4 ms·

YES! But this bears question, why is that so? Why is the US empire (and the US oligarchy) so thirsty for war that it is willing (one could even argue: eager) t

by binarray2000 10y ago

YES! But this bears question, why is that so? Why is the US empire (and the US oligarchy) so thirsty for war that it is willing (one could even argue: eager) to sacrifice lives, physical and psychical health of its people (soldiers)? Why is it not putting trillions into infrastructure, health, education instead of spending them to wage wars with nations which have not even thought to attack the US, let alone have done it? (And most of which don't have the resources to do it!) Well, yes, it is about oil: Syria: Another Pipeline War http://www.ecowatch.com/syria-another-pipeline-war-1882180532.html http://www.ecowatch.com/syria-another-pipeline-war-188218053... But the issue is much deeper. So deep indeed, that I'll (again!) quote a man who knew what he talked about, George F. Kennan: "Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial establishment would have to go on, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy." (https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_F._Kennan https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_F._Kennan) So, it is not only the oil (or any other resource to be taken from others). And is is not only about money to be made from bombs (and private contractors who fight, spy, prepare meals for soldiers, wash their uniforms, repair their trucks, build military installations etc.). It is the US economy at stake. And that's why you need the POTUS, the Senate, the Congress, intelligence agencies, millitary-intelligence-indutrial complex, the media - to all pull on the same string. And to "invent" enemies: Russia, China, Vietnam, Serbia, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Syria... or "the Muslims". But the truth is hidden by the fourth estate from the US citizen with slogans such as "we bring democracy, human rights and freedom to the world", or with self-aggrandizing "American exceptionalism" (cringe!).

accountface 10y ago
Because the US is doing it under the altruistic guise of individual freedom (probably an easier sell than collectivism) and also making small numbers of people large amounts of money.
qntty 10y ago
"War is a racket" https://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html https://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html
seppin 10y ago
Oil is getting to the point where it's not even economically viable to pull from the ground, your old and tired conspiracy theories belong in the Bush years.
sjy 10y ago
> Syria: Another Pipeline War This article by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. deserves some criticism. Kennedy claims that there are 'abundant facts' to support the claim that 'the present crisis [is] just another proxy war over pipelines and geopolitics.' On any view, the conflict involves 'geopolitics,' but Kennedy claims that the Obama administration lied about its humanitarian justification for intervention in Syria,[1] and really intended to advance US economic interests in the construction of the Qatar-Turkey pipeline.[2] The 'pipeline war' thesis is not credible.[3] Syria, a Russian ally, may have blocked the Qatar-Turkey pipeline to advance Russia's interests as a supplier of natural gas (but see [3] for a critical view), and the US and its allies in Syria (France, UK, Belgium, Netherlands, Australia, Jordan) are undoubtedly concerned with matters other than the humanitarian considerations cited in Obama's appeal to Congress, but Kennedy fails to engage with any alternative explanation for the conflict and distorts the facts to support his argument. For example, he claims that the CIA began funding opposition groups in Syria in 2009, 'soon after Bashar Assad rejected the Qatar pipeline,' but the source he cites[4] states that US funding of opposition groups began in 2005. Kennedy uncritically repeats claims that the 2011 civil uprising[5] was 'at least in part, orchestrated by the CIA,' but the source he cites is derived from a report from Al-Manar, an anti-Semitic media group affiliated with Hezbollah, which has been designated as a terrorist entity by the US and banned by several other Western democracies.[6] What Kennedy doesn't mention is the Obama administration's explicit justification[1] for intervention in Syria: the regime's long record of human rights violations ('arbitrary arrests, systematic torture, prolonged detention of suspects, and grossly unfair trials')[7], culminating in the 2013 Ghouta chemical attack, a response to the civil uprising which killed over 1,000 civilians.[8] There is plenty of room for intelligent debate about whether the US should have intervened in Syria.[9] The debate continues, including in the mainstream media[10] – but Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., an anti-vaxxer with a history of misinformation,[11] isn't a constructive contributor. Dismissing the conflict in Syria as an oil war is dangerous and reductive thinking. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/31/barack-obama-statement-us-intervention-syria https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/31/barack-obama-s... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar-Turkey_pipeline https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar-Turkey_pipeline [3] http://original.antiwar.com/porter/2016/09/23/war-assad-regime-not-pipeline-war/ http://original.antiwar.com/porter/2016/09/23/war-assad-regi... [4] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-secretly-backed-syrian-opposition-groups-cables-released-by-wikileaks-show/2011/04/14/AF1p9hwD_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-secretly-backed-syri... [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_uprising_phase_of_the_Syrian_Civil_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_uprising_phase_of_the_Sy... [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Manar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Manar [7] https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2005/country-chapters/syria https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2005/country-chapters/syria [8] http://www.economist.com/blogs/pomegranate/2013/08/syria-s-war http://www.economist.com/blogs/pomegranate/2013/08/syria-s-w... [9] https://www.lawfareblog.com/syria-obamas-fault https://www.lawfareblog.com/syria-obamas-fault [10] https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/opinion/dont-intervene-in-syria.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/opinion/dont-intervene-in... [11] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-robert-f-kennedy-jr-distorted-vaccine-science1/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-robert-f-kenn...

