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War is a Racket

Most think it was hippie philosopher who warned against the expansion and pervasive nature of the "military/industrial complex". It was Ike.
 
The Pentagon is currently 'disposing' billions of dollars worth of equipment used in Afghanistan. Yep, War is a Racket.


The massive disposal effort, which U.S. military officials call unprecedented, has unfolded largely out of sight amid an ongoing debate inside the Pentagon about what to do with the heaps of equipment that won’t be returning home. Military planners have determined that they will not ship back more than $7 billion worth of equipment — about 20 percent of what the U.S. military has in Afghanistan — because it is no longer needed or would be too costly to ship back home.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/scrapping-equipment-key-to-afghan-drawdown/2013/06/19/9d435258-d83f-11e2-b418-9dfa095e125d_story.html?hpid=z1
 
Thanks for posting. That video got me to do some reading. I found this quote from Mark Twain

“There is the case of the Philippines. I have tried hard, and yet I cannot for the life of me comprehend how we got into that mess. Perhaps we could not have avoided it—perhaps it was inevitable that we should come to be fighting the natives of those islands—but I cannot understand it, and have never been able to get at the bottom of the origin of our antagonism to the natives. I thought we should act as their protector—not try to get them under our heel. We were to relieve them from Spanish tyranny to enable them to set up a government of their own, and we were to stand by and see that it got a fair trial. It was not to be a government according to our ideas, but a government that represented the feeling of the majority of the Filipinos, a government according to Filipino ideas. That would have been a worthy mission for the United States. But now—why, we have got into a mess, a quagmire from which each fresh step renders the difficulty of extrication immensely greater. I'm sure I wish I could see what we were getting out of it, and all it means to us as a nation.”[82]

Truly amazing how apropos that is to so many other wars.
 
61raddeac said:
Thanks for posting. That video got me to do some reading. I found this quote from Mark Twain

“There is the case of the Philippines. I have tried hard, and yet I cannot for the life of me comprehend how we got into that mess. Perhaps we could not have avoided it—perhaps it was inevitable that we should come to be fighting the natives of those islands—but I cannot understand it, and have never been able to get at the bottom of the origin of our antagonism to the natives. I thought we should act as their protector—not try to get them under our heel. We were to relieve them from Spanish tyranny to enable them to set up a government of their own, and we were to stand by and see that it got a fair trial. It was not to be a government according to our ideas, but a government that represented the feeling of the majority of the Filipinos, a government according to Filipino ideas. That would have been a worthy mission for the United States. But now—why, we have got into a mess, a quagmire from which each fresh step renders the difficulty of extrication immensely greater. I'm sure I wish I could see what we were getting out of it, and all it means to us as a nation.”[82]

Truly amazing how apropos that is to so many other wars.
Click to expand...

Even more amazing is the "Conquest of Abundance" to use Paul Feyerabend's unhappy phrase. Not everybody wants to live in a world made flat so that google can make you a better commodity as you sit around drinking one of Schultzies
frappacino's. Not everybody clamors to worship the next god damn smart phone or the latest talentless idol. Truly democratic thinking would support world diversity...look, just cause I ate some cous cous for dinner last night doesn't make me a multi cultural wunderkind. I am no different than the average product of American education: I don't know jack about geography and less about other cultures...just cause I flagged down a taco truck doesn't make me "worldly". Really, outside of their raw materials and occasional dietary delights wtfk am I taking/learning about other cultures!?

Nothing. Zip. Nada. I am more interested in seeing their landscapes dotted with Bob Evans, Sheetz, Wall Mart, a coffee slurping maiden and Golden Arches. Not everybody's picture of life and freedom, eh?
 
Lectro said:
Even more amazing is the "Conquest of Abundance" to use Paul Feyerabend's unhappy phrase. Not everybody wants to live in a world made flat so that google can make you a better commodity as you sit around drinking one of Schultzies
frappacino's. Not everybody clamors to worship the next god damn smart phone or the latest talentless idol. Truly democratic thinking would support world diversity...look, just cause I ate some cous cous for dinner last night doesn't make me a multi cultural wunderkind. I am no different than the average product of American education: I don't know jack about geography and less about other cultures...just cause I flagged down a taco truck doesn't make me "worldly". Really, outside of their raw materials and occasional dietary delights wtfk am I taking/learning about other cultures!?

Nothing. Zip. Nada. I am more interested in seeing their landscapes dotted with Bob Evans, Sheetz, Wall Mart, a coffee slurping maiden and Golden Arches. Not everybody's picture of life and freedom, eh?
Click to expand...

At least you have choice... I guess!

Other countries force English learning on their students. How's that for choice?
 
Yes. You have to take a language to proficiency which is 4 semesters if you start from the bottom.
 
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