Chris your words are spoken from the soul of TRUTH.

WAR is the endless result of EMPIRE, the American 60+ year quest for EMPIRE is destroying us ALL, the Corporations & the Corporate “owned” politicians are blinded by the GREED & POWER of EMPIRES deadly embrace. TRILLIONS for WAR, crumbs for the PEOPLE, while the corporate, congressional, military fools keep digging deeper & deeper into oblivion & darkness, while the Cheney’s, Gingrich’s, Limbaugh’s & the other SHILLS for EMPIRE & the SUPREMACY of the WEALTHY keep “telling & selling” their LIES, only countless LIES can keep EMPIRE alive!

TRUTH is the only thing that can kill the very idea of EMPIRE & the hideousness, the soullessness, the evil of WAR!

Since when has this country vilified sin when it did not serve a purpose as promoting illegal wars or to coax the ‘stay at home’ moralists to jump on the band wagon?

Just another attribute of this country’s demise from within so often warned of in past years; OR the enemy will come to you/us draped in the flag, singing hymns, praising god and dressed in a customed taylored 3 piece vested suit.

By Thomas Mc, June 1 at 10:52 am #

“War isn’t just sin, it’s Satan incarnate.”
===========================================
I like the way you put it, Thomas Mc! However, it takes more than Satan proper to conduct an evil war. So the political leaders who plan for wars and give orders to start them and fuel them, the military-industrial complex that actually fight the wars and make war’s weapons of mass destruction, and the misguided citizens with herd-mentality who stand silent or cheer war-mongers are all Satan’s cohorts and partners in the evils of wars. All have blood on their hands, and this is more so in countries that always brag about democracy.

Based on this, when countries that have tyrants,  dictators, or absolute monarchies on the helm, you might not fault the helpless citizens who are forced to participate in their rulers evil schemes. But when in a so-called democracy, like America and Israel, evil wars are carried on against the will of the people or even a significant minority among them, then every tax-payer citizen has blood on his / her hands.

It’s easy at the theoretical level to blame wars on an invisible Satan, however, Satan would not exist if he or she did not have large numbers of cohorts to carry on his/her snares!

In the case of America and Israel and the other so-called super powers wars are going to continue to be a way of life as long as there are departments of military-industrial complexes that receive the lion’s share of the nation’s treasury. When enlightened nations eliminate institutions such as the Pentagon or its equivalent, then we might reach a point when the prospects and incentives for wars are drastically reduced. Unless this happens, I am sorry to report to you that I and you have blood on our hands for the evil wars our country keeps fighting!

The Truth could be als follows.

Under while the media and journals are feeding you with news from all around the world.

And that the power brokers in your country are making war and unrest all over the planet.

In the same time they are taking over your country,
they make some poppit president, and than are starting to take over slowly but sure, the governement and the country.

And than a lot of things starting to fall in place,
the concentration camps, the millions of coffins, the
special armed forces for the interieur.

Salutations

Folktruther:
‘Hedges, and truthdig, have redeemed themselves with this article.  War must be placed as an evil in a mpral and spiritual ideology of earthpeople to eradicate it, and this is occurring historically.  The problem now is primarily the Western tradition, which gets more bloodthirsty as its power declines.’

I can’t say as I see that.  There have been plenty of non-Western slaughters in recent years.  The West does egg them on, but there are a lot of volunteers out there.  I’m afraid we’re dealing with the basic instincts of a rather nasty hunting primate here.  Calming them down is going to be non-trivial.

‘As Anarcissie hss pointed out, it is not accidental that Western literature begins with Iliad, a bloodthirsty war justified by an absurd pretext….’

If you’re going to have wars, it’s as good as any other.  At least there are barbarian princes and a beautiful woman involved, and thousands of years later some of us can write, “Is this the face that launched a thousand ships, and burnt the topless towers of Ilium?” instead of publish dreary articles about rising oil prices, falling dollars, and the vagaries of rule by moral dwarfs.

