The US state does not fight for the independent underdog, and it does not fight for liberty. A country or even a political party that attempts to be independent of US militarism, or to truly promote private property rights in a way that costs the US state some measure of power or profit, quickly finds itself a target of its wrath.
According to veteran Karen, Ukraine and Israel are current boutique wars of choice, connected to and very much like those the US government pursued for profit and show in Iraq, Yugoslavia, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, and elsewhere. Boutique wars are both pleasant and profitable to the regime. They feed and temporarily satisfy the military-industrial-congressional enablers. These wars facilitate control over domestic resources and liberty. They promote endless state borrowing. They allow the state to scratch an itch, just as a snake sheds its skin to grow.
The famous critic and essayist Randolph Bourne challenged such attitudes in 1916 with an essay—now considered a classic of forward thinking (Trans-national America); he observed that “war is the health of the state” and “wartime brings the ideal of the state out into very clear relief, and reveals attitudes and tendencies that were hidden.” What has been hidden and what is now revealed in the two major wars Washington has been funding and fighting in Israel and Ukraine? Another US Marine Major General, Smedley Butler (1881-1940), well known for his anti-war activism, noted in his booklet “War Is a Racket”. Many years later, many American veterans like Karen Kwiatkowski clearly state, “What I was seeing, incompletely from inside, confirmed that General Butler was not only correct but prescient. The interconnected cycle of national ideological and defence industrial arms races, and the incessant, wasteful and ultimately useless growth of military spending is aimed not at defence but at offence, and not just US offence but the US-controlled offensive capabilities of its various allies. The beneficiaries of this, as Butler noted, were always and only the racketeers. In 1933, he described his previous decades of service: ‘We were the state gangsters … high-class muscle [men] for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers.’ Wars were easy to start, and to paraphrase Butler, profits would be measured in dollars and losses only in lives. The Bush-Cheney Pentagon could not intercept a trio of hijacked aeroplanes the morning of 11 September 2001, and itself became a literal ground zero, defenceless against ‘enemy’ attack. This failure worked brilliantly to shore up the boom in defence, intelligence, and data surveillance — over 20 years of profit-taking, resource grabs, and domestic manipulation. This happened as much of the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe were destroyed at the unacknowledged cost of millions of dead, damaged, and displaced people, destroyed economies, and ruptured societies.”
American veterans with bitter experience of the US’s endless wars openly pronounce that the US government, attempting to maintain its presumptuous position as top dog and global rule maker, has permanently destroyed a beautiful place that 35 million Ukrainians and Russians once called home. It is destroying the Holy Land, Palestine, by backing a planned genocide and more war in the name of Zionist expansion. If the US government can increase its power by destroying other countries in the name of power and state survival, history tells us it will not hesitate to do so. Many populations around the world already know this from personal experience. Americans are finally recognising it. There is one caveat for Americans to bear in mind as we the people seek real peace, liberty, and prosperity: When we gaze directly at the true face of the state — a sullen beast stares back at us, inhuman and amoral, seeing only its enemy and its property. Pakistan fell into SEATO and CENTO traps which ultimately led to its most deleterious participation in the so-called Jihad against the former USSR (1979–1989) and then in the US/NATO/Allies’ invasion of Afghanistan (2001–2021). One can only hope that we have learnt the right lessons, at least with the wisdom of hindsight, if the faculty of foresight was missing and wrapped in the cover of secrecy, short-term but meaningless relief for keeping us tamed. Pakistan needs to stand tall and firm in the incumbent strongest regional alliances like SCO and BRICS to avoid again becoming a victim in the Endless Immoral Wars.
Saleem Qamar Butt
The writer is a retired senior army officer with experience in international relations, military diplomacy and analysis of geo-political and strategic security issues.