The threat of the United States being occupied by a foreign power

It's ironic that these guys who are "strong on defense" have actually harmed our reputation in the world and our military by pursuing wars more motivated by corporate profits than actual threats to our security going back to at least Vietnam, and apart from Korea, World War II, and the Civil War, all of our other military actions were about hostile take overs of country's assets.


Marine Corps General and Medal of Honor winner Smedley Butler said:



Our lack of success in occupying Iraq tells us exactly what the threat is of another country invading and successfully occupying the US. China, Russia, and the EU would be the only entities even remotely capable of trying, and they would have supply lines stretching across oceans, and at the end of them would be 290 million well-armed civilians who would make the Iraqis look quakers and Gandhi.

To calculate the odds of someone invading us, consider how gingerly we tiptoe around getting into a land war with China after Korea. In Korea, they were poorly armed and technologically well behind us, but they came close to chasing us off the Korean peninsula, and invading China itself would have been impossible.

We were so chastened by the experience that in Vietnam we didn't send ground troops into the North for fear of triggering another conflict with China.

Hitler and Napoleon had similar experiences with Russia. It was easy to invade and impossible to occupy--and they had the advantage of being able to walk there. If someone tried to invade us, they would have those oceans to contend with. And for what? Our oil supplies are declining, and if they want our coal, I think most countries have plenty of their own. The cost of trying to occupy us would break them if we can't afford to occupy a country the size of California.


The only reason another country would attack us is they perceive us as a threat to them. If communists (a boogie man still pulled out from time to time) or terrorists attacked the US, they would win no sympathy for their ideology, and in the case of terrorists, outright occupation would be impossible anyway. The terrorist threat is at best like a neighbor's rabid chihuahua. It might bite your ankle, but it ain't going to take you down and kill you. No amount of terrorist attacks will take down the US.

And of course, once an attack on the US starts, we would burn the attacking country off the map with our nukes, and still have plenty left over for their allies, neighbors, and the rest of the world, which is why no government would use or give to terrorists they thought even might use, nukes on us. The country using or who gave away the nukes that were used would be incinerated before the mushroom cloud formed here.

Those who are "strong on defense" are more worried about securing and occupying the world's oil reserves, making sure the banana pickers in Central America and the sweatshop workers in Haiti don't demand a living wage, and that all accept the privatization and corporate control of their electricity, water, and probably the hole they shit in. Read a history of our interventions in Central America, South America, and the Middle East, then watch the film THE CORPORATION.

Then look at how we react to a democratically elected president who tries to use his country's wealth to improve the lives of his people like Hugo Chavez. We have already backed a recall and a coup against him, and there's no chance Venezuela is ever going to try to invade the US or even attack us.

I have great respect for the military, their patriotism, and the sacrifices they are willing to make for us. I wish the civilians in charge, who are so eager to use them and profit from their efforts, were as admirable.

They incite fear so they can use our military to make money, and nothing else is going on.

"War is a Racket"

THE SMEDLEY BUTLER SOCIETY
http://warisaracket.org/

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0922915865/102-2514244-0501739?v=glance&n=283155


DU demopedia:

Smedley Butler
http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/index.php/Smedley_Butler

Attempted Coup Against Franklin D. Roosevelt (prevented by Smedley Butler)
http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/index.php/Attempted_Coup_Against_Franklin_D._Roosevelt

islamic terrorists who've managed to attack the US - a handful in 1993 in the first WTC bombing and 19 or so on 9-11, that's hardly an army! And anyone who knows anything about 9-11 knows that a Clinton or Gore administration probably would've been able to stop it or at least reduce it's effectiveness.

certainly.

Definitely a kodak moment if that happened...

Hell, I might even enlist for that alone! I've always wanted to be a journalist...

still have some merit as deterence? China would have to recover from our nuclear strikes, I would think. And if there were enough of them, the whole issue would be moot for both countries. It seems to me we are re-entering an age of nuclear danger from ICBM's.

and heat it to a million degrees. That's tough to recover from.

Our nukes would be hard to hit because they are spread between manned bombers, ICBMs, and missile subs.

If you hit just the capital and a couple of the major cities, the recovery to the point of being a world power again would be measured in decades, not months or years.

that's enough to serve as a deterrent to attack, which is what most countries have them for.

in line and coughing up the dough to the capitalists.

Of course, we have to be careful of the great super-power Cuba. Thousands of brain-washed, fanatical, commies, just itching to jump in their '56 Buicks and storm Miami Beach and force the citizens to eat black beans and rice, listen to great music, and be forced into universal healthcare. Not to mention improving the educational system.

by fascists. And it's not a pretty thing.

It's a culmination of what was set in motion in Nazi Germany. The seeds Hitler planted are bearing fruit sixty years later. I just think it's a pity the fruit is so poisonous.

Fascist success in Europe would have inspired the wealthy to push for the same here harder and sooner.

And as S.Arabia has no qualms helping FOX Cable news distort, they're not going to ask for their money back any time soon.

China's got us lined in their unlined pocket too, doing unspeakable things that go against the laws of nature...

Screaming a bloody foreign invasion to own the U.S.

None of them react well to the U.N. or foreign countries telling the U.S. what to do or managing the U.S. in any way.