BONE BY BONE: Putting Together The Pieces Of What War Is Really About

War isn't abstract and certainly no Hollywood blockbuster. The reality of war is found piece by broken piece, deep in the dirt. Lessons for the next crop to be harvested by the mad men.

By Mark Taylor
DeMOCKracy.ink (10/4/24)

As World War III unfolds before us, reluctant acknowledgement that the US military needs to ‘beef up’ its ranks is oozing into various commentaries. Last year, for instance, the military fell short of its recruitment goal by 41,000.

At the same time the military bumbles short of ‘peace time’ recruitment goals, “Genocide” Joe Biden just dispatched 4,000 troops and 6,500 sailors to add to the roughly 40,000 ground troops — that we know of — now stationed across the Middle East to steal oil for the energy companies.

As Newsweek reported, “During a press conference, Biden was directly asked if he would send more troops amid escalating violence between Israeli and Hezbollah forces. He replied simply, ‘No.’ Less than 24 hours later, the Pentagon announced a shift in strategy, confirming the deployment of additional troops.”

Hey, give the guy a break, Jack! He does have that brain thing going on.

Bones of delusion

With the delusional fantasies of neocon monsters like Victoria Neuland of the US being the absolute world hegemon, war across the Middle East is being actively goosed along. A war that will inevitably pull in Russia and China and collapse the world economy. A three-front fantasy and we can’t even meet current military recruitment goals.

Well, guess what that means? Yep, return of the military draft. The inevitability is quietly popping up in commentary and analysis of the current completely bipartisan foreign policy cluster screw-up.

But not to worry if you are in the upper middle class and your kid is in college. As during Vietnam, they will be safe. Hell, during the Vietnam War for corporate profit neocon Dick Cheney — new Democratic Party icon — grabbed five deferments while a grad student at the University of Wisconsin.

Naw, don’t worry, your college kid will be safe. There are plenty of poor, brown and immigrant kids to harvest for the empire. Or as the Israelis might put it, mow.

But what does war mean for those on the ground? Those without the privilege of sidestepping the goosestepping off to war. To get an idea, check out these four very short videos of excavations of German troop burials from the Battle of Villeneuve in late August 1944.

Yeah, they are a little unsettling, but if we are ‘brave’ enough to let our young people be sent off to war, for corporate profit, then we should have the balls to see evidence of what we are sending them off to.

And for any young people who are tempted to be swayed by the coming orchestrated blitz of pro-war “America-Defender-of-Freedom” propaganda BS that will be churned out after a false flag “terror attack” or two, you need to see up close evidence of what you will be stepping into.

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Battleground Evidence…

So we hear that a dozen soldiers — or dozen children taking refuge in a school — were killed in an artillery attack; gone in a flash. But what does that really mean? What does such an explosion do to the body? What is left? What is disappeared…

A skull — or rather shattered fragments of a pieced together skull — tell the story of a long ago death. Hmm, what might that nick on the jawbone tell us…

Some wounds are so serious there is nothing left to do but amputate a limb. But what does that mean really? I mean what are the details? What does it look like up close…

The shattered, splintered, amputated bones tell stories, but stories of who? Who were these young men, lost almost a century ago to war…

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WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT: War Profiteer Stocks Jump As Iran Responds To Israeli Attacks

A man surveys a heavily damaged school building in Israel's southern city of Gedera on October 1, 2024, after an Iranian missile attack. (Photo: Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images)

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"Remember that members of Congress are permitted to own stock in war manufacturing, so when they vote to send more bombs or send our loved ones to war, they profit personally.” — Rep. Rashida Tlaib.

By Jessica Corbett
Common Dreams (10/2/24)

Mirroring Wall Street's response to Israel launching its assault on the Gaza Strip nearly a year ago, stocks of companies that make money off of war soared on Tuesday after Israelis initiated a ground invasion into Lebanon and Iran sent scores of ballistic missiles toward Tel Aviv and other targets.

Zeteo's Prem Thakker highlighted the performance by three key American multinationals—Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and RTX, formerly known as Raytheon—and noted that it came "while the wider market is down today."

CNBC similarly attributed the market's Tuesday trends to "growing tensions in the Middle East" and reported that another U.S. defense contractor, L3Harris Technologies, "advanced 3%."

Responding to Thakker's observations on social media, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) called the trends "so sick."

"Remember that members of Congress are permitted to own stock in war manufacturing, so when they vote to send more bombs or send our loved ones to war, they profit personally," added Tlaib, a critic of war in general but especially Israel's recent violence.

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"The total value of the federal lawmakers, defense contractors stock holdings could be as much as $10.9 million. The most widely held defense contractor stock among senators and representatives is Honeywell, an American company that makes sensors and guiding devices that are being used by the Israeli military in its airstrikes in Gaza."

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Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, has condemned the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza—launched after a Hamas-led attack on Israel—as genocidal. Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.

As of Tuesday, officials in Hamas-governed Gaza put the death toll at 41,638, with 96,460 people injured, though thousands remain missing in the remnants of devastated civilian infrastructure across the coastal enclave. [ According to an early July report in The Lancet medical journal the actual number was over 186,000. We are now three months beyond that report. — MT.]

In addition to bombing and starving Palestinians in Gaza, Israel—which receives billions of dollars in annual U.S. military support—has stoked fears of a wider regional war with a July assassination of a Hamas leader in the Iranian capital of Tehran and its recent escalation in Lebanon, home to the political and paramilitary group Hezbollah.

‘Monitoring’ mass murder

The White House said Tuesday that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for the November election, "are monitoring the Iranian attack against Israel from the White House Situation Room and receiving regular updates from their national security team. President Biden directed the U.S. military to aid Israel's defense against Iranian attacks and shoot down missiles that are targeting Israel."

Meanwhile, there has been growing criticism of seemingly unconditional U.S. support for Israel's right-wing government in Congress. However, as Sludge pointed out Tuesday, some lawmakers are set to benefit from companies that are doing well thanks to the bloodshed and instability in the Middle East.

Cashing in on mass murder

Sludge cited recent reporting by co-founder David Moore, who detailed how "at least 50 members of Congress or other members of their households hold stock in defense contractors, companies that receive hundreds of billions of dollars annually from congressionally crafted Pentagon appropriations legislation."

"The total value of the federal lawmakers, defense contractors stock holdings could be as much as $10.9 million," wrote Moore, who analyzed 2023 financial disclosures and stock trades. "The most widely held defense contractor stock among senators and representatives is Honeywell, an American company that makes sensors and guiding devices that are being used by the Israeli military in its airstrikes in Gaza."

Tlaib has introduced the Stop Politicians Profiting from War Act, which would ban members of Congress, their spouses, and their dependent children from trading defense stocks or having financial interests in companies that do business with the U.S. Department of Defense.

Link to story

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Cartoon by Mark Taylor / DeMOCKracy.ink