War Is America's National Pastime

War Is America's National Pastime

by 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. 

His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. 

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour

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