WAR IS AMERICAS PAST-TIME

Stephen Lendman
America's national pastime isn't baseball. It's not other bread and
circus distractions. It's one war after another. It's wars that don't
end.
It's permanent ones for power and profits. Monied interests benefit
most. Waging them for peace is a convenient illusion.
Humanitarian intervention is a ruse. So is responsibility to protect
mumbo jumbo.
Code language conceals real motives. Invasions and occupations are
called liberation. Plunder is called economic development. Imperial
control is called spreading democratic values.
Exploitation is called freedom. Patriotism means going along with
what's wrong. Mass slaughter and destruction are small prices to
pay.
Propaganda wars precede hot ones. Big Lies suppress vital truths.
Obama's waging war on humanity. Where things end who knows.
A previous article asked what do you call a country that glorifies wars
and violence in the name of peace?
It's been at war every year in its history. It's done so against one or
more adversaries. It's waged them at home and abroad.
It's civilian gun ownership is highest worldwide. It has the greatest
homicide rate among all developed countries by far. Owning weapons
makes it simple as ready, aim, fire.
Proliferation leaves everyone vulnerable. Violence is a way of life. US
communities experience it multiple times daily.
Many aren't safe to live in. Being in the wrong place at the wrong
time risks death.
Every gun-related fatality leaves two others wounded. Every year,
about 100,000 Americans become gun violence victims.
Countless others are irreparably harmed. Nothing whatever is done to
curb or prevent what's shocking and intolerable.
The right to bear arms doesn't enfranchise people to commit violence.
It touches every segment of society.
It commonplace on streets, in homes, at work, in schools, in public
buildings and elsewhere. It happens when people least expect it.
Major incidents occur all too often.
Vulnerability to domestic gun-related death or injury exceeds most US
war theaters. It doesn't surprise. Powerful semi-automatic assault
weapons are freely bought and sold. They're as easy to get as
toothpaste.
Automatic ones are prohibited. It doesn't matter. They're easily
obtained. American children are weaned on violence.
Violent films are some of the most popular ones. So are similar video
games and music. They glorify guns, rape and murder. They crowd
out simpler street games. They make them look sissy.
Prescription and illicit drug use is out-of-control. So is alcoholism.
America is called a rape culture. It's for good reason.
One-fourth of adult women are forcibly raped. Often it's by someone
they know. Family members share guilt.
One in four women report being sexually molested in childhood.
Repeat violations over extended periods are commonplace. Three-
fourth of US women experience some form of extreme violence in their
lifetimes.
Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury. It's the second
leading cause of death. Guns play a leading role. Children and adults
are harmed. Women and young girls aren't spared.
Which country facilitates endemic violence? Which one promotes it?
Which one considers it normal and commonplace? Which one does
nothing responsible to curb it?
Which one endorses easy access to dangerous assault and other
deadly weapons? Which one fails to prohibit them?
Which one glorifies war? Which one does so in the name of peace?
Which one does it over and over again? Which one calls it patriotic to
do so?
Which one says ravaging and destroying one country after another
spreads democratic values?
What one does little to curtail well over a million domestic violent
crimes annually? Which one's addicted to one war after another?
What kind of leader permits what no responsible one would dare?
Which one wages war on humanity? Who does so on false pretenses?
Who risks mass annihilation?
Who doesn't care? Who champions wrong over right? Who believes
unchallenged global dominance alone matters?
Who's willing to risk all to get it? Who's mad enough to believe it's
possible?
John McMurtry is a Progressive Radio News Hour regular. On
September 15, he's this host's featured guest.
We'll discuss "The Cancer Stage of Capitalism: From Crisis to Cure ."
We'll do so in depth.
We've discussed it briefly before. His first edition was published over
a decade ago. His new one updates what he first wrote.
It's powerful writing. It's must reading. It connects important dots. It
explains a global disorder.
"As in any cancer system," says McMurtry, "the life host is
increasingly plundered, but the cancer is masked from immune
recognition or response."
"The cancer stage of capitalism is not a metaphor."
"It is a world-system disorder." It's "an explanatory model." It
explains the "characteristics of cancer invasion."
It "proliferate(s), decouple(s) from and attack(s) the productive
functions of life hosts." Genocide becomes its "leading edge."
"Transnational money sequencing" becomes a be all and end all. It's
manipulated to make more of it.
It multiplies like cancer cells. Doing so is self-destructive. Endless
wars best explain. So does predatory finance.
"(W)hole societies and tens of millions of people pay the price in
mass disemployment, social system dismantling, and foreign
expropriation."
"The life-blind private conglomerate money-sequences precipitat(e)
collapse across nations." Victims are blamed for what's done to
them.
" 'Contagion' conceals every moment of the cancer system at work."
Monied interests crowd out life sustaining systems. Mainstream
economics won't recognize what's wrong.
"The people must pay for the money-sequence cancer growth, and so
more public wealth and individual savings must be taken away to do
it," says McMurtry.
It works by "debt multiplication." It's piled on governments and
individuals. It's done to enrich bankers and other corporate favorites.
It's a slippery slope to self-destruction.
What can't go on forever, won't. What's unsustainable won't continue.
Every buck will first be extracted. They'll be taken before societies and
life systems are left hollowed out and barren.
Wars are a global addiction. Arms comprise the largest category of
world trade. Well over a trillion dollars are spent annually. Doing so
diverts what's needed for life sustaining essentials.
Killing and destroying matter more. Profits matter more than public
needs. Predatory capitalism is a "cancer system."
It's carcinogenic. It gets "cumulatively worse the longer it is
unrecognised." It's destroying ecological, social and organic life.
McMurtry calls it "the Great Sickness." It's "global ecogenocide." It
"cumulatively degrade(s)" air, soil, and water. It "destabilize(s)"
climates and oceans.
It destroys species. It endangers "life-systems." It creates intolerable
levels of world poverty, inequality and human misery. It benefits the
few at the expense of most others.
It produces health destroying "junk" unfit to be called food.
Indebtedness crowds out productive investments. Wars take
precedence over peace. Corporate empowerment matters more life.
McMurtry discusses what he calls the "social immune response." It's
required to fight "macro cancer."
More than ever a viable alternative is needed. Sustaining societies
requires a universal commitment to life and nature.
An upcoming Progressive Radio News Hour discussion will connect
important dots. It'll relate Obama's war on humanity to carcinogenic
cancer. It'll feature John McMurtry. He'll discuss "The Cancer Stage of
Capitalism."
He'll explain how doing so destroys societal viability. It'll be heard
live on the Progressive Radio News Network. It'll be announced in
advance. It'll be archived for easy listening any time.
Tune in. Make the Progressive Radio News Hour a regular habit.
Learn what you need to know. Distinguished guests like McMurtry and
many others explain best.
McMurtry will explain how "global ecogenocide" is killing us. He'll
discuss a viable alternative too important to ignore. It's more
important now than ever. Humanity's survival depends on it.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.