Just saw a newsflash that Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House Speaker, is opening an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, specifically involving alleged business dealings with his son, Hunter Biden.
From The Boston Globe:
McCarthy said the House Oversight Committee’s investigation so far has found a “culture of corruption” around the Biden family as Republicans probe the business dealings of Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, from before the Democratic president took office.
“These are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption, and they warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives,” McCarthy, R-Calif., said outside the speaker’s office at the Capitol. “That’s why today I am directing our House committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.”
Naturally, the Democrats are saying this is politically motivated (of course it is), and that it suggests a false equivalency between Biden and former President Donald Trump. I’ll leave that to the voters to decide.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on the march (AP and Boston Globe)
All I could think of when I heard this news is that what goes around comes around. A Democratic House impeached Trump twice. They suggested he was a Putin puppet. He’s been indicted four times with more than 100 charges since he left office. It was, perhaps, inevitable that Republicans would seek to reply in kind.
Hunter Biden’s business dealings are dodgy indeed; whether the “big guy” (Joe Biden) was involved in ways that were illegal and corrupt is unknown.
What depresses me is that Congress is fiddling while America burns. Congress should be working to help Americans who are suffering. Who are underpaid, overworked, maybe unhoused, perhaps drowning in debt, and who otherwise need support from “their” government. Instead, Republicans and Democrats are engaged in endless rounds of partisan bickering, using up most of the oxygen in the room. How long before Congress implodes from all this partisan posturing and pressure?
Of course, unlike the crew of the ill-fated Titanic probe, members of Congress will emerge just fine; after all, they make their own rules and laws. What about all those Americans who need help? Who need a Congress that actually cares about them? They will not be fine.
So, it’s more political circuses in Washington without any of the bread that the people need to survive. How much longer can America survive on these terms?
Note: I originally wrote a version of this post in 2018. I’ve made a few updates below to include a reader’s comment that was especially apropos.
Labor Day weekend is a reminder that there’s no labor party in U.S. politics. Instead, we have two pro-business parties: the Republican and the Republican-lite, otherwise known as the Democratic Party. Both are coerced if not controlled by corporations through campaign finance “contributions” (bribes) and lobbyists (plus the promise of high-paying jobs should your local member of Congress lose an election or wish to transition to a much higher paying job as a lobbyist/influence peddler). With money now defined as speech, thanks to the Supreme Court, there’s a lot of “speech” happening in Congress that has nothing to do with the concerns of workers.
Nevertheless, a myth exists within the mainstream media that “socialist” progressive politicians are coming to take your money and to give it to the undeserving poor (and especially to “illegal” immigrants, who aren’t even citizens!). First of all, the so-called Democratic Socialists are not advocating nationalization of industry; they’re basically New Deal Democrats in the tradition of FDR. Just like Republicans, they believe in capitalism (and bow to corporatism) and the “free” market; they just want to sand down some of the rougher edges of exploitation.
Consider, for example, Bernie Sanders’s past efforts to get a living wage for Disney employees. In 2018 Disney finally promised to pay workers $15.00 an hour (phased in over the next few years), even as the corporation made record profits and the CEO earned hundreds of millions. Second, the bulk of the Trumpian tax breaks didn’t go to the workers and middle class: the richest Americans (and corporations) benefited the most from Trump’s tax cuts. Some of that money was supposed to “trickle down” to workers, but most of it didn’t. (Funding stock buy-backs, not pay raises, was and is especially popular among corporations.)
(An aside: trickle-down economics is almost an honest term, for that is what both major political parties in America support for workers: a “trickle” of pay and benefits. Forget about a stream or steady flow; of course, gushers and floods of money flow upwards to the richest few and remain there, irrespective of physical laws like gravity.)
My father knew the score. As a factory worker, he lived the reality of labor exploitation and fought his own humble battle for decent wages. His experience led him to conclude that the rich had neither sympathy nor use for the poor.
***
I’d like to share a comment made at Bracing Views by a reader back in 2018. It captured the sad reality of Labor Day as it exists today in America:
Labor Day is perhaps our most hollowed out and meaningless of all the the National Holidays we celebrate…
Celebrating Labor Day as it should be, that is the documentation of Labor’s over 100 years of historical struggle against Capitalism is not something we can do. We cannot celebrate it for two reasons: One it would be admission of the class warfare the 1% vs us Proles, and Two we have no Labor Party here in the USA to represent us. ********************* As Leo W. Gerard is the International President of the United Steelworkers (USW) union has written:
“American corporations weren’t always shareholder-centered. For about three decades after World War II, worker wages rose in tandem with productivity. This was a time during which corporations subscribed to the philosophy that they were obligated to serve their customers, communities, workers and shareholders.
