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after WW II, as it should have been. It needs a major war every couple of decades, to keep the beast fed and prospering. Prior to WW II, maintenance of a standing army was always a controversial issue, with many people believing that it is anathema to democracy. This is what kings and dictators did--always keeping military forces handy for raids and wars for territory and resources, with, of course, compulsory service and impressment as the tools for conscripting cannon fodder. The US of A was supposed to be different. No imperial ambitions (after the genocide against the Indians and theft of their lands). We were a nation of merchants, farmers and workers--not global corporate predators.
And, as our military budge grew and grew in the 60's, '70s and '80s, with many corporations who had gotten used to the taxpayer tit during the two-fronted war against the Nazism and Japanese imperialism, growing ever bigger in size and influence, we spawned a breed of global corporate predators in both the armaments and other industries, that have now toppled our democracy, and are dictating the continuance of yet another illegal, unnecessary, heinous war, against the will of 75% of the American people. These fascist forces now even control the counting of our votes, which was handed over to rightwing Bushite corporations during the 2002 to 2004 period, with not a breath of objection from the Democratic Party leadership. And they are...
DIEBOLD: Until recently, headed by Wally O'Dell, a Bush-Cheney campaign chair and major fundraiser (a Bush "Pioneer," right up there with Ken Lay), who promised in writing to "deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush-Cheney in 2004"; and
ES&S: A spinoff of Diebold (similar computer architecture), initially funded by rightwing billionaire Howard Ahmanson, who also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon Foundation (which touts the death penalty for homosexuals, among other things). Diebold and ES&S have an incestuous relationship; until recently, they were run by two brothers, Bob and Tod Urosevich.
These are the people who "counted" 80% of the nation's votes in 2004, under a veil of corporate secrecy.
To perpetrate an unjust, illegal war in a democracy--especially one with the Vietnam War in living memory--you have to fix the elections. That's what they did.
The elections were not fixed in the '60s. The situation, as to democracy, was still fluid. We elected one man, JFK, who came in as a "Cold Warrior" but went out as a peacemaker, having defused a nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union over Cuba, having--early in his term--refused to go along with a CIA plot to invade Cuba, and--late in his term, near the end of his life--having signed executive orders beginning the withdrawal of US military "advisers" from Vietnam. Bang-bang, shoot-shoot.
The Vietnam War proceeded, with increasingly massive slaughter, and boffo war profiteering, in 1964-1967, then the country began to undergo serious rebellion against it. Martin Luther King stood up, and, against all advice (against mixing the civil rights and antiwar issues) condemned in the Vietnam War in one of his greatest speeches. Bang-bang, shoot-shoot, March 1968. Three months later, JFK's brother, who had begun a highly successful presidential campaign with stopping the war as its major focus, was also shot dead, in June 1968. And the voters were given a choice of a Democratic War or a Republican War. Take your pick.
They didn't need Diebold and ES&S in those days. They had the CIA, the Cuban-Miami mafia and pockets of bigoted paramilitaries to do the dirty work. They, being the cabal of billionaire corporate fascists and war profiteers who are running things now.
The '60s generation--of which I am a member--having undergone such a momentous change of consciousness, on war, and on every other fascist view prevalent in society at the time--failed in one big respect: We didn't have the staying power to dismantle the war machine. We managed to mitigate some war policies--got rid of the Draft; inspired a sea change in CIA policy on assassination of foreign leaders and horrid interference in Latin America and other places; and proceeded well on many social and environmental issues. But we didn't--possibly couldn't--tackle the war machine.
And what is this war machine FOR? Is it for "defending" us? When was the last time the US military "defended" us in any meaningful sense of the word? They couldn't even defend the nation's capitol on 9/11! They have been hijacked by the global corporate predators. No, this war machine is for perpetrating aggressive war, against our will. Senseless, war profiteering in Vietnam. Corporate resource wars now, with even worse war profiteering--totally unaccountable war profiteering--as a collateral benefit to the cabal. They are furthermore looting us blind to train a private mercenary army of special ops and black ops troops--Blackwell et al--for unknown purposes, perhaps to subdue us.
In Iraq, we have a confluence of evil forces: The war profiteers (Halliburton, Bechtel, Lockheed, Blackwater, etc.), the oil cartel (who, among other things, are profiting hugely from supplying the US military and assorted mercenaries with oil, at our expense, and from vast tanker traffic in the pirates' conspiracy called "free trade"), foaming at the mouth 'christian' extremists and their well-heeled, corrupt preacher men, and Israel's war profiteers and fascist politicians. Of these, Israel is perhaps the most forgivable. They truly are in a vulnerable position, through no fault of the majority of the current population, whom I'm sure want peace like everybody else does. Their right wingers are as nuts as ours are. They believe in a world of bloodshed and cruelty, with Israel as an armed fortress. They further believe that their survival depends on their ability to manipulate US foreign policy and public opinion. They don't believe that we would support Israel gratis--which I certainly know we would do, provided that their government leaders were seeking peace and justice.
This unholy alliance--the power-hungry Bushites (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, and El Stupido), the war profiteers, the oil cartel and other global corporate predators, the 'christian' nutballs, and desperate Israel and its rightwing--have combined to overwhelm our democratic processes, and to force us into a state of permanent war.
In wrongful, unjust aggressive action.
In a place where we don't belong.
Until the money and the cannon fodder run out.
If I had thought this possible--or had seen it coming--it might have changed my life. But I was too young, like my compadres in the '60s, to understand that the Vietnam War--upwards of two million people slaughtered before it was over--was the INEVITABLE product of this war machine. If you allow a big war machine to fatten itself on the public tit, you WILL have war, no matter what. That's what we have with Iraq. A totally senseless war, without even "communism" as an excuse. A war for the benefit of global corporate predators.
The only way out of this nightmare than I can see is by a citizens' movement, at the state/local level, to restore our right to vote. At least, then, we have a chance at real reform. Without transparent vote counting--vote counting that everyone can see and understand--our sovereign power as a people is gone. We cannot effect change.
They're doing it in South America--where transparent vote counting is one of the keys to the success of the huge Leftist (majorityist) movement. So can we--if only we would focus on the mechanism of power. Some are. It's happening. But more work needs to be done.
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