Warring for Resources
"U.S. Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan"

By David Sirota

....Many probably wondered how this information was being presented as "news" in 2010. As Mother Jones magazine's James Ridgeway said after recalling past public accounts of the ore deposits, "This ‘discovery' in fact is ancient history tracing back to the times of Marco Polo."...

Indeed, the real question is:

What would prompt the government to portray well-known geology as some sort of blockbuster revelation?....

Remember, the idea that the U.S. invades countries to pilfer natural resources was once written off as an inflammatory insult and/or an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory, irrespective of corroborating facts....The assumption, of course, was that the public opposes resource conflicts...

This manufactured construct, though, began eroding as soon as George W. Bush started turning the "war for oil" aspersion into a proud clarion call....

Now, under President Obama, we get leaked Pentagon memos cheerily promising that Afghanistan will become "the Saudi Arabia of lithium" and generals touting the minerals' "stunning potential" -- the implication being that America is morally obligated to exploit such potential through armed occupation.....

Whereas it was previously considered uncouth for anyone to even suggest that economic hegemony might motivate U.S. military action, our leaders are now boldly selling wars as commendable instruments of such profit-focused imperialism.

Importantly, this revised message relies on the new assumption that the public now sees resource conflicts not as detestable -- but as worthy and even admirable.

And should that assumption prove true, it would mean that this latest exercise in martial propaganda represents more than mere marketing innovation. It would signal a disturbing change in what the population thinks is -- and is not -- a just reason for war.

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Time for everyone to re-read Major-General Smedley Butler's "War is a Racket".

Butler (1881-1940) a 33-year veteran of the US Marine Corps, twice decorated with the Medal of Honor, America's most decorated soldier became a famous whistle blower against the racket of war. He later confessed to having been a “high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.”

Nothing has changed. Every USA war, from the dispossession of the native Indians to the present day, has been a criminal "war for resources". Every USA soldier is "a gangster for capitalism", even if they don't realize it at the time. This truth is self-evident to many people around the world.

What really disturbs me is contained in the last paragraph of Davis Sirota's article:

"Importantly, this revised message relies on the new assumption that the public now sees resource conflicts not as detestable -- but as worthy and even admirable. And should that assumption prove true, it would mean that this latest exercise in martial propaganda represents more than mere marketing innovation. It would signal a disturbing change in what the population thinks is -- and is not -- a just reason for war."

If the war mongers, and their compliant mass media, get away with selling that idea to the public....the idea that "resource wars" are "just wars"....the planet is really doomed!

(Bruce)