Over the past 30 years, however, US corporations embraced a new notion, which is that they had only one responsibility, to fill the pockets of shareholders.
That is the same 30 years during which workers’ wages stagnated and CEO pay rose no matter how badly the executive performed. That is the same 30 years in which private equity firms bought manufacturers, loaded them up with debt, sold them off at massive profit then shrugged when a stumble threw the firm into bankruptcy, closed factories and killed good, family-supporting American jobs. That is the same 30 years when American corporations moved manufacturing from the United States to low-wage, high-pollution countries like Mexico and China.” *******************************************
Today, Labor Day, you can celebrate it by going to your local Big Box Store and take advantage of the Labor Day Sales, and purchase a product NOT Made in USA and sold to you by cashiers probably not making a Living Wage.
At the presidential level, the U.S. political scene is grim. Donald Trump is the likely Republican candidate. No other Republican approaches him in terms of popularity. Yes, he’s been indicted four times, complete with a mug shot, but these indictments aren’t enough to derail his campaign. If anything, they may make Trump look like more of a populist gangster/rebel, instead of the billionaire tool that he is.
The mug shot seen ‘round the world
The Democrats are going all-in on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, but there’s no platform of substance they’re selling. The basic message is vote Biden because Trump. In a fundraising letter I received from the DNC, the message was that Republicans are too dangerous, too extreme, and otherwise beyond the pale. So I was urged to give money to the DNC so that Joe and Kamala can “finish the job.” Which job they’re supposed to finish was left unspecified, though there were glittering generalities about freedom, safeguarding abortion rights, and the like.
Interestingly, Democrats continue to argue that any third-party candidate, and especially Cornel West of the Green Party, is a spoiler for the Democrats. The idea that more candidates might spoil Republican chances as well isn’t addressed. This tells us something about the reality Democrats are facing. Support for Biden is shallow and mostly unenthusiastic. Hence the tacit recognition that additional candidates will hurt Biden’s chances more so than Trump’s, whose supporters are more keen on their guy.
Maybe, just maybe, the Democrats should recognize this problem and run a new candidate that can garner stronger and more enthusiastic support at the polls? Nah, that’s crazy talk. Let’s go with Joe and see what happens. And if he loses, you can always blame the voters for voting for West or some other third-party candidate.
Honestly, the DNC would rather lose with Biden than win with a more progressive and charismatic candidate. This is because the DNC represents the corporate capture of the Democratic Party. To win with a truly progressive candidate is a loss for the party as it’s constituted today. To lose with Biden is a win in the sense they can fundraise off “resisting” Trump. The DNC goal is that nothing shall fundamentally change in the way they do business, meaning that Biden is the most “leftist” and “progressive” candidate Democrats are ever likely to see. (Biden, of course, is a pro-war, pro-business, pro-banker, pro-fossil fuels, pro-prison, pro-status quo president. In your heart, you know he’s right.)
What is to be done? As I’ve said before, I know what I’m going to get with Trump. I know what I’m going to get with Biden. And I know that’s not what I want. So count me among the “spoilers.”
The Most Fundamental Problem with the U.S. Military
“Integrity First” is the fundamental core value of the U.S. Air Force. Two other core values speak to “service before self” and “excellence in all we do.” But integrity remains the wellspring, and it’s the U.S. military’s stunning lack of integrity that has cost the American people and indeed the world so dearly over the last half-century.
Tonkin Gulf. My Lai. The Pentagon Papers. WMD in Iraq. Abu Ghraib. The Afghan War Papers. So many instances of “official” lies and distortions. So many lost wars where no senior officers were ever held accountable. Put up, shut up, fuck up, cover up, move up, seems to be the operating manual for success.
Last September, I wrote an article for TomDispatch: “Something is rotten in the U.S. military.” I suggested that integrity was now optional in that military, that lies and dishonor plagued America’s war machine. Evidently, those lies, that dishonor, is working just fine for the Pentagon as its budget continues to soar.
These thoughts occurred to me yet again as I read Seymour Hersh’s retrospective account of Major General Antonio (Tony) Taguba’s withering investigation of torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. Taguba, a man of integrity, conducted an official—and honest—investigation of torture and mistreatment at Abu Ghraib; his reward for his honesty, his service, his excellence was not a commendation and promotion but threats, ostracism, and the death of his career as an Army officer.
General Antonio Taguba, man of integrity, service, and excellence
Sy Hersh’s article captures the rot at the core of the Pentagon and the U.S. government. Here Hersh speaks recently to Taguba:
[Taguba] “I was not a whistleblower. I knew I was in trouble when I was given the assignment [to investigate abuse at Abu Ghraib], but when you see those photos what can you do? I was a dead man walking.
