The drums of war have been beating loudly from successive U.S. administrations for decades. They are getting louder and louder as the thin layer of power-hungry, greedy and heartless elite push and push in an attempt to get us all to the brink of war-minded madness, be it civil or foreign.
There are many examples of demagogues’ brow beating their people that other nations or tribes are on their doorstep baying for blood and that war is the only answer. Hitler, Sindikubwabo, Duvalier, Charles Taylor et al. Yet it is primarily the U.S. who are utterly abhorrent in their quest for dominance and violence throughout the globe. They are lurking behind their “respectable” job titles, pretending they are democratic whilst being supported by leading nations who kowtow to the U.S. war machine instead of standing up bravely and saying, “No more war”.
Those who believe China is going to invade Australia or that Russia is megalomaniacal with no notion of civility and no reason to be nervous of NATO on its border, or that Arabs are a bunch of “hot heads” are usually those who read the lies and propaganda that mainstream media relish in printing for the unsuspecting masses. The war mongering that spews out of some outlets is to serve only one purpose, and that is to ready the population (the majority) to take up arms and run onto the battlefield which the elite have already earmarked for their financial glory as they step over dead bodies – yours, not theirs.
False narratives that emanate out of the U.S. which paints any nation that isn’t beholden to them as despotic, theocratic or undemocratic, serves the American war machine to justify their trillion-dollar industry of making, selling and proliferating weaponry to every corner of the globe for their own agenda. Israel was up to its eyeballs in weaponry prior to October 7, but the first reaction from Biden wasn’t to settle the injustice of the Palestine-Israel situation and seek peace for both sides and the wider region, but to deliver more weapons to Israel to continue the violence. It’s monstrous.
Eisenhower’s oft-quoted words should be heeded once again, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence…by the military industrial complex”. The peace researcher, Jan Oberg, goes further to include academia in this complex whereby research universities have helped in funding some of the top weapons manufactures. Oberg terms it, “military-industrial-media-academic-complex” (MIMAC). Even Sydney University was found to have invested more than $4 million. The recent demonstrations by university students highlights the majority not wanting what the elite are peddling.
About 0.1% rule the world. It’s no longer survival of the fittest, it’s survival of the richest and that furnace of survival needs to be perpetually fired up. What gets metaphorically thrown into the furnace to keep it burning is almost three billion people’s livelihood in extreme or lower socioeconomic poverty, gross inequality in healthcare and access to basic housing. But the real fodder that inflames the survival furnace is fear. Fear that the elite have stoked in us all that WWIII is imminent. If it is, then it is only because the 0.1% have ensured that we the majority have been taken to the precipice, blindfolded with bullshit and told to jump when they say so. Those herding us to the precipice are successive U.S. governments, U.S. conglomerates, U.S. corporations and the MIC. It’s not China, Russia or the Middle East. The trillions of U.S. dollars spent on weaponry could be used for peace building in many regions of the world so that we can all enjoy our short time on earth – not just the 0.1% who do things like spend almost half a billion dollars on a wedding as the slum dwellers around them swill in their life-long quagmire and hardship.
Fair trade, diplomacy and a reasonable quest for financial security will ensure that we are all safe. The madness within the U.S. government and the elites rabid desire for war should be played out exclusively by them on a deserted island where the MIC, massive conglomerates and big corporations can blow each other to pieces and leave the 99.9% to live in peace.
Remember when diplomats did the job of cooling jets and appeasing two sides? Those days seem long gone. The bullying war machine of the MIC has stripped diplomats of their usefulness because war means profit to the U.S. – diplomats just cost money and time. War is what keeps the U.S. afloat. Too bad for those of us who do not want war, have no rational grievances with any of our neighbours and would rather just live in peace with a future not blighted by the threat of nuclear war that the elite seem hell bent on creating. And if the U.S. runs out of enemies they will find non-threatening countries, nations or regions and provoke them with all sorts of nefarious activities until said countries are forced to defend themselves against sanctions or outright aggression – which they never invited to their doorstep.
The 0.1% are leading us into wars that the 99.9% do not want. How on earth did we get to the point where a fraction of people can bully the overwhelming majority? If that kind of imbalance was within a family or, say, a pride of lions or gorillas, the domineering member would ultimately be challenged and ousted.
Every empire has its time in the sun and the sun will quickly set on those who are perpetually violent and unjust. There will always be those who wish to dominate through war, but thankfully there are always many more who resist the violence heaped upon them and call out violent, trouble making empires like the U.S. which seek to dominate our world. All this from a self declared exceptional Christian nation whose morals we are supposed to admire and emulate? No thanks.
Reb Halabi
Reb Halabi focuses on the intersection of religion and geopolitics.
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