How Does One Win A "War On Terror?"

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

The "War on Terror" has killed hundreds of thousands of men, women and children, maimed millions more people including children, orphaned more children while destroying economies and even basic living standards in Iraq. It has cost U.S. taxpayers trillions of dollars and it is threatening to destroy the U.S. economy and its Republic. So what is a "War on Terror" and how does a nation "win" it?

10 years ago, 5 days after 9/11, President Bush declared the U.S.'s "War on Terror." He didn't define it. But whatever it is, it continues and Congress funds it, although Congress never declared war as is mandatory under the U.S. Constitution. It has led the U.S. to torture and to the creation and rampant spread of numerous U.S. "Kill/Capture" squads, secret killing units dispersed any where the U.S. president authorizes, using "emergency" war powers justified by this war, regardless of the Geneva Convention and the United Nations Charter.

It has also led to using vast numbers of military "contractors" for the first time in U.S. history, which are mercenaries paid premium rates to fight for the U.S. and with little disclosure to the American people. It has led to a suspension of Constitutional Rights whenever presidential zeal secretly dictates. The U.S. government's widespread censorship, including declaring much of its actions "Top Secret" in violation of the 1st Amendment and illegal search and seizures in violation of the 4th Amendment are examples. Now the British news agency Reuters reports there is a secret U.S. death panel that can authorize the killing of U.S. citizens, anywhere, any time.* How did we as a nation ever sink to this?

U.S. military spending has doubled since 2001 and the nation's debt has nearly tripled, while leaders of both political parties propose raising military spending while slashing "entitlements," including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education and police and fire protection. So how does one "win" a "War on Terror." Americans need to know before they lose everything they have worked so hard for in a fiery Hell of endless war.

* http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/05/us-cia-killlist-idUSTRE79475C20111005

(posted with permission from: http://sane-ramblings.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-does-one-win-war-on-terror.html

[socialist_n_TN]

1. You don't. That's what a lot of us were saying a decade ago.

nm

[phasma ex machina]

4. Bankster-Fed L-O-V-E perpetual war because patriotic peasants don't pay no nevermind to

bankster-Fed riding them dirty from behind.

[slay]

14. Exactly!

it's a war on a tactic, not a group or a county - it will never end. the whole thing was a lie which let the - at the time - republican controlled government steal our rights, spy on us, and start 2 illegal wars that have wasted billions and billions of dollars - them and their cronies profiting from all of it. sickening.

[Major Nikon]

30. Wars are waged between governments

You can't wage war against a tactic.

[orpupilofnature57]

2. Support the OWS movement , and make Govt. managers culpable

The only terrorists we should fear are the ones exempt from consequences the rest of us ( 99% ) share.

[ixion]

3. It is un-winnable by definition, and by design

in my opinion.

[Blue Meany]

5. Send in a division of chickenhawk keyboarders n/t

[Electric Monk]

6. Why Grammar is the First Casualty of War

Published on Saturday, January 12, 2002 in the London Daily Telegraph
by Terry Jones

WHAT really alarms me about President Bush's "war on terrorism" is the grammar. How do you wage war on an abstract noun? It's rather like bombing murder.

Imagine if Bush had said: "We're going to bomb murder wherever it lurks. We are going to seek out the murderers and the would-be murderers, and bomb any government that harbors murderers."

The other thing that worries me about Bush and Blair's "war on terrorism" is: how will they know when they've won it? With most wars, you can say you've won when the other side is either all dead or surrenders. But how is terrorism going to surrender?

It's hard for abstract nouns to surrender. In fact it's very hard for abstract nouns to do anything at all of their own volition - even trained philologists can't negotiate with them. It's difficult to find their hide-outs, useless to try to cut off their supplies.

more
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0112-02.htm

[Electric Monk]

7. kick nt

[Fire Walk With Me]

8. Yep, it's a ruse to create a state of perpetual war, always a new bad guy, always reason

to drain the Treasury of our tax dollars. It's a scheme.

The Military Industrial Complex is far worse than Wall Street.

[socialist_n_TN]

24. The MIC IS Wall Street

Look at the interlocking boards, who profits from the MIC, and who CONTROLS the MIC. Hint-it's not the government represented by the people. It's the government that's OWNED, lock, stock, and barrell, BY Wall Street.

[Fuzz]

9. Change the definition of terror.

[scentopine]

10. When they demand to inspect your sex organs before you get on a plane, they've won -nt

[Initech]

11. We don't. Especially when we're the one's causing most of it.

[NMMNG]

12. You don't

That way you're always at war with Eurasia, or Eastasia. Perpetual war keeps defense contractors and the military in business, and makes sure you never have to waste money on frivolous things like education, healthcare, the poor, etc.

[slay]

15. +1

well said. sad and fucked up - but well said.

[raouldukelives]

23. Hey, it's good for 401k's

Every civilian death probably makes you a $1 towards a Del Webb community someday.

[pacalo]

13. The same way we win the war against the boogey man: we don't.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[HughBeaumont]

17. You can't win a war on a noun anymore than you can win a war on a drug.

[walerosco]

18. By changing the name

Just like the war on drugs, the war on "terror" will be with us till the end of time. Leanr to live with it because none of the people running for office next year have any real plans to end it. This is why the 2 party system is not really a democracy.

[begin_within]

19. By being the defense contractor

[OneGrassRoot]

20. Occupy The Pentagon

As Fire Walk With Me said upthread, the military-industrial complex is worse than Wall Street.

In my simplistic mind, they're all part of the same "Powers That Be," the ones who pull all the strings for the benefit of very few, at the expensive of Humanity and the Earth.

The OWS movement will hopefully gain more and more traction as an anti-war movement as well.

[socialist_n_TN]

25. "...they're all part of the same 'Powers That Be'..."

Yep. The MIC IS Wall Street. Don't make the mistake of separating them FROM the system. It was the SYSTEM (capitalism) that spawned and supports the MIC.

[Lizzie Poppet]

21. By not being terrified any more.

Ten years of hand-wringing and gross overreaction is more than enough. Can we just stop now...?

[chill_wind]

22. Our children and our children's children

will be paying for this. Long after we're dead.

K & R

[Gregorian]

26. Simple: by being part of the military industry. And having no sense of priorities or morals.

All one needs to know is how many people die from "terrorism" versus lightning. Any fucking brain dead idiot can see that. Pardon my Freedom Language.

[WinkyDink]

27. Guess what? IT WAS PHONY FROM THE GIT-GO. Sure, people died; but the M-I C has made trillions!

WHERE are your priorities?!

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

28. Re: Sure, people died...

Hey, That's just the cost of doing business, when the business you are in is building weapons. Got to keep that "Stimuli's" money flowing to make the stockholders happy!

[WinkyDink]

29. And the deceased don't need no stinkin' jobs!