Big War Coming

[dreissig]

Americans have gotten way too touchy about military stuff. There's such willingness to believe in the magic that happens when a war starts that it's inevitable that we'll have another war, this one a big one. As soon as we find an enemy, it's going to happen. We are actively looking for trouble.

When I say "touchy" I mean touchy. I've never seen anything like it. When you say anything about a politician's military background, his followers go apeshit. It's not just Republicans anymore, it's Democrats too.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[krkaufman]

8. Which candidate is "pro-war"

Which candidate is "pro-war" -- other than Joementum (his words)?

For that matter, which candidate is anti-war?

And then there's the gray area in between the two.

[morgan2]

20. its not about being "pre-war" or "anti-war"

A person makes up his mind on a case by case basis.

[King_Crimson]

2. Well...

Heavy talk of attacking Pakistan! Keeping in mind they possess nukes!
:nuke:

[buckeye1]

18. Link?

n/t

[Faygo Kid]

3. Not sure about your point

What war? With who? What Dems? Your post is vague, with all due respect. Have you seen the documentary "Fog and War?" Might like to check it out.

[dreissig]

11. War Is a Force

I'm only obliquely referring to Chris Hedges' remarkable book, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning.

Hedges' message is an important one as we rush headlong into war, particularly for all who demonize the "axis of evil" without acknowledging the role we have played in creating the despair and rage that have turned men and women into terrorists. As Hedges shows, it is difficult for non-combatants to resist the national myth, to penetrate behind the approved rhetoric, to waver from the absolute, unquestioning patriotism demanded by the state. But some must do so if we are to keep our moral compass and begin to heal the world (i.e., to address the despair felt by both sides)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1586480499/103-1921543-1202260?v=glance

War's ability to bring about a sort of order might explain why Bush retains popularity even though nearly everyone agrees he's in over his head. Catch him in a lie, and he repeats it without shame.

I have learned not to question the military background of prominent politicians. Their followers go apeshit. Military values are so strong these days that war is inevitable.

[KissMyAsscroft]

4. Every Empire goes through this...

Eventually you bite off more than you can chew out of arrogance, your enemies combine and voila! WWIII.

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. Well word is we're going to send troops

into Pakistan soon looking for OBL. (Whom I swear is locked up in a cage right now and just waiting for the right time to be trotted out.)

[krkaufman]

10. Right...!

But they need to mount the propaganda operation -- that "they're sending in troops" -- to account for his capture. (Much like the fact that Saddam was actually captured/contained at that farmhouse by Kurds.)

[DuctapeFatwa]

6. There are a couple of pretty big ones going on right now

And it will get bigger, when the regime invades Iran and Syria.

[PurityOfEssence]

7. Oh, be Syriaus, willya?

They'd LIKE to, wouldn't they?

That big "Troop Rotation" would be a mighty handy way to thump on the Syrians, wouldn't it? Nobody'd see much wrong with everyone moving around like that, until the ones there don't come home as the new ones deploy.

I know, it sounds outrageous. It probably is, but ya never know with this mob. Remember: Israel will give a big hand with this one when the time comes...

[lastknowngood]

9. The video game generation

and their instant gratification parents. Let me digress I have a theory it's hopefully crazy but, I believe the new "reality TV shows"
where people get voyeuristic pleasure at the emotional and physical pain of others is an intentional deadening of our senses to the coming torture and murder for entertainment that will be used to keep the rabble in line while America burns.

[Bitchgoddes]

13. that sounds..

strange enough to be true. Nothing is impossible with the Bushies in charge

[dreissig]

14. More Than Video Games

Chris Hedges addressed the graduating class of Rockford College as the invited commencement speaker. His remarks about war were so poorly received that there was nearly a riot. I'd argue that this is an early symptom of war fever.

Here is part of the text of his remarks:

Fear engenders cruelty; cruelty, fear, insanity, and then paralysis. In the center of Dante's circle the damned remained motionless. We have blundered into a nation we know little about and are caught between bitter rivalries and competing ethnic groups and leaders we do not understand. We are trying to transplant a modern system of politics invented in Europe characterized, among other things, by the division of earth into independent secular states based on national citizenship in a land where the belief in a secular civil government is an alien creed. Iraq was a cesspool for the British when they occupied it in 1917; it will be a cesspool for us as well. The curfews, the armed clashes with angry crowds that leave scores of Iraqi dead, the military governor, the Christian Evangelical groups who are being allowed to follow on the heels of our occupying troops to try and teach Muslims about Jesus.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0520-13.htm

Hedges was not allowed to continue. Significantly, the community of Rockford blamed the disturbance on the speaker, not on the audience.
http://www.rrstar.com/localnews/your_community/rockford/20030520-4814.shtml

[Minstrel Boy]

12. Big war here, now.

This may be the "phony war" period for most Americans, who've resumed their regular programming, but this is it, and it "may not end in our lifetime." It's the petro-fascists peak oil end game.

Does anyone else have the sense that the rest of the world is holding its breath to see if the United States can be put at least half-ways right in November? If it isn't, expect an acceleration and a coordination of international measures to stop the New American Century, and lines in the sand to be unequivocally drawn against the Bush oil imperium.

[brokensymmetry]

16. I think you're right.

Watch the dollar and interest rates - if rates start to go up, or the dollar slides much more, then the end will be nasty.

[K-W]

15. There wont be a big war. Anyone who could fight big has nukes.

We will just continue to create wars that we easily win, but turn into quagmires to resolve.

[maggrwaggr]

17. Rome

When I saw the plane crash into the WTC my first instinctive thought was "they're gonna make us turn into Rome".

[Tinoire]

19. I agree. Big war coming and inevitable. People don't think anymore

History gets re-written before our very eyes and even in this age of TIVOs, VCRs & rewind buttons, people's heads are buried so far down in the sand that the government can sell us anything & we happily lap it up!

I've given up.

The scenario you see, I think is inevitable.

That's right folks... don't cut the Pentagon budget by even 15%... Keep it there... Deep down, we all know damn well what it's for. What we've been building towards.

[Minstrel Boy]

22. And we thought the 20th century was bloody.

Just wait. We ain't seen nothin' yet. God knows what the 22nd century will hold. I'm thinking it won't resemble Star Trek.

The tipping point may be on us for the peaking of oil and gas. The petro-fascists certainly know what's upon us. Cheney's energy policy: take it all.

Very dark days for humanity, these. I don't have much hope that global civilization will survive them.

Resource wars, climate change, the corruption of the food chain. It's back to the caves for us, if we're lucky. Hey, we had a good run, and have no one to blame but ourselves. Maybe the dolphins will do better.

[Woodstock]

21. Pakistan?

Bad stuff is going on there, Bush will have to make a move sooner or later.