What do Isis and the Khmer Rouge of 1970 Cambodia have in common? The short answer is that both began as small, obscure factions, destined to remain so without the catastrophic intervention of overwhelming force upon their homeland, culture and families.
Both were targeted to focus public attention on the enemy du jour, justifying full-throttle aggression, rubber-stamped by congressmen and senators destined to become well-paid lobbyists and consultants for the war machine. In both cases, local freedom fighters are the problem, weapons of war are the reaction (via regime change/ infrastructure devastation), while expanding American corporate control is the solution, lifting all capitalists’ boats (yachts, sorry) again; problem-reaction-solution with a side order of heroin (that’s billions with a B), again.
During the period from 1969 to 1973, America dropped the equivalent explosives of five Hiroshima bombs on Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge posed as the local army to defend the people, to protect them from those who drop bombs; 5,000 native volunteers swelled to over 200,000. This evolution of [the] enemy is not lost with those who want and make war. Plans to create Isis, like 9/11, were completed years before their event horizon times were determined.
Recruitment of the Isis-misguided freedom fighters is guaranteed and lends itself to local crazies around the world doing desperate, horrific things for the wrong reasons to the wrong people. Collateral damage is only a statistic to hardened commanders. America now buys blood, outsourcing most functions to mercenaries and subcontractors, doing much of our own killing remotely from video parlors with drones. America has the Pentagon and bunker-buster bombs while “they” have backpacks, abandoned Iraqi (U.S.-supplied) weapons and cell phones. The day after Pearl Harbor, 1 million men joined the American armed forces. Is there really any difference?
What is different is how the war game is played, the global aspirations driving the deception, a compliant media and the overarching black military projects (many of which it is said have ”gone rogue”). America now has over 190 major military bases around the world, waiting not to defend liberty and the democratic way but to respond and complete orders, not to question why. Any provocation, innocent mistake or setup, and that trigger will pull.
Through this aggression under the guise of defense, we are turning the world against itself, assuring mutual destruction for the humble, the weak, the dispossessed and the innocent. With an uninformed population, propaganda is taken for fact, patriotism is confused with nationalism and provocation due to misinformation is greatly increased, promoting fear and the real potential for World War III. Anyone care? Will we continue to support mindless war profiteering, ignoring all the shameful facts, programmed to comply as George Orwell forecast in his book, 1984?
Maybe nothing has really changed. Our Founding Fathers did not include women or slaves in their inalienable rights. Our First Nation indigenous people once ruled this entire great land and now are the poorest, most isolated of our family. All others who came to America were called immigrants and are now referred to as refugees. Few among us are originally from here. Have we forgotten our roots? As the problem-reaction-solution pattern requires, politicians are quickly finding their targets and assigning blame. America is being gutted, raw.
Has there been any real change. … The idea of one world, one people, one love and one Earth has been just a tease. No, we can’t let this happen to the dream. No, we will not support mindless war. No, we won’t put weapons before food, kindness and love. No, we won’t fear our neighbor. No, we won’t believe in the controlled propaganda; “not in my name” can begin today if you choose.
Our only solution is to take personal responsibility in our individual lives to be and live the change we intend. The Constitution is an amazing document; lest we forget, civil and military personnel take a sworn oath and swear allegiance to uphold these principles and not those of the misguided few who may now be in power or authority and are traitors to justice and the American dream. We are out of time, friends. It’s now or never. Namaste
— William Chalk
Asheville
The City of Asheville supported the war by paying city workers who were called up by the National Guard. If Asheville City Council wants peace they need to reverse that policy, and stop buying scores of Glocks.
LOL, but to achieve your agenda, it’ll force others to comply under the barrel of the government gun/aggression lulz. I guess aggression is good if it’s to meed your goals but bad in all other aspects LOL. Your problem is your worldview leads to less freedom and quality of life especially if you force some to pay for it so others can benefit. And not because they are incapable of thriving on their own. Oh no, but because they have voices such as yours that tells them EXTERNAL qualities and such quaint notions like LUCK are why their lives suck LOL.
Great letter, Re: “our only solution is to take personal responsibility in our individual lives to be and live the change we intend,” I offer the following for consideration:
We can’t stop all the violence in the world, but we each have the power to end the violence and suffering we’re personally responsible for every time we sit down to eat. The animals killed for our food never have freedom to do anything natural or enjoyable. They spend their lives crammed into tiny and filthy cages or pens, deprived of a life at all—before being killed in horrific slaughterhouses.
Many great peacemakers embraced this ideal of nonviolence, like Mahatma Gandhi and Caesar Chavez. Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer, whose family fled genocide in Nazi-occupied Europe, became a vegetarian when, from the window of his rented room, he viewed cattle in shackles being beaten down a ramp to their deaths.
Take a step toward peace and justice by wiping violence off our plates. By showing compassion for all beings, regardless of race, religion, gender, or species, we can make good on our stated desire to help reduce pain and bloodshed in the world.
great suggestions, Stewart…have you proposed these things with the mooslims – maybe starting locally ? why do the ‘peaceful’ mooslims never rise up against the power hungry jihadists ? …if animals were not raised for food, think of all the lives that never were …
You mean rise up like this? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/12/22/muslims-protected-christians-from-extremists-in-kenya-bus-attack-reports-say/.
Ack! Ack! Nuance alert! Nuance alert!
Bravo Mr. Chalk. Thanks for this clarity amid the many distraction, diversions and lies of this time.
There is probably someone who said what you said before the mongols came.