War

According to the most recent: "Six Month Consolidated War Powers Resolution Report" issued by the executive branch of our (United States of American) nations federal government this past December eleventh (2017) this nations "defense" department was then at war with (or had troops stationed in) seventeen places, listed here:

Iraq

Syria

Yemen

Jordan

Lebanon

Turkey

Somalia

Djibouti

Libya

Niger

Cameroon

Chad

Nigeria

Cuba

Phillipines

Egypt

and:

Kosovo.

I thought the word: "defense" meant to: Prevent Others From Attacking Us?

So, why have the men (and strangely: women) serving in our nations armed forces been sent all the way over there?

And, forwhat?

There appear to have been (at least) a: few impetii for: the: perpetration of those: wars, the first of which is: reputedly:

The easy (and {thus}: affordable) harvesting of: oil (and: methane {a.k.a: "natural gas"}) from: beneath the: surface of: the land up on which those (various) nations reside,

and (the second of which is {apparently}):

The ({seemingly}: perennially recurring) seventy five (75) year old series of: conflicts be tween: Islamic and: Jewish peoples (in the: region of: our: planets land surface {more commonly} referred to as: the: "Middle East").

From: my readings of: history it appears that the: genesis of the: conflicts described in the: second point are (largely) a reactionary result of the (too often): deep seated, fanatical attitudes of: antiSemitism that were: cyclically exhibited by: Europeans (and: European nations)... culminating in the: planned (co-ordinated) campaign of: violent opposition to: Jewish people residing in: Europe (frequently referred to as: The Holocaust) which was: perpetrated by the: Na.zi regime of: (post: World War One) Germany during the: beginning of: our: planets previous century of history (and which {apparently} erupted in to: methodical perpetrations of {what has been reported to have been} a: campaign of: genocidal violence being directed against Jews residing up on that {foreign}: continent).

Apparently (as part of that: war against the: Jewish people) millions of Jews were:

- incarcerated with out trial(s),

- forced in to: slave labor (a.k.a.: "concentration" camps),

and (reputedly):

- tortured(?),

and/or:

- killed (in {very}: large numbers).

The millions of: Jewish people who: escaped those (terrible) fates did so by: either:

Fleeing Europe (and: attempting to: emigrate here {to the: United States of America}),

or:

(Too often {having been: denied: entry in to: this {United States of: American} nations territory) were (forcibly{?} and {or}: coercively) redirected to the area of our planets land surface (contemporarily) referred to as: "Israel" (which is: situated up on: land {formerly} controlled by the: British empire and: which was {previously}: referred to by the: name of: "Palestine" {in the: region of: our planets land surface situated at the [eastern] edge of the: Mediterranean Sea}).

That forced (and: coerced) relocation of millions of: (seemingly: apparently {ethnically}) white: Jews in to: an: area populated (mostly) by: darker skinned ("Arab") natives appears to have resulted in: (all most immediate) racial tension, which was some how allowed to escalate in to (recently: more {and: more} ferocious) violent conflict between those new arrivals and the (mostly "Islamic") peoples all ready residing in those territories, culminating in violence (and most recently: wars) perpetrated by both Muslims against Jews, and by Jews against Muslims, in that region of our planets land surface.

At least five of the fourteen nations listed at the top of this page that our nations federal government is currently at war with appear to be the sites of conflict resulting from such (previously described) forced "racial" displacement, and resultant religious (and territorial) antagonism.

There is also evidence to indicate that at least four of the fourteen areas of conflict listed in that previously mentioned semiannual Presidential report are situated on top of sizable (coveted) oil (and methane) deposits, the affordable accumulation of which has been an obsession of a number of "western" oil companies for all most the last one hundred years, and there has been speculation that that motive is one of the unstated, underlying, root impetii of the ongoing wars being perpetrated against nations residing with in those regions of our planets land surface.