“The kids were trained as traffic cops and then were told to transport [Iraqi] detainees. That’s how they got to Abu Ghraib. They weren’t trained for that but they had vehicles and rifles, just undisciplined kids with incompetent leadership and they were on the list to go home. They had all their equipment packed in Kuwait and ready to be shipped. And then they were told to stay behind.”
I [Hersh] asked: Would he do it again? “Sure,” Tony [Taguba] said, “I was hamstrung by the thirty days I had to investigate. I do not think I fulfilled my mission. [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld was blaming the soldiers, but underneath they had no operational plan” for dealing with the prisoners.
“In hindsight, there was nothing I did to compromise my integrity. But integrity in the military and elsewhere is a bumper sticker. There is no reward for telling the truth.” [Emphasis added]
“There is no reward for telling the truth” in the U.S. military. That statement by retired General Taguba should move all Americans to take action against a military that has so clearly and tragically lost its way.
One suggestion: Cut the Pentagon budget in half and insist that it must pass a financial audit else forfeit all taxpayer funding. That might wake up a few generals and admirals.
Tacking to starboard, stuck in place, the USS America under Joe Biden is groaning in protest
In America’s two-color political universe, by which I mean blue versus red, whenever I criticize the blue team, I get accused of supporting the red team. But I believe in a multi-color world, not a bicolor one. Even green is an acceptable color! So, as I critique Joe Biden today, rest assured I never have voted, and never will vote, for the red guy, Donald Trump. I’m going green in 2024 with Cornel West.
With that longwinded prologue, I’d like to announce the Biden/Harris unofficial campaign slogan for 2024: No, we can’t.
It may sound familiar. Fifteen years ago, Barack Obama embraced the energy and optimism of “Yes, we can.” He also promoted “hope” and “change.” After eight years of Bush/Cheney, those simple slogans resonated with Americans, and Obama/Biden rode to victory in 2008 exuding confidence and a can-do spirit. (Of course, the results in office were, shall I say, disappointing.)
The good old days that never quite were.
But that was then, this is now, and when you go to JoeBiden.com, you get a message that suggests we reelect Joe to “finish the job.” Which job needs to be finished is unspecified. Vague words about protecting freedom and democracy and feel-good imagery is about all you get. Add it up and you get a de facto message of little hope and no change—just more of the same.
The Democrats think that a bland message of normalcy will be enough to prevail against Trump, who seems to be indicted now almost daily. Again, I’m no fan of Trump and won’t be voting for him. But why should I vote for Biden? What compelling reason or even message is there to convince me?
I haven’t heard one other than “Trump is very bad.”
A friend tells me Biden’s record as president is respectable and that he’s tilted left of center. I’m baffled by this claim. Biden/Harris have told me we can’t get Medicare for All; indeed, we can’t even get a public option. We can’t get significant student debt relief. We can’t get a $15 federal minimum wage. We can’t reduce the Pentagon budget and spending on wars and weapons. We can’t stop building more nuclear weapons. We can’t stop drilling in sensitive areas such as pristine wildernesses and offshore waters.
You see where I’m going here. When it comes to progressive agendas, “No, we can’t” is the true motto of Biden/Harris. Corporate Joe and his VP sidekick appear to have little empathy for the working classes and the hurting. Imagine a president coming back from vacation, as Biden recently did, and being asked about deadly wildfires in Hawaii and declaring that he had “no comment.” How hard is it for a president to muster words of sympathy for the suffering people of Hawaii while promising speedy federal aid?
For some reason I’m in a nautical frame of mind (forgive me, my Navy brethren).* As the USS Trump takes on water from multiple torpedo hits (indictments), the USS Biden sits dead in the water, having run aground on the shoals of incompetence and indifference. There is no Bernie Sanders this time around to rally the youthful crew to rock and re-float the boat. Perhaps Americans should search for a new ship to board?
A favorite book is “The Caine Mutiny” (please read it if you haven’t; it’s thrilling as well as hilarious in spots). The Caine was a tired old ship headed for the scrap heap after World War II and its commander, Queeg, was addled and (much worse) cowardly. The ship nearly sinks during a powerful storm that paralyzes Queeg; only a mutiny by its crew prevents disaster. America, our ship of state, faces storms of its own. Do we have confidence in captains like Trump or Biden to lead us through the tempest to calmer waters? Maybe it’s time we mutiny?
My friend believes Biden is a competent captain who’s making good headway even as he tacks to port. I see an increasingly tired and confused commander who’s furiously tacking to starboard even as the ship of state groans, making no progress as it’s battered on those aforementioned shoals.
