They don’t care about our troops or their families at all.

1. veterans have already paid their tax.
2. war will not be free entertainment.

Finally, take ALL the war tax money raised and put it into a fund controlled by vets to support veterans.

Self, parent, and dependants only considered immediate family. None of the aunt, uncle, cousin, grandpa, stuff.

Glad you mentioned war as entertainment. Certainly the obscene fireworks display of the Night of Shock and Awe was most entertaining for Americans. War watching has become analogous to sports entertainment. Note the constant use of sports analogies on media to describe war events.
I heard a moving speech by a holocaust survivor who said that the current extreme popularity of sports teams and games was not healthy for society because it set up world view of “Us against Them” and that it framed a conflict mindset. She thought we should all work harder on not “othering” which is a primitive human emotion that we must keep in check to build a better world.
Apologies to sports fans and here is just food for thought.

Don't forget about the money. Lots of money to be made in a war, for the top one percent.

Defense contractors are yuuuge campaign donors. How are they supposed to grow their businesses & keep investors happy without unending wars?

Cyber warfare can affect their phones, their power grids, etc.

They just don't comprehend how much of their old way of life has changed.

electricity can become deadly for some who are dependent on it, and not just for comfort.

Heat, ability to pump water or sewage, keep foods safely cold, are just the start.

It's the cyber attacks that frighten me, and how desperate some people can become when things are bad.

Remember the Invasion of Iraq? All you saw were explosions, blasts, flashes of lights in an endless loop. It was made to look exciting instead of our military was killing citizens of Iraq. The presentation was meant to get viewers pumped up.

Some things that could knock America out of those Lazyboys...

* Any conflict that disrupts the massive import supply chains, both for finished goods (shiny new objects at Walmart) and for raw materials (steel, copper, etc.).

* Any conflict serious enough to justify reestablishment of the military draft.

* Disruption of oil supplies or an OPEC revolt causing high gas prices for a long period of time.

* Terrorist actions that induce mass fear of poisoning of water or food supplies, or fear of traveling.

* Cyber attacks that could cause sustained disruptions of banking services, markets or large areas of the power grid.

* A significant portion of the world turning against the dollar being the standard unit of currency or primary reserve currency.

* A sustained high-cost conflict that throws the world prematurely into the next big recession or even a great depression. Many economists are saying we're on the verge of a serious recession at this time.

Hard to be optimistic at this point in history with hard right-wingers occupying so many governments......

and most of us aren't "war humpers".
Please.. Let's turn on Trump and his Congressional enablers, not ourselves.

My point about the dollar is quite clear and there's volumes written about our privileged status in the world as a nation due to the dollar being the preferred reserve. I was in no way referring to individuals.

Also have no clue how you interpreted anything in my list as implying any of us are "war humpers". The OP was primarily addressing the complacency and ignorance of so many Americans regarding our foreign interventions, as we saw during the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. My list was of some serious events that might break that complacency.

And by the way, we live week by week on SS and very tiny retirement savings. No privilege here and my entire family despises tRump.

Last edited Wed Jan 8, 2020, 02:17 AM - Edit history (1)

I just tire of the way people often talk about "Americans" -- carefully using the modifier "some", of course -- to basically bash Americans as a whole.

You may not have intended to do this, but the meme here is so ubiquitous, it's easily misinterpreted.

While other peoples children die.

who are cheering tRump on, need to have their kids or grandkids enlist. If they are so supportive of conflict, then put your own family members into that pit of Hell. They are fine with war, as long as the profits go to them, and nobody in their immediate family is in danger. Wasn't it Rand Paul's kid who was caught drunk driving, and got off with that? Put him in uniform, let's see how he fares in the REAL world. Liz Cheney must have kids over 18 who could serve? They benefit from grandpa Cheney's dirty dealings in the Iraq War, let them see what others went through to supply all that profit. Young people come back in body bags, or missing limbs and their families are left to cope. War is not the answer to anything, unless you are already rich, and looking to make more $$$.

just sent into the Middle East...It will be American children dying, so I doubt there will be much "watching and cheering"

are just war's Big Bad Perpetrators instead of its Victims.

The US as a country has earned its reputation.

The former imperialists of Europe who lost all their colonies?

over the years.

raped and robbed by European Imperialists.

pointing fingers..Their sanctimony is a tad much since their "evolution" didn't occur until they lost all their power.

Didn't take long to bring em home and end the draft.

Us OKBoomers are ready to do it again.

I am ready and I have lots of free time!!!!

This boomer remembers it well, and is not at ALL "ready to do it again", so do speak for yourself instead of slamming an entire generation.

keyboard commandos have bad ass remarks on the Internet but would fold like cheap suits once the shooting starts. War is neither a video nor a drive by. It's grueling dirty and life altering. Combat changes everything.

so I'm sure some warmongering greedbangers are licking their chops for a repeat (but with Iran this time)

The S&P 500 closed at 777 on 10/9/2002 (the post-dot-com-crash low) and after rising, it began falling again and was 876 on 3/20/2003 when the invasion began. Since then (well after falling a small bit more) it went on to rise to the post-dot-com-crash high of 1565 on 10/9/2007, a rise of 79% in about 4 1/2 years.

(Then the housing bubble crash began that took the S&P 500 down to 677 on 3/9/2009, its post-housing-crash lowpoint)

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EGSPC/history
When change the date or date range, remember to click the "Done" button. And also remember to click the "Apply" button too. Must click both.

Threats of physical violence will somehow coerce your political opponent / enemy into surrender. This misconception ignores a fundamental aspect of human behavior it strengthens the resolve to hit back. History is full of examples, Pearl Harbor comes to mind as an example some Americans might understand.

I'd bet there are more people playing Call of Duty than actually serve in the military.

There are around 1.4 million active duty soldiers in the U.S.

The latest Call of Duty game sold 10 million copies in the FIRST THREE DAYS

The Call of Duty franchise has sold more than 250 million copies as of 2016!

I know that is global sales, but a large majority are U.S. sales for a game like that. Keyboard Commandos seem to vastly outnumber the real deal.

2.2 million US service members (including reservists).

Call of Duty claims 4.5 million people play at some point over a single day. War sells (at least to the males of our species; not putting down females who play).

Disclaimer: I play the total War Series (Rome mainly since I'm on a MAC)

people will be killing others for real when they play Call of Duty. The DoD will sell the games and the privilege to make real kills with each game. Drones will be flying everywhere in countries with whom we're at war.

wondering if and when electricity and internet service will be restored.

Fools, every one damn of them.

ran his campaign on saying we were ending attention in the Middle East and concentrating instead here.

how this mafia thuggish regime we have shows their continuous contempt of the American people by continually lying to us.

Pompeo saying we are safe such BS.

Says a supposed christian demographic.

and they'll lose their enthusiasm for war pretty quickly...

This morning at work, one of the Trump lovers came up to me and was bragging about how "strong he was" sending troops to Iran. I asked her if any of her family members were deployed for this "war", she said no. I said "then shut the hell up", and I walked away, she was a little stunned but I have had it. This draft dodger in chief is sending other people's children to die so he can get reelected, no other reason. There is no "strength" in that.

My nephew is stationed in Korea right now but I'm getting worried.

Even after I stated I have a nephew who is active duty Army. She screeched about how I'm against the troops because I vocally denounced what was happening.

Yep, I jumped her ass and for once no one stopped me. Several conservative coworkers even stated they would pray for my nephew to remain safe and for a quick resolution. This never affects them until it's in their face.