Tragically, it has been estimated that any where from two hundred and twenty five thousand (up to (and possibly more than) one million people) have already been killed in the apparently ongoing "civil" war in Syria reputedly orchestrated (or intensified) by hidden hands with in our nations business, political, and military apparatii, and some scholars have estimated that all most ten thousand children have already been killed as a result of all of the fighting (evidence of which you can see for: your self by clicking up on the following link (or: the: photograph redirecting) to a research report supporting those estimations authored by the Oxford Research Group of London {in the: United Kingdom}):

And (even more tragically) there all so appear to be powerful men (and women) behind the scenes of our nations business, political, and military apparatii clamoring for yet another war, but this time against another oil (and methane) rich Middle Eastern nation: Iran.

And despite the recent Nuclear Weapons Test Ban Agreement architected by our nations federal government, their allies, and that new target nation, the fact is that an almost identical agreement was in effect between our nation, our allies, and Iraq in the decades leading up to the first and second "Gulf" wars perpetrated against that nation, yet that didn't prevent our nations federal government from invading their territory anyway, causing the deaths of: (an estimated) five hundred thousand (500,000) to: one million people, likely including many thousands of children.

So it is likely only a matter of time until the same group of men reobtain control of our nations federal government, and with any allies they can recruit, proceed to this time attack Iran, while repeating the same claim that they are "preventing a rouge nation from obtaining nuclear weapons".

But what very few people ever seem to mention is the fact that our nation is in possession of the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, estimated to: contain more than: seven thousand, six hundred (7,600) atomic bombs, each more powerful than either of the two that were detonated to: destroy the Japanese cities of: Hiroshima (and: Nagasaki) Japan in an: attempt by: our nations federal government (here in the: United States of: America) to the end the fighting with that foreign nation occurring during: "world war two".

So, the idea that a regime seven thousand (7,000) miles a way from the (alleged) target of their (attempted) weaponization should not be: allowed to: attempt to: build (even: just) one such (similar) weapon seems absurd, particularly when you reflect up on the vast geographic distance that such a bomb would have to be: propelled (as delineated by the: line in red {on the following map}):

The idea seems particularly illogical when you: reflect up on the: facts that:

Irans government may not (even) succeed at: building such a: weapon,

Even if they are (some how) able to: build an: anemic version of: (just one) of: our (more powerful) nuclear weapons they all most certainly do not have the: missile capability to: launch such a: bomb all the: way over here to: hit any of the: people residing here (with) in our: territory,

and:

The idea that: their elected leaders would risk having their nations people being hit with over seven thousand, six hundred (7,600) more powerful atomic bombs in return (for: having grasped at: merely the chance to strike such a {relatively tiny}: attack up on: a nearly undefeatable enemy {such as: our nations: military}) is: so: remote as to: be: all most: inconceivable.

And: it would (actually) be: laughable, except for the fact that: hundreds of thousands of additional people might be killed during the process that our nations federal government has been determined to pursue while attempting to prevent that: nation from attempting to: build (even: just) one weapon similar to the: many thousands of: such that our: nations military (reputedly) all ready possesses.

Yet, those inconvenient facts do not appear to have substantially interfered with :efforts of: some people in: our: nations power structure from: continuing to: smear, demonize, and: target Iran (and: other: Middle Eastern nations) and when you: consider the fact that: all most all of the: nations that they appear to be: targeting just happen to be situated up on some of the: largest underground oil reserves in the world, you (like me) may begin to get just a little bit suspicious of: some of the: propaganda that our nations military, business, and political establishments have been: disseminating.

And, when you consider the fact that any where from: hundreds of thousands to: more than one (1) million people (including thousands of children) were all ready killed in the: same type of "pre emptive" war that was perpetrated against the: nation of: Iraq and that: the same astronomical numbers of people have been (and reputedly: are being) killed in a war that our nations federal government has been involved in, in the nation of: Syria (right now) then you may begin to feel tempted to agree that we should (at least) try to: do: something to prevent all of those people from being killed.

