Sunday, October 26, 2008

Johnny and the Warmongers Forever

by Jeff Huber

Parts I, II and III of "Johnny and the Warmongers" described John McCain's intimate relationships with the neoconservatives and the military/industrial complex. The fourth and final essay in the series discusses how, even with a Barack Obama presidency, militarism will continue to be the single greatest threat to America's security.

John McCain's policy positions reflect the same formula for disaster that America has followed throughout the past eight years.

According to his campaign web site, "John McCain believes we must enlarge the size of our armed forces to meet new challenges to our security." What are these new challenges? "The global war on terrorism, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, threats from rogue states like Iran and North Korea, and the rise of potential strategic competitors like China and Russia." That sounds like the same old set of boogeymen the neoconservative Bush administration has been making scare noise about, and the "threat" they pose doesn’t sound any more credible coming from the mouth of John McCain.

Opinion from respected authorities and reports by leading defense analysis organizations like the Rand Corporation overwhelmingly agree that application of military force is the wrong means for fighting terrorism, that indeed, use of the military toward that purpose is counterproductive.

Iraq has invited us leave and Pakistan has invited us to stay out, and there's consensus among sentient observers that pursuit of victory in Afghanistan is a losing proposition.

The Bush administration has grown fond of telling us—over and over and over and over—that no nation on earth presents a greater challenge to us than Iran, but has yet to explain why that is. Our own Intelligence agencies avow that Iran has no nuclear weapons program. For years the administration and its yes men generals like David Petraeus have accused Iran of fomenting violence in Iraq, but has failed to credibly support any of those allegations. If anything, Iran's mediation between warring Iraqi Shiite factions is responsible for most of the reduced violence that the main stream media has so compliantly credited to Petraeus and the "surge" stratagem.

Iran's defense budget is less than one percent the size of ours. North Korea's entire gross domestic product is less than ten percent of our defense budget. It has a brace of nuclear weapons, but it can't afford to feed its people in the winter. If the North Koreans ever use their nukes on us or on one of our allies, we could bomb them back to the Stone Age in the blink of an eye. They're barely out of the Stone Age as it is.

Russia and China each spend ten percent or less on defense than we do. The Russians already lost the part they sit with trying to run with us in an arms race. The Chinese had sufficient ancient wisdom to learn from Russia's mistake rather than make it themselves. They're both so far behind now they'd never catch up, and they know it. They won't bleed themselves white economically trying to do the impossible.

We spend more money on defense than the rest of the world combined. We don't need a larger military. We don't need the one we have now. We don't need half of it.

Yet John McCain and the war oligarchs he fronts for would have us continue to buy $330 million fighter jets to dogfight rogue airliners, and $2 billion bombers to do the job of $600,000 cruise missiles, and $8 billion dollar aircraft carriers to chase pirates around the Indian Ocean, and a $63 billion missile defense system that couldn't shoot down a butterfly.

John McCain has some interesting ideas about how we can afford to continue our military adventurism. "The McCain administration would reserve all savings from victory in the Iraq and Afghanistan operations in the fight against Islamic extremists for reducing the deficit," according to Jobs for America: The McCain Economic Plan. "Since all their costs were financed with deficit spending, all their savings must go to deficit reduction."

Thus McCain reveals three major facets of the insanity behind his neoconservative core policies: He believes a) that there is something one can describe as "victory" to be had in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the "war" on terror, b) that he can save money through further deficit spending and c) that he can then make the debt go away merely by cutting up the credit cards.

It would be nice to think we're about to leave the lunacy of the last eight years in the rear view mirror, but it's not prudent to expect fairy tale narratives from real life. Call them what you like—mongers, hawks, neocons, Pavlov's dogs of war—they've been among us since apes first used sticks and bones to take food from other apes by force. This latest batch, Bill Kristol's gorillas, won't let a McCain loss on Election Day defeat their grand purpose. They'll skulk off and hunker down in the right wing media, think tank and academia sanctuaries and execute a Fabian strategy. They've already covered their retreat route with booby traps: Iraq, Iran, the Bananastans, Somalia, Palestine, Lebanon, North Korea, Russia, and now this monkey business in Syria, all of it is designed to distract attention and resources from our real security challenges involving the economy, education, health, the environment, infrastructure and so on.

They'll pressure the Obama administration to adopt their military-centric policies, employing media hypnosis to tell America, "You were winning when we left power," and setting the stage for a counteroffensive, for a great GOP hope like retired general David Petraeus to sweep in from the wings in 2012 and get things back to business as usual, the nourishment and maintenance of armed conflict and war profits everlasting.

We already won World War II and the Cold War, and we already lost Vietnam. We don't need to do those things again.

It's time to move on to new business.

Commander Jeff Huber, U.S. Navy (Retired) writes at Pen and Sword . Jeff's novel Bathtub Admirals (Kunati Books), a lampoon on America's rise to global dominance, is on sale now. Also catch Scott Horton's interview with Jeff at Antiwar Radio.

