The Workermonkey

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The End of War 

# posted by wyldshaman @ 10/27/2010 10:44:00 PM

I thought about something today, war is over. I mean not actual fighting, but real war; marching on Paris, Berlin or Rome, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the carpet bombing of London, the Mexican-American, the Spanish-American War, the Communist Chinese takeover of Tibet. Real war u know when it was about gaining ground and taking over new territories with ur military prowess and a great leaders vision.

Today and for at least the past 40 years, its all been about internal conflicts, Civil wars, or reclaiming territories that were lost or disputed, stopping the spread of an ideology.

I remember 9/11, "it changed everything," i sat on a rucksack for 3 days, while the Pentagon tried to figure out which country to invade. But really 9/11 was like the end of war, now we invade countries to "free" them, it seems like we dont even want what they have, its more political, a "see our nation is strong," kinda thing, just to reinforce the base of the nation not to add to it.

Its fairly profound and something i remember talking about with someone just before 9/11, he wished for a great enemy to fight, something lacking after the cold war, and i thought we should use our military for parades as thats all it would be good for going forward. Of course "everything changed," now we have new invisible men to chase and a reason to spend 100's of billions of dollars on a military.

But thats not really the point, can anyone point out, anywhere in the world, where a war has been fought and territory/resources been gained for the greater good of the motherland in recent history? Now everything is about "securing our borders," the lines on the maps have been drawn the days of change are over, its all peacekeeping and security watch lists and no-fly zones and security threats.

War is so 20th century!

4 comments

I challenge you to a game of RISK, sir.

By  Brancibeer, at Thursday, October 28, 2010 11:23:00 AM  

I disagree with you on this. Nothing has changed but the technology and the labels.

I think you are confusing the perception created by the governement of what the objective is in a conflict with what the goverment is actually trying to achieve.

In the last ten years, we have used our superior military prowess to 'conquer' and 'vasselize' two very resource rich countries.

Lets look at Afganistan. Very recently (in the last 10 months or so)there was articles about the abundance of mineral wealth in Afganistan. However, this is not new information. That same info was buried in the news at the outset of the war. In fact, the Soviets knew it also (do you really think they cared about spreading communism at such a high cost?). 9/11 did change everything. It gave our government an open ended 'casus belli' in the name of fighting terrorism. It didnt matter that most of the attackers were from Saudi Arabia, we already had that country in our sphere of influence, no need to invade, we were getting what we wanted from them at a reasonable price (the real value of money is an argument for another post - suffice to say most of the money sent to the Sheik is reinvested into Treasuries and that is a great deal for the government, its a 100% tax on foriegn oil, but I digress). It didn't matter where Bin Laden was, if he was in Pakistan, no problem, also in sphere of influence (and armed with nukes, so we would never invade - we bribe countries with nukes instead). No, the obvious choice here was Afganistan. 1) Not in any major powers sphere of influence. 2) Shares a border with China 3) Mineral wealth, but especially Rare Earth Metals.

Rare Earth Metals, as I'm sure many of you are aware, are essential to modern electronics. Do a google search on them. You will find an abundance of articles on them which basically state the following.
A) Rare earth metals are critical to cell phones, laptops, guided missiles, radar stations, gps, electro-magnets (the kind needed for hydro power and wind power) and a myriad of other 'essential' devices.
B)Almost exclusively China has vast developed reserves of every kind of R.E metals. We have some, but not all and they are not being exploited (very costly and polluting, besides, now we can exploit them elsewhere).
C)The demand for R.E. metals is so high, China will soon stop exporting them. Essentially, they would then be the only nation who could produce sophisticated electronics.

Its also interesting to me that in 2004 China began operating the worlds largest copper mine in Afganistan. How is it that was possible when the rest of the country went to shit? They probably demanded a slice of the Afgan pie...

Now, Iraq is a slightly different story. Obviously, they never 'attacked' us. So, since the war machine was already up and running, people were volunteering in record numbers, and the populace was not suffering from any war weariness yet, the time was ripe. All we needed was a reason. So why not make one up. Hey maybe we might have found WMD's - that was gamble they were willing to take. Besides, if they didnt, then were also there to free them from tyranny. How noble. Doesnt matter that it shares a border with russia and vast reserves of oil.

These were real wars. Real people died in these wars. Real soldiers marched in and took over territory. 'Real' leaders had a vision they sold to us.

I think you can similar patterns in the Vietnam and Korean conflicts, and both World Wars.

Heck, lets look at the Spanish American war. The pattern is almost exactly like Afganistan. We wanted control of important trading ports around the world, and one day, boom, an american cruise ship blows up in Cuba. Who gets blamed - Spain. Bam, we move in an liberate the Philipines, Puerto Rico and Cuba (and others). We always just need a reason to motivate the citizenry.