Be  cause: to paraphrase what Anglo/Irish statesman Edmund Burke observed:

"All it takes for sick people to prevail is for: sane people to do nothing."

So let us Do: Some thing...

If you would like to help prevent another such catastrophe from occurring, please call, write, or email your Senator or Representative in the United States Congress to tell them that you don't approve of the use of force in Syria, Iran, or anywhere else, and that you would prefer that they redeploy all of the trillions of dollars that are currently being spent on such destruction instead into the development and implementation of a national energy infrastructure that will rely solely upon clean and renewable sources of power, such as those derived from our solar systems sunlight, our planets atmospheric currents, and our oceans tides?

To: do so, feel free to: click:

HERE

Or call your elected federal representatives offices (toll free) at:

855-686-6927

It is also generally considered to be effective to contact the Senate Majority Leader, and the Speaker of the House, both of whom are disproportionately powerful when it comes to determining what is discussed, amended, and ratified in the two chambers of our nations Congress. Let's encourage them to support the President's stated, pre-election campaign goals of ending the wars, making peace and investing our nations time, energy, and money into alternative energy technology and implementation, rather than in fighting with other nations.

To contact the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell and express to him how you feel about these issues click:

HERE

or: call his office, at:

202-224-2541

To contact the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, and express to him how you feel about these wars, and the destructive effects they're having on other nations children, feel free to click:

HERE

or: call his office, at:

202-225-3031

If enough of us invest just a little bit of our time to express to our elected representatives how we feel about the continuation of these unjust wars of aggression, and insist that the money being wasted on them instead be spent to feed, house, clothe, medicate, educate, shelter, inspire, and uplift hueman beings instead, then maybe the sooner those conflicts will be brought to an end, and our lives, and the lives of men, women, and children all over the world will be safer, cleaner, and happier?

One quote that repeatedly comes to mind when I contemplate the gargantuan moral (and financial) debt that is being accumulated by our nations federal government as a result of their continued perpetration of such wars is:

"If you ever find that you have 'dug yourself in to a hole', then the first step to fixing it is to: Stop Digging."

That same, simple prescription for fixing problems could be applied to the seemingly never ending wars that our nations federal government has been perpetrating against other nations around the world for at least the last seventy five years, and I hope I'm not the only one who believes that our nations military, business, and political establishments should stop fighting with other nations and start formulating real, effective, proactive, nonviolent strategies to resolve their conflicts with those other nations peacefully.

Unless we do something to pressure our elected representatives to stop fighting, and start conceiving of, and implementing effective strategies and procedures that will allow us to coexist peacefully with other peoples and nations on this planet, then we will likely continue to descend down upon the blindly destructive path that empires have been recklessly traversing for thousands of years, dragging us, and our loved ones down with them.

If all of the wars being fought by our nations federal government aren't worrisome enough, it some times all so feels as if entire neighborhoods right here in the United States of America have been allowed to deteriorate into war zones as well and if you are unfortunate enough to have ever lived in (or visited) such a neighborhood, you would know just how dangerous public places right here in with in the borders of authority of our nations federal government have been allowed to be come.

But rather than setting a good and benevolent example for people residing here in our nation to follow, some of our federal and states "leaders" instead seem to think that "fighting fire with fire" is a rational approach when it comes to reducing levels of violent crime in this country, but I disagree. For example, it is a frightening fact that our nations federal government (as well as many of our nations states governments) routinely kill people who have allegedly killed people, but if we continue to allow them to perpetrate such retaliatory killing, doesn't that all so make us (and them) killers?

And by utilizing the same rationale that "we" have been historically relying up on to condemn others who have supposedly killed people, won't we eventually have to kill ourselves, or worse: our elected officials who condone (and perpetrate) such killing, at some point in the future?

I hope not.

But isn't that what killing people who have "killed people" eventually leads to?

