The minute NATO was not dissolved once the USSR and the Warsaw Pact disappeared should have been a warning. Instead of going into the dustbin of history, the US National Security State, drunk with its own hubris, decided to double down and set out to expand NATO right up to Russian border and play a game of chicken. Peace dividend? The neocons would not allow it under any circumstances, as their goal for global hegemony and mega profits in perpetuity is something that they are clearly not willing to give up.....even if it means provoking nuclear Armageddon. They are zealots in the extreme, and don't give a damn about anything or anyone else except global domination. And the so-called progressives calling for negotiations? Slinking off into the corner with their tail between their legs. Heaven help us all!
No peace dividend without peace, which is clearly not an option - as I'm sure you and your readers are well aware, Desert Shield wasn't even a full year after the fall of the Berlin wall. That was a good 10 months, though, right? Also, I think I found the poster you were referencing - someone is selling it on Etsy - https://www.etsy.com/listing/749465693/notice-nuclear-attack-houston-blacklight
Another clear minded analysis by Col. Macgregor in The American Conservative.
The American People lose when the MSM will not give him and other voices like his, the exposure to challenge the proscribed US one dimensional WAR narrative.
Of the Vietnam War, Henry Kissinger, former national security advisor and secretary of State under Presidents Nixon and Ford, said, “We should never have been there.” Before long, Americans, even the politicians inside the Beltway, will reach the same conclusion about Washington’s Ukrainian proxy war against Russia.
No one in the White House, the Senate, or the House consciously set out to turn the proxy Ukrainian war with Moscow into a contest of “competitive societal collapse” between Russia and NATO. But here we are. No one imagined that the Biden administration and the bipartisan war party would drive Americans and Europeans into a political, military, and economic valley of death, from which there is no easy escape. Yet that is precisely what is happening.
For the moment, Washington remains blind to these developments. Whether in print, radio, television, or online, the narrative is clear: despite horrific losses—at least 400,000 Ukrainian battlefield casualties including 100,000 soldiers killed in action—Ukrainian forces are winning. Moreover, the narrative says, America’s financial and economic dominance will ultimately overwhelm the deceptively weak Russian economy.
The Ukrainian-victory narrative admittedly benefits hugely from Western media that actively “tune out” opposing views and depict Russia and its armed forces in the worst possible light. The fact that nearly half a century of the Cold War conditioned Americans to think the worst of Russians certainly helps.........
p.s. While I like the edit feature here on substack as a +, it's a - only a link to a video can be posted, not the video itself as is possible on WordPress.
As a key player in Kyiv’s defense and the leader of sanctions against Russia, Washington is obligated to help find a way out.
Four recent events have put the war in Ukraine on a distinctly more dangerous course.
— The Russian annexation of four additional Ukrainian provinces blocks compromise solutions that were feasible earlier.
— The disabling attacks on both North Stream pipelines make it impossible in the near term to restore Russia as the principal energy supplier to Germany, even if the war in Ukraine should be miraculously ended.
— The Ukrainian attack on the bridge to Crimea gave Russia a pretext to escalate attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets.
— The Russian retaliatory attacks on civilian targets are certain to do more damage to Ukraine than Ukraine can do to Russia.
The leaders of both Russia and Ukraine have set impossible goals. In fact, not a single participant in the war in Ukraine has espoused a goal that can restore peace in the area. Russia’s recent incorporation of four Ukrainian provinces into the Russian Federation will not be accepted by Russia’s neighbors or by most European powers..................................................................................................
This promises to be a very interesting month coming up indeed… :
The second round of Brazil’s presidential election will take place on 30 October,
The US midterm elections for all House seats and roughly a third of Senate seats will be held on 8 November, assuming they aren’t postponed or cancelled.
The UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) will take place from 6 to 18 November, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
The meeting of heads of state and government from the world’s 20 major developed and emerging economies (G20) will take place on 15 and 16 November in Bali, Indonesia. The biggest unknown at this point being whether Russia and China will be in attendance.
