Ken's Weblog

People should not fear their governments; governments should fear their people.

Tag: anti-war

  • I’ll believe it when I see it

    This Could Get Interesting: @RealDonaldTrump v. the Perpetual War Lobby. Trump has announced a pullout of US ground troops from Syria.

    Apparently a drawdown of the US presence in Afghanistan, by about one third, is in play as well. [KN@PPSTER]

    This isn’t the first time Trump has talked about withdrawing from Syria. Both times he did so as President, the “Syrian government” promptly launched “chemical weapon attacks” on their own territory. I won’t be at all surprised if this happens again and forces Trump to end the withdrawal.

    On the other hand, the ruling class has been making a big deal about how abrupt and hasty the withdrawal order is. It’s entirely possible that Trump has noted what happened in the past when he talked about withdrawing, and gave the order so abruptly specifically to ensure that the “Syrian government” didn’t have a chance to arrange a “chemical weapon attack” to prevent it.

  • An easy question

    Where are the antiwar protesters now that we really need them?.

    Anti-war protests in all 50 states and in front of the hated King Bush II”s Texas ranch were a fixture in American life and newspapers from 2003 through mid-2008. The protests seem to have disappeared yet the ills of war remain. Let’s look at what is bad about our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan:

    • Americans are being killed
    • American taxpayers are being improverished
    • limited American resources are diverted to unproductive activities (bombing an opium factory in Afghanistan is not likely to lead to long-term growth the way that building a factory in North Carolina would)

    All three of these things were bad in 2004 when the U.S. was rich and getting richer. They are even worse now. We have had a decline in birth rate and population growth due to the economic collapse. This makes the death of an American soldier if anything more costly becuase there are fewer children growing up to replace him or her. We have less money now, so whatever it is that we’re spending on our adventures amongst the Jihadis is less affordable (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0933935.html shows that spending is higher than ever and continuing to grow).

    Given that the cost of the wars in American life and taxpayer funds is less bearable now than before, how come the antiwar protesters seem to have melted away?

    [Philip Greenspun Weblog]

    The answer to that is really obvious: those protesters were never really anti-war, only anti-a Republican being the one in charge of the war. Now that a Democrat is in the White House, the war is fine with them.