Test the Wind and Every Call to War

There is something in the wind that sends chills down my spine; and I am suspicious now, as I wasn’t, but ought to have been, in the past. We should pay attention with great dubiosity to what the military, and the industrial complex with which it is intertwined, is telling us about North Korea.
by Charlie Leck

I’ve written about it before – these winds of war – and how we are so easily duped into believing threats that are not real, but pumped up by those who benefit from preparation for war [see Shock and Awe was Wrong].

What is really happening in North Korea?
News organizations, which have been hoodwinked in the past, are trying to watch closely what it is that Kim Jong-Un is up to in that strange and twisted nation of North Korea, but the news industries are fed most of their information by military sources and we have been burned by them in the past.

The following is from a front page story in the Washington Post today…

“U.S. officials and independent experts say North Korea appears to have taken unusual steps to conceal details about the nuclear weapon it tested in February, fueling suspicions that its scientists shifted to a bomb design that uses highly enriched uranium as the core.” [Joby Warrick, Washington Post, 31 March 2013]

Oh, my!

Of course it strikes at our hearts and causes worry and even some panic. What could that strange and idiotic man be up to? We have heard it before, we must remember, from men we trusted. The three letters still ring in our ears – W M D – and they remind us of the great  canard that leaders thought they must tell us for our own sake, so that we would support the mighty military war effort.

Now, on the heels of Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, I am not prepared to go so easily or lightly down any garden path toward which they point me. I do not want any more troops to be sent into harm’s way.

For what kind of test of guilelessness can the people ask?

“A successful test of a uranium-based bomb would confirm that Pyongyang has achieved a second pathway to nuclear weapons, using its plentiful supply of natural uranium and new enrichment technology. A device based on highly enriched uranium, HEU, also would deepen concerns about cooperation between the hermetic regime and Iran.” [Joby Warrick, Washington Post, 31 March 2013]

Déjà vu? All over again?
Urge your friends to read and listen carefully. “Do not go gentle into that good night!” Beg responsible congressional leaders to truth-test every single proposition! Tell them adamantly to demand irrefutable evidence.

We are a people easily bamboozled. We must be tougher and more demanding this time. We must not be herded by lies and deceitfulness.

Stand alert and strong against the industrialists who profit from war! I would not have believed that in the past. I scoffed at those who tried to tell me. I turned a deaf ear to truth and was soothed by the lie.

“This is different!”
Beware the fool! Be watchful for those who would deceive us. They will tell us that this is different. They told us that Granada was necessary! They told us Iraq was different than Vietnam! They told us that Afghanistan was only to find Osama bin Laden. Trillions and trillions of dollars were spent on those wars. We cannot even follow the money! Some men were made filthy-rich.

Is the military-industrial complex, of which President Dwight David Eisenhower warned us in 1961, real?

[Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged: Harper Collins, NY, 2003] “the combined interests of the military establishment and industries involved in producing military material considered as exerting influences on U.S. foreign and economic policy.”

Read carefully! Be watchful! Demand accuracy and proof! Follow the money!

“Although North Korea and Iran have cooperated on missile technology, U.S. officials said there is no direct evidence of nuclear cooperation….

“The United States was already concerned about an agreement between North Korea and Iran pledging technical and scientific cooperation…

“Further, both countries bought black-market enrichment technology from A. Q. Khan, the rogue Pakistani scientist accused of selling nuclear secrets to foreign governments. The two countries would almost certainly benefit from exchanging data on nuclear subjects such as centrifuge design and uranium metallurgy…” [Joby Warrick, Washington Post, 31 March 2013]

OMG!

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Tres Cheers for Obama

     General Romney

I’ve listened to debate numero tres at least tres times now and I’m here to tell you it was a smashing victory for President Obama.
by Charlie Leck

I’m breathing a little easier and I’m anxious to see if Obama’s fantastic job last night will be reflected in the polls that start coming in over the weekend.

Bayonets and Horses!
Oh, my! Did you hear that one? Did you happen to see Romney’s expression right after Obama said it? He was p’d off! He knew he’d been slapped happy.

“No, Newt,” I say, “we don’t used that kind of bullshit in the military anymore – no more sailing galleons or armored men on horses… no more long bowman… not even flintlocks… no more catapults!”

Look here! This wasn’t just a statement about Mitt misspeaking one time. This was about the persistent attitude of Mitt Romney, talking about things he doesn’t understand and rallying back to the days of Ronald Reagan. Reagan might have been able to call Gorbechev out and tell him to “take down that wall,” but one is not going to do those things to the leader of Iran or the bullies in Libya without serious responses.

No, we don’t need any hotshots closely aligned with the military-industrial complex to take over the leadership of this country. We need someone more reasoned and cautious. We need a President who does not want to drag us into another senseless tres trillion dollar war.

These are Republican Wars!
Anyone out there want to know why our nation is in such staggering debt? It ain’t difficult to figure out. It’s spelled Iraq and Afghanistan! These are Republican wars that reaped fortunes in profits for certain members of the government who were closely connected to the famous military-industrial complex.

Now Mitt wants to go rushing into yet another in Iran and, perhaps, another in Syria and, perhaps, another in Libya.

Mitt is angry that our President allowed France to send its jets and air fighters into Libya ahead of us. Our President made an unusual proclamation at the beginning of that conflict: “No boots on the ground!” He stuck to it! He worked hard to convince France to take this job from us in this particular conflict.

It’s a dangerous, dangerous world out there!
There is trouble and volatility in so many parts of the world right now – mainly in the Middle East. Under another militaristic president, we could find ourselves involved in military invasions in tres additional foreign nations. You want that?

I want a cooler head. I want someone who will look for alternatives to war – a leader who is brave, strong and ready if the need arises, but who would prefer to figure out ways other than war to resolve problems between nations.

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The Mighty Military-Industrial Establishment

As Eisenhower warned, it drives a hunger for war!
by Charlie Leck

All of us have heard about former President Dwight David Eisenhower’s warning about a military-industrial complex in the United States. He issued the warning in 1961, in his final speech as President. It was his farewell to the American people. He spoke on national television from the oval office. The speech lasted less than 10 minutes. Eisenhower, not normally a powerful speaker, poured his heart and soul into the speech. I was a young man in my first year of college. I remember watching the speech in the student union. Several professors watched with us.

Did any of us realize how prophetic Eisenhower was? Today the establishment of which he spoke is a mighty one indeed, and some suspect it drives the American hunger for war. Below, as a reminder, I quote the relevant section of Eisenhower’s excellent speech.

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peace time, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense, we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence – economic, political, and even spiritual – is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet, we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

The proper meshing is no longer a reality. Security and liberty are not prospering. The titans of the military industrial complex have been making the decisions in America for the last seven years.