Tag Archives: Eisenhower
PERPETUAL WAR
By John Avery
We know that war is madness, but it persists. We know that it threatens the survival of our species, but it persists, entrenched in the attitudes of historians, newspaper editors and television producers, entrenched in the methods by which politicians finance their campaigns, and entrenched in the financial power of arms manufacturers – entrenched also in the ponderous and costly hardware of war, the fleets of warships, bombers, tanks, nuclear missiles and so on.
In his farewell address, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned his nation against the excessive power that had been acquired during World War II by the military-industrial complex:
“We have been compelled to create an armaments industry of vast proportions,” Eisenhower said, “…Now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in American experience. The total influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is felt in every city, every state house, every office in the federal government. … We must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. … We must stand guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted.”
Eisenhower’s words echoed those of another US President, George Washington, who warned against “overgrown Military Establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are regarded as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty.”
The military-industrial complex needs enemies. Without them it would wither. Thus at the end of the Second World War, this vast power complex was faced with a crisis, but it was saved by the discovery of a new enemy – Communism.
However, at the end of the Cold War there was another terrible crisis for the military establishment, the arms manufacturers and their supporters in research, government and the mass media.
People spoke of the “peace dividend”, i.e., constructive use of the trillion dollars that the world wastes each year on armaments. However, just in time, the military-industrial complex was saved from the nightmare of the “peace dividend” by the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
No matter that the attacks were crimes committed by individuals rather than acts of war, crimes against which police action rather than military action would have been appropriate.
The Bush Administration (and CNN, Fox, etc.) quickly proclaimed that a state of war existed, and that the rules of war were in effect.
The Cold War was replaced with the “War on Terrorism”.
To a large extent, this over-reaction to the events of 9/11/2001 can be interpreted in terms of the needs of the military-industrial complex against which Eisenhower had warned.
Without a state of war and without enemies, this vast conglomerate of organizations and pressure groups would have languished.
If the aim of the “War on Terror” had been to rid the world of the threat of terrorism, acts like illegal assassination using drones would have been counterproductive, since they create many more terrorists than they destroy. But since the real aim is to produce a state of perpetual war, thus increasing the profits of the military-industrial complex, such methods are the best imaginable.
Urinating on Afghan corpses or burning the Koran or murderous night-time raids on civilian homes also help to promote the real goal – perpetual war.
Even the events that initiated the “War on Terror”, seem to have been made worse than they otherwise might have been, in order to give a better excuse for invading Iraq, attacking Afghanistan, and attacking civil liberties. There is evidence that a number of highly placed officials in the US government knew as early as April 2001 that the World Trade Center might soon be attacked.
The testimony given by CIA insider Susan Lindauer is very explicit about this point. There is also evidence that charges of thermite were placed on steel structures of several buildings, to melt the steel and ensure their collapse. Molten steel and traces of thermite were found in the ruins before these were sealed off from public scrutiny by the FBI.
The collapse of Building 7 (which was not hit by the aircraft) is particularly suspicious. Larry Silverstein, the leaseholder of the World Trade Center, said shortly afterwards in a PBS interview: “I remember getting a call from the fire department commander telling me that they were not sure that they would be able to contain the fire…” (and he said that) “I think that the smartest thing to do is to pull it.”
The phrase “pull it” is one used to speak of controlled demolition, and the subsequent free-falling collapse of Building 7 had all the earmarks of this process.
For those who belong to the military-industrial complex, perpetual war is a blessing, but for the majority of the people of the world it is a curse. Since we who oppose war are the vast majority, can we not make our wills felt?
John Avery received a B.Sc. in theoretical physics from MIT and an M.Sc. from the University of Chicago. He later studied theoretical chemistry at the University of London, and was awarded a Ph.D. there in 1965. He is now Lektor Emeritus, Associate Professor, at the Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen. Fellowships, memberships in societies: Since 1990 he has been the Contact Person in Denmark for Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. In 1995, this group received the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts. He was the Member of the Danish Peace Commission of 1998. Technical Advisor, World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe (1988- 1997). Chairman of the Danish Peace Academy, April 2004.
MY ENEMIES ENEMY
Many Western Government’s and the controlled mainstream media rely almost entirely upon the simple fact that many, many people are completely disinterested in world affairs, or have very short memories indeed.
The Media are currently attempting to focus your attention on, as well as drum up support for yet another invasion to combat the latest ‘terrorist’ threat, namely the notoriously elusive but hastily constructed ISIS terror Group, who are alleged by the media to be the real reason behind the instability in Iraq.
*Special media attention is being given to the displacement and refugee status being given to hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Iraqi’s, which may yet prove to be an important aspect if this scenario plays out the way it’s meant to.*
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary William Hague and the UK Foreign Office are making overtures towards Iran, offering to re-open the British Embassy in Tehran, quoting ‘Circumstances are now right’ to re-establish a diplomatic relationship.
