Remembrance Sunday 2013

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Once again we have been commemorating Remembrance Sunday, and tomorrow, November 11, Armistice Day, as per usual, a two minute silence at 1100 hrs in memory of the thousands who died on all sides in the War to End all Wars.

Problem is that the War to End all Wars did not end all war and that ever since we seem to have more wars and "conflicts" than at any time in history though, aside from World War Two, none have come close to home.

Still many on all sides lost their lives. War is, as Harry Patch, the last Tommy who dies not so long ago, said "organized murder" and most of the time it is fought not for freedom but so that the capitalists can lay their hands on some resource or other.

It is now 95 years ago that the guns fell - well on November 11 at 11 a.m. to be exact - that the guns fell silent in World War One but nothing, bar the way war is conducted, seems to have changed. The poor are still used as cannon fodder so that the rich can get richer.

This is something that must remembered also when we remember... but it is being kept quiet as we keep having one lovely war after the other.

Wars and conflicts will continue until the people refuse to participate in them and no longer buy into the lies that they are fought to preserve our freedoms. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The truth is that they are, in 99 our of a 100 cases, fought so that corporations and governments can enrich themselves at the costs of the lives of, predominately, the poor, the working class, who is pressed into the service of the country.

We have attacked Iraq under the guise of “war on terror” and non-existent weapons of mass destruction and the powers-that-be knew very well that there were no WMDs and then we went into Afghanistan again to combat terrorism while bringing some nice terrorism to the people there.

Both Iraq and Afghanistan are now worse off than they were before and it had nothing to do with fighting terrorism or WMDs but everything with oil and minerals.

Young men and women have given their lives supposedly defending freedom and democracy and for bringing democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan but it was a lie on all counts.

Our politicians stand at the Cenotaph in Whitehall (and other monuments) shedding crocodile tears for the fallen while, at the same time, veterans returning from the conflict zones are left without care and homes.

Now the USA and the UK are eying a possible intervention – and let no one believe that they don't if they don't get their way – in Syria and why? It is quite simple; once again black gold, aka oil and the pipeline that is being planned from Kirkuk to the Mediterranean and through Syria is simply the shortest and therefore cheapest route.

If they really would be concerned about the human rights of people they would have, long ago, hit Mugabe in Zimbabwe over the head but there is no oil to speak off there that can be stolen. Thus no intervention.

Politicians and corporations are the only ones who benefit from those wars and the multi-national corporations especially. We must not forget that Krupp guns and other German hardware were in use on both sides of the war in the East during World War Two. It is the warmongers, the arms industry, and others, who make the profits on the backs of the young (and not so young) men and women they sacrifice happily (it's not their sons and daughters) and they happily supply both sides.

The people, if they are not whipped up into nationalistic frenzy, would happily shake hands with those on the other side as they do not have any quarrels with them. German socialists and communists and even social-democrats fought side by side with Soviet soldiers against a common enemy, and that was a true enemy, Hitlerite fascism. And this was also seen when ordinary Tommies and Germans celebrated Christmas together in no man's land.

Wars are, predominately, created by greed for land or resources and have very little to do with freedom and the protection of liberties. War is nothing but organized murder perpetrated by the ruling class forcing the lower classes to do the dirty work.

If someone is not infringing on my liberties then he is not my enemy. Anyone, however, who is trying to oppress me, and my brothers, is my enemy.

Let's resist wars and the call to arms, unless it is really for our freedoms, and create a world at peace. We owe it to ourselves and the Planet.

© 2013

War is a racket

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

War is a racket, said Maj. General Smedley Butler, USMC, one of the most highly decorated officers in the US military in his small book of 1933, and he was, alas, ever so correct.

Here is an extract of what Major General Smedley D. Butler wsaid and wrote in 1933:

"In the World War (and he was here referring to World War One. The Second World War was still a few years away) a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows. How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few -- the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.

And what is this bill?
This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.
For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, I must face it and speak out..."

...war is for the profit of a few, at the expense of many...

-- Maj Gen Smedley D Butler, USMC, 1933.

And one can add very little to that. War is indeed a racket to profit but the warmongers at the expense of the poor man (and woman) in the street.

