I've long thought that America's ongoing problem in the last and this century has been that it never experienced war - by that I mean the destruction of its cities and society, massive death of civilians, the widespread rapes of women, and all the other horrors. War for the US has been censored broadcasts and videos, and the return of body bags and traumatized returnees from somewhere else.
Those in charge then solemnly speak of "patriotism" and "sacrifice", with the families of the dead or maimed shattered, while everyone else goes about their daily lives.
If Americans experienced war like the Russians in WWII, the Vietnamese in the 1960's, or now the Palestinians in Gaza - no politician would dare the lies they tell us daily about American's role in the world.
While I agree with your analysis, Tom, l don't think I'd call the lack of war on U.S. soil in the last 160 years a "problem." I'd say it's a stroke of fortune that we collectively have no idea how much to appreciate.
Denise, yup. I should have provided a context for 'problem' - meaning problem in terms of understanding the wars the U.S. promotes. Trying to be succinct sometimes leads to loss of key words that provide that context. :-)
And you're right - two oceans kept the U.S. relatively untouched from destruction over the last 160 years. often not appreciated by those who are so-called leaders. Unfortunately, those days are gone with the range of even conventional missiles.
To your point about missiles, Tom, of course you're absolutely right about possibilities. But as I said about Saddam, there was no chance he attack us because he wasn't suicidal. Not being cognizant of relative technical capabilities, I don't know if even Russia could effect a first strike without suffering enormous damage in return. That's why the arms race is so abysmally stupid, IMO.
We don't need no stinkin' foreign war to "go there"-
Statistically, it takes 2 - 3 generations to have conflict inexperienced grandchildren (and probably the great grandchildren as grunts) stick their hands in that fire again. Someplace around 50 to 70 years after the last round of violence (1960s for USA?), plus a decline in living standards at the bottom end coupled with a proliferation of "elite" types at the top (who somehow need to carve out their own "piece of the action and (enough) will not be too ethical about HOW), anything from civil war to ? starts to happen. All 3 conditions are present inside the USA right now.
well said, karl, but unfortunately, b/c no-one in the present generation of western europeans, i.e. brits, germans, french, italians, dutch, swedes, etc... has experienced the savagery of war on their own turfs either, they too are complicit, unconscionably so, in promoting and even supplying weaponry to this zioisraeli/US genocide against gazan and west bank palestinians.
What you said is true - and that's perplexing. Europe has so many physical scars from its bloody history; you'd think they could go spend a day at someplace like Passchendaele or Dachau to remember.
In recent years I have told my friends and acquaintances that anything you hear about evil Putin was already said about the evil German Kaiser Wilhelm II during WW I. Demonizing the “other” makes war palatable to uninformed citizens. The enemy is always the “Untermensch.” This phenomena is well described by Christopher Browning in ORDINARY MEN: … He documents how ordinary men who had no political agenda or commitment to Nazism were turned into murderers. I remember well language used for the Vietnamese when I arrived in the U.S. 58 years ago. Times change, but war propaganda never does.
The strange thing is that people who grew up protesting the Vietnam war, who fully understood then how the government lies (because it was lying about the protesters themselves, for example) now seem to think that the propaganda from the government is "news". I have talked to friends about this and some of them seem to have completely forgotten the anti-war movement of the 60s and early 70s. The Powers That Be count on this amnesia, and so far they have not been disappointed.
Ponsonby comes close to but doesn't quite mention god in #9. I think more than a few Israelis think that god was with them in 1967 and when Netanyahu talks about Amalek and the forces of good vs the forces of darkness, god surely is in the next room. When Reagan spoke of the "axis of evil" I have no doubt the hearts of Christian Americans beat a bit faster. The Iranians have always spoken of the "Great Satan" (the US) and the "Little Satan" (Israel). If there has been no other benefit from communism, it seems to have stopped the Russians from invoking god for this or that.
BTW - my favor euphemism is the word "engineer", but perhaps I should say it is my favorite suffix. Garbage men are now "sanitation engineers" and janitors are now "building engineers" This puts me in mind of the old joke about the guy in the circus who cleans up behind the animals. Asked why he doesn't leave the job he exclaims, "What! And leave show business?"
apologies again; i failed to see that my sentences were redundant. i meant to say: "palestinian victims of this unrelenting zioisraeli genocidal savagery against them".
my unfettered and unalloyed apologies, tomr, and am in your debt for your veracity, courage, advocacy, and commitment to the palestinian victims of this unrelenting genocidal savagery against our palestinian victims of zioisraeli genocide against them. thank you for alerting me to my solecistic mis-identification; my only justification for the oversight is that my eyesight is egregiously compromised after the failure of 4 out of 5 of my corneal transplant surgeries this past decade. even the final one was a disappointment.
I've long thought that America's ongoing problem in the last and this century has been that it never experienced war - by that I mean the destruction of its cities and society, massive death of civilians, the widespread rapes of women, and all the other horrors. War for the US has been censored broadcasts and videos, and the return of body bags and traumatized returnees from somewhere else.
Those in charge then solemnly speak of "patriotism" and "sacrifice", with the families of the dead or maimed shattered, while everyone else goes about their daily lives.
If Americans experienced war like the Russians in WWII, the Vietnamese in the 1960's, or now the Palestinians in Gaza - no politician would dare the lies they tell us daily about American's role in the world.
Yes, I think that's true.
While I agree with your analysis, Tom, l don't think I'd call the lack of war on U.S. soil in the last 160 years a "problem." I'd say it's a stroke of fortune that we collectively have no idea how much to appreciate.