War should always be the last resort. I don’t understand why people who consider themselves to be good Christians embrace the wars that we institute against other countries and in which we slaughter innocent children and civilians for oil and other resources and to make the military industrial complex more powerful and rich. We used to have a sign on the edge of our town that said “Blessed are the Peacemakers”. It has now been taken down and yet another gas station erected on the site. I watched the Memorial Day celebration in our town square and onlookers seemed to be caught in genuine emotion regarding honoring our troops and soldiers. Flags and ribbons were everywhere. I had to think that those soldiers would be better honored by our standing firm against the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, by making our government honor the Geneva Conventions and by giving our returning troops the care and assistance that they need to return to civilian life rather than making them fight for the physical and mental help that they have been promised.

re: Virginia777

Thank you for pointing out the unceasing propaganda war waged by the government guided media; an unceasing war indeed, on every front imaginable.

This piece should be mandatory reading for the publisher of Newsweek, who put an inflammatory picture of Iran’s president on their recent war-mongering cover.

Also for the producers of Saturday Night Live, who Iran-bashed in a recent skit.

and etc. and etc. and etc.!

It has all been said. War has been with us since time began to be counted. And violence by its very nature does not want to be peaceful…
But this IS a new century. Is it not time to recognize this crap for what it is and stop feeding it? Stop participating in the lies. But do try an become the change you want within yourself. Don’t go thinking and dreaming it is somewhere else. Peace on earth begins with me.
We are all on our own with everything.

Addendum to a previously posted comment!

In a previous comment I wrote:

“However, there is only one war that is legitimate and even sacred and that is a war by the natives of a land against a foreign aggressor and occupier.”

After a second thought I should have said it this way: “However, there is only one situation when and where resistance fighting is legitimate and even sacred and that’s a fight of putting a resistance by the natives of a land against a foreign aggressor and occupier. And in this case there should not be a regularly instituted army to do the fighting, but a resistance movement of freedom fighters of all of those who love their homeland and are physically capable to defend it within their own borders!”

Hedges, and truthdig, have redeemed themselves with this article.  War must be placed as an evil in a mpral and spiritual ideology of earthpeople to eradicate it, and this is occurring historically.  The problem now is primarily the Western tradition, which gets more bloodthirsty as its power declines.

As Anarcissie hss pointed out, it is not accidental that Western literature begins with Iliad, a bloodthirsty war justified by an absurd pretext. And Western history runs through Rome, itself based on war to get slaves and loot.  Western history is the predatory imperialism of the White man, justifying massacres of women and childern as our TD marine does: on the absurd pretext that they are attacking us. 

We have to transform our spiritual and religious tradition which has been hijacked by power to promote its exploitave and bloodthirsty polices.  And disgorge the powerful who engage in these military adventures.  Gibbon says of a Roman emperor:

  “Trajan was ambitious of fame; and as long as mankind shall continue to bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers than on their benefactors, the thirst of military glory will ever be the vice of the most exalted characters.”

Be pretty rich for a nation conceived in genocide, birthed in slavery, and fattened on exploitation, greed, and anti-Humanism to be sinless.  The U.S. has been the most violent, brutal nation in the world since 1845.  We’re exceptional all right—exceptionally criminal.

Instead of just “war is sin” I would say that “war is the ultimate sin” and it’s the “state-sanctioned terrorism.” This applies to all American wars of aggression in many parts of the world.

However, there is only one war that is legitimate and even sacred and that is a war by the natives of a land against a foreign aggressor and occupier.

Civil wars among the inhabitants of the same land are even more evil than wars among nations; for this type of war is an expression of failure of reason and compromise and the prevailing of selfishness and narrow self-interest.

As a proof of the corrupting and dehumanizing aspects of war, kindly read the article linked below:
=====================================================
Torture Photos: US Soldiers Raped, Sodomized Iraqi Prisoners
By Tom Eley

http://www.countercurrents.org/eley290509.htm

“In an interview with the British newspaper the Daily Telegraph published Wednesday, former US General Antonio Taguba said that photographs the Obama administration is seeking to suppress show images of US soldiers raping and sodomizing Iraqi prisoners. Taguba, who conducted the military inquiry of prisoner abuse at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in 2004 after some photos of US soldiers torturing prisoners became public, said that among the photos are images of soldiers raping a female prisoner, raping a male detainee, and committing “sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and phosphorescent tube,” according to the Telegraph…”

War isn’t just sin, it’s Satan incarnate.

<b>ardee: <b>
‘USMC SAM, June 1 at 8:10 am #

I think your analysis superficial….’

