war

[Ian Livingston]

Alexander? The Punic wars? Rome?

Sent from my iPhone

> On Dec 14, 2021, at 2:14 PM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
> 
> I want to modify an earlier statement about US wars.
> I can see 2 interventions that made sense. 1was the first gulf war, since there was a clear violation of UN based international agreements in the invasion of Kuwait.  2 was our intervention in Yugoslavia which may have had excesses but actually led to a peace deal. All too rare.  Maybe there is another I can’t think of. That leaves a great number of illegal acts of aggression that have had terrible results: Cambodia, Chile, Iran, Iraq, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Operation Condor, Panama, Grenada, Cuba, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, support for Israeli violation of UN rule against acqisition of territory by aggression, Indonesia, the Philippines.  
> 
> The trouble is obvious. We are addicted to war and weapons sales and cheap materials acquired with coups, bullying, money corruption. It has led our so -called intelligence agencies to become drug traffickers and illegal arms smugglers. It almost started a nuclear war over Cuba and it crushes legitimate democratic process around the globe. It murdered a US president and established a deep state that is imperialist , secretive and increasingly employs a vast surveillance network. It corrupts the press and makes a mockery of the constitution.
> 
> As Martin Luther King said and many agree, The US has become the Greatest puveyor of violence on the planet.
> 
> Are there other Violent Empires? Absolutely. Stalin after leading a heroic campaign that was the major cause of the defeat of the Nazi army, then turned on his political opposition and seized power over neighboring countries in ruthless imperialism and cruelty costing millions of lives. China grabbed Tibet and fed the civil war in Korea, helping create one of the nastiest nations on earth.  Capitalism wreaks planetary and human havoc, The Niger delta, Oil spills, Chemical dumping, global warming, species loss, fertility loss, loss of safe drinking water, vast waste dumps, unnecessary poverty. Religious wars in the middle east take a terrible toll. But none of this justifies or excuses our descent into militarized imperialism. 
> 
> From any sane metric the costs outweigh the benefits.
> 
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