While I don't completely agree on your point that nobody is being liberated by war
i never said that. i was aiming specifically on the so-called war on terror which is a sham. several times here i expressed my gratitude toward allied soldiers in ww2. especially those of the soviet union which bore the brunt of the war effort against nazism.
Floyd said:
I wonder if bifutake has ever set foot on the soil of the country he seems to dislike so much.
first things first. i don't dislike your country. it's the policies of your government i have a beef with. foreign policies in particular because they affect the whole world.
secondly, why is that relevant? would my visit to the u.s. change the fact that its military expenditures reach almost half of the entire world's?
http://www.realclearworld.com/blog/2011/04/us_military_spending_vs_the_world.html
would it change the fact that it holds the infamous record of the number of military interventions across the globe?
http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/interventions.html
would it change the fact that millions of vietnamese died in their own country by the hand of an invading force? that many are still suffering from birth defects caused by agent orange and other chemical substances thrown out of american airplanes? did anyone answer for those crimes?
conservative estimates show that somewhere between 100 000 and a million iraqis died since the invasion. the number is much higher if you take into consideration a decade of sanctions that preceded it. it always reminds me of an interview with the u.s. state secretary who had absolutely no problem accepting these figures:
Madeleine Albright Defends Mass-Murder of iraqi Children (500,000 Children dead) - YouTube
do you realize the sheer scale of the crimes committed here? primarily, but not restricted to, iraq and afghanistan.
no decent human being can accept that these crimes are being committed in his name, in his behalf. that's why the government (and the mainstream media) won't show you the truth behind it. they'll give you medals and drone on about valor, courage and sacrifice but they won't tell you the truth, that the soldiers die in vain, for someone else's interests. and that the indigenous civilians are the biggest casualties of these endless and futile wars:
Censored Images of War (part 1) - YouTube
What he describes sounds more like the vintage military parade held in the Red Square of Moscow.
you don't need to hold a parade in order to spread militaristic propaganda among your own population and have them become acceptive to it. it's funny how two decades after the dissolution of the ussr some people still try to find scapegoats there even when it's clear that the topic is american imperialism. i never expressed approval for the soviet intervention in afghanistan. they had no business there. but neither did the british before them nor the americans after. people of afghanistan, iraq, iran, syria, north korea etc. have the right to defend themselves against foreign aggression. when some of them fought the soviets on their own soil, americans called them freedom fighters. now they call them terrorists and insurgents. pure hypocrisy.
tell me, if the remembrance day is dedicated to all fallen fighters, how many of you remember the so-called insurgents?
Its is a day of reverence and paying respect to those that serve. How that flies over his head alludes my sensibilities.
in the timeless words of saruman the white, whom do they serve? watch the mike prysner video linked above.
I could make some assumptions about his life, his past and his political beliefs.
correct term for that would be ad hominem.
But more than likely, they would be just as wrong as his assumptions about me.
what assumptions? you're still mad that i called you a conformist? get over it or prove me wrong. i don't care where you spend your days and nights, where you travel, what you eat and drink, where you sleep or what your value system is comprised of. can you disprove anything of what i said about american militarism and imperialism? that's our topic here.
I get the impression that he thinks the US and Nazi German are the only countries in the world that have soldiers and officers that have done unspeakable things.
that's the trouble with impressions, they're often false. you obviously missed what i said earlier: "in war, individual crimes are committed on all sides."
But aren't they fortunate that they live in a country where they are encouraged and free to express their views and confront their government?
i was wondering when we'll come to this. it's called co-optation (freedictionary: "To take or assume for one's own use; appropriate:
co-opted the criticism by embracing it"). it's the most cynical approach you can assume and it's a tactic frequently used by the proponents of the status-quo, those who are trying to find excuses for injustice. yes, they are free to express their views. but only because they're not posing a significant threat to the establishment. and the reason for that is because they're not getting a national coverage, their views are ignored and drowned out in an avalanche of mainstream propaganda. your country is being run in the interests of corporations, not the people. who do you think holds the media?
and no, they were far from being encouraged to step out and speak the truth. just ask bradley manning. these are the people i salute for their bravery.
Try that in China, Iraq, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, Libya, North Korea, Jordan, Sudan, ad nauseum....
how about saudi arabia, the great american ally? so, these countries disgust you (you have a typo there btw)? you do realize that, historically, they didn't yet have a chance to develop their societies in modern terms? most of them were and still are brutally exploited by the west. how about this for a liberation strategy: you leave these countries be. that's it. win-win situation. you don't have to be sick all the time, they don't have to be bombed into oblivion.
The 1970's Edwin Starr song WAR sung by The Temptations says it all.
yeah, i know, i was quoting from an episode of seinfeld (which quoted the song).
this is what is needed today.