18 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:45 AM

    The new technology is showing up and it is warfare in a fashion we're not prepared to technologically combat ourselves. The censorship has begun in a far greater blanket of "thought/s" and "idea/s" with the internet "sharing." For example "laptops" can be controlled (for real and this is NOT science fiction), and I do not know about PCs that are not WIFI. Don't know whether or not it's a virus. But, it is definitely a control of the keyboard (think of Whoopie Goldberg and the computer being taken over in the movie -- the name escapes me). Perhaps this is the true out of control spending and we just do not get to be privy to the books (ah, not again - top secret WMDs).

    Have a back-up computer or perhaps two/three.

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  2. This is the first I've heard that this sort of thing has come to pass, but I can't say it surprises me. I have known several folks who work in what spawned from Don Rumsfeld's Office of Strategic Influence, and that's just the kind of thing I figured they were pursuing.


    Jeff

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  3. So, Commander, what does it mean, when we attack Syria, and somebody in the field says "We just decided to take matters into our own hands."

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  4. I'm not sure what it means yet, nor what it means that the only military person I saw quoted yesterday was a sergeant.

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  5. Anonymous12:44 PM

    I'm a tad surprised to see you qualify your reference to war-making under an Obama presidency by the word "even".

    Obama has made his unqualified support for the GWOT very clear and I, for one, have no expectation of less expansive war-making under an Obama presidency.

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  6. Anonymous3:16 PM

    Awake! says... hey Jeff- i'm not a military strategist, i'm just a punk from L.A. but do you think that the situation in Syria could be similar to the stunt Hitler pulled on the border of Poland? it seems to me that Syria and Lebanon have not swallowed the bait, but i would like your opinion...Thanks

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  7. You're so fabulous. I lover reading your stuff :)

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  8. RK,

    There's a real difference between McCain and Obama, but as I begin to discuss in this piece, putting Obama in the White House is just the first step in shutting down War Unlimited.

    Anon,

    Almost everyone seems to be aware that they're being baited, and refusing to take the hook.

    Nunya,

    Shucks. Thanks.

    Jeff

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  9. Anonymous10:01 PM

    Mr. Huber,

    Absolutely on target, sir.

    Problem is that should we cut the defense budget by 1/4, that would mean a reduction in roughly $120 Billion in DoD spending (almost equal in size to the Spring 2009 stimulus package).

    The economic impact, as well as political firestorm, would be an overwhelming challenge for any president. For Obama to attempt even a modest reduction in Defense spending in these times of "financial crisis" and recession seems unlikely.

    And its sad. Brainwashed masses...

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  10. Hey Jeff,

    Just stopping by to say hello and thanks for hopping over to Book Roast today. I always appreciate your support.

    Best,

    Karen Harrington

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  11. Anonymous,

    Yes, it's sad. We can only keep telling them what they can plainly see for themselves but don't.

    Hi, Karen. I hope the event went well.

    Best,

    Jeff

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  12. Anonymous3:28 PM

    Jeff Huber -- I genuinely hope in my heart of hearts that you are correct in your statement about OBAMA "shutting down WAR, INC."

    Tragically, GUT/INTUITION, tells me that OBAMA is their boy (the 6 families that own the 400 families of "trillionaires" who create world economic policy), by and through the game they play from BIRTH!

    They, them, those families of pure criminal insanity as the inheritance extra, CHOOSE THE CANDIDATE! (See "Political Ponerology" by Andrew M. Lobaczewski.)

    Thus, when the OBAMA/BIDEN "Presidency" DOES NOT complete the GWOT "future dream" (2012 only 200 billion inhabiting the planet, see H.Kissinger's 1972 400 page paper), then AND ONLY THEN, can we count on this indecent stockholder trading of flesh, to rethink its abomination of "wealth," on planet earth.

    In other words, until the criminally insane are transparent in how they grow wealth, we the masses are doomed to be the food to grow their future wealth which is the planet and all its natural resources.

    Humans become simply "unnecessary feeders/eaters."

    War is the greatest orgasm for the criminally insane. They have reached brain engineered levels of no-connectedness to their own species.

    What we the "human majority" must do, is, cull the criminally insane from our species - rather than the other way around, which is obviously the dynamic on this earth, globally.

    How to do this is what we must all begin to discuss, in a unified manner of common sense.

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  13. I said it's a "first step."

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  14. Anonymous6:57 AM

    Ok, a "first step" is also discussed, and even "practiced" in the AA program - as well as "other" programs to rehabilitate the insanity?

    Is a first step electing, once again, yet another "globalist" wannabe ... or, let us discuss the fact that the criminally insane are in charge of planet earth and just what do we do, with this great huge elephant in the living room that is destroying the family from the inside!

    Cicero's quote about the traitor cannot be improved upon.

