From Pine View Farm

Endless War category archive

The Neverending Sortie 0

Frame One:  American soldier in Afghanistan to his fellows:  Trust me, One day we'll leave this place.  Frame Two:  Same soldier, now in Iran, to his fellows:  Told ya.

Click for the original image.

Share

No End in Sight 0

Jane Harman, former Congressperson and current president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, ponders the pressure for yet another Great and Glorious War for a Lie with a Country whose Name Starts with “I.” She recalls Colin Powell’s speech mongering the Great and Glorious War for a Lie in Iraq.

A snippet:

I have no doubt Powell believed what he was saying, but our intelligence turned out to be dead wrong, and I was wrong to vote to authorize the war. Thousands of American deaths and trillions of dollars later, Iraq is still a mess, which has permitted Iran to expand its malign reach throughout the Middle East.

Much later, Powell would call his U.N. speech a “great intelligence failure” and a “blot” on his record.

Share

War and Mongers of War 0

Shaun Mullen.

Share

War and Mongers of War 0

Share

Wars and Mongers of Wars 0

John Bolton as Uncle Sam saying,

Click for the original image.

Share

Gird Your Grid for the Big One 0

Mike warns that we are again facing a Great and Glorious War for a Lie in a Country with a Name that Starts with “I” and discusses the long history of U. S. and British meddling in Iran. Some of his analogies may seem a bit extreme, but I wonder . . . .

The video is below the fold because of language and the possibility of autoplay.

Read more »

Share

War and Mongers of War 0

Seth and Trita Parsi discuss whether John Bolton is maneuvering us into another Great and Glorious War for a Lie in a country whose name starts with an “I.”

Share

Never-Ending Stories 0

Share

War and Mongers of War 0

Leon Anderson points out that the United States has pursued a de facto policy of almost perpetual war, all undeclared and some secret and covert, for decades.

If you include President Carter’s failed attempt to rescue the American hostages in Iran, every President since Eisenhower–who left office warning us of the “military-industrial comples”–has sent American soldiers into harm’s way, often for made-up reasons. Anderson explores the cost of America’s continual wars. A snippet:

The cost in terms of lives lost and lives forever harmed has been enormous. Since the end of World War II, the number of Americans killed in foreign engagements is measured in the tens of thousands. For the poor countries that got in the way of our wrath, it’s measured in the millions.

In terms of financial cost, the numbers are staggering. Afghanistan alone has cost a trillion dollars. Just think what we might have accomplished at home if that money had been spent on education, job training, medical research, infrastructure improvements, water purification and sanitation. You can add to this list. It’s all important, but taking a backseat to our military funding.

Share

War for the Sake of War? 0

In the Des Moines Register, a career military officer approaches retirement and wonders whether his was a misspent career. An excerpt:

I have learned that good tactics will never compensate for bad strategy. The United States has failed to acknowledge that axiom, and I have been complicit. For most of my career, I believed that policymakers were in control of the situation and regardless of how counterproductive decisions made at their level seemed at my level, national leaders would not commit such vast resources in support of a policy lacking a definitive objective. Divested of this illusion, I can see this war was inadequately planned, recklessly administered, and is now just wasteful. Retiring after more than two decades enables me to confidently say that while I am proud of my service and especially those with whom I served, the war in Afghanistan and Iraq is a mistake. If those countries are fronts for the war on terror, it is because we have created them.

Share

War and Mongers of War 0

Farron fears another War for a Lie in Somewhere.

Share

All That Was Old Is New Again 0

Russian and American jets at starting line of new arms race over the shards of the INF treaty as Death waves the starting flag.

Click for the original image.

Share

Wasted Deep in the Big Muddy 0

The never-ending legacy of President George the Worst:

Two soldiers in Afghanistan.  One, looking at his smart phone, says,

Click for the original image.

Share

The Art of the Con, Undealt Dept. 0

Thom and Scott Ritter discusses Donald Trump’s un-dealing the Iran Nuclear Peace Deal.

I would add that tension between the U. S. and Iran goes much farther back than 1979.

Share

The Cycle of Strife 0

Title:  The Refugee Cycle.  Image:  Nations become destabilized, with the U. S. sometimes at fault--People flee for their lives--Conservative media distorts and scaremongers--Nationalist movement grows--Support increases for authoritarian regimes and war- and climate change denial, creating more refugees--Repeat until Doomsday--Repeat.

Click for the original image.

(Syntax error fixed and that was a new one for me. If you use carets even surrounded by quotation marks in the alt-text for an image, they can still affect the markup.)

Share

Plus ca Change 0

Thom sees echoes of the past in what’s happening at our southern border.

Granted, Thom’s concern may seem alarmist, until you remember that it has precedent.

Share

Presidential Participation Trophy 0

Will Bunch suggests that President George the Worst does not deserve to receive an award that has variously been shared by Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai, and Rep. John Lewis.

Methinks he has a point.

(Broken link fixed.)

Share

“Lessons Learned . . .” 0

. . . and, as Shaun Mullen points out, they were the wrong damned lessons.

Share

Swampwater 0

President George the Worst’s mercenaries are back in the news.

Share

War and Mongers or War 0

Thom and Juan Cole discuss whether it’s thinkable that Donald Trump may join with the Neocons to foment a war with Iran so as to turn the focus away from his own conduct.

Share