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352 comments on DrumBeat: April 7, 2008

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pi on April 7, 2008 - 10:20am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Some US general said "war is a racket", I think. A war with Iran would be the best way to funnel perhaps the last major revenues likely to be collected by the IRS into the pockets of Cheney's supporters (military suppliers etc.) WHILE providing the rationale for controlling dissenters AND the resulting gas shortages will also keep everyone focused on basic suvival, not paying attention to WHO is escaping on planes bound for, for example, Paraguay.....

You see, they've thought it all out, the neocons. And it matters not a whit whether anyone has guessed their plans, because they are in control.

But, you know, war lords flourish when it's a zero sum game. If available energy is increasing, then fine, leaders are happy to share the good fortune bountifully among the populace. But if the energy available is going to stagnate or decrease then the window SLAMS shut and people who are a bit stronger, richer and more powerful make sure that they remain that way, even if it takes lies, robbing, whatever.

There were war lords here in Japan until 1863 when the Meiji Revolution did away with them. I believe that the energy profile of Japan (as well as the world) changed at that time and it was no longer a zero sum game, suddenly there was coal, oil, etc. ("Oh, OKAY, great! Let's SHARE!")

But in the US way before Bush was--ahem---"elected" in 2000, the reversion to the zero sum game energy profile was clear, just even by the slowing marginal rate of oil production. Bush is a war lord, masquerading as a democratic leader. He is a war lord in every sense. He is being run by others who are profiting from his policies. He doesn't hate war, regret war, or even dislike it. (Maybe in his heart of hearts he might feel sorry for the people killed, but he is weak enough to separate these feelings from his policies).

He is a war lord. There might be more such "leaders" on the horizon, as time passes, only the scale will be smaller and smaller. Fighting between continents, then within continents, then within countries, then just between two groups on different sides of a hill......

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eric blair on April 7, 2008 - 10:58am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

"war is a racket"

http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm
By US Marine Corp Major General Smedley Butler

The other bit of history that is not mentioned often
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/Coup.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot

The committee deleted extensive excerpts from the report relating to Wall Street financiers including J.P. Morgan & Co., the Du Pont interests, Remington Arms, and others allegedly involved in the plot attempt. As of 1975, a full transcript of the hearings had yet to be traced.[29]

(This tid-bit is RIPE for a prankster to fake a copy and call it authentic. I'm surprised it hasn't happened.)

There were war lords here in Japan until 1863 when the Meiji Revolution did away with them. I believe that the energy profile of Japan (as well as the world) changed at that time and it was no longer a zero sum game, suddenly there was coal, oil, etc. ("Oh, OKAY, great! Let's SHARE!")

Please post more on the history of Japan as viewed through the energy lens.

not paying attention to WHO is escaping on planes bound for, for example, Paraguay.....

Humans are nasty vengeful kritters. I would not be shocked to hear that the jungle of Paraguay was nuked due to trees being a source of wood for the next set of weapons - sticks.

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shaman on April 7, 2008 - 12:19pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

"There were war lords here in Japan until 1863 when the Meiji Revolution did away with them."

Source please? Are you referring to the samurai class? That is what Meiji brought to an end. But they were a landed aristocracy, not war lords.

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super390 on April 7, 2008 - 12:38pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Aren't all landed aristocracies warlords - grabbing land by arms, then passing it on to their children with the military skills to pose as a protection racket for the tenants? When those skills are lost, the decayed descendants must either lose their land to reform movements (Europe/Japan), or hire death squads from the army/police/School of the Americas franchise, thus becoming warlords once again.

It is no coincidence that the affluent families of the US sent so many of their boys to military academies.

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shaman on April 7, 2008 - 1:14pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

If you like. But it seems to me that it so trivializes the distinctions that you would end up with only two forms of governance - democracy or warlord-ism. That lacks in subtlety from my perspective.

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MarkIX on April 8, 2008 - 5:44am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I'd be perfectly amenable to just calling it "thievery", because that's what it is, regardless of who does it.

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pi on April 8, 2008 - 3:59am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Land---exactly----that was the source of energy. Whether it's horses eating the grass or people eating the crops, the energy from the land was the only energy. Control the land and you control the energy--the food, horses (military). The amount of land wasn't increasing (hence the limitation on energy available). People fought constantly to control the land here. (Of course, without modern WMD and tanks, bombs, missiles, whatever, I guess the fighting was pretty much different from what is going on now in wars.) But the Meiji govt realized, after contact with outside world (esp. England I believe) , that coal-powered ships, trains etc could put an end to this feudalistic world view, and its lifestyle. And things did change.

Bush is more a symptom of peak oil----in a world of increasing scarcity, some groups will want to grab what they can get simply because they believe (perhaps correctly????? I hate to think of it like that!) that otherwie someone else will beat them to it.

Sorry I have no links in particular to recommend! Just look up various general historical terms and I think you'll find something.

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pondlife on April 8, 2008 - 8:55am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

And didn't the next 80+ years in Japan bring forth the most barbaric lethal culture the world has ever seen [exceeding the nazis, mongols, ruskies, chinese, US, British etc..]? What would that bio-weapons factory in Hiroshima be doing had it not been toasted in 45??

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eric blair on April 8, 2008 - 12:20pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

What would that bio-weapons factory in Hiroshima be doing had it not been toasted in 45??

Train US citizens in the facility?

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Roysyl on April 7, 2008 - 9:41pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

12 aircraft carriers @ $4.5 billion ea + 12 sunburn missles @ $1 million ea = sum 0

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352 comments on DrumBeat: April 7, 2008

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