Carrying On A Tradition: The American Way?

Once again, not to be mistaken for Tuesday's With Morrie, it's time for a July 4th version of Tuesdays With Trump...

"In the United States, indeed, doing good has come to be, like patriotism, a favorite device of persons with something to sell."  - H.L. Mencken

Over at a financial forum...

"I'm just trying to understand what we're trying to do over there and who we are trying to help. What exactly are we trying to accomplish? And when do we know we have succeeded? We are the good guys though, aren't we? Endless war is so confusing…" - Mkucstars

There is no confusion in these matters. In my best Joe Friday - Just the facts Ma'am.

Obama’s doctrine of covert and proxy war was modeled on the Phoenix Program in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s and Ronald Reagan’s proxy wars in Central America in the 1980s. It involved a massive expansion of U.S. special operations forces, now deployed to 138 different countries, compared with only 60 when Obama took office. 

The U.S. and its allies dropped 20,000 bombs and missiles in Obamas first term. In his second term, they dropped four times that number, bringing the total for Obama’s presidency to over 100,000 bombs and missiles striking seven countries, surpassing the 70,000 unleashed on five countries by Shrub. 

In historical terms, after adjusting for inflation, Obama’s military spending has been 56 percent higher than Clinton’s, 16 percent higher than Reagan’s, and 42 percent more than the U.S. Cold War average. By contrast, Russia now spends one-tenth of what we are pouring into military forces, weapon-building and war. In fact, Obama increased U.S. military spending beyond the post-World War II record set by Shrub. - Source

We Natter - President Obama has joked he still doesn’t know why he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.  However, the Obama administrations record of waging war was no joke to the millions left homeless, displaced and dead in some of the poorest countries on the planet.

Obama wore a "thorny crown" from his first day in the political arena.  The Chicago based Crown family; patriarch Lester Crown; former CEO of General Dynamics, and the single largest investor in GD, whose patronage of Obama's political career, profited from the Obama administrations record of handling "foreign affairs". 

"Altogether the Crown family gave at least $128,000 to Obama’s 2004 Senate campaign, in which Henry Crown & Co. was also Obama’s third largest institutional donor. In 2008, James Crown and his wife Paula were Obama’s fundraising chairs in Illinois and his fourth largest “bundlers” nationwide, raising millions of dollars for his presidential campaign." - Investing in Weapons, War, and Obama

"I refuse to be silent any longer. I refuse to be party to an illegal and immoral war against people who did nothing to deserve our aggression. My oath of office is to protect and defend America's laws and its people. By refusing unlawful orders for an illegal war, I fulfill that oath today." - U.S. Army First Lt. Ehren Watada 

Did Obama depart from the behavior of previous administrations? Obama carried on a long standing American tradition for Shrub, who carried on for Clinton, for Bush Sr, for Reagan, for Ford/Nixon, for Johnson. The last POTUS who bucked the trend? Both Kennedy's were going to pull the plug on Vietnam, so they contracted lead poisoning? 

Don't bring up peanut farmer Carter, his actions and non actions in Zaire, Guatemala, East Timor, Angola, Afghanistan and El Salvador might qualify him (along with other Presidents going back to Truman) for Nuremberg provisions or war crimes.

Carter was the least violent of American presidents but he did things which I think would certainly fall under Nuremberg provisions. Noam Chomsky

The reality is that Obama holds the following records for US Presidents: most bombs dropped (Post Vietnam), having been at war for the entirety of his eight year tenure, and the biggest military budget in US history. Don't forget who was Secretary of State for this military industrial complex munitions fest - Hillary Clinton.

And yet, Trump claims the military is under funded? Like the Fourth of July, POTUS #45 is just continuing in a rich tradition. All right in front of a populace which could be indicted for entertaining the notion that Carter was a pacifist, and Obama a humanist.

 

Above, Eisenhower saw what happened with Truman and Korea, and was misled into Vietnam for Gulf of Tonkin oil rights, hence his warning on exit.  

America does not engage in these "foreign affairs" for any other reason than the brokers, dealers (The Dogs of War), and any asset of value (strategic or otherwise) which can be leveraged and/or extracted. 

Any other proffered rationale is a pretense and dramatic ruse for public consumption. Newsflash: there are no good guys, that's a jingoistic fairy tale for the brainwashed, who happily wave a flag while harfing down ample servings of MSM parrot food. 

America leaves when it has to, or is damn ready to, and always follows the money.  The measure of success is not truth, justice, freedom, democracy, public debt, or human lives, but corporate profits and some jobs for consumerism, aka The American Way?

America as one of the best countries on the planet, is full of the good, the bad and the ugly.  What we know is little and what we do not know, immense. Like everybody else, American's have much to learn and must always endeavor to make their home, a better place.

In the stirring video above, please note the commentary at 17:20 and 20:15. Questions asked, answered, it's Reali-Tea-kill-ya time. Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), have a Happy Fourth and Out.

"No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots." - Barbara Ehrenreich