Follow the Money!
The Business of
America is WAR!
“There is a new normal in America: our government may shut down, but our wars continue. Congress may not be able to pass a budget, but the U.S. military can still launch commando raids in Libya and Somalia, the Afghan War can still be prosecuted … and the military-industrial complex can still dominate the world’s arms trade.
“In the halls of Congress and the Pentagon, it’s business as usual, if your definition of “business” is the power and profits you get from constantly preparing for and prosecuting wars around the world. “War is a racket,” General Smedley Butler famously declared in 1935, and even now it’s hard to disagree with a man who had two Congressional Medals of Honor to his credit and was intimately familiar with American imperialism.
“No wonder our leaders tell us not to worry our little heads about our wars—just support those troops, go shopping, and keep waving that flag. If patriotism is famously the last refuge of the scoundrel, it’s also the first recourse of those seeking to mobilize customers for the latest bloodletting exercise in combat as commerce…
“In the history of war, such commercial transactions took many forms, whether as territory conquered, spoils carted away, raw materials appropriated, or market share gained. Consider American wars. The War of 1812 … it really was about crushing Indians on the frontier and grabbing their land. (In 1893 the U.S. military assisted American sugar planters to overthrow the lawful Hawaiian government and grab more land for business interests and U.S. military bases.) The Mexican-American War was another land grab, this time for the benefit of slaveholders. The Spanish-American War was a land grab for those seeking an American empire overseas, while World War I was for making the world “safe for democracy” — and for American business interests globally.
“Even World War II … witnessed the emergence of the U.S. as the arsenal of democracy, the world’s dominant power, and the new imperial stand-in for a bankrupt British Empire. Korea? Vietnam? Lots of profit for the military-industrial complex and plenty of power for the Pentagon establishment. Iraq, the Middle East, current adventures in Africa? Oil, markets, natural resources, global dominance.” See full article: William Astore, Op-Ed: READ
Don’t BUY the War Business Propaganda!
1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, anti-Hawaiian, etc. 5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box 489 Ola’a (Kurtistown), Hawai`i 96760.
Phone(808) 966-7622. Emailja@malu-aina.org http://www.malu-aina.org
Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (October 25, 2013– 631st week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office
