You Cannot "Support the Troops": Bergdahl Example
floyd- Updated: 2022-08-17
- By: Dr. Floyd
- Summary: No less a critic of endless, lawless U.S. militarism than General Smedley Butler (1881-1940) clarified that
- Tags: military industrial complex, war on terror, U.S. terrorism, iraq, afghanistan, 911
Video Title: Two members of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's unit in Afghanistan spoke to AP about the recent prisoner exchan
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9xg27s87ss
Analysis:
I wonder what medic Cornelison and team-leader Buetow think was the most convincing evidence to justify caging, for years in USA's Guantanamo torture-chamber, the various alleged Taliban Afghanis for whom the U.S. traded Bergdahl. Provisionally, my two predictions are (1) that Cornelison and Buetow have no idea what they are talking about, and (2) that zero convincing evidence exists to justify the U.S. having caged those Afghanis in USA's Guantanamo torture-chamber for years.
Regarding Bergdahl: As always, under de facto U.S. military law, it is illegal to support the troops. You can only support the policies. Thus, it was only pretense and irony when, during the 2000s beginning to USA's terrorism–in Iraq, Afghanistan, and beyond–the chickhawks and war-worshipers of USA's military-industrial-complex began pretending that it is the political and moral duty of all citizens to "support the troops"–as the traitorous chickhawks and war-worshipers of USA's military-industrial-complex were feeding those soldiers to stakeholders of the high-tech weapons industry through wars based on manifest lies. As put in War is a Rackett (1935) by General Smedley Butler, the most decorated soldier in U.S. history during his time:
WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.
In the World War (WW1) 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 income 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 dugout? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried the 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 self-same 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 again gathering, as they are today, I must face it and speak out.
I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service, and during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
Having devoted most of the years of my life to the study of legalized murder, by which I mean the so-called science of war, I find it impossible to accept the theories of those idealists who are innocent enough to believe that the attainment of world peace is merely a question of joining the World Court, the league of Nations (now, United Nations) or some other international association for the promotion of brotherly love.
I have said in the past, and I still repeat, that war is a racket. I made this charge long before the Nye Committee of the United States Senate exposed the munitions industry and proved that—for a respectable profit—any manufacturer of armaments will sell his guns to an enemy of his own country. The Nye Committee uncovered some astounding information about the munitions industry, including a confession to profits as high as 800 percent.
–Dr. Floyd