*Feel free, Navy brethren, to offer your own nautical metaphors, which I’m betting will be better than mine.
Oliver Anthony Strikes A Chord with “Rich Men North of Richmond”
A working-class song has gone viral. Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond” is a lament for the state of the working classes in America: long hours, low pay, dead-end jobs, even as “the rich men north of Richmond” make the real money on the backs of the working poor.
Here’s a link to the video, which just screams sincerity:
Naturally, his song is drawing attention—and criticism. NBC News calls it a “conservative anthem” because I guess there are no liberals or progressives or even moderates who are working class and who can relate to the song. Also, NBC is at pains to criticize Anthony for making a quick reference to obese welfare moochers, which is fair enough, I suppose, though it’s not the point of his song.
This is what Anthony had to say (also at NBC News): In an introduction videouploaded to his YouTube channel a day before the song’s release, Anthony said that his political views tend to be “pretty dead center” and that both sides “serve the same master.”
He said he used to work 12-hour shifts six days a week and today continues to meet laborers struggling to make ends meet.
“People are just sick and tired of being sick and tired,” he said. “So yeah, I want to be a voice for those people.”
Amen to that, Mr. Anthony. My father knew his pain. Before he became a firefighter, my dad worked in factories doing hard physical work. He told me the harder the work, generally the lower the pay you earn in America. So-called “shit” jobs like cleaning motel rooms, being a waiter or waitress, digging ditches and working as a “common” laborer, are looked down upon despite how tough and necessary they are.
As I said, my dad knew the score, as he recounted in a journal he left me about his life. One time, he organized with a few other men for a pay raise at the factory. Here’s what my dad had to say about that experience:
A five cent an hour pay raise
It seems that Mike Calabrese on his own asked Harry Gilson for a pay raise and he was refused. Mike decided to organize the men members and go down in a group. In our group he got ten men to approach Harry G. for a raise. But when it was time to “bell the cat” only three fellows went to see Harry. Well Mike said he couldn’t join the group because he had already tried to get a raise. I knew I was being used but I was entitled to a raise. Well Harry said to me, “What can I do for you men?” So I said to Harry: 1) Living costs were going up; 2) We deserved a raise. So Harry said, “How much?” and I said ten cents an hour would be a fair raise. So he said I’ll give you a nickel an hour raise and later you’ll get the other nickel. We agreed. So, I asked Harry will everyone get a raise and he replied, “Only the ones that I think deserve it.”
Well a month later I was drinking water at the bubbler [water fountain] and Harry saw me and said what a hard job they had to get the money to pay our raises. Well, Willie, Harry Gilson and his brother Sam and their two other Italian brother partners all died millionaires. No other truer saying than, “That the rich have no sympathy or use for the poor.”
My dad’s experience was roughly 80 years ago, but his sentiment is echoed by Oliver Anthony’s song today. This has nothing to do with conservatism and everything to do with giving workers a fair shake in America. It’s not a left-right, Democrat-Republican, issue: it’s a class issue, a moral issue, and a matter of life and death for so many people struggling across America.
We need more people to raise their voices, whether in song like Oliver Anthony or for pay raises like my dad.
In his message to the troops prior to the July 4th weekend, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin offered high praise indeed. “We have the greatest fighting force in human history,” he tweeted, connecting that claim to the U.S. having patriots of all colors, creeds, and backgrounds “who bravely volunteer to defend our country and our values.”
As a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel from a working-class background who volunteered to serve more than four decades ago, who am I to argue with Austin? Shouldn’t I just bask in the glow of his praise for today’s troops, reflecting on my own honorable service near the end of what now must be thought of as the First Cold War?
Yet I confess to having doubts. I’ve heard it all before. The hype. The hyperbole. I still remember how, soon after the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush boasted that this country had “the greatest force for human liberation the world has ever known.” I also remember how, in a pep talk given to U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2010, President Barack Obama declared them “the finest fighting force that the world has ever known.” And yet, 15 years ago at TomDispatch, I was already wondering when Americans had first become so proud of, and insistent upon, declaring our military the world’s absolute best, a force beyond compare, and what that meant for a republic that once had viewed large standing armies and constant warfare as anathemas to freedom.
In retrospect, the answer is all too straightforward: we need something to boast about, don’t we? In the once-upon-a-time “exceptional nation,” what else is there to praise to the skies or consider our pride and joy these days except our heroes? After all, this country can no longer boast of having anything like the world’s best educational outcomes, or healthcare system, or the most advanced and safest infrastructure, or the best democratic politics, so we better damn well be able to boast about having “the greatest fighting force” ever.