accountface 10y ago

Because the US is doing it under the altruistic guise of individual freedom (probably an easier sell than collectivism) and also making small numbers of people large amounts of money.

qntty 10y ago

"War is a racket" https://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html https://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html

seppin 10y ago

Oil is getting to the point where it's not even economically viable to pull from the ground, your old and tired conspiracy theories belong in the Bush years.

sjy 10y ago

> Syria: Another Pipeline War This article by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. deserves some criticism. Kennedy claims that there are 'abundant facts' to support the claim that 'the present crisis [is] just another proxy war over pipelines and geopolitics.' On any view, the conflict involves 'geopolitics,' but Kennedy claims that the Obama administration lied about its humanitarian justification for intervention in Syria,[1] and really intended to advance US economic interests in the construction of the Qatar-Turkey pipeline.[2] The 'pipeline war' thesis is not credible.[3] Syria, a Russian ally, may have blocked the Qatar-Turkey pipeline to advance Russia's interests as a supplier of natural gas (but see [3] for a critical view), and the US and its allies in Syria (France, UK, Belgium, Netherlands, Australia, Jordan) are undoubtedly concerned with matters other than the humanitarian considerations cited in Obama's appeal to Congress, but Kennedy fails to engage with any alternative explanation for the conflict and distorts the facts to support his argument. For example, he claims that the CIA began funding opposition groups in Syria in 2009, 'soon after Bashar Assad rejected the Qatar pipeline,' but the source he cites[4] states that US funding of opposition groups began in 2005. Kennedy uncritically repeats claims that the 2011 civil uprising[5] was 'at least in part, orchestrated by the CIA,' but the source he cites is derived from a report from Al-Manar, an anti-Semitic media group affiliated with Hezbollah, which has been designated as a terrorist entity by the US and banned by several other Western democracies.[6] What Kennedy doesn't mention is the Obama administration's explicit justification[1] for intervention in Syria: the regime's long record of human rights violations ('arbitrary arrests, systematic torture, prolonged detention of suspects, and grossly unfair trials')[7], culminating in the 2013 Ghouta chemical attack, a response to the civil uprising which killed over 1,000 civilians.[8] There is plenty of room for intelligent debate about whether the US should have intervened in Syria.[9] The debate continues, including in the mainstream media[10] – but Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., an anti-vaxxer with a history of misinformation,[11] isn't a constructive contributor. Dismissing the conflict in Syria as an oil war is dangerous and reductive thinking. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/31/barack-obama-statement-us-intervention-syria https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/31/barack-obama-s... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar-Turkey_pipeline https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar-Turkey_pipeline [3] http://original.antiwar.com/porter/2016/09/23/war-assad-regime-not-pipeline-war/ http://original.antiwar.com/porter/2016/09/23/war-assad-regi... [4] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-secretly-backed-syrian-opposition-groups-cables-released-by-wikileaks-show/2011/04/14/AF1p9hwD_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-secretly-backed-syri... [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_uprising_phase_of_the_Syrian_Civil_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_uprising_phase_of_the_Sy... [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Manar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Manar [7] https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2005/country-chapters/syria https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2005/country-chapters/syria [8] http://www.economist.com/blogs/pomegranate/2013/08/syria-s-war http://www.economist.com/blogs/pomegranate/2013/08/syria-s-w... [9] https://www.lawfareblog.com/syria-obamas-fault https://www.lawfareblog.com/syria-obamas-fault [10] https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/opinion/dont-intervene-in-syria.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/opinion/dont-intervene-in... [11] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-robert-f-kennedy-jr-distorted-vaccine-science1/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-robert-f-kenn...