Memorial Day (plus bonus links)

(Apologies for the profanity that is sprinkled throughout my writing. When I re-read my posts and discover the frequent vulgarities, I think to myself, "Goddamn it, what the hell was I thinking?")

Memorial Day. It's a great day to say that I do not "support the troops", I do not believe that soldiers who fight (or fought) in Iraq or Afghanistan are heroes, and I am sick to death of all the obsequious kow-towing for the corporate stormtroopers and oil nazis (yeah, I said it) who are the fingers and toes, the teeth and the claws of Cheney and Bush and the rest of their vile syndicate of neocon pigs.

I apologize to those fellow bloggers whom I respect so highly, and who I am surely going to offend with this post, who write of honoring the fallen. But I say this "I oppose the war but support the troops" line was bullshit 15 years ago when it accompanied our first war against Iraq, and it is bullshit today.

"The troops" are not defending our country, or our freedoms, or our way of life (unless you define our way of life as an orgy of consumerism and excess consumption). They're carrying out the marching orders of powermongers whose gluttony is boundless. Invade and conquer, destroy and possess, crush all dissent, crush all opposition, death and carnage from above and below. Dick Cheney says they're defending democracy, so they must be heroes.

Give me a fucking break. The troops are either 1) gullible dupes who got sucked into hell as victims of their own ignorance, in which case they have my sincere and utmost sympathy, or 2) they are violent assholes who love to shoot and kill (and they are out there in droves), or 3) they are rightwing idealogues who share the sentiments of Cheney and Bush and the rest, in which case I say to hell with them, they (2&3) are more dangerous to our country than the foreign terrorists.

Memorial Day. Yeah, I honor the memory of those whose sacrifice actually meant something for this country, who defended America and what it really stood for, the freedoms which this administration wants to abolish (using "the troops" as their instrument). But as for the dupes of the military-industrial complex, they have only my sympathy. And the willing participants of American imperial expansionism and exploitation receive only my contempt.

SPECIAL BONUS LINKS

A Brief History of United States Interventions, 1945 to the Present

Let the Bloody Truth Be Told: A Chronology of U.S. Imperialism

Jerry Falwell Burns in Hell

...actually, I don't believe in hell. The headline is simply my way of saying “good riddance to bad rubbish.”

Falwell, like so many others throughout the history of Christianity, used that religion to enrich and empower himself, and as a vehicle to propagate his hatred and bigotry. To him, Christianity was a force to be used to crush opposition and dominate his victims. It was a strict code of control he wanted to force on the rest of us.

I’m not a Christian, but if I was, I would say, “Thank God Jerry Falwell is finally dead.”

Why Do I Get So Depressed?

Forgive me truthseekers, for it has been a long long time since I have blogged. I used to give explanations for that, but my wife has clued me into "Blogging Without Guilt", which is blogging without getting all anxious and guilt-ridden during those periods of not blogging. I'll try... but I still feel like I have somehow failed to meet my obligations by not blogging night and day. Argh!

In the time I've been away, I have continued to accumulate links to the extent that, laid end-to-end, they would reach to the recently-discovered Earth-like planet and back again 78 times. I'll bet there are bloggers on that planet with the same problem.

So, I am sliding back into the fray by looking at the general topics of the day, as it were (I maintain my nerd status by using the phrase "as it were" wherever possible). The big topics at the moment are the war and the 2008 presidential elections (global warming is on the back burner for now, so to speak).

Today, I'll start with the war:

One thing that bothers me to no end about the war is that the press is absolutely silent on the real reason for it. The Democrats never mention this either, nor do anti-war pundits for the most part. Occasionally it is briefly referenced, but not often enough or emphatically enough, even though it is possibly the most important aspect of the war(s).

The purpose of the war is the war. It was never about terrorism, or WMDs, or Saddam Hussein, or Osama Bin Laden, or Al Qaida, or the Taliban, or about "spreading democracy". Oil is a part of it, but it is secondary to the overall purpose. Oil is, if you'll pardon the metaphor, gravy. The purpose of the war is to wage war, permanently.

We know the Bush administration neocon tactic of engaging in warfare to manipulate American society and facilitate the success for their agenda, both foreign and domestic. Ordinarily, approval ratings skyrocket for world leaders who wage war, and that rule held fast for this president for quite a while. But that aside, the Bush/Cheney/Neocons are the military-industrial complex, and they need to maintain a permanent presence in the middle east to maintain their power here. They never, never intended to do any of the noble (or ignoble) things they claimed, like establishing peace, rebuilding, or any of that. Those poor people in the middle east are lambs to the slaughter, as far as this presidential administration is concerned. It's goal is to remain there permanently and perpetuate bloody warfare forever, or at least for as long as they live (they couldn't care less about future generations). It's their business. They are the Halliban, they are the Carlyle group, they are the Project for the New American Century, they are in the business of waging war to enrich themselves with money and power.

Until the press addresses that issue powerfully enough to capture the interest of the mainstream public, the situation will not change.