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A Blood-Drenched Monster, by Robert Gore

Posted by straightlinelogic 8 years, 9 months ago to Government
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There is no more hated institution in the world than the US government. Drenched in blood, it has become the monster it purportedly sought to destroy. Drama, rather than politics or history, provides the archetypes for a once exceptional nation that is now neither “the dictatress of the world” nor “the ruler of her own spirit.” During a somnambulant soliloquy Lady Macbeth asked: “What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?” Yet she couldn’t wash the blood from her hands: “Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” Sleep allowed no escape from perdition, her soul was irretrievably lost. So too was Michael Corleone’s, at the end of Godfather II, as the capo dei capi sat alone in his boathouse, contemplating the lake where the brother he had just had murdered lay submerged. One cannot love what America once was and love what it has become. A revolution, peaceful or otherwise, that does not put America’s redemption at the forefront of its aspirations is a revolution not worth fighting.

This is an excerpt. For the complete article, please click the above link.
SOURCE URL: http://straightlinelogic.com/2016/03/18/7821/


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  • Posted by DrZarkov99 8 years, 9 months ago
    I don't remember the exact phrase, but I believe it was Nietzche who said that when combating monsters one must be careful not to become one. Nations that strive for the good often get drawn into unspeakable acts. We call WW II the "last good war," deliberately avoiding discussion of the firebombings of Cologne and Tokyo, where hundreds of thousands of non-combatants died "for the greater good."

    The Union general Sherman instituted purposeful terrorism on Confederate civilians, in order to break their willingness to continue supporting the Southern rebellion. It is telling that the Prussian military observers attached to Sherman's command took notes, and later applied Sherman's tactics to terrorize civilians in both world wars.

    My point is that our government didn't suddenly become a terrorizing, murderous entity. That merciless power is in the institution of government itself. Mao Zedong observed that all government control is at the point of a gun, and he was correct.

    George Washington said "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action."
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  • Posted by Herb7734 8 years, 9 months ago
    Because I'm a geezer, I remember the country I loved. We were the good guys. We all knew it and were proud of it. We never lost a war, and rightfully so, because we were always in the right. Then, as I grew into adulthood, there was the "police Action" in Korea. (Where the hell was Korea and why the hell were we there?) Our good guys went there and came back disillusioned no longer thinking of themselves as strictly speaking, the good guys. Do I even need to mention Viet Nam? As this was happening, the country was moving toward socialism with new laws being passed faster than compliance. I felt like a man in an earthquake, where the entire building crumbled but I was still standing.

    Once again Mr. Gore, you have touched a nerve with the few of us left to remember the past with sadness and grimly look to the future. But you are not responsible. The truth exists no matter who pronounces it.
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  • Posted by $ HeroWorship 8 years, 9 months ago
    Ouch! As a lover of the idea of America, such and incisive and condemning article tears at my soul.
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    • Posted by scojohnson 8 years, 9 months ago
      It ignores our initial neutrality in WW2 and at the end of the war we were the only remaining industrial power. We rebuilt Europe in spite of the Iron Curtain the Soviets draped across the Eastern Bloc.

      I'm not disputing what we have become, but it reads like drivel from the Communist Party of America lamenting that their hero socialist states are basically non-existent or basket cases.

      We were actually rather hands-off on jihadis, it started with Beirut, the USS Cole, Nairobi, and became intolerable on 9/11. Heck, we helped them against the Russians, they were just looking for welfare or an Afghan Martial Plan I think following.
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      • Posted by 8 years, 9 months ago
        It started with Iran, in 1953, when we deposed its democratically-elected leader and installed the repressive and autocratic Shah (see linked article above).

        We supported the mujahideen, including Osama bin Laden, in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. During the first Iraq war, the US established military bases in Saudi Arabia, which we promised would be temporary. When the war was over, the bases became permanent, outraging bin Laden and many other Moslems. Bin Laden directly contacted the US government and tried to get it to keep its promise to remove the military bases from the birthplace of Islam, to no avail. That turned bin Laden from the US's friend to a sworn enemy, and 9/11 was the result. (See "How to Defeat Your Enemy," SLL, 1/30/16).

        As for Beirut, the US had remained officially neutral in a three way war between Christians, Druz, and Shiites. When it broke its neutrality, aiding beleagured Christians, the Shiites bombed the Marine compound. When you go from neutral peace keeper to combantant, you subject yourself to attack. 5 months later, recognizing the US's mistake, President Reagan withdrew the Marine presence from Lebanon (see Sacred Rage, by Robin Wright).

