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Writer's pictureSaleem Qamar Butt

Endless Immoral Wars


The Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest war in American history. Altogether, over 600,000 died in the conflict, more than World War I and World War II combined. In the 1900s, the United States fought in several long and difficult wars around the world. Between 1917 and 1945, the United States fought in two major world wars: World War I and World War II, that helped America to emerge as the biggest and strongest Single power, contested by former USSR till 1990. Since 1950, the United States has fought in several other wars: the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf War, Afghan War, Iraq War, Syrian War, Ukraine and once again supporting hand in glove Israel’s expanding genocidal war against Palestine and in the Middle East for final realisation of Zionists’ dream of Greater Israel. As I am writing these lines, Iran has retaliated with 100 missiles attack on Israel to avenge killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrullah; while Israeli military spoke person announced timely response followed by POTUS order to US armed forces to defend Israel at all cost. Thus Middle East stands at the verge of witnessing yet another great unholy and immoral war.

American indulgence in direct and indirect military conflicts and regime changes all over the globe is supported by more than 750 military bases installed in 80 countries and with 173,000 troops deployed in at least 159 countries. Is it for the love of democracy, protection of human rights and western values, for protection, security and welfare of American people or something else? Let’s explore a bit. I recently read a very revealing paper titled “The Regime’s Wars Are Built on Lies”, written by an American veteran named Karen Kwiatkowski; who opines “Americans are increasingly uneasy about their “national” security, and increasingly concerned that war is lapping at our shores. Instead of reducing the risk of harm to America and our interests, the federal government in Washington seems to be seeking it, investing in it, fuelling it and lying about it. Congress openly talks about fighting wars and reliably funds them, and we can easily verify that it’s piled billions of dollars into this particular spending basket. What we cannot see is why Washington acts as it does. The why is often suppressed, and the underlying rationale for the ongoing investment in war is obscured. Instead, state media and our politicians bleat continually that Washington is defending freedom and helping small states stand up to their oppressors.”

Freedom, whether in individual or state form, rests not on words but on private ownership of self and property, and on state protection of those individual property rights. If it’s not defending freedom, is the U.S. helping a small independent state stand up against its larger and wealthier oppressors? Neither of these alleged motivations for American foreign intervention apply to what the U.S. is doing in Ukraine or Israel. So why is the U.S. government so committed to funding, fighting, and expanding these wars? The answer is that war helps the state seize our property and our freedom. The answer is that war truly is the health of the state. Israel, the size of Vermont and with the population of New Jersey, but ranked the fourth best performing economy in the world by the Organisation for Co-operation and Development in 2022, is a militarized society with top-notch defence and technology sectors. It is nuclear capable, and its defensive capabilities are mighty, unmatched by any oppressor’s power. Israel doesn’t need the U.S. to “defend” it. The Zionist state is no doubt evolving and remains a place of domestic and international conflict. But it can only be described as an “independent underdog” with a wink and a nod. The state of Israel has nurtured a very peculiar political relationship with the United States, which not only guarantees political top cover at the U.N. and in Congress for all of Israel’s actions, but also provides Israel 24/7 access to Congress and the U.S. executive agencies. Since 1948, this peculiar relationship has produced over $300 billion in unconditional annual military aid and economic payments to Israel. In times of active conflict, this aid is rapidly doubled and tripled with overwhelming bipartisan support from Congress and the president. As supporters of this aid like to remind us, some of these tax dollars are spent at home by our own state to shore up our own defence industries.

In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed and Ukraine began transitioning away from state ownership of land and property. Ukrainian land today is primarily in the hands of politically connected national and international corporations, and large commercial farms hold most of its agricultural land through leases, according to the Oakland Institute. For decades, Ukraine was considered the most corrupt nation in Europe. Mind-blowing levels of state and state-connected graft persisted through the transition from Soviet republic to EU member, and NATO hopeful. As centralization and state control of the means of production continued in Ukraine, now with encouragement from the West, a private economy and civil society failed to flourish. We must acknowledge the hard truth of Sen. Lindsey Graham’s recent statements on Ukraine’s $10 trillion to $12 trillion in mineral and natural resources, which the U.S. state wants to control: “It’s a gold mine” — not for the people of Ukraine but for a U.S. government fighting for ever-expanding control beyond its borders. As with all U.S.-supported wars, the U.S. government is seeking its own advantage, one that is wholly incompatible with recognizing and protecting individual property rights, and with liberty in general.