Leaving that boast aside, Americans could certainly brag about one thing this country has beyond compare: the most expensive military around and possibly ever. No country even comes close to our commitment of funds to wars, weapons (including nuclear ones at the Department of Energy), and global dominance. Indeed, the Pentagon’s budget for “defense” in 2023 exceeds that of the next 10 countries (mostly allies!) combined.
And from all of this, it seems to me, two questions arise: Are we truly getting what we pay so dearly for — the bestest, finest, most exceptional military ever? And even if we are, should a self-proclaimed democracy really want such a thing?
The answer to both those questions is, of course, no. After all, America hasn’t won a war in a convincing fashion since 1945. If this country keeps losing wars routinely and often enough catastrophically, as it has in places like Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, how can we honestly say that we possess the world’s greatest fighting force? And if we nevertheless persist in such a boast, doesn’t that echo the rhetoric of militaristic empires of the past? (Remember when we used to think that only unhinged dictators like Adolf Hitler boasted of having peerless warriors in a megalomaniacal pursuit of global domination?)
Actually, I do believe the United States has the most exceptional military, just not in the way its boosters and cheerleaders like Austin, Bush, and Obama claimed. How is the U.S. military truly “exceptional”? Let me count the ways.
Yes, the Pentagon budget, enormous and still growing, is as large as the next ten countries in the world combined. We’re #1 in wars and weapons!
The Pentagon as a Budgetary Black Hole
In so many ways, the U.S. military is indeed exceptional. Let’s begin with its budget. At this very moment, Congress is debating a colossal “defense” budget of $886 billion for FY2024 (and all the debate is about issues that have little to do with the military). That defense spending bill, you may recall, was “only” $740 billion when President Joe Biden took office three years ago. In 2021, Biden withdrew U.S. forces from the disastrous war in Afghanistan, theoretically saving the taxpayer nearly $50 billion a year. Yet, in place of any sort of peace dividend, American taxpayers simply got an even higher bill as the Pentagon budget continued to soar.
Recall that, in his four years in office, Donald Trump increased military spending by 20%. Biden is now poised to achieve a similar 20% increase in just three years in office. And that increase largely doesn’t even include the cost of supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia — so far, somewhere between $120 billion and $200 billion and still rising.
Colossal budgets for weapons and war enjoy broad bipartisan support in Washington. It’s almost as if there were a military-industrial-congressional complex at work here! Where, in fact, did I ever hear a president warning us about that? Oh, perhaps I’m thinking of a certain farewell address by Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1961.
In all seriousness, there’s now a huge pentagonal-shaped black hole on the Potomac that’s devouring more than half of the federal discretionary budget annually. Even when Congress and the Pentagon allegedly try to enforce fiscal discipline, if not austerity elsewhere, the crushing gravitational pull of that hole just continues to suck in more money. Bet on that continuing as the Pentagon issues ever more warnings about a new cold war with China and Russia.
Given its money-sucking nature, perhaps you won’t be surprised to learn that the Pentagon is remarkably exceptional when it comes to failing fiscal audits — five of them in a row (the fifth failure being a “teachable moment,” according to its chief financial officer) — as its budget only continued to soar. Whether you’re talking about lost wars or failed audits, the Pentagon is eternally rewarded for its failures. Try running a “Mom and Pop” store on that basis and see how long you last.
Speaking of all those failed wars, perhaps you won’t be surprised to learn that they haven’t come cheaply. According to the Costs of War Project at Brown University, roughly 937,000 people have died since 9/11/2001 thanks to direct violence in this country’s “Global War on Terror” in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and elsewhere. (And the deaths of another 3.6 to 3.7 million people may be indirectly attributable to those same post-9/11 conflicts.) The financial cost to the American taxpayer has been roughly $8 trillion and rising even as the U.S. military continues its counterterror preparations and activities in 85 countries.
No other nation in the world sees its military as (to borrow from a short-lived Navy slogan) “a global force for good.” No other nation divides the whole world into military commands like AFRICOM for Africa and CENTCOM for the Middle East and parts of Central and South Asia, headed up by four-star generals and admirals. No other nation has a network of 750 foreign bases scattered across the globe. No other nation strives for full-spectrum dominance through “all-domain operations,” meaning not only the control of traditional “domains” of combat — the land, sea, and air — but also of space and cyberspace. While other countries are focused mainly on national defense (or regional aggressions of one sort or another), the U.S. military strives for total global and spatial dominance. Truly exceptional!
Strangely, in this never-ending, unbounded pursuit of dominance, results simply don’t matter. The Afghan War? Bungled, botched, and lost. The Iraq War? Built on lies and lost. Libya? We came, we saw, Libya’s leader (and so many innocents) died. Yet no one at the Pentagon was punished for any of those failures. In fact, to this day, it remains an accountability-free zone, exempt from meaningful oversight. If you’re a “modern major general,” why not pursue wars when you know you’ll never be punished for losing them?
