Saturday, January 27, 2024

Hubris


 'Its a big club and you aint in it...They don’t give a f*** about you. They don't care about you at all -- at all -- at all. And nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care. That's what the owners count on; the fact that Americans will probably remain wilfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue d*** that's being jammed up their a******* everyday. Because the owners of this country know the truth: it's called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.’'


George Carlin

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/14/congress-passes-886-billion-defense-policy-bill-biden-to-sign-into-law.html

Lloyd J. Austin III is the the American Secretary of Defence. After reading his address to the Reagan National Defence Forum on December 2, 2023, you might think he was indeed some fictional character straight out of the novels of Robert Ludlum or from the thrillers of R J Ellory.


‘We don't want to fight but by jingo if we do,
We've got the ships, we've got the men, and got the money too!
We've fought the Bear before and while we're Yankees true
The Russians shall not have Constantinople.’

Apologies to George William Hunt for adapting Macdermott's War Song (1878)

Might is right, allegedly, and this, straight from the horses mouth, is the bragging bullying voice of the ruling class of the ‘land of the free.’ These people make Dr Strangelove seem sane.

Highlighting by SOYMB.

... I also urge you to pass our urgent supplemental budget request to help fund our national-security needs, to stand by our partners in danger, and to invest in our defence industrial base.

... only one country can consistently provide the powerful combination of innovation, ingenuity, and idealism—and of free minds, free enterprise, and free people. And that’s the United States of America.

And let me be blunt about our mission. The U.S. military is here to win our country’s wars—and to win them decisively.

[it’s not the working class’s country, and AK47’s say otherwise.]

We will always try to deter conflict. But if we have to defend our country, we will fight—and we will win.

[not always Lord Copper, not always.]

...the rules-based international order is central to our long-term security.

It is the structure of international institutions, alliances, laws, and norms built with American leadership after the staggering losses of World War II.

They help ensure that civilians are protected, and not targeted.

[If you don’t know what’s happening in the world you need better intel.]

And they help to punish aggression and keep bullies in check.

Since 1945, the rules-based international order has helped to give our country—and the entire world—an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity.

[Aggression and bullies here means other capitalist states in competition for resources, markets and trade routes. ]

But the troubles of our times will only grow worse without strong and steady American leadership to defend the rules-based international order that keeps us all safe.

[That work to the benefit of the American ruling class.]

The lesson is that you can only win in urban warfare by protecting civilians.

You see, in this kind of a fight, the centre of gravity is the civilian population. And if you drive them into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat.

So I have repeatedly made clear to Israel’s leaders that protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza is both a moral responsibility and a strategic imperative. And so I have personally pushed Israeli leaders to avoid civilian casualties, and to shun irresponsible rhetoric, and to prevent violence by settlers in the West Bank, and to dramatically expand access to humanitarian aid.

[if it wasn’t so tragic what’s going in the world it would be funny – sick funny.

Don’t think the Zionists have been taking much notice of you there bud. Not doing a good job at all are ya?]

... the United States will remain Israel’s closest friend in the world. Our support for Israel’s security is non-negotiable. And it never will be. And we remain fully able to project power, to uphold our commitments, and to direct resources to multiple theatres. 

[The USA’s aircraft carrier in the Middle East. Resources means the means to kill and maim as many people as possible.]

The United States is the most powerful country on Earth. And we can walk and chew gum at the same time. Since then, the United States and our allies and partners have worked to get many key weapons systems—including HIMARS, and Patriots, and Abrams tanks, and more—into the hands of trained Ukrainian operators.

[Looking at the state of your infrastructure and the living conditions of the working class. Note the use of language – makes training people to kill sound like they’re being taught how to serve fast food.]

Ukraine matters profoundly to America and to the entire world. And it matters for four key reasons. First, Putin’s war poses a stark and direct threat to security in Europe and beyond. Second, Putin’s aggression is a clear challenge to our NATO allies. Third, the Kremlin’s deliberate cruelty is an attack on our shared values of democracy and decency. And finally, Putin’s war is a frontal assault on the international rules-based order. As the Ukraine war drags on, more attention is being paid to the real reason for Putin’s attack on his neighbour -the desire of Russia’s capitalist class, backed by its government, to control Ukraine’s mineral and agricultural wealth. That wealth was an inevitable temptation to a large power whose monopoly on trading such resources on the world market was increasingly at risk.

[We want what they’ve got.]

The course of the war suggests that Putin misjudged the readiness of the capitalist classes and governments in Ukraine and the West to allow this monopoly to be extended. The whole scenario illustrates perfectly the Socialist Party’s argument that wars in capitalism are caused by competition for global domination of resources, markets and trade routes.’

https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/

Our National Defence Strategy describes the People’s Republic of China as America’s “most consequential strategic competitor and the pacing challenge for the Department of Defence.” The PRC is our only rival with the intent—and, increasingly, the capacity—to reshape the international order. The PRC hopes that the United States will stumble, and become isolated abroad and divided at home. But together, we can prevent that fate.

[History shows that all empires come to an end. When the transition to Socialism occurs History will take a totally new turn.]

You know, I had a great visit yesterday at our Defence Innovation Unit in Silicon Valley. DIU focuses on fielding and scaling commercial technology across the military. It’s directly plugged into Silicon Valley, working with venture-capital firms and tech innovators who are often doing business with DOD for the first time. And it will help us deliver thousands of game-changing capabilities at speed and at scale. When we sharpen our tech edge, we expand our military edge.

That’s why we’re making such major investments in innovation. And we’re giving the American taxpayer extraordinary value—even while our spending on national defence, as a percentage of GDP, remains about half of what it was during the last decade of the Cold War.

[Bet they’re delighted to know that the cost of killing, maiming and destroying is more cost effective than previously.]

The Department’s budget request includes $145 billion for R&D and $170 billion for procurement. Now those are the largest such investments in U.S. history. We’re also making major investments in Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control. And those investments will make us even better at joint operations and combat integration.

... we’ve also created the Office of Strategic Capital, which will help attract and scale private capital in our critical technologies.

Now, Ukraine’s high burn rate for artillery has hammered home the need to invest even more in munitions. So compared to the defence budget from just five years ago, we’re putting nearly 50 percent more money into munitions.

[Because why would you spend money on improving the lives of everyone who lives in your particular State.]

And during this administration, America’s production of artillery shells won’t just increase. It won’t just double. It will quadruple.

How sick do you have to be to boast of this as an achievement?]

Meanwhile, we’ve launched what the Army calls “the most ambitious modernization effort in nearly 40 years” for our defence industrial base.

Some $50 billion of our supplemental budget request would flow through our defence industrial base. And that will create or support tens of thousands of good American jobs in more than 30 states. That includes making missiles in Arizona; vehicles in Wisconsin and Indiana; and artillery shells in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas. And that all means greater prosperity at home and greater security around the globe.

The U.S. military is the most lethal fighting force in human history. And we’re going to keep it that way.

[It ain’t going to help you when the majority decide that this iniquitous system is being dumped in the trash can of history.]

https://www.defense.gov/News/Speeches/Speech/Article/3604755/a-time-for-american-leadership-remarks-by-secretary-of-defense-lloyd-j-austin-i/














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