sorrows of empire

I've been picking up that the latest right-wing grunting point blames Obama for perpetuating the policy of endless war. This must be some kind of joke.

It's very strange for anyone to try to hang responsibility for the perpetual war policy on one president when every president since Roosevelt has supported and actively promoted it, with only one possible exception -- Jimmy Carter. Republicans and Democrats, liberals and hard-asses, all of them have bowed before the five-sided temple of the war god, and happily sacrificed the hundreds of billions of dollars in annual burnt offerings this hungry deity demands.

I don't mean to place all the responsibility for our endless wars on our leaders, however. A concerted and determined anti-war movement originating among the people might have at some point pushed itself up from below and influenced decision-making at the top. But starting during World War II, the mass media, particularly the medium of TV, has been an eager conduit of establishment propaganda. Television appeared on the scene shortly before 1950 to hypnotize the masses and feed them a steady stream of bullshit, which most of us happily swallowed (until now), since it was flavored to taste like minty chocolate.

Propped up by the mythos of American exceptionalism, by which we convince ourselves that no nation in history has been so righteous or deserving of fortune as this one, we continue with blind hypocrisy down the murderous path of empire and pillage, the world's most blatantly terroristic nation, and one whose inmates are convinced they've done nothing wrong. I suppose it's what you'd expect from a political leadership which has sold itself to bankers and weapons dealers, and a lobotomized populace which has allowed itself to be dumbed down like a herd of steers.

Even Jimmy Carter, the least guilty of the rogues who have presided over us for the past 65 years, was unable to make the strong turn toward peace when Iran presented the opportunity to us in 1979. But we still had plenty of money to fortify our belligerence in those days.

It will be interesting to see who gets scapegoated for this idiotic and destructive 65-year policy now that the bankers and their employees, the politicians, are beginning to realize we can't afford it any more.

You know, Thomas Jefferson had a dream of an educated population of independent yeoman farmers, whose knowledge of history and economics and politics would enable them to act in their own self interest. It's way past time for us to wake up from that dream and smell the gunpowder, and acknowledge the true state of affairs. We might start by acknowledging that there never were any WMD, and that we were taken in by a crude and ridiculous lie.