And America’s War with Russia in Ukraine will enter its eleventh month.
SCHRÖDINGER'S BOMB: FALSE FLAGS OVER UKRAINE by James Corbett
Remember way back in January of this year when I predicted that geopolitical strife—"the element of the global calculation that has been excluded from the equation" during the scamdemic—would "come back with a vengeance" in 2022?
Well, if the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February and the ramping up of tensions with China over Taiwan this past summer didn't convince you that the struggle for control of the grand (3D) chessboard has indeed "come back with a vengeance" this year, the events of this past week should be more than enough to dispel your doubts.
First we had the news that Russia is ringing the alarm over a false flag dirty bomb attack that (they assert) the Ukrainians are planning to stage in Ukraine in order to blame Russia. Then we had the US counter-warning that it's actually Russia who's planning to release nukes in Ukraine and the Kremlin's false flag warning is a trick to make everyone believe that the Ukrainians are going to do it.
Is your head spinning yet? Mine, too. In fact, I think that's the point.
Accusation. Counter-accusation. Bluffs and double-bluffs in an ever-crazier game of nuclear chicken. What the hell is going on here? And—regardless of what results from this latest kerfuffle—what does the normalization of false flag accusations portend for the future of geopolitics?
Asking why no peace dividend, I think of ancient Egyptians asking, "when are we going to stop working on these pyramids!?" Weapons production is our pyramids.
The life blood of our civilization is profit. The perfect generator of profit is endless production of things that get discarded to be replaced by new versions. We know how absurd this has become when we see such projects as the F35 and the Navy's LCS, but as far as profit making goes, they fill the bill.
Another Root Cause as to Why there has been no “Peace Dividend”… :
YOU, POOR VOTER, MUST STAND BACK AND WATCH AS BILLIONAIRE PLUTOCRATS PURCHASE DEMOCRACY by Sam Pizzigati / Inequality.org
Do you have a favorite candidate in the upcoming congressional midterm elections? Want to do everything you can to see that candidate elected? Thinking about opening your wallet in the campaign’s final days?
If you do feel so inclined, you’ll find out — as soon as you move to make an online contribution — that you can only open your wallet so wide. Federal election law sets strict limits on how much you can contribute, as an individual, to your candidate of choice. That limit now stands at $2,900 per election.
Contribute more than that and you’ll be breaking the law. And you could face some hefty penalties, nearly $22,000 or even more depending on the specifics of your oversized contribution.
Wait. How can ordinary Americans face substantial penalties for contributing too much to their favorite candidates when we regularly see headlines about the multiple millions America’s wealthiest are legally investing in our elections?
USA Today, for instance, reported earlier this month that U.S. billionaires have so far this election cycle dropped “nearly $675 million” into campaign coffers, “with almost all of that coming from the top 50 mega-rich givers.” Earlier this week, the Washington Post put the total 2022 federal-level campaign cash from the nation’s 50 biggest donors at $1.1 billion.
This report is really disturbing with only one loophole to escape the MADness of the US dominated European NATO LEADERS.
That is the Common Sense of Common Humanity, who's only Power is the Power of their WORD and Public Testimony.
The government will vote on it , but will they put the issue to a Public Referendum as any notion of a real Democracy DEMANDS with such an EXISTENTIAL THREAT?
'NATO Wants to Place Nuclear Missiles on Finland’s Russian Border — Finland Says Yes.'
According to Newsweek, on October 26th, “Finland Will Allow NATO to Place Nuclear Weapons on Border With Russia”. They cite Finnish media reports. Allegedly, a condition that NATO had placed on Finland to join NATO was to allow America’s nuclear missiles to be positioned on Finland’s Russian border, which is closer to Moscow than any other except Ukraine’s. Whereas Ukraine’s would be 5 minutes from blitz-nuking Moscow so as to preemptively decapitate Russia’s retaliatory command, Finland’s would be 7 minutes — only around 120 seconds longer for Russia to be able to launch its retaliatory strikes.
