Beware the Termites of War
JUL 03, 2026
In July 1776, courageous colonists came together to declare their independence from the perceived tyranny of King George III. “Rebels” like Thomas Jefferson urged the colonists to start down a new path, one of independence from the Crown, one that put life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness before fealty to a king. It was a long-shot effort, but the rebels somehow pulled it off.
Today, America has a new “king.” It’s the national security state, with all its threat inflation, its wars, and its appetite for more, always more. Combine that with President Trump and self-styled Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and their reckless pursuit of war irrespective of the Constitution and of international law, let alone Christian concepts of morality, and you have a form of tyranny that Americans must declare their independence from.
So, consistent with Jefferson, we need a new American revolution, or if you prefer a restoration of the republic, one that recognizes that immense imperial militaries are corrosive to democracy and individual liberty.
2026 can be a new 1776 if America rejects the tyranny of war and ever-higher Pentagon spending. America needs new sons and daughters of liberty, committed to diplomacy and peace, as fostered in a true participatory democracy that puts the needs of U.S. citizens first.
America’s Founders knew that persistent war is a most insidious and pernicious enemy to our freedoms. America today is a structure infested by the termites of war. If we fail to get rid of them, our house will collapse in a pile of dust.
Since 1776, many patriotic Americans have warned of the dangers of persistent warfare and steroidal military spending. Perhaps most famously, President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 spoke of the immense waste of weapons spending: how humanity would crucify itself on a cross of iron if wars endured and war budgets kept rising. He spoke again in 1961 of how America’s military-industrial complex was threatening the fundamental freedoms and liberty of Americans, especially if that complex was allowed to spread and grow. Ike’s warning went unheeded as America fought disastrous and unnecessary wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and elsewhere.
Ike came to recognize the astonishing waste and dangers of militarism and war. So should we all. Let us on our nation’s 250th birthday declare our independence from persistent and pernicious militarism and warfare.
Bracing Views 
“America today is a structure infested by the termites of war. If we fail to get rid of them, our house will collapse in a pile of dust.”
One helluva metaphor, which means it’s apt, more than apt. A coupla quick points:
1) Maybe the victories of Mamdani’s endorsees in New York and Melat Kiros in Colorado signify the tide is changing for the better, for the necessary.
2) Eisenhower did put it very well with regard to the military-industrial complex, but his message would have carried so much further had he supported true, universal health care in this country, had he pushed for modernization of all public schools financed by reductions in Pentagon spending. Likely such initiatives would have gone down to defeat in the Congress, but at least he would have been on the historical record of backing up his words with specific action. Instead, and in particular regard to health insurance, that was branded as “socialized medicine” and simply not to be allowed in leftist/socialist allergic America.
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I find fireworks unbearable. For many years I thought nothing of them, just visual entertainment with loud booms. Now I cannot stop thinking about the Palestinians being bombed out of their homes then their homes bombed to dust and most recently they have been bombed while living in tents. All of this bombing done with US munitions readily supplied to the Israelis.
A bombing attack whether by air or by artillery is pure terror. The power of each bomb is enough to shatter a building if not bring it down and there is no way to know exactly where it will land. As the bombs drop on civilians who are unable to find shelter will the next one kill the family directly or will those you love be buried alive in rubble?
One of my signs that I wear declares Israel as the state of hate. It is hard to imagine the mindset that takes pleasure in full armed force being used against helpless people, or the mindset that eagerly supplies all the explosives to make it happen. This Independence Day is no cause for joy but shame that it has taken the lives of over 70,000 Palestinians to awaken Americans to the horror that is Zionism.
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Thanks very much Bill Astore for all your great work exposing the tyranny of America’s war machine. I will forward to others this one, especially coming in the year the American government is celebrating 250 years of its founding.Trump seems totally unaware that millions around the world, see America as a monster, undermining international law and human rights as it bombs Iran, Venezuela,Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Vietnam, etc and uses illegal sanctions on countries like Cuba and Venezuela to destroy them economically. Kay Weir, Wellington, New Zealand
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