Iran, unless you have forgotten, was fairly recently, a part of what ex-US President George Bush referred to as an ‘Axis Of Evil’, and who, were the main focus of attempts by the media to portray them as being the ‘Mortal Enemy of the West’.
Iran are now the main powerhouse in a very volatile area, they have ties to both Russia and China, and are also seen as being an obvious threat to an alleged globalist agenda to destabilise the whole region.
Western Governments do not make a move without consultation or a direct order from the state of Israel, who also, were threatening an all-out attack on Iran based on their alleged Nuclear capability.
Israel have remained unusually quiet over this, in case you had not noticed.
Is this now a case of ‘my enemies enemy is now my friend’ and to bring these nations together, united against a common adversary ?
Or is it yet another attempt to lay the foundations of a road that can only lead mankind to the brink of another world war ?
Any student of history cannot fail to draw certain comparisons between recent events and certain significant events that preceded and continued throughout the second world war.
We can only hope that these current events lead to a different conclusion, I very much doubt it though.
YALTA AND OPERATION KEELHAUL
On October 16th 1933, Franklin Roosevelt granted diplomatic recognition to the Soviet Union.
The Communist government was very close to financial collapse due to a myriad of internal problems.
Giving them this diplomatic status literally saved a government, which, had been ostracized by virtually every other government in the world at that time.
Throughout the rest of the 1930s and the 1940s, two disparate groups infiltrated dozens of agents or members into the US Government’s executive branch under Roosevelt.
Namely, the Communist Party and the Council for Foreign Relations.
While these two groups had radically different motives, they both shared the same aim, which was, in essence, to weaken and eventually destroy American freedom and independence from within.
Almost nobody today, remembers that the second World War began in 1939 because the Soviet Union, as well as Germany, invaded Poland at the same time.
The Soviet Union was equally responsible for the onset of that war as Germany ever was.
This was common knowledge and universally condemned at the time.
However, in 1941 when Hitler attacked Russia, the world’s media made a complete U-Turn, and Russia became a “noble ally” of the Allies and turned against Germany.
Of course, it required the United States to supply the Soviets with the required hardware in order to fulfil their role in fighting the war.
We know now that the rest of the world dutifully fell into line, rushing to “save” Poland and ‘liberate’ the occupied countries of Eastern Europe.
Meanwhile, at YALTA, before the war was over, the United States State Department, agreed that in exchange for their ‘assistance’, the Soviet Union would be allowed to add Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, half of Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria to its territories in Europe.
Before the addition of those countries and people at the end of the war, Russia had a population of around 160 million people and controlled an area, a great deal smaller than the Russia of the Czars.
Soviet industry had been almost totally destroyed by the Nazi war machine.
Communism was a third rate power, militarily, industrially and economically.
There was conceivably, no apparent reason for the whole of Eastern Europe to be handed over to the Communists other than to concede to the power and influence of Communist agents within The US State Department.
During 1945, General Dwight Eisenhower ordered that an operation Codenamed “Keelhaul” be implemented, it’s main purpose appearing to involve the rounding up and shipping people back, to “their own countries of origin”
This effectively ensured that some 2.5 million Soviet citizens found themselves stranded in Germany and the occupied countries as prisoners of war, slave laborers, or rootless refugees.
From 1944 to 1947, these people were forcibly repatriated in a number of operations, during which, many committed suicide rather than return to Soviet slavery.
The numbers included all refugees from communism: men, women and children, soldier or civilian, male or female – even though many of them had been fighting on the side of the allies during the war.
Since all of Eastern Europe was by then under Communist control, sending these people back was quite literally, a death sentence, some by means of immediate execution, the remainder by slow extermination from being overworked or simply starving to death in enforced labour camps.
These people were routinely rounded up at bayonet point, forced into railway freight cars and shipped off to their deaths.
No accurate records were kept, but a conservative figure estimates their numbers of being between 2 and 5 Million.
The elimination of all these anti-Communist’s therefore made the Communist domination of Eastern Europe much easier.
The American, as well as the European public remained blissfully unaware of this action which Eisenhower enforced rigidly, even though it violated international law, the laws of his own country and also, the laws of humanity itself.
Many Germans were prosecuted at Nuremberg for similar crimes, but the total control of all media outlets ensured that Eisenhower, and those under his command who were accomplices in this outrage, were never officially accused of doing anything wrong.
Ike directly ordered that Operation Keelhaul, ensured that deporting these wholly innocent refugees from eastern Europe, placed them directly into the hands of Josef Stalin.
The Communists, more often than not, machine-gunned these unfortunate people the moment they arrived on Soviet territory – sometimes while they were still being held on the trains.
Almost all of these people had committed no crime, unless of course they had been judged as being guilty of being displaced white Christian’s, who didn’t want to live under Communist tyranny.
