Wednesday, October 25, 2017

The Real Cost of War

CIVILIAN deaths are UP 60% in 2017.  And I argue that civilian casualties are likely underreported.  So-called “collateral damage”  (read the loss of human life) is evil. You cannot argue another position.  Would Americans tolerate drones dropping bombs in America for the purpose of eliminating evil threats if it necessarily resulted in death of innocent human beings?
“Of course, these civilian deaths are disregarded as “collateral damage”: unfortunate, but necessary to protecting America’s foreign interests. But good luck defining what these interests are, because it seems that the term itself has been used more as an excuse for interventionism rather than carry any substantial meaning.”

If a “crime” was committed but nobody else was harmed, is it a crime?  Answer: NO!  This is why the act of taking drugs itself cannot be a crime.  Perhaps the things people do on drugs are crimes, but this is not justification for limiting the intake of them in the first place.  Legalization of drugs would reduce the prison population by 50%, and the DEA budget. The drug cartels would go out of business immediately, and the blood and carnage associated with this system of allocation would essentially be eradicated.  Our world gets better the instant we legalize all drugs. 
Jury nullification is vital.  Juries must stand up to the egregious overstepping of power by the government.  And they must do it in every single case other than those that aggressed on another human being.
“I saw the heart of the state’s logic laid bare before my eyes. If the state authority says something is illegal, who are we to say no? It is shocking, in the eyes of ordinary citizens, for a person to say, ‘No, if a law outlaws blue pens, I will not lock someone inside a human cage to punish their disobedience.’”

More proof the US government is culpable in killing of innocents.  US urged the killing of 500,000 Indonesian thought-to-be communists in the 1960’s.

The Donald's Treasury Department has borrowed an average of million dollars per hour on a 24/7 basis ever since inauguration day!”
A nice piece considering the inverse of mutually assured destruction.  Trump claims the US ICBM intercepting capable is 97% effective.  This claim is not true. And dangerous.  US strikes on N. Korea become much more plausible once its citizens believe an ICBM intercept is almost assured.

“The dangerous overconfidence being demonstrated by the White House over the ability to intercept a North Korean missile attack might indeed be in some part a bluff, designed to convince Pyongyang that it if initiates a shooting war it will be destroyed while the U.S. remains untouched. But somehow, with a president who doesn’t do subtle very well, I would doubt that to be the case. And the North Koreans, able to build a nuclear weapon and an ICBM, would surely understand the flaws in missile defense as well as anyone.”

No comments:

Post a Comment