In addition to making us (and particularly: our nations elected officials) no better than the people they presume to kill for supposedly having killed, it all so sets a bad example for others who may unthinkingly follow the examples that they are (knowingly or unknowingly; intentionally or unintentionally setting) increasing the probability that some one emulating us (or our "leaders") may proceed to kill yet some one else who they "know" (or believe) is a killer and what type of a so called "civilization" would emerge if that practice were to continue to be come wide spread?

Probably a significantly dangerous one, and I don't know about you but I don't particularly enjoy socializing in dangerous places, be cause... well, to be honest with you: it just isn't very much fun. In stead, perhaps we could attempt to follow the example set by certain northeastern United states governments who don't kill alleged killers, but rather merely incarcerate those convicted of perpetrating such crimes for the rest of their lives, usually without the possibility of parole.

While such convicted killers are confined to prison; psychiatrists, psychologists, and neurologists study them (and their lifes histories) in an attempt to try to determine why they allegedly committed those crimes in the first place, in the hopes that by acquiring such knowledge they will glean the in sight that will allow those states Governors, Judges, and Legislators to collaborate in attempts to prevent more such crimes from being perpetrated again in the future.

But here in the State of California our "judicial" branch of government is allowed to sentence people to death, and all though I have heard (and read) rationales in which people attempted to justify such retaliatory punishment by claiming that killing such alleged killers serves as a "deterrent" to others who might be tempted to commit the same types of crimes in the future, I have to disagree.

In fact, I am of the opinion that when any authority figures perpetrate the same types of misconduct that they are simultaneously condemning (and punishing) when engaged in by others, their status as authority figures diminishes, and when it does, so does their ability to benevolently guide and influence other people in our society to do the right thing.

Yet it is precisely that power to guide and influence other people to do the right thing which makes some one a legitimate authority figure in the first place, and so when elected (or appointed) officials sentence convicted killers to death they are delegitimizing their own authority over the people they presume to lead, while at the same time increasing the amount of fear many of their constituents may feel towards them.

I am all so of the opinion that having power over other people merely due to the fact that they are afraid of the consequences of not conforming to the desires of those who presume to lead them makes all such "leaders" who purposely engage in such tactics inferior, be cause if you have ever studied the subject of "physics" you may recall the maxim conveying the observation that:

"Every action has an equal, and opposite, reaction".

Reactions can also manifest in the realm of sentient beings, such as when authority figures rule over other people through implied threats of violence, while likely only causes their constituents to simultaneously fear (and hate) them, leading to confusion. If peoples confusion isn't sufficiently resolved, such tumultuous feelings can transmutate in to a state of anxiety, which is often accompanied by a release of adrenaline (in a primitive physiochemical reaction that has been referred to as the "fight or flight" response).

Some people can not handle them selves when they are under the influence of large quantities of adrenaline and may be come hostile, argumentative, or worse: violent, thus perpetuating the cycle of fear, anxiety, resentment and hatred that can explode in to unexpected violence and the result is increased dischord in our society.

In a nation such as ours (which is all ready infected with a dysfunctional national culture which trivializes murderous violence and glorifies the people and institutions who perpetrate it) the all most inevitable result is even more killing. And since any one who kills any one is bound to be hated, legitimizing methods of disposition of "justice" which caused our nations (or states) elected officials to be reviled in such ways is only bound to increase the amount of hatred and resentment many people in our civilization feel, likely leading to even more violent crime.

Elected officials who are widely feared and hated by the people they presume to lead are all so generally perceived to be inferior "leaders" be cause effective leaders should (ideally) be admired and respected, not feared (particularly if they wish to remain in power over others for very long) and when significant percentages of a nations population live in fear of the officials who presume to rule over them, they will be more likely to lie to protect them selves (and their loved ones) making it difficult (if not impossible) for their presumed leaders to know what is actually occurring among them, thus making it impossible for such "leaders" to effectively influence such followers to Do The Right Thing.