    Your thinking and writing, as far as I can see and read, is the BEST with respect to the ARMED FORCES and the MILITARY SPENDING. As well as, the obvious ... politically and historically you are not just the best, you are the correct "first step" in the truth about it all.

    Therefore, I do hold you to very high standards indeed.

    Please forgive me should I appear to be a force of negativity. I assure you my intention is to "create a brush fire," about the fact, that, until the criminally insane are exposed and therefore transparent, a first step is perhaps yet another lesson in futility. Names, places, and all the sordid details must be put into focus for all to see who the 6 families are and their zombie mass murdering government "employees" who are run by the 400 trillionaires that rape, pillage and plunder.

    Kings and queens of old are rolling over in their graves at this pre Magna Carta in the 21st Century. No?

    Why not begin with the full transparency of any/all stock portfolio of our government subjects and all those who "profit" in the future off "retirements."

    What profits and what retirements? The European Union almost got away with silently replacing stocks with the GREEN movement of Prince Philip, et al. (World Wildlife Fund, 1965), to steal all of America's real property.

    Stock transfer is the problem.

    Until the common stock (we the people) stop the preferred stock (those that "rule") from trading the many for the few, as disposable commodities ... well, just do the maths Mr. Jeff Huber, and we can count the first step as exposure of any/all EARNINGS by and through the trading of flesh.

    From the CCA stock in prisons (trace the tap root to FRANCE), to the Taser International stock sold by the thugs from New York, across the nation for MILLIONS, before selling their stock.

    It really is "all about the money," alright, however, the Judges who rule against the people in the US, are retiring "high on the hog," so to speak.

    Sick systems in the US, from the CHEMICALS IN OUR SKIES (oops, what stockholders are capitalizing on killing us all by way of BIG PHARMA spraying our skies!?).

    Jeff, just the high crime of chemicals sprayed into the skies daily, for the stockholders to grow their retirements, is a high crime against humanity and yet the only first step taken about it in Congress, appears to be by Dennis Kuchinch and not the OBAMA/BIDEN camp.

    This should be a first step by any "President Elect" in the US --

    Stopping the slow death kill by the chemicals sprayed into our skies and this has been ongoing for more than 40 years now?

    But, the harvesting of our childrens' brains is the highest crime and this has been ongoing since the Rockefeller family thought to force Ritalin in the public schools.

    Now we have so many chemicals ingested and not digested that our count of mentally ill in the US has climbed far higher than the 28%, that it was quite a number of years ago.

    In closing, what is the first step in "how to" ENLIGHTEN the mentally insane victims to vote intelligently for the criminally insane predators?

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  15. Anonymous7:13 AM

    Oh, and the GOLD must be discontinued.

    Meaning, the GOLD that is used to purchase sock puppets (think Georgian "Prez"), must be tracked and traced to the families who use it to purchase the "leaders" of the "free market."

    Gold must be fully transparent, else it is used and abused since the beginning of time.

    Gold as a commodity that cannot be further exploited by the criminally insane, or forget any first step in recovery.

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  16. Anonymous,

    Thanks for the vote of confidence.

    Jeff

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  17. Anonymous9:23 AM

    Thanks for your verve, since it is the energy of human creative genius that is our greatest asset.

    I do not need to sing to your choir, however, regarding this fact/truth.

    Jeff, do demand the FAA track the chemicals being sprayed in the sky.

    I know you know about the "chemtrails," and I also know that you know exactly/precisely "how to" take the "first step" in a total exposure of what it is.

    I'd not be an anon, but I can't stand all the hoop-la in signing into these darn blogs.

    Best, xoxo "Biloxi"

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  18. Anonymous9:42 AM

    Dearest Jeff Huber:

    I do have an attitude. My mother's second cousin, my cousin once removed was/is Karl Marx.

    Thus, I've been told I "come by my rebellion, honestly." Genes are indeed powerful.

    My RECKONING is for the ZIONISTS, as they are called, or ILLUMINATI, as the crown of what they think THEMSELVES to be.

    The EVIL must be turned around:

    LIVE - LIVE

    NOT BACKWARDS, EVIL!

    We are born FREE and the creative process of LIFE (BIRTH) IS TO LIVE.

    The time has come and gone and been here before only to disappear and for what purpose!?

    To ALLOW a number of collectivist totalitarian criminally insane (from inbreeding for far too long now), decide the destiny of the human species!?

    What is a brain cell for, when it does nothing, but buzz wildly, for those who create mass murder as a form of destiny!

    In other words, why do we have brains when we do not use them to think through the greatest problem on earth -- 6 billion (plus or minus) humans being enslaved by ONE HUNDRED MILLION (more or less) cultist predators, in reality.

    We need every FAA flight record for the chemical companies who are profiteering from the mass killing, (slow but certain death), in spraying the skies of the earth.

    Thank you - I am counting on this from you since you know how to and can.

    Best again, Biloxi

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