Kong are yet quarantined, and 98% of the survivors of the deadly plague are blind and/or mentally impaired. 

A U.S. State Department spokesperson from the Arlington Capitol Zone released a statement saying, "We continue to deplore these unwarranted and unprovoked attacks upon our soil.  Since the Tehran Accords of '58, the United States as refrained from drone bombing any nation that we are not formally at war with.  It is high time that that the PRC signed that Accord."

Officials in Beijing have consistently maintained that they will never sign any accord or treaty that is in any way binding upon them when it comes to their national security.  That they "reserve the right to use any and all means to guard their interests at home and abroad".  

James Bruce, a robocar programmer, his wife Trisha Bruce, and their infant daughter Madison (six months old) were among those killed.  Several neighbors were also treated for minor injuries sustained from the blast damages done to their own unreinforced old-style homes.  Choden Ho was believed to have secured a position as a cook/gardener with the family.