The Violence Prerogative
All oppressive, criminal, and genocidal governments cloak their atrocities in the language of virtue.
Noam Chomsky, Nathan J. Robinson

Every ruling power tells itself stories to justify its rule. Nobody is the villain in their own history. Professed good intentions and humane principles are a constant. Even Heinrich Himmler, in describing the extermination of the Jews, claimed that the Nazis only “carried out this most difficult task for the love of our people” and thereby “suffered no defect within us, in our soul, or in our character.” Hitler himself said that in occupying Czechoslovakia, he was only trying to “further the peace and social welfare of all” by eliminating ethnic conflicts and letting everyone live in harmony under civilized Germany’s benevolent tutelage. The worst of history’s criminals have often proclaimed themselves to be among humankind’s greatest heroes.

Murderous imperial conquests are consistently characterized as civilizing missions, conducted out of concern for the interests of the indigenous population. During Japan’s invasion of China in the 1930s, even as Japanese forces were carrying out the Nanjing Massacre, Japanese leaders were claiming they were on a mission to create an “earthly paradise” for the people of China and to protect them from Chinese “bandits” (i.e., those resisting Japan’s invasion). Emperor Hirohito, in his 1945 surrender address, insisted that “we declared war on America and Britain out of our sincere desire to ensure Japan’s self-preservation and the stabilization of East Asia, it being far from our thought either to infringe upon the sovereignty of other nations or to embark upon territorial aggrandizement.” As the late Palestinian American scholar Edward Said noted, there is always a class of people ready to produce specious intellectual arguments in defense of domination: “Every single empire in its official discourse has said that it is not like all the others, that its circumstances are special, that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy, and that it uses force only as a last resort.”

Virtually any act of mass murder or criminal aggression can be rationalized by appeals to high moral principle. Maximilien Robespierre justified the French Reign of Terror in 1794 by claiming that “terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible; it is therefore an emanation of virtue.” Those in power generally present themselves as altruistic, disinterested, and generous. The late leftist journalist Andrew Kopkind pointed to “the universal desire of statesmen to make their most monstrous missions seem like acts of mercy.” It is hard to take actions one believes to be actively immoral, so people have to convince themselves that what they’re doing is right, that their violence is justified. When anyone wields power over someone else (whether a colonist, a dictator, a bureaucrat, a spouse, or a boss), they need an ideology, and that ideology usually comes down to the belief that their domination is for the good of the dominated. (...)

 R_P wrote:
Either he still doesn't know how tariffs work or he just thinks that repeating the fairy tale of exporting nations paying tariffs (instead of domestic importing companies and ultimately consumers) will eventually get more and more believers.  I'm sure many of his minions already believe that anyhow, but he's lied about it over and over so I guess those in the media and elsewhere, who know the truth, are getting tired of correcting him or his press secretary.

Obama/Trump
How the US bankrolled Duterte's alleged crimes against humanity
The former Philippine president awaits trial for his brutal war on drugs. He waged it with our help

Less than a month after Duterte took office, then- Secretary of State John Kerry announced a $32 million weapons and training package specifically to support the Philippine National Police. He made no mention of Duterte’s numerous threats to weaponize law enforcement on the campaign trail, or the fact that 239 suspected drug users had already been killed by police without due process at that point.

Obama’s administration authorized $90 million in military aid to the Philippines in 2016 and roughly $1 billion during the 8 years he was in office. As a growing chorus of human rights advocates criticized the United States for supporting Duterte’s atrocities, the Obama administration suspended some security assistance for the Philippine National Police in November of 2016, but kept military funding at normal levels.

These suspensions were swiftly reversed when Donald Trump took office in 2017. “I just want to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job (you’re doing) on the drug problem,” he told Duterte in a phone call shortly after being inaugurated.

In 2018, the Trump administration provided $55 million to the Philippine National Police in aid and arm sales and $193.5 million in military aid to the Philippines overall. This aid package enabled Duterte’s regime on two fronts.

“The war on drugs was primarily implemented by the Philippine National Police, but the attacks on human rights defenders and activists were mainly done by the military,” said Philippine-based human rights activist Judy Pasimio in an interview with Responsible Statecraft. (...)

Might need a patriotic distraction soon-ish

Tourist detained in US back home in Wales, dad says

Prof. John Mearsheimer : Can Europe Survive?

U.S. could lose democracy status, says global watchdog

 R_P wrote:
Well, you can't really expect her to know very much about world history.  I wonder what her boss's pal Vlad thinks about her assertion that "it's only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now".

The evergreen, revisionist knee-slapper...

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The more things change...


"Peace Through Strength"

The Imperial Boomerang 🪃

Two-thirds of arms imports to Nato countries in Europe come from US *

Sipri’s annual analysis of global arms transfers also underlined how the US had cemented its position as the world’s top arms exporter, increasing its share of exports from 35 per cent to 43 per cent over the five-year period.

Very fine normal people
US Defense Secretary Hegseth wants to overthrow China’s government, in ‘crusade’ against left (and Islam)

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is a self-declared “crusader” who believes the United States is in a “holy war” against the left, China, and Islam.

In his 2020 book American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free, Hegseth vowed that, if Trump could return to the White House and Republicans could take power, “Communist China will fall—and lick its wounds for another two hundred years”.

Hegseth declared that the Chinese “are literally the villains of our generation”, and warned, “If we don’t stand up to communist China now, we will be standing for the Chinese anthem someday”.

In Hegseth’s conspiratorial worldview, Chinese communists and the international left are conspiring with Islamists against the United States and Israel, which are sacred countries blessed by God.

Under Trump’s leadership, Hegseth promised, “Israel and America will form an even tighter bond, fighting the scourge of Islamism and international leftism that will never fully abate”.

“Islamists will never get a nuclear weapon but will be preemptively bombed back to the 700s when they try”, he added. (...)

Glory Be!

source

And the Oscar goes to ... the Pentagon!
Can you feel it? At least one-third of blockbuster films substantially featuring the military were likely produced with DoD support

Mentions:
Consuming War: How Pop Culture Captures Our Attention and Fuels Forever Wars | Costs of War

Gung ho!

Clarity and wishful thinking

RoboKnob Mast issues identitarian language guidance.
Rep. Mast forces staff to call West Bank 'Judea & Samaria'
The new chair of foreign affairs committee is a former Israeli soldier and one of AIPAC’s most reliable members

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast (R-Fl.) has instructed GOP committee staffers to refer to the West Bank by its Hebrew name, Judea and Samaria.

Heading one of Washington’s most powerful committees, Mast sent a memo outlining the language change to the nearly 50 Republican Foreign Affairs Committee staffers on Tuesday; Democratic staffers did not receive the request. Mast’s Washington.-based office confirmed the validity of Axios’ reporting in a phone call to RS; the memo sent to staffers has subsequently circulated on social media.

Critically, the memo repeatedly emphasizes Israelis’ right to the West Bank, a territory it occupies illegally, as their homeland. (...)