America The Bully

I become fatigued with the panegyrics about our brave men and women in uniform. The propaganda from the U.S. Military Industrial Nation never stops singing the praises of the U.S.

U.S. military officers are ranked number 6 in approved occupations.

The new GI bill gives more rewards for the war enablers. Free education to a veteran, or their dependents. Marry me honey and you can use my GI Bill to go to college. The GI Bill reward even goes to foreign mercenaries, non U.S. citizens, who serve in the U.S. military. After one year in the military they qualify for citizenship. I wonder when we will start calling our military the U.S. Foreign Legion. It only fights in foreign countries.

Not since the War of 1812 has the United States fought an opponent of equal size.

In the Mexican American War the U.S. had a population of 20 million and Mexico had 7 million. The U.S. had 70,000 military personnel. The Mexicans had 40,000. The U.S. had officers trained at West Point. The U.S. had a navy. The U.S. had armament factories. The Mexicans had to use discarded European arms.

Even in the War for Southern Independence the United States outnumbered its opponent 2-1 in soldiers, and 2-1 in population, and the United States had much more industrial production than the Confederate States of America. President Lincoln thought the war would be a short police action. After Lincoln freed the slaves one would think it then permissible for the southern states to secede, since slavery was what the war was about. Or was it?

During World War One the United States entered the war late and the allies outnumbered their opponents. Check the map at Wikipedia showing how much Germany was outsized.

We had the same superiority at the end of World War Two. To listen to the U.S. flag worshippers one would never know the allies outnumbered the axis power by 2-1. Our ally in WW 2, Russia, alone had more soldiers than our opponents. No wonder the war only lasted 4.5 years.

After the big glorious WW II we started showing we are "The land of the free and the home of the brave" by fighting some little country named North Korea. When someone bigger than us, China, entered on the side of North Korea, we settled for a draw. Most sides always lose in a war, though many claim a victory. The best they can hope for is a draw.

After Korea we decided to show our bravery by fighting a little country called North Vietnam. Lost there.

Then we showed our bravery in 1983 when we invaded Grenada, a nation that is only 132 square miles in size.

We did an invasion of Panama. It was another big success of our bravery against another pygmy country.

And there have been other pygmy countries we have invaded. We fought these pygmy countries using our most massive military in the world; drone aircraft, spy satellites, cruise missiles, tanks, planes, etc., all against a gang who has some small arms and home made bombs, against our 15,000 pound Daisy Cutter (what a cute name for a WMD) bombs and our nuclear bombs.

Why are Americans addicted to war?   Because they never have been conquered.

I'm not sure I would call America the home of the brave. I would call America the home of the bully.

Charles Tolleson