SovereignLife Freedom Blog

“Peacemonger” Obama promised an end to the war in Iraq, and to bring the troops home. But it’s all just sleight of hand – in this case one hand stopping one war while the other escalates a second, in Afghanistan.

I can’t think of any rational or valid reason as to why the US and NATO troops are there – other than an attempt to pacify the place to make it safe for an oil pipeline.

Certainly the given reasons are nonsense. Gordon Brown prattles on about the need to win there in order to stop future terror attacks on the UK. Barrack Obama talks about bringing democracy and sound government – and improving the lives of ordinary Afghans. All of it rubbish of course.

I can’t even remember why Afghanistan was attacked in the first place. Oh yes, because the Taliban refused to hand over bin Laden. But weren’t the perpetrators of 9/11 supposed to be Saudis?

The Taliban are certainly not international terrorists, and are only concerned with matters inside their own country – and getting rid of foreigners. You or I may not like their way of life or code of conduct, but to brand them as terrorists and fight a war over there as part of the “war on terror” is just pure Orwellian newspeak.

History is definitely on the side of the Afghans though – as they have never been pacified, and by all accounts are perhaps the world’s most fierce fighters.

It’s certainly time for some common sense here – and to put a stop to this silly and costly war. Eric Margolis has written an interesting commentary on this that hits the nail on the head in my opinion. Worth the read.

There are a number of interesting indicators showing how Americans are stirring – and starting to realise the extent of the danger they are threatened with. The various “town hall” meetings being held around the country to promote the controversial health reforms are one such indicator. In most cases these appear to be venues for letting off steam against the government.

Geralde Celente is also predicting such a “second revolution” scenario in his latest writings and video interviews.

And Anthony Gregory writes a thought-provoking essay that reinforces this idea in Obama, Bush and the Limits of Power.

Worth the read.

We are living in Orwell’s world of 1984 right now. It has already arrived, although a little late. I could write thousands of words to illustrate this fact, but I’ll limit myself to simply discussing one example of it.

Take the situation with regards Iran. They say they are not building a bomb. The IAEA (and even certain US intelligence reports) agree – they are not. They are just mastering the uranium fuel cycle (knowledge of which could be used for building a bomb of course) in order to generate nuclear power.

Never mind. Repeat something often enough and it will stick. And so it is, with the assertion that Iran is building a nuclear bomb. Certainly Israel believes it (or at least claims to believe it) and sees Iran as an existential threat.

In response to this the USA is pushing for a diplomatic solution. Interestingly enough this “diplomatic” approach includes proposals to put an embargo in place to prevent Iran from importing petroleum.

Now, I don’t know about you – but in my book an embargo is an act of war. It’s certainly not diplomacy – which is the practice of negotiating.

Diplomacy has been given a serious facelift. No longer does it mean sitting down and discussing stuff – but sitting down, making demands, then threatening warlike actions should the diplomatic route fails. In this way diplomacy means “do what we say or we’ll use force”.

At one end of the military options scale we have Israel which continually threatens war as a means of stopping Iran from doing what it says it is not doing. And at the other end we have US “diplomacy” which is doublespeak for “war by different means” – as in sanctions, embargoes, and various forms of economic warfare.

To understand how this ‘diplomacy’ is viewed by the Iranians, simply consider how it would be viewed by people in the USA, if Iran were to organise an embargo of petroleum into that country. I can hear it now – “Iran has declared war on the USA, let’s bomb the bejesus out of them!”

It’s inevitable. The Chinese currency – the renminbi (or yuan) – is bound for greater things. And so it is. Even without the global economic recession and weakening US dollar, the RMB was destined for a larger role on the world stage – simply by force of economic reality. China could very well outstrip Japan as the second largest economy in the world in 2010 – and no country with that sort of economic clout can keep its currency ‘local’ for long.

This article illustrates how things are moving faster than anticipated – and how the RMB could be forced to “internationalise” ahead of schedule.

I recall, even in my late teens, how much I hated the idea of being called up for military training. This was the era of Vietnam, and while New Zealanders were not being drafted into that war, Australians were.

The draft for training or active service was usually conducted via a ballot – a sort of Lotto in reverse. Instead of standing to win millions and hopefully enhance your life, you stood to lose it completely.

Well, as a long-haired muso looking for a good gig for our band, my first obligation was to escape this draft nonsense – and so I did along with my mates, by moving our bodies and musical instruments overseas.

I’ve often ruminated over this change of mind – compared to my earlier life. You see, as an 8 year old – right through to perhaps 12 years old – I was an avid fan of the UK “war comics” – having grown up in England.

These were the comics of the post-World War II era, and I could hardly wait for each week to pass, in order to get the latest copy. Amazingly, I still have the complete collection (or at least my son does), and I’m sure they are worth quite a bit by now!

Now, in my later years, I abhor war. I see it as a function and by-product of the state – not as a natural condition between humans. Sure, after a few drinks some men will get into a fist fight. Roaming, aimless youths will form gangs and go looking around for trouble. Villagers may get at each others throats. But only states can wage war on a massive scale.

What troubles me most is that as we have presumably become more progressive, our war games have become more brutal. Back in the days of Kings and Queens, the royals has to raise the gold necessary to fight a war. And when they did, the resultant war typically happened in designated fields, far away from the ordinary citizen.

Now, war always involves the destruction of civilians – as a matter of policy. Ever since the Brits started bombing German cities, and the Germans retaliated – it would appear the hapless citizens have become mere pawns in the war game.

Without mega-states, mega-budgets, mega-taxes, mega central banks, mega-military spending – not to mention fiat “funny” money and brainwashing centres known as schools – it would be impossible to wage war on the scale we see today.

As Randolph Bourne said: “War is the health of the state.” And he’s right.

If it were possible to have citizens of each country vote via referendum on whether to start a war or not, I do believe wars would never get off the ground – not unless they were truly defensive and the enemy was about to beat down the doors at “home”.

But war does a lot more than just kill innocent civilians – it also brutalises the soldiers enlisted and brainwashed into fighting such wars. Butler Shaffer has written an excellent article which I recommend reading – Suicide And The Insanity of War.

That says it all really.

I’ve just written a new e-report in which I outline three critical areas of action any freedom seeker should consider, as a way of preparing for the current recession when it morphs into the Greatest Depression – something a number of respected economic commentators are predicting.

If you want to preserve your cash, build your wealth, and have another country lined up as an alternative residency (should you need it) – then you will find the practical advice in my report to be worthwhile seriously considering.

You can download it from here.