So I believe that the authority figures who administer our nations federal (and state) governments should stop violently attacking other nations over seas and stop killing convicted killers here at home, be cause while they have been doing so they have all so been causing hundreds of millions of people on this planet to live in often unmanageable fear and since such fear can transmutate in to the resentment that can explode in to future violence, I believe that they are actually (hopefully: unintentionally) causing crime, while claiming (or believing) to be attempting to eliminate it.

The reason why I postulate that is be cause from experience I have gleaned the observation that the chaotic energy which infects someone when they feel intensely afraid can transform into feelings of resentment, and in some weak minded or morally uneducated individuals, those chaotic energies can then transform into hatred, which can then transmute into murderous urges, possibly resulting in yet more violent crime.

When you consider the epidemic popularity of increasingly savage portrayals of what attempts to pass itself off as "entertainment" in this nations culture, you can't help but come to the conclusion that there is likely a causal correlation between such products and the disproportionately high levels of physical violence in this nation, which I believe is being unintentionally promoted by:

The "Mixed Martial Arts (M.M.A.)" interpersonal combat contest,

The "Ultimate Fighting Championship (U.F.C.)" interpersonal combat contest,

The video recorded, and internet viewable "bum fights", in which young men pay, or bribe other, homeless men to viciously assault one another for their, and third parties "entertainment",

and

Disturbingly popular, hyperviolent video games,

One can't help but be somewhat offended at the devolution of moral intellect among too many of our nations young men. Are those the types of "entertainment" that American parents really want their children to watch, or worse, emulate, and unthinkingly proceed to perpetrate upon other people in their respective neighborhoods?

I'm fairly certain that the answer is "no" in 95% of cases, but when you see the correlation between the hyperpopularity of such primitive and debased forms of "entertainment" and the increasingly ruthless methodology that is being implemented in too many violent and murderous crimes in this nation in recent years, you may begin to wonder.

When you consider the fact that even our nations federal government has legitimized violence as an acceptable means of resolving conflict as a result of its repeated perpetration of wars of physically violent aggression, even of the "pre-emptive" type in recent memory, it isn't surprising to see that impressionable men, particularly young men, are confused, and have been mimicking what some our previous national leaders have perpetrated.

As a result, there appears to have manifested within our nations collective culture an epidemic eagerness to fight with unprecedented brutality because of the fact that such ruthlessness has been legitimized by some of our nations presumed "leaders", who legitimized such gratuitous violence as an "acceptable" means of "resolving" conflicts with others when in fact, it is not.

What some of our nations leaders don't appear to realize, is that their repeated reliance upon the violence of war as a means of "resolving" conflicts may one day reflect back upon them, and as time goes on they may feel an increasing need to pay larger and larger sums of money, to hire more and more people to defend them from the repercussions of their violent attacks upon other nations.

When that happened in the ancient Roman Empire it bankrupted their nations treasury, which led to decreased standards of living, and that combined with likely increased levels of callous disregard for the lives of others appear to have resulted in sharply increased hostility among that nations citizens, creating, fueling, and perpetuating a negative feedback loop that eventually resulted in their nation being violently invaded and robbed by conquering foreign armies.

The often unpayable financial and moral debts incurred by such unjust wars make it difficult for a nations leaders to organize effective resistance to internally, or externally generated attacks and undermine the standards-of-living of that nations people, creating anger and resentment in them, and increasing the likelihood that they will either:

Perpetrate a crime, possibly a violent one,

Refuse to fight to defend their nations elected officials,

or worse:

Actually try to attack their nations elected officials, as has already occurred in one of our nations states, Massachusetts, in an incident in which an angry man reputedly activated a firearm, causing a metal bullet to maliciously smash through a window in that states Governors mansion at a very high velocity.

