The messy fall of empire

The American empire is thrashing around in decline. Failing empires often embark on military exploits. It distracts the people and often there is the chance of acquiring some loot. These days it seems it’s the American people getting looted and the military industrial complex doing the looting. War is an expensive game with a lot of companies with chairs at the table.

Iraq winds down, leaving behind a shaky government, hundreds of thousands of deaths, a landscape drenched in depleted uranium dust, a huge Green Zone of American influence, and forgotten promises. Weapons of mass destruction anyone? Remember how the war would pay for itself?

The US adventure in Afghanistan appears to be coming to an end of sorts -at least as far as Americans are concerned. The turmoil in that country won’t end just because US soldiers will be pulling out. Hard men in the mountains, with a sense of history, are waiting their turn again. Afghanistan is getting more and more untenable for continued US occupation. Supply lines are iffy, Afghanistan government officials are making deals behind the US’s back with those hard men. American policy seems to be based on white washed reports that have little connection to the realities on the ground.

Pakistan has plenty of reasons to be disillusioned with its US partnership ship. Friends don’t kill friends with drone attacks. Pakistani deaths continue to mount. How much longer can they be bought off with inflating dollars? Never forget they are a sovereign nuclear armed nation with political issues of their own.

The US powers that be are now rattling sabers against Syria and Iran -as if military adventures have been a good idea recently. Doesn’t anyone learn anything?

-Sixbears