There was no axis then, and there still isnât one now.
The purpose in tying together unrelated adversaries has always been to exaggerate the size of the threat to the United States to scare policymakers and the public into supporting more military spending and more overseas conflicts. If inflating the threat from any one adversary isnât enough to instill sufficient fear, the invention of an axis that includes some or all adversaries around the globe can be very useful to hawks. Because it automatically calls to mind World War II and the fight against the Axis Powers, it also helps them to demonize the other states and smother domestic dissent. Supporters of hawkish policies in each region will then have an incentive to embrace the axis rhetoric and reinforce these views among their political allies.
U.S. soldiers face a quality-of-living crisis as the Pentagonâs recruitment woes persist, according to top-ranking enlisted officers from across the U.S. military.
âWeâve had a break in trust with our American people,â said Master Chief James Honea, the top enlisted adviser to Navy leadership, in a Wednesday congressional hearing. âWe have to do much better at taking careâ of our service members, Honea said, adding that he doesnât want the military to âreach a breaking pointâ where more people decide to leave the military.
Officers and members of Congress highlighted poorly maintained barracks, food insecurity, sexual violence, and limited access to healthcare and childcare as key problems facing U.S. soldiers today. Economic problems are particularly acute among military families, who often struggle to find jobs for civilian spouses and proper food and healthcare for their children.
âIt's time for our actions to match up with our words, as far as putting families above everything else,â said Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas).
The hearing gives insight into why the military is struggling to recruit soldiers even as Pentagon bigwigs prepare for a potential war with China in the coming years. According to a newly released Blue Star Families survey, only 32% of active-duty military families would recommend service to others â a 23-point drop since 2016. (...)
It seems to take eons for Americans to understand what is more than obvious to the rest of the world (and not veiled in capitalist neo-con word-doobage designed to hail a down-going empire, and paint shades of glory, where there really is only shame that could be painted).
And this happens with the unconscious help of all their vassal nations "deep asleep" in their own neo-liberal black plague.
Capitalism is killing lives while it is filling singular pockets. From the beginning to the end. Only thing, towards the end, it'll eat itself completely. And this has begun to happen everywhere. A true incarnation of perversity and perversion (i.e. self-destruction) in the truest form: Neo-liberalism, paired with neo-conservatism in it's worst form. All hail to their inventors, the US of A!
A failed nation has (hundreds of) thousands of tent-dwellers and uninsured heroes, performing essentially needful surgery on themselves when they have to... plus cleaning the better offs' garbage for edibles and wearables (not what you think)...
Home of the poor and downtrodden!
And YES - there are those claiming this be PUTIN - closing their eyes to the truth on the streets and in the country. The blind leading the blind so to speak... gaslighting away from their shortcomings to other nations' problems - or throwing smoke screens of important (!) issues to the public, like a Royal family member photo-shopping their own image. Or the Oscars! Sorry, gotta puke again.......
Let me puke, SIr, please!
There was someone speaking such truths - and he's still being crucified every day, even after two thousand years.
Neocon Iraq war architects want a redo in Gaza Post-conflict plan would put Western mercenaries and Israel military into the mix, with handpicked countries in charge of a governing âTrustâ
Several key architects of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq 21 years ago are presenting a plan for rebuilding and âde-radicalizingâ the surviving population of Gaza, while ensuring that Israel retains âfreedom of actionâ to continue operations against Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The plan, which was published as a report Thursday by the hard-line neo-conservative Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, or JINSA, and the Vandenberg Coalition, is calling for the creation of a private entity, the âInternational Trust for Gaza Relief and Reconstructionâ to be led by âa group of Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emiratesâ and âsupported by the United States and other nations.â
With regard to Palestinian participation, the report by the âGaza Futures Task Force,â envisages an advisory board âcomposed primarily of non-Hamas Gazans from Gaza, the West Bank, and diaspora.â In addition, the Palestinian Authority, which is based on the West Bank, âshould be consulted in, and publicly bless,â the creation of the Trust while itself undergoing a process of ârevamping.â
This is a familiar trope for you to trot out, but it seems absurdly contradictory on the face of it. Lawsâinternational or otherwiseâare rules.
Accuse the US of hypocrisy all you like but that doesn't invalidate the concept, because the alternative to a rules-based order is a power-based order. We see this writ large by the authoritarian despots you relentlessly cheerlead for: they do what they like to whom they please because they can, and we should just let them. Empowering those they do it to is warmongering because it prolongs their agony. They should just surrender and accept their fates.
Funny, attacking them in the first place isn't warmongering, it's totally legitimate. Because...history. Or something.
You'll respond to this (if you do at all) with a pithy one-liner or yet another cut&paste screed, but it would be interesting to know how you square these circles in your own head. Not some RT mouthpiece's head, not some convoluted digression flinging rhetorical dust in the air, just explain how you want nations to interact with each other.
Lazy8, I am trying to figure out the difference between your approach to public policy and that of a sack full of rank and file MAGA Republicans; I do not see it.
Anti-data, science and expertise. Prone to 'us versus them' stereotypes and arguments.
No fundamental respect for well-defined and secure economic property rights. Not much interest in this nebulous concept of the 'right to self-determination'.
The Biden administration is supersizing the defense industry to meet foreign arms obligations instead of making tradeoffs essential to any effective budget. Its new National Defense Industrial Strategy lays out a plan to âcatalyze generational changeâ of the defense industrial base and to âmeet the strategic momentâ â one rhetorically dominated by competition with China, but punctuated by U.S. support for Ukraineâs fight against Russia and Israelâs military campaign in Gaza.
Instead of reevaluating its maximalist national security strategy, the Biden administration is doubling down. It is proposing a generation of investment to expand an arms industry that, overall, fails to meet cost, schedule, and performance standards. And if its strategy is any indication, the administration has no vision for how to eventually reduce U.S. military industrial capacity.
The Biden administration is supersizing the defense industry to meet foreign arms obligations instead of making tradeoffs essential to any effective budget. Its new National Defense Industrial Strategy lays out a plan to âcatalyze generational changeâ of the defense industrial base and to âmeet the strategic momentâ â one rhetorically dominated by competition with China, but punctuated by U.S. support for Ukraineâs fight against Russia and Israelâs military campaign in Gaza.
Instead of reevaluating its maximalist national security strategy, the Biden administration is doubling down. It is proposing a generation of investment to expand an arms industry that, overall, fails to meet cost, schedule, and performance standards. And if its strategy is any indication, the administration has no vision for how to eventually reduce U.S. military industrial capacity.
