The wind of war
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The largest American military buildup since the launch of the Iraq War has taken place in the Middle East with scant coverage and no debate in the Congress.
Americans should have learned that it is easy to start a war and hard to end one by now, but perhaps the lesson from Iraq and Afghanistan wasn’t vivid enough.
There has never been a posse of American leaders who have less credibility, respect, integrity and moral standing to order America’s sons and daughters into harm’s way.
The commander in chief is likely a child rapist, and he is surrounded by a Praetorian Guard of vileness, corruption and savage idiocy that is immoral, indecent and un-American. Never, ever, in 250 years of American history, will the American soldier, sailor, marine and airman be asked to risk everything by more unworthy men.
Ever.
Ponder these ravings from the drunken buffoon and extremist Pete Hegseth, who calls himself the “Secretary of War,” which is an office that does not exist in the United States. His conduct, comportment and bearing are unprofessional and embarrassing. He has poisoned the military and degraded American readiness by turning the armed forces into a vast stage for his Instagram account and religious nuttery.
Champagne Pete assaulted the concept of the separation of church and state when he began a monthly Christian worship series at the “Department of War” earlier this year. This week, he invited Doug Wilson, a white nationalist, who is a literal-real life version of a commander from “The Handmaid’s Tale,” to deliver a sermon there.
Here are some of Wilson’s notable insanities of which there are too many to document in an essay less than 1,000 pages long:
Southern slavery was not only sanctioned by the Bible but, thanks to the patriarchal kindness of their wise evangelical masters, a positive, happy, and pleasant experience for the majority of southern blacks.
If you insist on “zooming out” and evaluating black culture with “blackness” as the sole determining variable of the group you are studying, what you will find is manifest inferiority. You will find a dysfunctional mess — high levels of criminality, illegitimacy, substandard education, and other forms of destructive behavior. This was not created by the welfare state, but the welfare state has most certainly grievously exacerbated it — a welfare state that was the brain child of officious white people. As Paul would say, therefore rebuke them sharply . . .
A man penetrates, conquers, colonizes, plants. A woman receives, surrenders, accepts.
Once young girls used to play with baby dolls, seeing themselves in the role of the nurturing mother; now they can be seen playing with Barbie dolls, seeing themselves in the place of the doll. And of course, the doll is both pretty and stacked. The pressure is on and stays on.
Doug Wilson and Pete Hegseth aren’t Christians.
They are American Taliban.
They are the mirror images of the Iranian mullahs they will soon attack in Jesus’ name.
It is appalling.
America has never been weaker than it is at this moment.
When American kids come home in caskets their families can be comforted by the fact that Don Jr. and Eric are taking charge of remaking the dollar into a crypto stable coin.
Iran is larger than Alaska, and 2.5 times the size of Texas.
How big is Alaska? It would cover 20 - 22 percent of the lower 48 states, as Iran would cover Europe from Great Britain to Greece.
America will be fighting this war alone, without a single ally.
Vice Admiral James Stockdale was a recipient of the Medal of Honor, a Stanford professor, a stoic philosopher and the senior American POW in Hanoi during the Vietnam War. He said the following about war:
What kind of a racket is this military officership? Let's go right to the old master, Clausewitz.
He said:
"War is an act of violence to compel the enemy to do your will."
Your will, not his will.
We are in the business of breaking people's wills. That's all there is to war; once you have done that, the war is over.
And what is the most important weapon in breaking people's wills?
This may surprise you, but I am convinced that holding the moral high ground is more important than firepower.
For Clausewitz, war was not an activity governed by scientific laws, but a clash of wills, of moral forces.
He wrote: "It is not the losses of men, horses, or guns but in order courage, confidence, cohesion and plan which come into consideration whether the engagement can still be continued; it is principally the moral forces which decide here."
Moral forces!
Conviction!
Mind games!
I had the wisdom of Clausewitz' stand on moral integrity demonstrated to me throughout a losing war as I sat on the sidelines in a Hanoi prison.
To take a nation to war on the basis of any provocation that bears the smell of fraud is to risk losing national leadership's commitment when the going gets tough.
When our soldiers' bodies start coming home in high numbers, and reverses in the field are discouraging, a guilty conscience in a top leader can become the Achilles heel of a whole country.
Men of shame who know our road to war was not cricket are seldom those we can count on to hold fast, stay the course.
Yesterday, the preposterous Trump Board of Peace met.
Some people are saying there was a strange wind that blew through the room.
It was the wind of war.
Trump is a fascist, and like all fascists, he promised peace while intending war.
The bills about to come due.
Pray for our young men and women. They deserved better, and the American people failed them.
Many will die.
They will die for nothing.
In fact, it will be for less than nothing because they will die for Trump and Pete Hegseth.
In any branch of service, Pete Hegseth would be referred to as a shitbird. Clearly amoral without mercy, compassion and remorse. This has to cease.
US Marine corps, RVN
Draft-dodger wimp Trump is playing war games. From under his desk.