Indeed, the few “exceptions” within the military-industrial-congressional complex who stood up for accountability, people of principle like Daniel Hale, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden, were imprisoned or exiled. In fact, the U.S. government has even conspired to imprison a foreign publisher and transparency activist, Julian Assange, who published the truth about the American war on terror, by using a World War I-era espionage clause that only applies to American citizens.
And the record is even grimmer than that. In our post-9/11 years at war, as President Barack Obama admitted, “We tortured some folks” — and the only person punished for that was another whistleblower, John Kiriakou, who did his best to bring those war crimes to our attention.
And speaking of war crimes, isn’t it “exceptional” that the U.S. military plans to spend upwards of $2 trillion in the coming decades on a new generation of genocidal nuclear weapons? Those include new stealth bombers and new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) for the Air Force, as well as new nuclear-missile-firing submarines for the Navy. Worse yet, the U.S. continues to reserve the right to use nuclear weapons first, presumably in the name of protecting life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And of course, despite the countries — nine! — that now possess nukes, the U.S. remains the only one to have used them in wartime, in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Finally, it turns out that the military is even immune from Supreme Court decisions! When SCOTUS recently overturned affirmative action for college admission, it carved out an exception for the military academies. Schools like West Point and Annapolis can still consider the race of their applicants, presumably to promote unit cohesionthrough proportional representation of minorities within the officer ranks, but our society at large apparently does not require racial equity for its cohesion.
A Most Exceptional Military Makes Its Wars and Their Ugliness Disappear
Here’s one of my favorite lines from the movie The Usual Suspects: “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist.” The greatest trick the U.S. military ever pulled was essentially convincing us that its wars never existed. As Norman Solomon notes in his revealing book, War Made Invisible, the military-industrial-congressional complex has excelled at camouflaging the atrocious realitiesof war, rendering them almost entirely invisible to the American people. Call it the new American isolationism, only this time we’re isolated from the harrowing and horrific costs of war itself.
America is a nation perpetually at war, yet most of us live our lives with little or no perception of this. There is no longer a military draft. There are no war bond drives. You aren’t asked to make direct and personal sacrifices. You aren’t even asked to pay attention, let alone pay (except for those nearly trillion-dollar-a-year budgets and interest payments on a ballooning national debt, of course). You certainly aren’t asked for your permission for this country to fight its wars, as the Constitution demands. As President George W. Bush suggested after the 9/11 attacks, go visit Disneyworld! Enjoy life! Let America’s “best and brightest” handle the brutality, the degradation, and the ugliness of war, bright minds like former Vice President Dick (“So?”) Cheney and former Secretary of Defense Donald (“I don’t do quagmires”) Rumsfeld.
Did you hear something about the U.S. military being in Syria? In Somalia? Did you hear about the U.S. military supporting the Saudis in a brutal war of repression in Yemen? Did you notice how this country’s military interventions around the world kill, wound, and displace so many people of color, so much so that observers speak of the systemic racism of America’s wars? Is it truly progress that a more diverse military in terms of “color, creed, and background,” to use Secretary of Defense Austin’s words, has killed and is killing so many non-white peoples around the globe?
Praising the all-female-crewed flyover at the last Super Bowl or painting rainbow flags of inclusivity (or even blue and yellow flags for Ukraine) on cluster munitionswon’t soften the blows or quiet the screams. As one reader of my blog Bracing Viewsso aptly put it: “The diversity the war parties [Democrats and Republicans] will not tolerate is diversity of thought.”
Of course, the U.S. military isn’t solely to blame here. Senior officers will claim their duty is not to make policy at all but to salute smartly as the president and Congress order them about. The reality, however, is different. The military is, in fact, at the core of America’s shadow government with enormous influence over policymaking. It’s not merely an instrument of power; it is power — and exceptionally powerful at that. And that form of power simply isn’t conducive to liberty and freedom, whether inside America’s borders or beyond them.
Wait! What am I saying? Stop thinking about all that! America is, after all, the exceptional nation and its military, a band of freedom fighters. In Iraq, where war and sanctions killed untold numbers of Iraqi children in the 1990s, the sacrifice was “worth it,” as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright once reassured Americans on 60 Minutes.
Even when government actions kill children, lots of children, it’s for the greater good. If this troubles you, go to Disney and take your kids with you. You don’t like Disney? Then, hark back to that old marching song of World War I and “pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag, and smile, smile, smile.” Remember, America’s troops are freedom-delivering heroes and your job is to smile and support them without question.