Can we consider Ukraine an independent underdog, as U.S. politicians insist it is? Ukraine is a massive European powerhouse of natural resources, geography, cheap labor and cheaper politicians. This is precisely why its natural transition from Soviet rule to a classical liberal republic can never be permitted. Too many interested parties with too many different reasons want to shape Ukraine’s evolution, the U.S. state chief among them. Ukraine is not only not independent, but its dependency was carefully crafted by Western interests before the 2014 coup and is designed to persist long after new lines are drawn between Ukraine and Belarus, Poland, Lithuania and of course Russia. Ukraine, like modern Israel, emerged as an artificial and political state. Not only did Israel and Ukraine not arise organically, but neither was allowed that opportunity in the rushed “end of history” years of the 20th century, the most murderous, and most statist, of centuries. The U.S. government is not investing in conflict in Ukraine and Israel to help a small independent underdog stand up to its larger oppressors. The U.S., by actively aiding liberty-abhorring state institutions, fundamentally oppresses both the Ukrainian and Israeli populations. Remember, the U.S. government, regardless of politics or party, counts dead Ukrainians and dead Russians as a win-win, publicly justifying its use of bombs, missiles, and cluster munitions — used to kill the innocent and to target homes and hospitals.

The U.S. state does not fight for the independent underdog, and it does not fight for liberty. A country or even a political party that attempts to be independent of the U.S. militarism, or to truly promote private property rights in a way that costs the U.S. state some measure of power or profit quickly finds itself a target of its wrath.

According to veteran Karen, Ukraine and Israel are current boutique wars of choice, connected to and very much like those the U.S. government pursued for profit and show in Iraq, Yugoslavia, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya and elsewhere. Boutique wars are both pleasant and profitable to the regime. They feed and temporarily satisfy the military-industrial-congressional enablers. These wars facilitate control over domestic resources and liberty. They promote endless state borrowing. They allow the state to scratch an itch, just as a snake sheds its skin to grow.

The famous critic and essayist Randolph Bourne challenged such attitudes in 1916 with an essay—now considered a classic of forward thinking (Trans-national America); he observed that “war is the health of the state” and “wartime brings the ideal of the state out into very clear relief, and reveals attitudes and tendencies that were hidden.” What has been hidden and what is now revealed in the two major wars Washington has been funding and fighting in Israel and Ukraine? Another US Marine Major General Smedley Butler (1881-1940), well known for his anti-war activism, noted in his booklet “War Is a Racket”. Many years later, many American veterans like Karen Kwiatkowski clearly state, “what I was seeing, incompletely from inside, confirmed that General Butler was not only correct but prescient. The interconnected cycle of national ideological and defence industrial arms races, and the incessant, wasteful and ultimately useless growth of military spending is aimed not at defence but at offense, and not just U.S. offense but the U.S.-controlled offensive capabilities of its various allies. The beneficiaries of this, as Butler noted, were always and only the racketeers. In 1933, he described his previous decades of service: “We were the state gangsters … high class muscle [men] for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers.” Wars were easy to start, and to paraphrase Butler, profits would be measured in dollars and losses only in lives. The Bush-Cheney Pentagon could not intercept a trio of hijacked airplanes the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and itself became a literal ground zero, defenceless against “enemy” attack. This failure worked brilliantly to shore up the boom in defence, intelligence and data surveillance — over 20 years of profit taking, resource grabs, and domestic manipulation. This happened as much of the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe were destroyed at the unacknowledged cost of millions of dead, damaged and displaced people, destroyed economies, and ruptured societies”.

 

The American veterans with bitter experience of US’ endless wars openly pronounce that The U.S. government, attempting to maintain its presumptuous position as top dog and global rule maker, has permanently destroyed a beautiful place that 35 million Ukrainians and Russians once called home. It is destroying the Holy Land Palestine by backing a planned genocide and more war in the name of Zionist expansion. If the U.S. government can increase its power by destroying other countries in the name of power and state survival, history tells us it will not hesitate to do so. Many populations around the world already know this from personal experience. Americans are finally recognizing it. There is one caveat for Americans to bear in mind as we the people seek real peace, liberty, and prosperity: When we gaze directly at the true face of the state — a sullen beast stares back at us, inhuman and amoral, seeing only its enemy, and its property. Pakistan fell into SEATO and CENTO traps which ultimately led to most deleterious participation in so called Jihad against former USSR(1979-1989) and then in USA/ NATO/Allies’ invasion of Afghanistan(2001-2021).  One can only hope that we have learnt the right lessons at least with the wisdom of hindsight, if the faculty of foresight was missing and wrapped in the cover of secrecy, short-term but meaningless relief for keeping us tamed. Pakistan needs to stand tall and firm in the incumbent strongest regional alliances like SCO and BRICS to avoid again becoming a victim in the Endless Immoral Wars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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