I think Sam has it down to the essence.  To wit: “We are good, the others are bad, therefore we can kill as many of them as we like.”  Since most of the others think the same way, everybody’s on the same page.  And, let’s face it, war, for most people, is highly entertaining and deeply meaningful, at least until it’s too late to get out of it.  It’s no accident that Western literature starts off with a long poem about war, or that a president who starts a war gets an immediate 95% approval rating.  In fact, tribes of chimpanzees have been discovered who wage war.  It’s an old game.

We would have to have a profoundly different sort of social to get rid of war.  We would have to despise great heroes instead of worship them.  We would have to get rid of the state instead of constantly call upon it to service our needs and desires.  We would have to look in the mirror with our eyes open and figure out what to do about our love of violence and power and crime.  We would have to defy God and Nature, who made us as we are.

I don’t see much of that happening, but you never know.

Than you Chris Hedges for “War is Sin.” With all due respect to our people in the Armed Forces I submit:

I too was for Obama in the very beginning. I believed him when he spoke the magic word “change.” However, when the Wall Street boys were for him I started wondering.  Now I see Obama knew that getting to Washington on a Peace train was the only way to get there. Politicans from Illinois know the game, promise the voters anything but listen to the lobbyists who have the money to foot the campaign bill and other items. . .

The immorality?: War as usual. Wall street gets the money and Main street pays the bill through the blood of our loved ones.

DarthMiffy: Once again, Chris Hedges nails it. I’ve been there. I’ve seen it. I’ve done it. Never swallowed the God pill, which helped. But the anger…in the end, my salvation was working on Compassion. Study history…and wonder if we as humans can evolve beyond this need for, this LOVE for war.

__________________________________________

I have never gone to war or seen it up close, but all of my sentiments are in this article.  For the last two years during Lent I have attended a Prayer for Peace service.  But it is not just prayers that are said but also to give the stark reality of the tragedy and uselessness of war—it is stark, it is heartbreaking.  And, sadly, the turnout is not large enough.  And obviously the priest is preaching to the choir.  None of us would describe our feelings about war any different than in this excellent article. 

Thomas O. Anderson, I tend to agree with you about Obama.  I feel betrayed.  When it comes to war and killing Obama is no better than McCain would have been.  I think it’s going to get much worse—Iran, North Korea?  What is it that we are doing in Afghanistan again?  Why are we there?  We killed over 125 civilians in another drone attack a couple of weeks ago, many babies.  What is tragic is that the Army is starting beginning to meet—and will probably exceed—its recruitment goals because of economic conditions.  I look at the slick ads for the different branches of the Army and I feel sick.  What they are selling does not jibe with reality.  But families are up against a wall and feel they have no choice but to send mothers and fathers, sons and daughters into the military and hope for the best.

USMC SAM, June 1 at 8:10 am #

I think your analysis superficial, and your failure to understand that there are no “good guys” only bad guys and innocent victims leads directly to a continuation of violence and war.

“War is always about betrayal.” And nothing more epitomizes this murderous double-crossing than our new black Judas in the White House - the war pimp who rode to DC on a Peace Train.

“It is about betrayal of the young by the old, of cynics by idealists, and of soldiers and Marines by politicians.”

I pray our youth won’t get fooled by the gullible Pete Seegers and Bruce Springsteins, who both proudly shilled for our new executive baby killer.

I pray we’re no longer taken in by slickly named think tanks, like the Center for American Progress, who support our imperial transgressions.

And most of all, I pray that the Oath Keepers prevail in our military, so the illegal orders of a Bush or an Obama will fall on deaf, but wise ears.

I wish someone would tell the bad guys not to attack us, and don’t kill the innocent, women, or children. But as long as they do, people like me will be glad to hunt them down. Sincerely, a war monger.

Modern war is to make lots of money!!!!

second the media is making all the time new fog banks, its the scenario to follow, under while

The Tamils in Sri Lanka are butchered
The Thibetan people are drowned a live by millions of Han Chinees who come to live in Thibet.
In Darfur the killing go’s on as usually.
People are starving every day from hunger and thirst.

In the USA people are loosing their homes and jobs, and with that their dignety.

Well its all in the money making scenario’s, they give nothing for the live of normal citizen.

Salutations

Once again, Chris Hedges nails it. I’ve been there. I’ve seen it. I’ve done it. Never swallowed the God pill, which helped. But the anger…in the end, my salvation was working on Compassion. Study history…and wonder if we as humans can evolve beyond this need for, this LOVE for war.

Cheers, mate!
/DM