Brainwashing in Action: Pence Hails Virtue of "Certain War" By Finian Cunningham-Strategic Culture!!!
(2019-06-03 at 04:09:40 )

Brainwashing in Action: Pence Hails Virtue of "Certain War" By Finian Cunningham-Strategic Culture

In an address to West Point military graduates, United States Vice President Mike Pence told them they will one day fight for the United States America. "It is a virtual certainty," said Mr. Pence who was swelling with pride as he spoke, rather than lamenting.

Well, at least, he is being candid.

The United States is a warmongering nation, there is no doubt about it. As several historical studies attest, out of the 243 years since its formation as a modern state, the United States has been at war during every decade, sometimes in multiple simultaneous wars.

Or put another way, over nearly 95 per cent of its historical existence the United States has been involved in waging wars, sometimes covertly or by proxy.

Since the Second World War alone, the United States has been involved in up to 60 wars or covert conflicts, inflicting a civilian death toll estimated at 20 million.

Arguably, there is not another nation, past or present, with such a record of belligerence.

So, yes, Mr. Pence is correct when he told graduates from the United States elite military academy: "It is a virtual certainty that you will be on a battlefield for the United States of America."

Ironically, the vice president, like President Trump and the hawkish national security adviser John Bolton, has never served in the military.

Yet Mr. Pence held forth like a four-star (armchair) general about the need for young United States of American troops to do battle in a "dangerous world".

"I know when that day comes you will move to the sound of guns," exhorted Mr. Pence, whose only experience of gunfire no doubt comes from watching replays of old Hollywood war movies.

The whole world is a potential battlefield in Mr. Pences reckoning. (Not just Pence, but nearly all United States of American politicians.)

He specifically mentioned United States troops going into future conflict with China or North Korea.

He also said they may be deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq where United States forces have been embroiled for nearly two decades.

Ominously, Mr. Pence warned the new cohort of West Point Second Lieutenants that they may one day be despatched to a war in "this hemisphere".

Given the President Trump administrations backing for a coup in Venezuela and its threats of military intervention, was Mr. Pence alluding to a possible war in the works with that South American country, which, by the way, happens to possess the biggest-known oil reserves on the planet?

The exulting in future wars by Mr. Pence comes at a time of escalating military threats from the United States towards Iran. The Trump administration has sent an aircraft carrier strike group to the Persian Gulf as well as new missile batteries, nuclear-capable B-52 bombers and more squadrons of F-16 fighter jets.

President Trump also last week commanded 1,500 more troops to the region to join an already 70,000 stationed there, all in a bid to ostensibly "counter Iranian aggression".

The global context of United States of American military deployment, as Mr. Pence sanguinely acknowledges, belies the claims made by Washington of it allegedly facing "Iranian aggression".

What is going on in the Persian Gulf is just one sequence in a whole global series of relentless United States militarism.

It is estimated that the United States has 800 military bases around the planet with its forces deployed in at least 70 countries.

The idea that this imperialist configuration is because the United States is "the leader of the free world" is a risible propaganda rationale.

United States of American military power is used to project and protect United States capitalist interests.

United States troops are just hired guns and cannon fodder for corporate profit-making, as former Marine general Smedley Butler scathingly confessed during the 1930s in his classic book "War is a Racket".

When Mr. Pence said: "It is a virtual certainty that you will be on a battlefield for the United States of America." What he really meant to say was.. "for United States of American capitalism".

United States soldiers are sent to wars not to defend United States of American national security or to "promote democracy", as the myth goes.

They are sent to foreign lands to kill, die or be maimed for the sole, sordid purpose of making money for elite bankers, corporate executives or rich shareholders who send their non-serving scions to fancy private colleges like Mr. Pence and Mr. Trump went to.

The United States of American ruling class perpetuates itself by sending working-class schmucks into wars-for-capitalist-profit, over and over again.

The unremitting warmongering that underpins United States of American capitalism is testified by Mr. Pences address to the West Point graduates.

Stripped from the pious rhetoric, Mr. Pence was telling like it is: the United States of American way is war, war, and more war.

The United States of American way is Total War on the planet to get whatever United States corporations need in order to make the oligarchic class even richer.

Even when the United States is purportedly engaged in "diplomacy" it is always ready to exercise the "all options" of militarism in order to get its infernal way.

Mr. Pence referred to United States troops one day going to the Korean Peninsula because, he asserted, North Korea is "a threat to peace".

A country where the United States of American military killed three million people during the 1950-53 Korean War.

He warned there could be another war against North Korea or China. Partly because China, he said, was "challenging United States of American power".

That is acceptable cause for war???

It is quite astounding that the United States of American vice president is envisioning a war with two countries that his administration is supposedly engaging with in ongoing diplomatic negotiations.

The President Trump administration is trying to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, while also pursuing major economic concessions from China in trade relations.

Evidently, however, the White House views the ultimate decider to be military force in its relations with these two countries.

Mr. Pences reprehensible disclosure of militarist designs towards North Korea and China is bound to undermine diplomacy, if not torpedo it altogether.

How are Pyongyang or Beijing expected to engage with a United States administration that ultimately views war as an option in order to get its way if negotiations fall short of United States demands??

Why would Iran, for example, take up President Trumps latest offer this week of talks, when evidently the United States of American way is to always hold a gun under the table??

What are the chances of Russia negotiating sustainable future arms control treaties with the United States, when history has shown Washington, D.C. to have ripped up previous treaties??

The two Cold War nuclear control pillars, the ABM and INF treaties, were trashed in 2002 and last year unilaterally by the United States so as to give itself a license to point nuclear missiles in Moscows face - all to gratify its obsession with global "full-spectrum dominance"?

Let us finish with this thought experiment.

Would normal law-abiding, moral people have tolerated a speech by Josef Goebbels to Wehrmacht graduates, telling them it was "certain" that one day they would go to war for the good of Nazi Germany?

To be sure, Mr. Goebbels would have made the conduct of aggression and war crimes sound like a virtuous, noble cause for some higher principle.

But surely people would have seen through the charade and propaganda, and disdained the Nazi ideologue as a cynical criminal.

How is it then possible for United States Vice President Mike Pence to get away with making warmongering all over the planet sound like a virtue??

Why are those supposed United States of American virtues somehow perceived as genuine and believable?

And, all the while, the Western corporate news media are obediently silent, bereft of any critical questioning.

What does that say about the extent of brainwashing in todays world???

Reprinted here from the "Strategic Culture Foundation" provides a platform for exclusive analysis, research and policy comment on Eurasian and global affairs. We are covering political, economic, social and security issues worldwide. Since 2005 our journal has published thousands of analytical briefs and commentaries with the unique perspective of independent contributors. SCF works to broaden and diversify expert discussion by focusing on hidden aspects of international politics and unconventional thinking. Benefiting from the expanding power of the Internet, we work to spread reliable information, critical thought and progressive ideas.