Quote by Smedley Butler
Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881 – June 21, 1940) was a United States Marine Corps major general, the highest rank authorized at that time, and at the time of his death the most decorated Marine in U.S. history.
This interview sums it up for me. The last couple of minutes are as sobering as they are true. It might take a revolution . . .
The former national security advisor to the Reagan administration, who spent years as an assistant to Secretary of State Colin Powell during both Bush administrations reflects on the sad but honest reflection on what America has become as he exposes the unfixable corruption inside the establishment and the corporate interests driving foreign policy.
When you think in small enough chunks, everything becomes moral or amoral, never immoral. Hannah Arendt's Banality of Evil is illustrated below, with regard to the behavior of CIA briefer Michael Morell. The conduct and motives of Bush/Cheney are a different matter entirely. --
Host Chris Matthews asked Morell about a statement Cheney made in 2003: "We know he [Saddam Hussein] has been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons. And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." Here's the conversation that followed: MATTHEWS: Was that true? MORELL: We were saying— MATTHEWS: Can you answer that question? Was that true? MORELL: That's not true. MATTHEWS: Well, why'd you let them get away with it? MORELL: Look, my job Chris— MATTHEWS: You're the briefer for the president on intelligence, you're the top person to go in and tell him what's going on. You see Cheney make this charge he's got a nuclear bomb and then they make subsequent charges he knew how to deliver it…and nobody raised their hand and said, "No that's not what we told him." MORELL: Chris, Chris Chris, what's my job, right? My job— MATTHEWS: To tell the truth. MORELL: My job—no, as the briefer? As the briefer? MATTHEWS: Okay, go ahead. MORELL: As the briefer, my job is to carry CIA's best information and best analysis to the president of the United States and make sure he understands it. My job is to not watch what they're saying on TV.
What is the real risk of an American dying of terrorism? This article presents numbers that put things in perspective. The numbers are based off these statistics offered by the CDC.
Comparing the CDC numbers to terrorism deaths means: – You are 35,079 times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack – You are 33,842 times more likely to die from cancer than from a terrorist attack – You are 4,311 times more likely to die from diabetes than from a terrorist attack – You are 3,157 times more likely to die from flu or pneumonia than from a terrorist attack – You are 2,091 times more likely to die from blood poisoning than from a terrorist attack – You are 1,064 times more likely to die as your lungs swell up after your food or beverage goes down the wrong pipe.
Alternet gives us real numbers on the cost of endless warmongering:
President Obama and Senator John McCain, who have clashed on almost every conceivable issue, do agree on one thing: the Pentagon needs more money. Obama wants to raise the Pentagon’s budget for fiscal year 2016 by $35 billion more than the caps that exist under current law allow. McCain wants to see Obama his $35 billion and raise him $17 billion more. Last week, the House and Senate Budget Committees attempted to meet Obama’s demands by pressing to pour tens of billions of additional dollars into the uncapped supplemental war budget. What will this new avalanche of cash be used for? A major ground war in Iraq? Bombing the Assad regime in Syria? A permanent troop presence in Afghanistan? More likely, the bulk of the funds will be wielded simply to take pressure off the Pentagon’s base budget so it can continue to pay for staggeringly expensive projects like the F-35 combat aircraft and a new generation of ballistic missile submarines. Whether the enthusiastic budgeteers in the end succeed in this particular maneuver to create a massive Pentagon slush fund, the effort represents a troubling development for anyone who thinks that Pentagon spending is already out of hand.