Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Bloody Loss For US; ‘We can’t Beat Taliban’ – NATO General

War is big business, and some people are making a ton of money out of it and don't want it to end. David Swanson says that the  discussion he is having here with Rick Sanchez would never occur on mainstream television, or in the rest of the media, where it is blacked out.

Two thirds of the military in Afghanistan are private contractors. The generals get to eat the best steak and drink the best wine while Afghans get pounded and U.S. troops die.

The U.S. got Bin Laden a long time ago where they killed a lot of people trying to get him, but the Afgans who lost family members picked up arms to fight the U.S. to get them out of their country, and so it continues indefinitely with a new generation now doing the fighting.



 Rick Sanchez discusses a recent decimating attack that wiped out an entire company of Afghan Security Forces, part of a consistent pattern of the retreat of US and its proxies in the face of a resurgent Taliban. He reports on the grotesque reason for continuing US presence in Afghanistan – that no matter the death and suffering in the conflict, US military contractors and the politicians in their pocket make millions of dollars in blood money. In this “privatized war,” there are twice as many military contractors as there are soldiers. He is then joined by activist, author and journalist David Swanson, who argues that the real enemy is “the institution of war” and not the supposed “bad guys” designated by any government.



10 comments:

Konrad said...

“Two thirds of the military in Afghanistan are private contractors.”

They supervise the production and export of opium-based products like heroin. When an Afghan poppy farmer breaks the rules, U.S. personnel call in drone strikes to destroy his village as an example to the rest of the poppy farmers. This is called an “anti-terrorist strike.”

The U.S. government says it allows Afghans to produce and export opiates so they don’t join the Taliban (which threatens the opiate production).

In the USA, Afghan opiates sustain the opioid epidemic, and keep the prisons full. Plus, Afghan opiates provide income for America’s top illicit drug lords, which are the CIA and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Konrad said...

Speaking of U.S. imperialism, now that the USA has every South American government in its pocket except Bolivia’s, it’s time to attack Venezuela and restore neoliberalism there.

Below is a 90-second video of Mike Pence condemning Venezuela’s democratically elected President Maduro as a “dictator.”

Mike Pence wants Juan Guaidó Márquez, 35, to overthrow Maduro and return the Venezuelan masses to grinding poverty. Márquez is owned by rich oligarchs, and is Maduro’s sworn enemy. He heads Venezuela’s parliament (the National Assembly, which is owned by the rich) and already calls himself Venezuela’s “President,” but Venezuela’s Supreme Court does not recognize his claim.

Trump’s base will applaud any attack on Venezuela, while Trump's enemies won’t care, since they are obsessed with destroying “white privilege” and “toxic masculinity” in the USA.

95% of all Americans have been programmed to hate Maduro because he fights for the poor.

In response to Pence’s speech, Maduro today expelled all U.S. diplomatic staff from Venezuela.

The UK continues to keep the gold reserves it stole from Venezuela.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAKkkc-O45A

Noah Way said...

The only military success the US has had since 1945 was against Grenada.

And the Soviet Union won WWII.

Bob Roddis said...

It's a great, wise and wonderful thing that the USA has its modern Fiat money system and the government is not revenue constrain. Naturally, under such a system, the process will be captured by the rich and powerful leading to endless war and endless looting of the public. Wise MMTers worship this system.

Konrad said...

Every blog has resident trolls.
When one troll leaves (e.g. Franko) two other trolls sprout in its place.
They don't care how idiotic they look, as long as they get attention. Don't feed them.

Noah Way said...

RODDIS: the process will be captured by the rich and powerful leading to endless war and endless looting of the public

You've accurately described the current economic system and ascribed its failure to MMT. That would be considered sheer brilliance in a mental instution.

Konrad said...

@ Noah Way:

“The Soviet Union won WWII.”

Yes, in Europe anyway. Meanwhile China absorbed much (most?) of Imperial Japanese forces.

Regarding the Soviet victory, Viktor Suvorov (see Wikipedia entry) is a former Soviet military intelligence officer who spent many years researching Soviet archives, and defected to the UK. In his books, Suvorov explains that Germany invaded the USSR because the USSR was preparing to invade all of Europe. Suvorov says that Stalin’s plan was to let Germany and the West fight until both sides were exhausted, whereon the Soviets would move in. Meanwhile the Roosevelt-Churchill plan was just the opposite: let Germany and the USSR fight to exhaustion, whereon the US and UK would move it. Both plans resulted in a stalemate, in which Europe ended up divided between US and USSR spheres of influence.

Naturally Suvorov has been attacked from all sides, since the usual propaganda must be protected at all costs. The USSR was an “innocent victim” of “Nazi aggression.”

Suvorov has defended himself in a series of ten books. When his critics lost the debate, they went silent and simply ignored him.

Ralph Musgrave said...

If Rodis the Resident Troll does not like fiat money, perhaps he can tell us what sort of money HE DOES like. I asked him that long ago and (surprise surprise) got not answer. Reason is, of course, that he has no idea what answer to give.

Nebris said...

I vaguely remember Franko making sense once upon a time. I wonder why he went so utterly batshit.

Noah Way said...

Franko? Even a blind chicken occasionally finds a kernel of corn.