Finland now is to vote on the bill joining NATO, on that basis (i.e., to become America’s spearhead to defeat Russia in WW III). Obviously (assuming that NATO had, indeed, given Finland’s leaders to believe that saying yes to this would increase NATO’s likelihood of expediting Finland’s application to join), NATO is set upon checkmating Russia into capitulation if Finland does join..........................................
By the design of God and Nature, Russia is CanaDa's only other neighbour and we should be the Natural Peace Bridge between the US and Russia. US money talks!
Many years ago, CanaDa's Prime Minister John Diefenbaker resisted US pressure to install US nukes on Canadian soil. He was demonized, but at least he had the Courage to do it.
The bottom-line, bullet-hits-the-bone fact is that the so-called "Global" so-called "War On" so-called "Terrorism" [GWOT} was, is, and ever will be nothing but a half-time show designed to keep the troops occupied, the MICC profitable, and the American People comfortably numb to protracted conflicts in places many ~ if not most ~ of them cannot find on a map.
A half-time show until Russia came back from the demise of the USSR and European Communism and the end of Cold War I ~ and China fully emerged from the madness of Mao ~ to enable Cold War II to become a Reality. And here we are.
And CW II is even better than CW I because it has all the making of a Two-Front War.
And then, of course, there are all those homegrown "Domestic Terrorists" that need to be worried about, as well.
That same just over 30 years ago, Bill, i was a Senior Noncommissioned Officer assigned to the Office of The Inspector General of the US Army, and the big question on everybody’s mind when the USSR and European Communism were in the process of disintegrating ~ and were then gone ~ had nothing to do with any sort of so-called “Peace Dividend.”
And, of course, our Boy in Baghdad ~ whose Holy War against The Great Satan in Tehran we had bankrolled during the 80s ~ stepped into the breach and filled the slot with his “invasion” of Kuwait, setting the stage for OPERATION DESERT STORM and, more importantly, the establishment of a full-time combat-ready American military force in the Middle East; something we had been trying to figure out how to do since the end of World War II, if not World War I.
And by setting up that force in Islam’s Holiest Land of Saudi Arabia, we ensured that the long simmering feud between Shiite and Sunni Muslims in the whole region was ignited and would explode, which it did. And, by not eliminating Saddam then when we had every opportunity to with ODS, we set the stage for him having all those WMDs that we could never find in 2003 when we used that as an excuse TO get rid of him, when it fit more conveniently into The Plan, and generated even more chaos between Shiites and Sunnis, and all that that has led to.
And equally importantly, we gave another one of our Boyz ~ Osama bin Laden of Afghanistan fame also in the 80s, but against the Russians as opposed to the Iranians ~ the allegedly perfect excuse he needed to do what he allegedly did on 9/11, paving the way for the Best post-WW II War Ever for that MICC, our Forever War; now in its next Phase in Ukraine.
As Bush the Elder put it back in March, 1991 after Kuwait had been “liberated”: "By God, we've kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all." And in the process, we also totally and completely forgot the Lessons To Be Learned from our failed War in Vietnam that started right after WW II when we bankrolled the French attempt to re-establish their Colonial Empire in Indochina, and continued for another 30 years until first the French and then we got their and our asses kicked and thrown out of Southeast Asia in 1975.
In any event, the first question that came to my mind when reading Your article, Bill , was: Did anybody in any real positions of actual power and authority in Washington ever seriously talk about a “Peace Dividend”? Or was that just an assumption that everybody with no power and authority and nothing but hope made; if for no other reason than that it felt good?
Did anybody at the White House or in Congress ever even mention a “Peace Dividend”? Was it an issue in the 1992, 1994, or 1996 national elections? Or ever even mentioned by anybody anywhere in the MSM?