        The Muslims, for the most part, are not looking for US "welfare" or a Marshall (not Martial) Plan, they're looking for us to get the hell out of their countries. Try to look at things from the other side's point of view occasionally. That does not mean you have to condone it, only that it may be to your benefit to try to understand it. And don't resort to a cheap shot like "drivel from the Communist Party of America" instead of fact-based argument and logical analysis.
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  • Posted by $ puzzlelady 8 years, 9 months ago
    Wow. A powerhouse of courageous and truthful analysis. Heart-breaking for those of us who love the original American values and who value the rational morality of what is possible for human civilization. This should be required reading in every government office, classroom, church gathering and corporate boardroom.

    Thank you, Robert, for this beacon of hope and insight. Every revolution must begin with a first step. Your essay is a clarion call.
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  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 8 years, 9 months ago
    Another great article...
    It sickens me that most of us were unaware of how bad our government was, how it is filled with really sick creatures and how, like every other Kakistocracy has been controlled and seduced by the central banks...same ole story since the templar nights and the black ignoble's of Venice.
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    • Posted by Dobrien 8 years, 9 months ago
      Great article!
      As usual Carl I totally agree . When I discuss these things with people they don't even want to discuss it . I find they feel it is easy to say "conspiracy theorist" and then they can in there own minds dismiss any further discussion or thought on the topic . Evidence of brainwashing.
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  • Posted by jimslag 8 years, 9 months ago
    Wow Robert, another excellent article. Great synopsis of the tyranny that we sow throughout the world. I know, I was part of it for 21 years, waving the US Flag all over the place and imparting our morals on others who cannot grasp the concept of what we were trying to spread. We could talk tyranny all day and it would not change anything. People are acceptable to being ruled over, we see it everyday right here in the US. However, when it becomes oppressive, then they rebel against it, until a new master rises and settles the rebellion or leads it in deposing the old master.
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  • Posted by $ jlc 8 years, 9 months ago
    I do not get that feeling of vast hatred when I speak to people from other countries. They do not admire the US government the way I would like them to - and the way I would like 'me' to - but what I get is a lightweight feeling of envy. One young Swedish woman said to me, "It is like visiting Atlantis; a mythical place." (She spent her free time wandering around Fry's.)

    I think that many of your critiques of foreign involvement are spot on and I would like to see much less of this. But we are not even in the class of the Soviets or other Communist nations insofar as killing and abusing our own and other nations.

    The admonition that anyone who has power must be careful not to turn into a monster is something that needs to be taken to heart. Our First Amendment is our protection against this...

    Jan
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    • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 9 months ago
      The main message I get from foreigners visiting in the also foreign country where I hang out goes like ths.

      "What happened to your country it is such a fascist police state anymore."

      followed by

      "No matter what else we used to be able to look at America as the beacon of hope....Now the light is out."

      The third is we don't mean the people but your new style government. But didn't the people choose to make the change..that in various forms

      Couldn't disagree. When I go north across the border stranger in a strange land comes to mind.
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      • Posted by $ jlc 8 years, 9 months ago
        I recall a bit of an article that suggested that if we had not impeded free enterprise and scientific research, the US could now be as far ahead of all of the rest of the world as we actually are ahead of 3rd world countries. I do not think this is literally true (since freedom begets freedom most of the developed nations would be competitive) but it is a telling fantasy of what we have lost.

        We turned on ourselves.

        Jan, prefers warp drive to flying cars but will take either
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        • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 9 months ago
          Why not cut to the chase? Who elected the monsters? Then stood by and watched the blood flow. Who voted for continuing the draft? Who abandoned any notion of ideals, morals, values? Who sent us out on there behalf and then turned their back on us? Who turned their back on the Constitution for that matter? Who are the real baby killers?

          MMF2 all of them.
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    • Posted by 8 years, 9 months ago
      That is what the US still has going for it with the rest of the world: admiration of our ideals and goodwill, by and large, to the American people. Unfortunately, such goodwill, I would argue, does not extend to our government. There is probably a residual left in Europe, but not throughout much of the rest of the world.
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      • Posted by $ jlc 8 years, 9 months ago
        The distinction between 'the gov' and 'America' may be growing more visible to other nations, even as it is becoming more distinct to us.

        Jan
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 8 years, 9 months ago
    I agree with this article.

    " the administration affixed the label “terrorist”—which indicts, tries, convicts, and punishes, often lethally, anyone so labelled—to people whose identities and acts remain unknown. It’s the thumb up or down of Roman emperors."

    "America operates under a reverse formulation of the Golden Rule: do unto others what would be intolerable if done unto us."
    If armed drone technology gets better and everyone has it, US will argue that coming into a country a killing someone and the people around him because he's suspected of a crime is wrong.
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