(Luckily, to my limited knowledge of the incident, no one was hurt, but the fact that it even occurred is still a very ominous omen for possible dangerous and unpleasant times here in the United States of America, and I am of the firm opinion that strenuous efforts have to be made to defuse the pathologically high levels of hatred in this nation, before someone is hurt, or killed as a result of such a crime.)

One upset person firing a gun at a state Governors mansion may be an anomaly, but when you find that tens of millions of people in one particular nation are all upset all at the same time, then we apparently have a serious problem on our hands, and concerted efforts should be made to pacify the angry and contentious by formulating effective, peaceful, nonviolent approaches to solving our nations very real, and very serious, social and economic problems.

In the long term it is probably morally, financially, and pragmatically less expensive to invest sufficient time and energy to acknowledge, and take steps to solve, the often gravely serious problems a nation faces rather than in continuing to try to ignore all of the tens of millions of angry people in our nation and their often very legitimate grievances.

My concern is, that as time goes on, if the very serious socioeconomic hardships experienced by large percentages of our nations population are not acknowledged and resolved, a mass violent uprising could occur, and in the past, when such uprisings did occur, things did not generally turn out very well for the ruling authorities of the various nations and states in which those uprisings occurred.

I don't want to see that happen, and I think it would be wise, and maybe even prudent for us to all try to work together to solve the collective problems we face as a nation, which appear to be potent contributing factors leading to the increased perpetration of random, fatal violence in various, and all too numerous places across the United States of America, rather than in continuing to try to ignore the very real problems that we, as a nation face.

I also think it is unwise for our various state and national governments to continue to kill people who kill people, and I hope you agree.  If so, and if you'd like to learn more about what you can do to help stop the killing by our elected officials, you may want to consider clicking on the following link, which will take you to the:

Website for the National Campaign to Abolish the Death Penalty.

And for those of us who live in the state of California, perhaps we could reach out and convey our feelings, thoughts, or opinions with regard to the myopic reliance upon the death penalty in this state to our Governor, as well as to our various state legislators?

To contact the Governor of California, Edmund (Gerry) Brown, feel free to click:

HERE

To find, and contact your voting districts State Legislator, feel free to click:

HERE

To contact our Lieutenant Governor, Gavin Newsom, feel free to click:

HERE

It is also generally regarded as effective to call, write, or email the leaders of our State Legislature, because they have disproportionate influence over what is discussed, amended, and ratified during state legislature sessions.

To contact the Senate Majority Leader, William Monning, feel free to click:

HERE

To contact the Senate Minority Floor Leader, Robert Huff, feel free to click:

HERE

To contact the Speaker of the Assembly, Toni Atkins, feel free to click:

HERE

To contact the Assemblies Majority Floor Leader, Chris Holden, feel free to click:

HERE

To contact the Assemblies Minority Floor Leader, Kristin Olsen, feel free to click:

HERE

The seemingly recurrent tendency to want to kill people that too many members of our society appear to feel might be arising from the abusive and traumatic experiences many people experienced while joining sports, social, fraternal, or military organizations (or "boot camps"), which some scholars refer to as "hazing". 

People who have been hazed in such abusive ways by peers or "superiors" have been observed to sometimes misdirect their suppressed rage, not at the people who abused them, but often at unrelated third parties... a psychological phenomenon referred to as "displacement".

Whether the anger is misdirected because of a fear of their abusers, or due to a desire to retain their, what they may perceive to be, fragile position in the group they suffered so terribly to join is difficult to determine, but such abuse appears to be very pervasive in the college, sporting, fraternal, and military organizations of the United States of America to the detriment of not only the new recruits, but also to often-unrelated third parties who may unknowingly be targeted by traumatized people seeking someone to hatefully displace their frequently repressed rage upon.

Perhaps that is why so many men in our nation often seem to repeatedly, and almost reflexively find themselves in conflict, and often at war with some person or nation somewhere on this planet who anyone, anywhere, at any time can seem to find or conjure any kind of a flimsy, imaginary, or "justifiable" rationale upon which to base their desires to go out and kill some hueman beings?