Denise, yup. I should have provided a context for 'problem' - meaning problem in terms of understanding the wars the U.S. promotes. Trying to be succinct sometimes leads to loss of key words that provide that context. :-)
And you're right - two oceans kept the U.S. relatively untouched from destruction over the last 160 years. often not appreciated by those who are so-called leaders. Unfortunately, those days are gone with the range of even conventional missiles.
To your point about missiles, Tom, of course you're absolutely right about possibilities. But as I said about Saddam, there was no chance he attack us because he wasn't suicidal. Not being cognizant of relative technical capabilities, I don't know if even Russia could effect a first strike without suffering enormous damage in return. That's why the arms race is so abysmally stupid, IMO.
@TomR
We don't need no stinkin' foreign war to "go there"-
Statistically, it takes 2 - 3 generations to have conflict inexperienced grandchildren (and probably the great grandchildren as grunts) stick their hands in that fire again. Someplace around 50 to 70 years after the last round of violence (1960s for USA?), plus a decline in living standards at the bottom end coupled with a proliferation of "elite" types at the top (who somehow need to carve out their own "piece of the action and (enough) will not be too ethical about HOW), anything from civil war to ? starts to happen. All 3 conditions are present inside the USA right now.
https://www.amazon.com/End-Times-Counter-Elites-Political-Disintegration-ebook/dp/B0BF8PBQK9/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=1YWBBNYVFFABM&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.30vllnAfyMkvX0WZJMyPR1aQWQTI4XXie5xUPKGSxrCwFj5AvL7uJRgWVoZrK13P2zOi1qnXU7ivkzeTm2ReMlpYac0IfMqVa4o50lNsRlueGjBYzyaMPCqjQ51eIEtpwSb4w6tehfqBNn9kWWGBUaOQnCzdTOPS7IPfHRg6I7VYZ1jEenEIIJXHepk4DiVwuejuEq2LVpcuNI3oBHD1Zg.K63yalxG0dBpdkC-BJjegMF9EwNQ5CwaCO8fOFVegIM&dib_tag=se&keywords=end+times+sociology+history&qid=1715813869&sprefix=end+times+sociology+history%2Caps%2C156&sr=8-1
well said, karl, but unfortunately, b/c no-one in the present generation of western europeans, i.e. brits, germans, french, italians, dutch, swedes, etc... has experienced the savagery of war on their own turfs either, they too are complicit, unconscionably so, in promoting and even supplying weaponry to this zioisraeli/US genocide against gazan and west bank palestinians.
Jeanie, I think you meant me - Tom. :-)
What you said is true - and that's perplexing. Europe has so many physical scars from its bloody history; you'd think they could go spend a day at someplace like Passchendaele or Dachau to remember.
In recent years I have told my friends and acquaintances that anything you hear about evil Putin was already said about the evil German Kaiser Wilhelm II during WW I. Demonizing the “other” makes war palatable to uninformed citizens. The enemy is always the “Untermensch.” This phenomena is well described by Christopher Browning in ORDINARY MEN: … He documents how ordinary men who had no political agenda or commitment to Nazism were turned into murderers. I remember well language used for the Vietnamese when I arrived in the U.S. 58 years ago. Times change, but war propaganda never does.
The strange thing is that people who grew up protesting the Vietnam war, who fully understood then how the government lies (because it was lying about the protesters themselves, for example) now seem to think that the propaganda from the government is "news". I have talked to friends about this and some of them seem to have completely forgotten the anti-war movement of the 60s and early 70s. The Powers That Be count on this amnesia, and so far they have not been disappointed.
Ponsonby comes close to but doesn't quite mention god in #9. I think more than a few Israelis think that god was with them in 1967 and when Netanyahu talks about Amalek and the forces of good vs the forces of darkness, god surely is in the next room. When Reagan spoke of the "axis of evil" I have no doubt the hearts of Christian Americans beat a bit faster. The Iranians have always spoken of the "Great Satan" (the US) and the "Little Satan" (Israel). If there has been no other benefit from communism, it seems to have stopped the Russians from invoking god for this or that.
BTW - my favor euphemism is the word "engineer", but perhaps I should say it is my favorite suffix. Garbage men are now "sanitation engineers" and janitors are now "building engineers" This puts me in mind of the old joke about the guy in the circus who cleans up behind the animals. Asked why he doesn't leave the job he exclaims, "What! And leave show business?"
Wow, those lists are both great and "postable"! I printed them out and then sent your article to friends. Thank you!
You could add #11: We want to negotiate an end to the war. The opposite party does not.
Yes. We are reasonable peace-lovers and they are brutish war-lovers. They are making us fight.
Thanksfor staying on message as so many other messages are pure propaganda.
Outstanding Translations and List, Bill. Thank You for sharing.
apologies again; i failed to see that my sentences were redundant. i meant to say: "palestinian victims of this unrelenting zioisraeli genocidal savagery against them".
my unfettered and unalloyed apologies, tomr, and am in your debt for your veracity, courage, advocacy, and commitment to the palestinian victims of this unrelenting genocidal savagery against our palestinian victims of zioisraeli genocide against them. thank you for alerting me to my solecistic mis-identification; my only justification for the oversight is that my eyesight is egregiously compromised after the failure of 4 out of 5 of my corneal transplant surgeries this past decade. even the final one was a disappointment.
I hadn't heard of Arthur Ponsonby. Thanks. I'll keep that image for later reference.