huh, it's almost as if the military bases were not there to uphold democracy but rather to ensure that US interests, ~~pretty much~~ always in detriment of the local population's, are served

edit: no need to hedge with "pretty much" there huh

[–] PKMKII@hexbear.net 37 points 11 months ago

And by US interests, we mean the Fortune 500’s interest.

[–] schnick@lemmy.dbzer0.com 43 points 11 months ago

America is a nation of war crimes and useless killing. They pay ther own enemies and all that because without war, the USA would simply collapse.

[–] egg1918@hexbear.net 38 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Oh no somehow there's more terrorism right where we have strong geopolitical interests! Looks like we have no choice but to increase our military presence in those regions. Please pay no attention to where the resources in those regions are being extracted to

[–] GrouchyGrouse@hexbear.net 34 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

This was always the conclusion. If the USA had wanted to truly succeed with the war on terror it would have required a mobilization and occupation akin to WW2. An army of hundreds of thousands if not millions. Decades of thorough occupation and nation building. They spent trillions of dollars on half-assing it because the entire project was imperial avarice and graft, endless waste, exclusive government contracts, nebulous goals. It also would have probably required kicking the shit out of the Saudis instead of the Baathists and leaving Iraq the fuck alone. Hell, probably not opening a second can of war while still in Afghanistan would have helped.

The USA was unwilling to actually try to win the war they started, which is a very stupid fucking move. It would have required rationing at home. Mass mobilization. Rebuilding of manufacturing capacities. Upgrading infrastructure. Nationalizing industries. A whole bevy of things that the neo cons and neo libs were unwilling to do. They tried their wunderwaffen just like the Nazis did, everything from fake bomb detectors to remotely piloted drones. Disastrous PR campaigns in the countries they invaded. Alienation of allies. Just a huge pile of short sighted shit that killed close to a million people and funneled trillions to the misanthropic war capitalists.

It wasn't just destined to fail. It was never meant to succeed on the terms it was sold on. It did succeed in making money because the USA is a corporate oligarchy. Like some disaster campaign from classical antiquity where some Roman senator's failson loses a few legions trying to advance his career except instead of some fancy lad brat it was a collection of multinational corporations and mercenary companies.

So yeah no shit it didn't work. Go look up how many allied soldiers were on the ground in France 20 days after D-Day. Compare it to the invasion of Iraq. Dubya, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Hilldawg, Biden, Bolton, Eric motherfucking Prince, the list goes on. They should all be in the Hague.

[–] huf@hexbear.net 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

they called it the war on terror. turns out it was terror agriculture.

they're growing more and more terrorists through their actions, and then they can point to this as justification for continuing.

[–] GrouchyGrouse@hexbear.net 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Yep. And Raytheon et al are making bank the entire time. Smedley Butler tried to warn us.

[–] dmonzel@lemm.ee 28 points 11 months ago

Just because it's topical, I'm going to plug one of my favorite books I've read this year. How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States, by Daniel Immerwahr. It tells the history of western expansion, bird shit, the Philippines, stop signs, and US military bases.

[–] laziestflagellant@hexbear.net 27 points 11 months ago

[bass boosted blowback intro playing in the distance]

[–] BoxedFenders@hexbear.net 25 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I always expected the fall of the US empire to occur slowly over like a 100 year span but we're on a speed run here with first row seats to the big show.