And the second question came after reading Your statement that “Paradoxically, even as America’s wars went bad, no one was ever held accountable.” No shit. When has ANYBODY in Washington ever been held accountable for ANYTHING, particularly Failures: be they of the military, diplomatic, economic, public health, educational, environmental, or any other variety of policy and procedural failures?
~ Who was ever held accountable for America's defeat in Vietnam? Anybody?
~ Who was ever held accountable for the biggest intelligence, law enforcement, and national defense failure in American ~ if not World ~ history, 9/11? Anybody?
~ Who was ever held accountable for America’s failed response to COVID 19, when with 4+% of the World’s Population, America has suffered 16+% of the Total COVID Cases and Deaths? Anybody?
~ Who was ever held accountable for the “too-big-to-fail” 2008 financial “¢risi$”? Anybody? Who is being held accountable today for the inflation ravaging Americans’ paychecks and household budgets? Anybody?
You concluded with: “So, I return to my question: Dammit, where’s my peace dividend? And the answer is nowhere because powerful forces in America simply love their war dividends — and they’re not about to surrender them.”
And i will return to my perpetual refrain that the only reason those powerful forces continue to get to keep getting their war dividends is because the American People continue to let them get them, and to get away with their form of “militarized Keynesianism.”
Unless and until the American People pull their individual and collective heads out of their asses and declare “YA BASTA!” ~ ENOUGH! ~ ain’t nuthin gonna change except to get worse.
The minute NATO was not dissolved once the USSR and the Warsaw Pact disappeared should have been a warning. Instead of going into the dustbin of history, the US National Security State, drunk with its own hubris, decided to double down and set out to expand NATO right up to Russian border and play a game of chicken. Peace dividend? The neocons would not allow it under any circumstances, as their goal for global hegemony and mega profits in perpetuity is something that they are clearly not willing to give up.....even if it means provoking nuclear Armageddon. They are zealots in the extreme, and don't give a damn about anything or anyone else except global domination. And the so-called progressives calling for negotiations? Slinking off into the corner with their tail between their legs. Heaven help us all!
No peace dividend without peace, which is clearly not an option - as I'm sure you and your readers are well aware, Desert Shield wasn't even a full year after the fall of the Berlin wall. That was a good 10 months, though, right? Also, I think I found the poster you were referencing - someone is selling it on Etsy - https://www.etsy.com/listing/749465693/notice-nuclear-attack-houston-blacklight
Another clear minded analysis by Col. Macgregor in The American Conservative.
The American People lose when the MSM will not give him and other voices like his, the exposure to challenge the proscribed US one dimensional WAR narrative.
Of the Vietnam War, Henry Kissinger, former national security advisor and secretary of State under Presidents Nixon and Ford, said, “We should never have been there.” Before long, Americans, even the politicians inside the Beltway, will reach the same conclusion about Washington’s Ukrainian proxy war against Russia.
No one in the White House, the Senate, or the House consciously set out to turn the proxy Ukrainian war with Moscow into a contest of “competitive societal collapse” between Russia and NATO. But here we are. No one imagined that the Biden administration and the bipartisan war party would drive Americans and Europeans into a political, military, and economic valley of death, from which there is no easy escape. Yet that is precisely what is happening.
For the moment, Washington remains blind to these developments. Whether in print, radio, television, or online, the narrative is clear: despite horrific losses—at least 400,000 Ukrainian battlefield casualties including 100,000 soldiers killed in action—Ukrainian forces are winning. Moreover, the narrative says, America’s financial and economic dominance will ultimately overwhelm the deceptively weak Russian economy.
The Ukrainian-victory narrative admittedly benefits hugely from Western media that actively “tune out” opposing views and depict Russia and its armed forces in the worst possible light. The fact that nearly half a century of the Cold War conditioned Americans to think the worst of Russians certainly helps.........
