WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, #91, September 14, 2022
Veterans for Truth and Sanity v. Ukraine War
Veterans for Sanity to Biden on Ukraine
Ukraine Decision Time for Biden MEMORANDUM FOR: The President Mr. President: September 05, 2022: "Antiwar", https://original.antiwar.com/Veteran-Intelligence-Professionals-for-Sanity2/2022/09/05/veteran-intelligence-professionals-ukraine-decision-time-for-biden/ - Before Defense Secretary Austin flies off to Ramstein for the meeting Thursday of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group we owe you a few words of caution occasioned by our many decades of experience with what happens to intelligence in wartime. If he tells you Kyiv is beating back the Russians, kick the tires – and consider widening your circle of advisers Truth is the coin of the realm in intelligence analysis. It is equally axiomatic that truth is the first casualty of war, and that applies to the war in Ukraine as well as earlier wars we have been involved in. When at war, Defense Secretaries, Secretaries of State, and generals simply cannot be relied upon to tell the truth– to the media, or even to the President. MORE ", https://original.antiwar.com/Veteran-Intelligence-Professionals-for-Sanity2/2022/09/05/veteran-intelligence-professionals-ukraine-decision-time-for-biden/ We learned that early – the hard and bitter way. A lot of our comrades in arms did not come Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPs) is made up of former intelligence officers, diplomats, military officers and congressional staffers. The organization, founded in 2002, was among the first critics of Washington’s justifications for launching a war against Iraq. VIPS advocates a US foreign and national security policy based on genuine national interests rather than contrived threats promoted for largely political reasons. | |||||||||
See OMNI’s anthologies on the US-NATO-Ukraine-Russia War #25 AUGUST 7, 2022. https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2022/08/omni-us-nato-ukraine-russia-war-25.html
Mass Shootings from Culture of War
“Thirty Six Percent of Mass Shooters Were Trained by the U.S. Military, But Few Americans Know This Because the Media Never Report It” By Jack Gilroy on Aug 30, 2022 10:27 am.
Media pundits and politicians blame lax gun laws, social isolation and mental illness for mass shootings, but ignore the advent of a fascist culture that venerates the U.S. military.
In the wake of a barrage of mass shootings, the media have offered a variety of explanations centering predominantly on the social isolation and mental illness of shooters and their easy access to military-style weaponry due to lax gun regulations.
These factors are significant but almost all media pundits avoid the gorilla sitting in the psyche of the American mind—that of the huge military budget and culture of military veneration, which is reminiscent of fascist cultures.
In a July 8 column entitled “Why Shooters Do the Evil They Do,” New York Times columnist David Brooks characteristically cites mental illness, loneliness and the need for recognition and power as lying at the root of recent mass shootings.
What is missing is any discussion of American-style militarism, something Brooks has whitewashed throughout his writing career.
According to David Swanson, Director of World Beyond War, 36% of mass shooters have been trained by the U.S. military—when only one percent of Americans serve in the military.
Many of the mass shooters also have used military-style weapons and have worn military-style clothing.
Jillian Peterson and James Densley recently published a detailed study of mass shooters sponsored by the National Institute of Justice entitled The Violence Project: How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic, which has been widely cited by the media.
The book casts light on many dark corners of American life but characteristically ignores among the darkest—the military-industrial complex. […]
This essay appeared first in CovertAction Magazine.