War also has nothing whatsoever to do with religion, with creating freedom or with exporting democracy, nor any other lofty notions that politicians try to sell like snake oil salesmen.

War is about money and power; money and power of the few at the expense of the rest of us all.

“If only more of today's military personnel would realize that they are being used by the owning elite as a publicly subsidized capitalist goon squad, “ Maj Gen Butler also said, and once again this is something that the men and women of our military really need to come to consider.

They have to think for themselves as to whether they really want to be the good squad for the exploiters of their fellow men. If they do then they must also be prepared to reap the whirlwind that ensues, and not just from the sides of the perceived enemy, the side that they are taught is the enemy, but also from their own countrymen and -women.

War, as Harry Patch, who was the last surviving soldier of World War One, who died in 2009 age 111, said is organized murder and nothing else.

War is organized murder of the fighting men of all sides as well as of civilians of all sides involved in the conflict. And it is all, while done in the name of freedom and democracy, nowadays at least, a racket in which some people make millions and even billions while the poor are forced – and forced it was in Word War One (and also many other wars before and after) – to die for those profits.

War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think that they are going to profit from it, and this has been the case in the two World Wars as much as in wars before and after. And it is still true for the wars and conflicts in which the likes of the USA and Britain are involved in in the second decade of the 21st century.

While in austerity Britain the poor are being squeezed and all public services are being reduced two budgets are ring-fenced, that of Foreign Aid, and the Defense Budget. Alone getting the British forces out of the foreign battle fields such as Afghanistan and returning them to what their brief is, namely the defense of the realm, and last time I checked Afghanistan and Iraq were not part of the realm, would, more or less, cancel all the debts of the United Kingdom in one foul swoop.

However, the aim is also not, regardless what the snake oil salesmen masquerading as our elected representatives try to tell us, to bring democracy to those countries – as it would not work in the first place – but the target is the mineral wealth of those countries and that is also the reason why, sooner or later, British military boots will be on the ground in Mali. Thar's gold in them thar hills – well, in the desert – and that is the target. Not fighting any illusionary Islamist world organization referred to as Al Qaeda as, in fact, there is no such organization and never has been.

The war – oh, sorry, conflict – in Iraq was to topple a leader who was first of all an CIA assent gone sour and the main reason was liquid gold, aka oil. Nothing to do with bringing democracy, prosperity, and all the other lies. It was about oil, plain and simple.

The Afghan conflict is about oil to a degree – even though, as far as known, Afghanistan does itself has no significant oil – but more importantly it is about the minerals, including gold, silver and copper, in them thar hills (and mountains), and about the rare earths. As the former commander of the US forces in that theater General Petraeus said there are billions – with many S's in that country and that was the reason that he said the US could and should not leave. It is obvious where some high-ranking military men stand in this issue and the issue of the racket; right there with the warmongers.

Many fighting men and -women have given their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan and it has absolutely nothing to do with liberating the country and about bringing democracy.

Bringing democracy to any place by force of arms is not going to work in the first place. But then again, that is not and never has been the intention of such actions.

The intention, as far as Iraq was and is concerned was and is oil and the access to same and the saber rattling against Iran also is for the very same reasons, namely oil.

While Afghanistan does not have oil, per se, it is also there about oil in that by having control of the country and with the control of Iraq and bases in the various -stans to the north Iran is almost encircled in a pincer and thus pressure can be applied and even, in the end, military force, to “liberate” Iranian oil for the world market. Furthermore Afghanistan's hills and mountains are full of valuable minerals and rare earths which are ever so important in today's industry. Hence the reason that the US will want to keep a tight control on that country, either direct by keeping the military there or indirect via puppet governments.

The ones that lose out, as per usual, are the military men and -women who are being sacrificed on the altar of profiteering and the people of the country who are being exploited and the country itself and the environment. It has nothing whatsoever to do with freedom and democracy but everything with profits for the military-industrial complex and the powers-that-be.

“Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy”, said Henry Kissinger and this is exactly how the powers-that-be see the men and women of the military.

War is a racket and until the people, and especially military personnel realize that in the same way as Maj. Gen. Butler did and spoke about, and the people themselves, the powers-that-be will continue with their machinations.

© 2013