War With Little Libya

By Charles Tolleson
March 26, 2011

In the 225 year history of the United States, only three countries have attacked the United States. Great Britain invaded the United States in 1812. The Germans attacked U.S. merchant vessels with submarines just prior to World War Two. The Japanese attacked the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor hoping the U.S. would negotiate and stop the embargo of the Japanese. Neither Japan nor Germany had the ability to invade the United States. During the 225 year history of the United States, the U.S. military has been used more than 100 times against other countries. This does not count 25 times the U.S. military engaged in wars against Native Americans.

The United States has another un-declared war, again, against a smaller country, again. This time the bully, the United States, has attacked another small country, Libya, that has a population of less than 7 million people! The United States has over 300 million people and the world’s most devastating military.

Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) said “War is a continuation of politics.” The U.S is simply using its mighty military to force foreign people, and soon domestic people, to do as the U.S. oligarchy says. Russian Vladimir Putin said the recent U.S. action against little Libya is a Medieval Crusade. Will this U.S. Crusade last 200 years like the Medieval Crusades? People do not change. They just find different gods to worship using different technology.

Despite the overwhelming force and power of the U.S. Military over little Libya, the warriors and the priests will be bloviating in a puerile manner about how brave our military people are for risking their lives to “protect our freedoms”. What risk? It’s not much more than a combat training exercise using live ammunition. They will wear their ribbons on their out thrusting chests with pride, a deadly sin, and the indoctrinated sheep will bleep, “We’re number one” and the killing goes on, and on, and on. Then there will be another peace treaty, and another, and another. The Treaty of Versailles happened after 10 million died, over nothing. Why did they have to kill 10 million before declaring a truce? Could they not have declared a truce after killing 5 million? Or could rational non violent people declare a truce without killing anyone. Individuals can, but governments cannot.

"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.” Voltaire

President Obama started a war with Libya WITHOUT congressional approval. Will he be compelled to give back his Nobel Peace Prize? Power corrupts. Senator Boxer and Representative Pelosi said President Obama did the “right thing” in attacking little Libya to help the rebels. Doing the right thing is just another excuse to kill another human being, something the human animal does with pleasure.

Pelosi and Boxer’s followers do not know how the followers know. Most of what the followers know comes from the mouths of politicians like Pelosi and Boxer who say words with astonishing verisimilitude. I doubt if Boxer or Pelosi know any of the rebels or their intentions if they seize power.

Boxer and Pelosi have advocated “empowering” women. How much more power do they need? Three other women; Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice and Samantha Power, all women who advocate for more power for women, talked President Obama into bombing little Libya. These women go to war for human rights; empowering women. The right wing advocates for war just for the glory of war. With a mercenary army, the humanitarians, the glory seekers, and the military industrial complex, look for wars to be the lead story for the future.

“Doing the right thing” does not make it legal by the U.S. Constitution, which says only Congress can declare war. Millions have been killed by governments who said they were doing the “right thing”.

Being President of the United States is an aphrodisiac to power that no mortal can resist. Power corrupts so it should be defused, not centralized. The President, the Supreme Court, and the Congress consist of 545 people who are supposed to divide power. They do that somewhat, but the larger the pie of power is the more there is to divide among the 545 people who rule over 300 million Americans, and much of the world.

The U.S. wars in the Middle East are not about oil. If the U.S. had all the oil reserves in the world they would find another excuse to kill and dominate others. Wars have always been about excuses, the latest is human rights, while the real reason men kill other men is because it is in their genes. Men enjoy killing.

Favorite War Quotes

By Charles Tolleson

“To die for a mystique is the wrong policy.” Andrew J. Bacevich

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.” Voltaire

“In democratic armies the desire of advancement is almost universal: it is ardent, tenacious, perpetual; it is strengthened by all other desires and extinguished only with life itself. But it is easy to see that, of all armies in the world, those in which advancement must be slowest in time of peace are the armies of democratic countries. As the number of commissions is naturally limited while the number of competitors is almost unlimited, and as the strict law of equality is over all alike, none can make rapid progress; many can make no progress at all. Thus the desire of advancement is greater and the opportunities of advancement fewer there than elsewhere. All the ambitious spirits of a democratic army are consequently ardently desirous of war, because war makes vacancies and warrants the violation of that law of seniority which is the sole privilege natural to democracy.” –Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Book II, Chapter XXII

To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman. George Santayana

“Man can be the most affectionate and altruistic of creatures, yet he's potentially more vicious than any other. He is the only one who can be persuaded to hate millions of his own kind whom he has never seen and to kill as many as he can lay his hands on in the name of his tribe or his God.” -Benjamin Spock, pediatrician and author (1903-1998)

"All men are enamored of decorations...they positively hunger for them." Napoleon

The courage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest and most common quality of human nature. - Edward Gibbon

At the bottom of a good deal of the bravery that appears in the world there lurks a miserable cowardice. Men will face powder and steel because they cannot face public opinion. -Edwin Hubbel Chapin, minister and orator (1814-1880)

“Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country.” Bertrand Russell

“Many a man will have the courage to die gallantly, but will not have the courage to say, or even to think, that the cause for which he is asked to die is an unworthy one.” Bertrand Russell

"Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarreled with him?" Blaise Pascal

"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them." -George Orwell, writer (1903-1950)

Patriotism is proud of a country's virtues and eager to correct its deficiencies; it also acknowledges the legitimate patriotism of other countries, with their own specific virtues. The pride of nationalism, however, trumpets its country's virtues and denies its deficiencies, while it is contemptuous toward the virtues of other countries. It wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, "the greatest", but greatness is not required of a country; only goodness is. -Sydney J. Harris, journalist and author (1917-1986)

Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it. -George Bernard Shaw, writer, Nobel laureate (1856-1950)

More war quotes here- http://www.quotegarden.com/war.html