Endless War Is A Racket - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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By Atlantis
#15059099
Having destroyed the American narrative of the benevolent superpower, Trump now goes about destroying his own narrative by expanding the US military footprint abroad. Instead of bringing the boys back home, he now wants to sacrifice American youths on the altar of corporate profits or to boost his personal ego.

How will the Trumpets explain the U-turn?

Endless War Is A Racket

The Trump administration is so determined to keep troops in Iraq that they are threatening to cut off Iraq from one of its main bank accounts if they refuse to allow it:

The Trump administration warned Iraq this week that it risks losing access to a critical government bank account if Baghdad kicks out American forces following the U.S. airstrike that killed a top Iranian general, according to Iraqi officials.

The State Department warned that the U.S. could shut down Iraq’s access to the country’s central bank account held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, a move that could jolt Iraq’s already shaky economy, the officials said.


This is the latest administration threat to punish Iraq for asserting its rights as a sovereign state, and it was accompanied by Pompeo’s neo-imperialist message telling Baghdad that the U.S. has no intention of withdrawing from the country. The Trump administration has abused U.S. financial clout many times over the past three years to wage economic war on other countries, but this may be the most irrational abuse of them all. The U.S. military presence in Iraq is ostensibly there to aid Iraq against ISIS, and our forces are there with their permission. If the Iraqi government no longer wants U.S. forces there, the administration has absolutely no right to insist that they stay.

Coercing another government to make them accept a military presence that they have already rejected is nothing less than an illegal attempt to keep occupying troops in their territory. If the Trump administration goes through with this, U.S. troops will be facing another insurgency in Iraq instead of coming home as they should. Most Iraqis are not going to accept such arrogant and heavy-handed measures, and no U.S. interests are served by doing this. The U.S. has already done an incalculable amount of damage to Iraq and its people over the last thirty years. Strangling Iraq’s economy to punish them for exercising their sovereignty is the sort of senseless cruelty that we have come to expect from this administration.

Iraq’s government has given Trump the perfect excuse to order a full U.S. withdrawal, but he refuses to accept their gift because he is so obsessed with hostility to Iran that he won’t order the troops out. Far from presiding over a “retreat” from the region as many pundits have claimed, Trump seems intent on increasing the U.S. military footprint in the region. So much for the fantasy that the president wants to bring the troops home. Not only is he not withdrawing troops, but he has increasingly been pursuing his policies in the region in an openly neo-imperialist fashion. Whether he is declaring his intention to steal Syrian oil as the reason for keeping troops there illegally or trying to coerce Iraq into accepting troops they don’t want, he sees these military deployments primarily in terms of how he can use them to extract resources or to dictate terms to the locals. All of this is wrong, and none of it has anything to do with advancing U.S. interests or making Americans more secure. Trump thinks he can use the military presence in Iraq as leverage to get them to fork over some cash, and he doesn’t want to give that up. Endless war is a racket, and Trump has no intention of ending it when he can run it instead.


Or did he take Bannon's idea about creative destruction a little too literal :?:
#15059102
Maybe I do not qualify as a Trumpet, because the moment that he turns on China he is no longer "benevolent" but that is what I approve.

Benevolence to rampant enemies is cruelty to friends who deserve more.

EDIT: The ugly fact is that human need and power and resources accumulate like how gravity holds the Earth together. Blessing should be counted that America prevails over Russia or China of Arabia.
User avatar
By Ter
#15059104
If President Trump would withdraw the American troops from the Middle East, I am sure the Honourable poster OP would have fun and say that the Americans had to flee with their tails between their legs and that Trump is a frightened pussy or something like that.
It is really easy to be an anti-Trumpista, just criticise everything that President Trump does.
:eek: :roll:
#15059105
Atlantis wrote:Having destroyed the American narrative of the benevolent superpower,

Don't give Trump too much credit for this - Bush and Obama did more than their fair share in this department. :lol:

Trump is certainly determined to finish the job, though.

Atlantis wrote:Trump now goes about destroying his own narrative by expanding the US military footprint abroad. Instead of bringing the boys back home, he now wants to sacrifice American youths on the altar of corporate profits or to boost his personal ego.

How will the Trumpets explain the U-turn?

War is indistinguishable from professional sports to these people. They don't have to explain the U-turn, they will just revert to chanting "U.S.A! U.S.A!" like the morons they are. Just take a look at the geniuses in the Soleimani thread for an accurate representation of Trumpian "analysis".
#15059108
Heisenberg wrote:Don't give Trump too much credit for this - Bush and Obama did more than their fair share in this department. :lol:


The myth of the benevolent US superpower was always false, like all national myths.

The point I was trying to make is that the US needed this myth or narrative to pursue its geopolitical aims because even the US doesn't have the military means to control the world against hostile populations. Occupied people had to be convinced that the occupation was good for them. If you have a compliant population, imperial conquest is a lot easier and infinitely more profitable.

Trump didn't understand that the myth was necessary for achieving the US's aims. He believed his own narrative according to which other countries are exploiting the US. By reversing the narrative, he tried to make the vassals pay more:

He asked the Koreans for 5 billion USD a year (instead of less than 1 billion at present) and the Japanese for 8 billions a year for stationing US troops. He wants to make the Europeans pay by making them increase defense spending and defense contracts for US companies.

He kept US troops in Syria solely to control Syrian oil and he always said that the US should have taken Iraqi oil. Now he wants to make the Iraqis pay for stationing US troops, and when the Iraqis want the US to leave, he turns around and wants them to pay again.

The neocons are up in arms against Trump because they understand the damage he's doing to US imperialism. Now that he comes out as an imperialist worse than previous presidents, the whole thing becomes totally hilarious.

Trump believes he can impose his will on the world by naked aggression. However, the cost of the anti-US backlash will be far greater than the few dollars he can extort from vassals.

Trump is a simple mind. He doesn't understand (or pretends to not understand) that the US profits by its corporate empire which sucks the world's wealth into Wall Street and not by tribute payments from vassal states.
#15059113
Atlantis wrote:Trump is a simple mind. He doesn't understand (or pretends to not understand) that the US profits by its corporate empire which sucks the world's wealth into Wall Street and not by tribute payments from vassal states.


The bolded thing is what many SJWs oppose anyways. IMHO if Trump offers something worse for them I have an urge to say that it serves them right.
#15059157
Atlantis wrote:
You are speaking in riddles.
That post is probably one of my clearer posts. More likely I said something this Member doesn't like.
#15059163
Obviously war is good for the profit of one of America's biggest industries: production of weapons of death and destruction. It is a simple matter. America sells untold billions of dollars of weapons of death and destruction worldwide. Sooner or later the warehouses become full and our customers slow their buying unless ……. a nice war comes along to empty the weapons warehouse. The American arms industry was all primed and ready to go for the latest war in 1963 …… Vietnam. JFK set about with plans to withdraw from Vietnam. He also declined to invade Cuba. Not good for business, for sure. JFK was "removed" by his own government and the corporations that tell our "freely elected" ( :lol: ) leaders what to do.

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