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/war-and-regrets-in-ukraine/
Another recent insightful analysis by Colonel Douglas Macgregor on what's really happening in Ukraine I tend to agree with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I0bfEGtHeY
p.s. While I like the edit feature here on substack as a +, it's a - only a link to a video can be posted, not the video itself as is possible on WordPress.
Why the US must press for a ceasefire in Ukraine
As a key player in Kyiv’s defense and the leader of sanctions against Russia, Washington is obligated to help find a way out.
Four recent events have put the war in Ukraine on a distinctly more dangerous course.
— The Russian annexation of four additional Ukrainian provinces blocks compromise solutions that were feasible earlier.
— The disabling attacks on both North Stream pipelines make it impossible in the near term to restore Russia as the principal energy supplier to Germany, even if the war in Ukraine should be miraculously ended.
— The Ukrainian attack on the bridge to Crimea gave Russia a pretext to escalate attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets.
— The Russian retaliatory attacks on civilian targets are certain to do more damage to Ukraine than Ukraine can do to Russia.
The leaders of both Russia and Ukraine have set impossible goals. In fact, not a single participant in the war in Ukraine has espoused a goal that can restore peace in the area. Russia’s recent incorporation of four Ukrainian provinces into the Russian Federation will not be accepted by Russia’s neighbors or by most European powers..................................................................................................
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2022/10/17/on-ukraine-the-us-is-on-the-hook-to-find-a-way-out/
This promises to be a very interesting month coming up indeed… :
The second round of Brazil’s presidential election will take place on 30 October,
The US midterm elections for all House seats and roughly a third of Senate seats will be held on 8 November, assuming they aren’t postponed or cancelled.
The UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) will take place from 6 to 18 November, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
The meeting of heads of state and government from the world’s 20 major developed and emerging economies (G20) will take place on 15 and 16 November in Bali, Indonesia. The biggest unknown at this point being whether Russia and China will be in attendance.
And America’s War with Russia in Ukraine will enter its eleventh month.
SCHRÖDINGER'S BOMB: FALSE FLAGS OVER UKRAINE by James Corbett
Remember way back in January of this year when I predicted that geopolitical strife—"the element of the global calculation that has been excluded from the equation" during the scamdemic—would "come back with a vengeance" in 2022?
Well, if the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February and the ramping up of tensions with China over Taiwan this past summer didn't convince you that the struggle for control of the grand (3D) chessboard has indeed "come back with a vengeance" this year, the events of this past week should be more than enough to dispel your doubts.
First we had the news that Russia is ringing the alarm over a false flag dirty bomb attack that (they assert) the Ukrainians are planning to stage in Ukraine in order to blame Russia. Then we had the US counter-warning that it's actually Russia who's planning to release nukes in Ukraine and the Kremlin's false flag warning is a trick to make everyone believe that the Ukrainians are going to do it.
Is your head spinning yet? Mine, too. In fact, I think that's the point.
Accusation. Counter-accusation. Bluffs and double-bluffs in an ever-crazier game of nuclear chicken. What the hell is going on here? And—regardless of what results from this latest kerfuffle—what does the normalization of false flag accusations portend for the future of geopolitics?
Let's find out… .
Continued at https://corbettreport.substack.com/p/schrodingers-bomb-false-flags-over
Asking why no peace dividend, I think of ancient Egyptians asking, "when are we going to stop working on these pyramids!?" Weapons production is our pyramids.
The life blood of our civilization is profit. The perfect generator of profit is endless production of things that get discarded to be replaced by new versions. We know how absurd this has become when we see such projects as the F35 and the Navy's LCS, but as far as profit making goes, they fill the bill.
Another Root Cause as to Why there has been no “Peace Dividend”… :
YOU, POOR VOTER, MUST STAND BACK AND WATCH AS BILLIONAIRE PLUTOCRATS PURCHASE DEMOCRACY by Sam Pizzigati / Inequality.org
Do you have a favorite candidate in the upcoming congressional midterm elections? Want to do everything you can to see that candidate elected? Thinking about opening your wallet in the campaign’s final days?