From my perspective, that is what appears to be the case.

Rather than continuing to point fingers at (and pick fights with) entire foreign nations (in a bizarre {and misguided} attempt to "explain" why we are so personally [or collectively] unhappy) perhaps it might be wiser for us to in stead examine our own selves (and our own pasts) to try to determine exactly why it is that we so often feel so ill at ease, rather than continuing to blindly rush off to make tens of millions of people else where on this planet all so feel miserable?

During the 1980s a great transition occurred: as the "cold war" wound down, our nations political and military "leaders" initiated a new conflict for control of the "greater middle east", manifesting as a seemingly endless series of battles extending across the Islamic world... from the Balkans and East Africa, to the Persian Gulf and Central Asia... most ofwhich continue to this present day, with few of them having resulted in anything even remotely resembling conclusive "success".

Instead, according to Andrew J. Bacevich, one of this nations most respected voices on foreign affairs, actions undertaken with expectations of promoting "peace and stability" in fact produced just the opposite, and as a consequence disastrous realities described by phrases like “permanent war” and “open ended war” have become part of our nations every day lexicon when describing the ongoing conflicts, now more than thirty years old, and with no end in sight according to his new book:

"Americas War for the Greater Middle East"

According to Professor of economics at the University of Ottawa (in Canada) Michel Chossudovsky:

"The United States of Americas hegemonic project in the post 9/11 era is the Globalization Of War where by the U.S./NATO military machine (coupled with covert intelligence operations, economic sanctions, and the agenda of 'regime change') is deployed in to all major regions of the world, backed by the threat of pre-emptive nuclear war to black mail targeted nations into submission.

That "long war against huemanity" is being perpetrated during the height of the most serious economic crisis in modern history (and it is intimately related to a process of global financial restructuring) which has resulted in the collapse of national economies (and the impoverishment of large sectors of the world population) with it's apparent ultimate objective being world conquest under the cloak of 'human rights' and 'western democracy'".

From the promotional literature for his following 2015 book , titled:

"The Globalization of War: Americas Long War Against Humanity"

Here's a link to a book written by Ivan Eland that: "examines the implications of counterinsurgency wars for the United States of Americas 'defense' policy and makes the compelling argument that the this nations default position on counterinsurgency wars should be to avoid them".  It is titled:

"Putting 'Defense' Back in to the United States of Americas Defense Policy:
Rethinking U.S. Security in the Post Cold War World"

Here's a link to another book written by the same author, titled:

Here's an informative book about the pain and suffering caused by war, written by Anthony Arnove, titled:

"Iraq Under Siege: The Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War"

Nobel Prize winning author Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University, and coauthor Linda Bilmes of Harvard University estimated in their following collaborative 2008 book that the misguided "war on terror" being perpetrated by our nations federal government against foreign nations had, at that time, already cost us American taxpayers and citizens $3 Trillion dollars, and although those costs have undoubtedly doubled (or tripled) since then, that duos acclaimed published report (linked to below) remains a worthwhile read for those interested in learning about the direct, and indirect financial costs of such wars:

Marine General Smedley Butler wrote the following, classic expose on why wars are conducted, who profits from them, and who pays the price. Few people are as qualified as General Butler to advance the argument encapsulated in this book, which is that war is a fraud. When it was first published in 1935, Butler was the most decorated American soldier of his time. He had lead several successful military operations in to the Caribbean, and in to Central America, as well as in to Europe during the First World War. Despite his "success", and his "heroic" status however, when he reflected up on those experiences he felt deeply troubled by both the purpose, and the results, of war, as elucidated in the following book of his, titled:

My friend Hank Nuwer, a journalism professor at Franklin College in Indiana, wrote the following books about the dangers, and real life, sometimes deadly consequences of the form of ritual abuse prevalent in our nations college fraternities and military organizations known as "hazing":