Retired colonel Lawrence Wilkerson's words — about imperialistic plutocracy's price

© 2021 Peter Free

 

22 March 2021

 

 

Retired Army colonel Lawrence Wilkerson — who was General and Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff — recently said this:

 

 

[W]hy not start the ameliorative process by stopping the endless, stupid wars, and all the other incredible idiocy induced, and then start unwinding America's demonstrably counterproductive imperium?

 

The answer is simple, actually: there's no money in it.

 

There are just too many too powerful people pocketing that blood money — from formidable defense contractors, to revolving-door generals and admirals, to members of Congress, to the executives of the big banks and financial firms.

 

All profiting mightily from the empire's treasury.

 

Crony capitalism and the awful conflicts it spawns and supports—it all craves endlessness.  Such obscenities are a democratic disease, the bane of the proverbial "city on a hill."

 

Yet we, the common citizenry, are all complicit — victims of a very old and terrible lie, an almost impressive imperial scam. It's a long con and the ruse requires a carefully crafted culture of pageantry patriotism.

 

Contributing equally to this militarist corruption is the pernicious and obscene enlisting of just 1% of the youth of America, mainly less-advantaged youth hailing from places like West Virginia, Alabama, the interior of Maine, the backcountry of Oklahoma, and other rural or Rust Belt towns of America, to do the dirty business of state killing on behalf of a checked-out 99%.

 

As has become the custom with America's wars, conditionally-selected young people are dying, suffering devastating wounds, or living with life-long post-traumatic stress, homelessness or worse — committing suicide at unprecedented rates— whilst the self-selected huge majority carry on as usual.

 

© 2021 Lawrence Wilkerson, If Biden wants to actually respect and protect American troops, he must put a stop to stupid, endless wars, Insider (07 March 2021)

 

 

The moral? — The coming together of the United States' plutocratically predatory leadership . . .

 

. . . with the carelessly unaware (meaning We the People) results in bad things.

 

Where are you on the subject of national policy that kills other people's kids for fun and profit?

 

Did George Washington cross the Delaware for this?