Have I made my point? I hope so. And yes, the U.S. military is indeed exceptional and being so, being #1 (or claiming you are anyway) means never having to say you’re sorry, no matter how many innocents you kill or maim, how many lives you disrupt and destroy, how many lies you tell.
I must admit, though, that, despite the endless celebration of our military’s exceptionalism and “greatness,” a fragment of scripture from my Catholic upbringing haunts me still: Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.
There is a famine of peace in the world today. I came across that phrase, “famine of peace,” in an article in the New Yorker that reported on a papal envoy sent to advocate for a truce and diplomacy to President Joe Biden. Biden, a practicing Catholic, gave the envoy a hearing, but as yet I’ve heard no change from the White House with respect to sending more weapons to Ukraine and maximum support for the war effort.
Pope Francis, working for peace, is exactly what I’d expect from Christ’s representative here on earth. Indeed, it is what I’d expect from all Christians everywhere. Yet we continue to have a glut of war in the world, with plenty of war pigs feeding at the trough.
Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi brought a message of peace to President Biden.
I’m a lapsed Catholic, but I have nothing but respect when the Church does its best to embody, obey, and manifest Christ’s two commandments: love God, love thy neighbor. Being faithful to these commandments is everything for Christians.
War is a terrible sin that enables and empowers so many other sins. Meanwhile, a famine of peace and a glut of war means terrible suffering for the world’s most vulnerable. War is thus to be avoided or averted under nearly all circumstances; indeed, Christ implored us to turn the other cheek when we are struck.
I’ve read enough “just war” theory to see how almost any war can be twisted as “defensive” and “necessary.” And I believe in rare circumstances the evil of war may be necessary to stop or prevent even worse evils, e.g. World War II put a stop to Nazi domination and the enslavement and massacre of millions of people, most especially Jews and gypsies, among other “undesirables” and “lesser humans” according to Nazi ideology.
The Pope in those days, Pius XII, did not speak forcibly enough to condemn the crimes of the Nazis. In Francis it is good to have a pope who’s willing to speak of today’s famine of peace. All Christians everywhere should look within to consider why peace is dying and war is thriving. Under these conditions, if we fail to act, do we dare even call ourselves “Christian”?
Time for Glasnost, Perestroika, and a New Generation of Leaders in America
A year ago, I asked whether Joe Biden and Donald Trump were too old to serve as president. Recently, concerns about advanced age and failing health have come to the fore in Congress. Senator Diane Feinstein, 90 years old, recently had to be told by her aides to vote “aye.” Senator Mitch McConnell, 81 years old, recently froze mid-sentence at a press conference; he may have suffered a mini-stroke, possibly related to a bad fall he had previously that resulted in a concussion. Meanwhile, concerns about President Biden’s age and declining health are being openly aired even among Democrats, with Hillary Clinton opining that Joe’s age is a legitimate campaign issue. At the young age of 75, is she angling to ride to the rescue in the 2024 election?
Glenn Greenwald did a long segment on Washington’s gerontocracy that is well worth watching. A point he made is one that I echoed in my article from a year ago. Back in the 1970s, the U.S. pointed to an alleged gerontocracy in the Soviet Union to criticize the hidebound nature of the Communist party there and the way its leaders were holding back much-needed reforms.
Americans made fun of “old” Soviet leaders of the 1970s and early 1980s. They were younger than Biden, Trump, Feinstein, McConnell, and the U.S. gerontocracy of today
The same, of course, is now true of the U.S. empire and its uniparty of Republican and Democrat enablers. An American gerontocracy with a near-death grip on power are holding back much-needed reforms here, especially reductions to the enormous sums of money being spent on weapons and warfare by the federal government.
Much like the former Soviet Union, the United States is a declining empire that’s been debilitated by constant and unnecessary wars and wanton spending on weaponry. Fresh thinking is needed. Remember glasnost and perestroika? Openness and restructuring? They were ushered in by Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s, who at age 54 was relatively young when he assumed the reins of power in the USSR.
I still remember when Americans made fun of “old guard” Soviet leaders and used words like “sclerotic” to describe them. They were a visible symbol of Soviet tiredness and decline, the refuse of the past when compared to a younger, more vigorous, United States with its dominant and thrusting world economy.
Who’s laughing now?
Surely, America needs a new generation of leaders who are willing to fight for glasnost (much greater openness and transparency in government) and perestroika (a restructuring of government away from imperialism, weapons, and war). The collapse of the Soviet Union should teach us something about the fate of sclerotic empires that refuse to change.