If you do feel so inclined, you’ll find out — as soon as you move to make an online contribution — that you can only open your wallet so wide. Federal election law sets strict limits on how much you can contribute, as an individual, to your candidate of choice. That limit now stands at $2,900 per election.
Contribute more than that and you’ll be breaking the law. And you could face some hefty penalties, nearly $22,000 or even more depending on the specifics of your oversized contribution.
Wait. How can ordinary Americans face substantial penalties for contributing too much to their favorite candidates when we regularly see headlines about the multiple millions America’s wealthiest are legally investing in our elections?
USA Today, for instance, reported earlier this month that U.S. billionaires have so far this election cycle dropped “nearly $675 million” into campaign coffers, “with almost all of that coming from the top 50 mega-rich givers.” Earlier this week, the Washington Post put the total 2022 federal-level campaign cash from the nation’s 50 biggest donors at $1.1 billion.
Continued at https://scheerpost.com/2022/10/28/you-poor-voter-must-stand-back-and-watch-as-billionaire-plutocrats-purchase-democracy/
This Material World really is going insane!
This report is really disturbing with only one loophole to escape the MADness of the US dominated European NATO LEADERS.
That is the Common Sense of Common Humanity, who's only Power is the Power of their WORD and Public Testimony.
The government will vote on it , but will they put the issue to a Public Referendum as any notion of a real Democracy DEMANDS with such an EXISTENTIAL THREAT?
'NATO Wants to Place Nuclear Missiles on Finland’s Russian Border — Finland Says Yes.'
According to Newsweek, on October 26th, “Finland Will Allow NATO to Place Nuclear Weapons on Border With Russia”. They cite Finnish media reports. Allegedly, a condition that NATO had placed on Finland to join NATO was to allow America’s nuclear missiles to be positioned on Finland’s Russian border, which is closer to Moscow than any other except Ukraine’s. Whereas Ukraine’s would be 5 minutes from blitz-nuking Moscow so as to preemptively decapitate Russia’s retaliatory command, Finland’s would be 7 minutes — only around 120 seconds longer for Russia to be able to launch its retaliatory strikes.
Finland now is to vote on the bill joining NATO, on that basis (i.e., to become America’s spearhead to defeat Russia in WW III). Obviously (assuming that NATO had, indeed, given Finland’s leaders to believe that saying yes to this would increase NATO’s likelihood of expediting Finland’s application to join), NATO is set upon checkmating Russia into capitulation if Finland does join..........................................
https://www.globalresearch.ca/nato-wants-place-nuclear-missiles-finland-russian-border-finland-says-yes/5797399
By the design of God and Nature, Russia is CanaDa's only other neighbour and we should be the Natural Peace Bridge between the US and Russia. US money talks!
Many years ago, CanaDa's Prime Minister John Diefenbaker resisted US pressure to install US nukes on Canadian soil. He was demonized, but at least he had the Courage to do it.
https://rayjc.com/2011/02/26/proclaim-liberty-throughout-all-the-land/
The bottom-line, bullet-hits-the-bone fact is that the so-called "Global" so-called "War On" so-called "Terrorism" [GWOT} was, is, and ever will be nothing but a half-time show designed to keep the troops occupied, the MICC profitable, and the American People comfortably numb to protracted conflicts in places many ~ if not most ~ of them cannot find on a map.
A half-time show until Russia came back from the demise of the USSR and European Communism and the end of Cold War I ~ and China fully emerged from the madness of Mao ~ to enable Cold War II to become a Reality. And here we are.
And CW II is even better than CW I because it has all the making of a Two-Front War.
And then, of course, there are all those homegrown "Domestic Terrorists" that need to be worried about, as well.
That same just over 30 years ago, Bill, i was a Senior Noncommissioned Officer assigned to the Office of The Inspector General of the US Army, and the big question on everybody’s mind when the USSR and European Communism were in the process of disintegrating ~ and were then gone ~ had nothing to do with any sort of so-called “Peace Dividend.”
