Howard Zinn on the “Holy” Wars

Howard Zinn (1922-2010) on the so-called “good” and “holy” wars of the American Imperium: the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and WWII.

Howard Zinn on the costs of war.

His final words at Boston University on November 11th, 2009:

“No matter what we are told, no matter what tyrant exists, what border has been crossed, what aggression has taken place, it is not that we are going to be passive in the face of tyranny or aggression. No, but we will find ways other than war to deal with the problems we have. Because war is inevitably, inevitably the indiscriminate massive killing of huge numbers of people and children are a good part of those people. Every war is a war against children. So it is not just getting rid of Saddam Hussein. Think about it, well, we got rid of Saddam Hussein and in the course of it got rid of huge numbers of victims of Saddam Hussein. When you fight a war against a tyrant, who do you kill? You kill the victims of the tyrant.

Anyway, all this is to simply make us think again about war and to think. You know. We are at war now, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and sort of in Pakistan since we are sending rockets over there killing innocent people in Pakistan. And, we should not accept that. Look for a peace movement to join. Really, look for some peace organization to join. It will look small at first and pitiful and helpless, but that is how movements start. That is how the movement against the Vietnam war started, started with handfuls of people who thought they were helpless, thought they were powerless.

But, remember, the power of the people on top depends on the obedience of the people below.

When people stop obeying, they have no power.

Now, when workers go on strike, huge corporations lose their power. When consumers boycott, huge business establishments have to give in.

When soldiers refuse to fight, as so many soldiers did in Vietnam, so many deserters, so many fraggings, acts of violence by enlisted men against officers in Vietnam, B-52 pilots refusing to fly bombing missions anymore. War cannot go on when enough soldiers refuse the government has to decide we cannot continue. So yes, people have the power if they begin to organize, if they protest and create a strong enough movement they can change things. That is all I wanted to say. Thank you.”

The Slippery Slope Steepens

The United States is rather rapidly sliding into a fascist-type state (you can use the “corporatism” euphemism if the truth is too difficult to swallow). The government and their corporate oligarchy are stealing from the people and no longer care if the people have any cake to eat. The process was gradual at first, then accelerated during George Bush Jr’s tenure.

Socialism does not describe what has been happening to the United States at all over the past decade. The military industrial complex, Homeland Security, war against a military tactic (i.e. the “War on Terror”), and unusually aggressive unprovoked invasions into tiny third world countries with no real military are the hallmarks of a more aggressive form of developing collectivism than socialism.

Couple this with the raping of the American taxpayer by corporate bail-outs that were unwarranted and unnecessary, government take-overs of corporations and industries, and the unprecedented infiltration of government ranks by corporate whores and felons like Hanky Pank Paulson and…Geithner … Add it up and we now essentially meet the traditional definition of a fascist state, which is a union of the government and large corporations that run the country with military/imperialist overtones. Because our aggressive and out-of-control government is broke and desperate, more measures to steal from the public and debase the currency are coming.

The Military-Industrial Complex and the Economy

Washington’s Blog and Zero Hedge provide a little analysis of the last ten years as the Military-Industrial complex ruins the economy:

Everyone knows that the too big to fails and their dishonest and footsy-playing regulators and politicians are largely responsible for trashing the economy.

But the military-industrial complex shares much of the blame.

Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says that the Iraq war will cost $3-5 trillion dollars.

Sure, experts say that the Iraq war has increased the threat of terrorism. See this, this, this, this, this, this and this. And we launched the Iraq war based on the false linkage of Saddam and 9/11, and knowingly false claims that Saddam had WMDs. And top British officials, former CIA director George Tenet, former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill and many others say that the Iraq war was planned before 9/11.  But this essay is about dollars and cents.

America is also spending a pretty penny in Afghanistan. The U.S. admits there are only a small handful of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. As ABC notes…