Quote of the Day
The wars of the future draw on a grim heritage. The fact that peace would seem to be the rational option for most humans has never been able to stifle the urge to fight when it seems necessary, or lucrative, or an obligation. And that heritage is the chief reason it is possible to imagine a future war. After the end of the Cold War, there was once a fashion for saying that war was obsolete – if only that were so, we might now live in a world without weapons and fear. While few would actively seek the Third World War, few envisaged or wanted the other two. The sad reality is that our understanding of why wars occur has so far contributed little to setting warfare aside as an enduring element in human affairs.
Richard Overy
June 23, 2024
Why it’s too late to stop World War 3 (yahoo.com)
I want an underground bunker in Idaho.
“there was once a fashion for saying that war was obsolete ”
War is not obsolete and never will be.
What’s obsolete is having the will and determination to actually win a war. Or, sometimes to even admit that a state of war exists when it clearly does.
I disagree. It’s not a matter of will. Heck, most of us normies don’t want a war at all.
War is very profitable… to a tiny cadre of the political, financial, and business “elites.” George Orwell wrote about it in 1984. Endless war is a very useful political and economic tool.
IMHO, Anyone involved in finance or war industries or international conglomerates with a net worth more than $25M should be required to have themselves and all their children / grandchildren (biological, adopted, or by marriage) between the ages of 18-55, men and women included, serving in the infantry or other front-line units in any war, official or unofficially declared. That would tend to dampen their enthusiasm.
Bankers have pushed hard for war for centuries. IMHO, profits made from purely financial transactions (such as but not limited to interest on loans) should be taxed at 95%.
If the last two were started the same way WWIII was. It’s easy to see how.
A bunch of bored little bitchy morons decided killing large quantities of humanity was a really good idea.
And no reason why one shouldn’t make a profit on it after all? Gain a little more power?
Almost every war ever started was over greed and ignorance.
Some megalomaniacs (or group there Of’s), greed. And ignorance on our part.
Cause we go fight, die, get maimed and crippled, plus pay the bill afterward. Plus the tip. (You worked and bought bonds to fund the war, now you have to work harder to pay those bonds back with interest? Wait what???)
We won Afghanistan by helping them beat the Russians. Then we went and started a 20 year war there. We were truly worried a bunch of smelly goat-humpers were going to attack us? They have never built boats that anyone knows of. How they going to get here?
But net on net? 20 years worth of defense contracting made billions. (KBR delivering meals at $20 a plate for 20 years for how many people???).
The drug companies are still making bank on the PTSD meds.
And we get a trillion dollar loan-shark payment every 3 months.
People said we were stopping imperial Japan from getting resources before WWII. Well, if they were going to get them the same way they were from China? By raping and murdering whole cities?
Greed is 5-9’s percent of every war.
“If only that were so, we might now live in a world without weapons and fear.”
We don’t need to get rid of the weapons per se. We just to start pointing them at the right people.