Thread: Obama’s new wars

Obama’s new wars


by Rev. Richard Skaff
Global Research, May 2, 2009



In a society where war is glorified and military power is deified, the economy becomes dependent on waging wars. It becomes necessary to create contrived conflicts that manufacture consent domestically, distract people from the real issues, and generate pseudo patriotism.

It is essential to know history in order to understand the present. Nevertheless, knowing history has never precluded man from repeating it.

Historically, Every American president had his war. However, in the 60’s a change of policy or doctrine occurred during the Kennedy administration. The change was geared toward the deterrence of wars of national liberations, which in turn led to the McNamara revolution and to the creation of new mobile forces that will stealthily move smoothly and swiftly across the planet in the next 50 years establishing an invisible empire.

The following excerpts will clarify some of this history and will edify the reasons behind the conflicts we embarked on in the last 50 years.

Brief history:

Throughout the cold war era, American defense analysts believed implicitly in the proposition that military superiority was defined in terms of firepower, mobility, and other technological factors. Military doctrine is not formulated on the basis of abstract principles or unchanging laws. The armed forces of a nation are nothing more nor less than an instrument of national policy-an instrument that is, of those with the power to make that policy. In the United States , the making of foreign policy has been, for all practical purposes, the exclusive prerogative of the business elite that has dominated the Executive departments since the late nineteenth century. [5].

Of course, one cannot say that this elite constitutes a monolithic bloc with a unified policy orientation. Differences of outlook, competing short-and long-term interests, and conflicting power foci have always existed. But in the most general sense, the business community dominates the American foreign policy apparatus has shared a common interest in the continued growth of capitalism, the Open Door in world trade, and the expansion of our “invisible empire.â€

Excellent post! It just shows you the two party politicians talk out their butt. Get out of Iraq, and get Bin Laden in Afghanistan/Pakistan. Americans need Bin Ladens head on a stake to feel satisfied. Unfortunately, Bush was so hell bent on finding Bin Laden, but then a couple years later after Iraq he makes jokes about finding him at a republican dinner. If Obama's idea is to actually find Bin Laden, I support it. But I'm 99% sure I'll be disappointed.