It had to do solely and entirely with WHO was going to be our New “Enemy” and “Threat” now so as to justify continuing the perpetually increasing “Defense” budgets for the MICC ever since America’s defeat in Vietnam fifteen years earlier. [ https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/military-spending-defense-budget ]
And, of course, our Boy in Baghdad ~ whose Holy War against The Great Satan in Tehran we had bankrolled during the 80s ~ stepped into the breach and filled the slot with his “invasion” of Kuwait, setting the stage for OPERATION DESERT STORM and, more importantly, the establishment of a full-time combat-ready American military force in the Middle East; something we had been trying to figure out how to do since the end of World War II, if not World War I.
And by setting up that force in Islam’s Holiest Land of Saudi Arabia, we ensured that the long simmering feud between Shiite and Sunni Muslims in the whole region was ignited and would explode, which it did. And, by not eliminating Saddam then when we had every opportunity to with ODS, we set the stage for him having all those WMDs that we could never find in 2003 when we used that as an excuse TO get rid of him, when it fit more conveniently into The Plan, and generated even more chaos between Shiites and Sunnis, and all that that has led to.
And equally importantly, we gave another one of our Boyz ~ Osama bin Laden of Afghanistan fame also in the 80s, but against the Russians as opposed to the Iranians ~ the allegedly perfect excuse he needed to do what he allegedly did on 9/11, paving the way for the Best post-WW II War Ever for that MICC, our Forever War; now in its next Phase in Ukraine.
As Bush the Elder put it back in March, 1991 after Kuwait had been “liberated”: "By God, we've kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all." And in the process, we also totally and completely forgot the Lessons To Be Learned from our failed War in Vietnam that started right after WW II when we bankrolled the French attempt to re-establish their Colonial Empire in Indochina, and continued for another 30 years until first the French and then we got their and our asses kicked and thrown out of Southeast Asia in 1975.
In any event, the first question that came to my mind when reading Your article, Bill , was: Did anybody in any real positions of actual power and authority in Washington ever seriously talk about a “Peace Dividend”? Or was that just an assumption that everybody with no power and authority and nothing but hope made; if for no other reason than that it felt good?
Did anybody at the White House or in Congress ever even mention a “Peace Dividend”? Was it an issue in the 1992, 1994, or 1996 national elections? Or ever even mentioned by anybody anywhere in the MSM?
And the second question came after reading Your statement that “Paradoxically, even as America’s wars went bad, no one was ever held accountable.” No shit. When has ANYBODY in Washington ever been held accountable for ANYTHING, particularly Failures: be they of the military, diplomatic, economic, public health, educational, environmental, or any other variety of policy and procedural failures?
~ Who was ever held accountable for America's defeat in Vietnam? Anybody?
~ Who was ever held accountable for the biggest intelligence, law enforcement, and national defense failure in American ~ if not World ~ history, 9/11? Anybody?
~ Who was ever held accountable for America’s failed response to COVID 19, when with 4+% of the World’s Population, America has suffered 16+% of the Total COVID Cases and Deaths? Anybody?
~ Who was ever held accountable for the “too-big-to-fail” 2008 financial “¢risi$”? Anybody? Who is being held accountable today for the inflation ravaging Americans’ paychecks and household budgets? Anybody?
You concluded with: “So, I return to my question: Dammit, where’s my peace dividend? And the answer is nowhere because powerful forces in America simply love their war dividends — and they’re not about to surrender them.”
And i will return to my perpetual refrain that the only reason those powerful forces continue to get to keep getting their war dividends is because the American People continue to let them get them, and to get away with their form of “militarized Keynesianism.”
Unless and until the American People pull their individual and collective heads out of their asses and declare “YA BASTA!” ~ ENOUGH! ~ ain’t nuthin gonna change except to get worse.
They spent it. It didn't take long.