Reason and Rationality Have Little to Do with Them
It is often hard to understand the reasons for America’s wars, especially since World War II, but they always have a rationale backed up by lies. The rationale for Vietnam was the containment of communism and the domino theory. The lie was that U.S. naval ships had been attacked at Tonkin Gulf. The rationale for Iraq was overthrowing a ruthless dictator and spreading “freedom.” The lie was that he had WMD and that he was somehow connected to the 9/11 attacks.
Nations and peoples are not dominoes
The real reasons for America’s many disastrous wars are opaque. Domestic politics are almost always paramount. No U.S. president wants to be accused of losing a war or appearing to be weak, so starting or continuing a war is considered as “strength.” Congress doesn’t want to be accused of “tying the hands of the president” or of “betraying the troops,” so most members happily go along with wars. The military, of course, always thinks it can win, and wars are good for promotions and power. And military contractors, the “merchants of death,” are even more happy to make money off war. Not surprisingly, perhaps, President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell speech in 1961 warned America of the military-industrial complex, to which Ike had added Congress in an earlier draft. Ike’s warning has been largely forgotten; even his own monument in DC obscures it.
In Washington today, the Democrats accuse the Republicans of being weak on Russia; the Republicans return the favor by accusing the Biden administration of being weak on China. Military and industry are happy to play this blame game, knowing the Pentagon budget will soar as a result, as it has. And thus a dangerous “new cold war” appears to be a certainty.
The folly and fallaciousness of America’s wars, along with their carnage, are enough to make any rational human angry, especially one who has served in one of these wars. Mike Murry, a Vietnam War veteran, is angry, and so am I. Back in 2017, I wrote a piece on the atrociousness of the Vietnam War, to which Mr. Murry appended this comment. It merits consideration by all thinking Americans.
The ”Rationale” of America’s Wars. Comment by Mike Murry in 2017.
An excellent choice of words, “rationale.” Not the reason for doing something in the first place, but a conscious lie made up beforehand just to get things started, or an excuse invented afterwards to avoid accountability and, where required, the necessary punishment that true justice occasionally administers. Marine Corps General Smedley Butler once said that we have only two acceptable reasons for going to war: to defend our homes or defend the Constitution. In not a single case after World War II has either of these conditions applied, so that none of the pointless and ruinous fighting — I won’t dignify these Presidential/Career Military misadventures by calling them “war” — has had any justifiable reason or purpose. Not surprisingly, no Congress has declared war on another nation state since 1941 because no nation state on planet earth has attacked either American homes or America’s Constitution. The United States has not just “gone abroad in search of monsters to destroy,” as our sixth President, John Quincy Adams, warned us against foolishly doing, but has invented imaginary hobgoblins at home before even setting out to vanquish them on the far side of the globe.
Of course, Smedley Butler only made his remarks after serving for thirty years as an admitted “gangster for capitalism,” probably the best summary description of the U.S. military offered to date by one who ought to know. Today, as for the past seventy-plus years, the U.S. military simply fights — aimlessly and disastrously — for the sake of fighting. The fighting has no “reason” other than to provide a steady stream of outrageous corporate CEO bonuses, stockholder dividends, and the pensions and perquisites of retired senior military officers. This Warfare Welfare and Make-work Militarism has secondary beneficiaries, of course, most notably the hothouse orchids, special snowflakes and privileged peacock pugilists known as United States as “political leaders.” Naturally, the feeding and maintenance of this system of corrupt cronyism requires a death grip on over half the nation’s discretionary budget. As George Orwell wrote in “The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism” (the book-within-a-book from 1984):
“The primary aim of modern warfare (in accordance with the principles of doublethink, this aim is simultaneously recognized and not recognized by the directing brains of the Inner Party) is to use up the products of the machine without raising the general standard of living.”
In other words, the entire U.S. military/security monstrosity — which I like to call the Lunatic Leviathan — has only one purpose: to suck the life out of the domestic economy so that the productivity of the people’s labor will not result in the betterment of their station in life, which might in due course result in the discarding of America’s useless parasitic economic and political “elites.” Any transparent euphemism designed and deployed to disguise this ugly, fundamental truth properly deserves the label “rationale.” In no way do the usual and time-dishonored obfuscations amount to a reason. Reason has fled the United States, replaced by a deserved and rancid Ridicule. The country now consumes itself, lost in its own vicarious fears and fantasies featuring the celluloid exploits of our vaunted Visigoths vanquishing visions of vultures somewhere, someplace, at some time, until … eventually … after some “progress” and “fragile gains” … as T.S. Eliot wrote of The Hollow Men:
This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper.
Men and women so hollow that you can hear their own bullshit echoing in them even before they start moving their jaws and flapping their lips to begin lying.
Bracing Views 