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War, War, War See other War, War, War Articles Title: US wars serve Israel's interests - US journalist A journalist says the United States is engaged in wars that solely serve the interests of the Israeli regime. His comment comes as the suicide rates are increasing among US veterans because of the economic downturn and the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. According to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, 20 percent of some 30,000 suicides in the United States every year are committed by veterans. Eric Shineski Shineski, head of the US Department for Veterans, says the backlog of disability claims has risen to over 700 thousand this year, 200 thousands more than last year. Former US President George W Bush requested 38.7 billion dollars for veteran medical care alone in his budget proposal for fiscal year 2009. Press TV interviewed author and journalist Mark Glenn to discuss the veterans' fate with him. Glenn is also the co-founder of Crescent and Cross Solidarity Movement, Coeur d'Alene, ID. Press TV: AFP says "repeated deployments with shortened dwell time have also strained the military, and the army hopes to soon give soldiers two years at home for every year deployed." Is that even likely to happen considering the United States' presence in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan and now even Yemen? Mark Glenn: No, it is not likely to happen, for the simple reason that we cannot keep people in as it is, and we are no closer to ending the fighting than we were eight years ago when we began. So, that is number one. Number two, this is just the typical political double speak that politicians and others will engage in when they know that they are in trouble and they have to do something to calm down the crowd, to keep basically a mutiny from happening which I think is one of the things that the US military right now is decidedly afraid of. It is the chance of a real mutiny, because, as I said, we are no closer to being at the end of this thing than we were on the day that hostilities were initiated. So, in my opinion, there is no chance of this happening unless, of course, the United States finally comes to terms with the fact that these two wars we are fighting for Israel's benefit alone are not in America's interest and then they simply do the right thing by pulling our troops out and bringing them home where they belong. Press TV: In an interview with us yesterday, Conn Hallinan of Foreign Policy in Focus admitted that the US does not really care much for Afghan civilian fatalities. Can the same sentiment be then stretched to their own soldiers' mental health? Mark Glenn: Absolutely. The problems that our soldiers are facing right now is that prior to being deployed, they were given this picture of the Islamic monster, right? The typical Afghan or Iraqi or whatever person they come in contact with. And then as the American soldiers come in contact with these people, they find out that they are not the monsters that they were painted as being, that they are very well-ordered, a very moral society, and so, there is this intellectual dissonance, if you want to call it that, where these soldiers are coming to realize that they have been lied to, that the [people are not the] monsters [they] are not these barbarians as they have been painted, they are a very civil society, and what makes the situation for our American GIs even worse is the fact that they have been raised in a culture that is basically been sterilized of any kind of moral principles. Ever since our society, our culture, our media was turned over to the same interest responsible for getting us involved in this war, they have cleaned out American society of any kind of objective moral principles. And so, as these American GIs are forced to go overseas and to commit horrible atrocities against innocent men, women and children, they don't have the moral backing that they did in generations past; and because of this, they are coming home and they are seeing their landscape has not been destroyed the way that it was destroyed during the deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. And so, it is just not within human nature to be able to sit well with yourself when you know you have brought this kind of misery into the lives of innocent people. And of course, as you mentioned, our own government is just as unconcerned with innocent human life in Afghanistan and Iraq as it is with the lives of their GIs. Press TV: Many veterans, like Michael Prysner, have put forth a strong anti-war message. How can one then explain the wide gap maybe between those like him and others who go the other way, i.e. towards mental instability? Is the US happier to maybe accept Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) than it is being challenged on its wars by its own soldiers? Mark Glenn: Well, the United States' government is in a very difficult position. It finds itself in the midst of these two wars, and in order to save face, it has to maintain the very delicate balancing act between soldiers who obviously are against the war and then soldiers who are for it. And so, it is a very difficult position for the US government to be in. And I think if the United States' government is put into a time machine and go back [to,] say, ten years ago, to before all of this business got started, they would probably rethink things, and they would say to themselves, "Okay, here is this event that is going to lead to the destruction of the United States. Do we really want to go down this road or not? Or maybe we should just find a way to deal justly and ethically with these people instead of getting involved in a bunch of wars that are just ultimately going to lead to the destruction of our own country." HJL/MGH/HRF Interview with Mark Glenn, author and journalist, and co-founder of Crescent and Cross Solidarity Movement, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
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#1. To: Tatarewicz (#0)
I suspect GHWBush's big but short Gulf War in the 90's was intended to get Americans over "Viet Nam Syndrome" anti-war leanings and GWBush intended to push America back into the "long war" Viet Nam model but stretch it into the 30 Years War/100 Years War French models and figured by then America would just accept War as a permanent business model.
------- "They're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time." -- Col. Puller, USMC
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