By  T, at Thursday, October 28, 2010 3:50:00 PM  

the end of war my ass. there will always be war as long as there is man. as long as two stupid fucks are capable of hitting each other with sticks, there will be war. we just marched on Baghdad. and Kabul. you forget these might not be cities like Paris or Rome, but just as large and important to the regions. their age is much younger. just a different part of the world. give it time and they will be looked upon as the same.

one thing missing from the above dissertations is how oddly similar the "war on terror" is to the "war on communism". fight an imaginary enemy and use it as an excuse to do anything you want. all you need is something intangible to focus your anger and hatred towards. terrorism happens to be a convenient modern scapegoat. we, as a country, actually tried to fight an idea with bullets. again. remember remember, the 5th of November...(ok so this was in england, still relevant)

the world seems like a funny place when it resembles a game of Civ. its all about getting more resources. go to war to get iron. trade to get spices. nuke Afghanistan (T, i hope you remember the day we fought with O'Rourke about dropping nukes during 'nam).

at the end of the day our next goal as a species is to get off planet. spread. the matrix was right, we are a disease. a virus. we need to colonize other planets as soon as possible to ensure the species survives and endures the test of time. we still can't stop a good sized meteor from hitting the earth again, same thing that wiped out the dinosaurs. there will always be war. there will always be reason for two people to argue, then fight, then recruit more people to their cause and start armed conflict. it is a natural thing to do although the means of conflict might change. it might be sticks, or sharpened rocks, or flying metal, or concentrated light beams. its still war.

By  Supreme Monkey Overlord, at Friday, October 29, 2010 10:13:00 PM  

What u speak of is "Grand Diplomacy" not war. We never invade to take subjecgate and a people, reap the bounty of its land, its now to free them.

Its a very different thing. For lacking a better word, its Micro V. Macro, great powers seek to control things. In the Marco world, u take it by force subjugate the people and steal their resources, all know who is boss. Within the Micro level, u bribe political leaders, assassinate them when they refuse, an invasion is not out of the question but is always for "the good of the people." Still the resources are sold to friendly corporations and the people are left to root just like under the old regime.

While these two scenarios on the surface seem basically the same, they are not.

Vietnam was a "conflict" as are Iraq and Afghanistan, and i believe The Korean Thing. All of which resulted in no border changes and a government run by its own people. Korea being one of the few that is still in two parts, but still run by itself.

As u stated with the China Mine, thats "our" country, how could "they" be there, think about it. Would the Germans in North Africa give up some of their mines to the US corps while they battled the US army? It would not make sense.

Because that was then, a time of real war, now its all politics and money. And this is not a shock to anyone, my point is while the pundits like to talk up China's growing navy or Iran's eventual access to the bomb, it does not really matter wars are a things of the past. What are some of the new "intellectual" talking points, how McDonalds countries never fought a war or the Dell countries...?

Look at how hard we had to try to come up with a reason to take over Iraq. Europe, they have only been involved in one conflict in the past 50 years, Yugoslavia and that was genocide on their door step. A real ground war in Asia, its been over 30 years. South American not in 100 years except for the occasional civil war(different then real war as civil's rarely move outside of any nations border, yes people die, but territory or resources are never gained as its only ur country ur fighting over).

"The threat of a nuclear war eventually ceased with an armistice that restored the border between the Koreas near the 38th Parallel and created the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)" Wikipedia, The Korean War, After years of fighting Korea went right back to the start. And that was 57 years ago and again i state, borders have not changed, how can they when technology and the bomb exist.

"Thus a war that has no victory nor any armistice but only total destruction." Wiki M.A.D.

WAR IS OVER!

By  wyldshaman, at Friday, October 29, 2010 10:53:00 PM  

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Saturday, October 23, 2010

Healthcare and Bullshit 

# posted by wyldshaman @ 10/23/2010 10:22:00 PM

Im just so damn tired of all the conservative bullshit.


I saw this graph yesterday in National Geographic and it kinda drove me crazy. We spend 10 times as much as Mexico and get only a few extra years of life. And thats the only country we can compare to, as Mexico is the only other "free market" health system. All the others cost half as much and get extra years of life.

What im tired of hearing about.....
The Best Healthcare System in the World, Creationism, Pro-Life(like im pro death, what about all them welfare moms u talk shit about, they are just making babies like god told them too!), Death Penalty(wow, what happened to pro life?), Welfare (Wealthfare?), Anti-Gay, Low Taxes(=shitty government), Big Government(u mean the giant fucking military or the SS checks to grandmom?), Pro-Business(u mean Anti-people?), Regulation(u hate rules?), Law and Order, Anti-Drugs(except the ones i get from my doc and the sell/do)... im sure there is more, alot more, but im drunk and im just tired of it.


It wears ya down u know. Its like what the fuck.

Link to chart, it kind interesting and better with the blurb from mag about how we blow money..
http://blogs.ngm.com/.a/6a00e0098226918833012876a6070f970c-800wi

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Monday, October 18, 2010

Read Moneyball 

# posted by ron @ 10/18/2010 08:38:00 PM

Monkey overlord. I finally finished that book you gave me 6 years ago. Its pretty awesome. I think Michael Lewis has a few more out there now. Flash crash or Short something. I forget. So if I still have your book, you might still have something of mine. I know I'm missing my Perkin's book about the Economic hitmen. I think Macanusacide may have that. I still have"Overthrown". I didn't buy, so who's is it?

Branciteam throws a pretty sweet party. Too bad none of you slackers made it. I know, I know you all have kids now or a new job and no time off.



My brilliant idea for this winter..... ugly christmas sweater party. No one gets in w/o one.

2 comments

Overthrow is mine and i was kinda wondering who had it, i keep the selves of the hardcovers... anything i like that is, so i know its out there.

Just got done with "Aftershock," which basically states, 1% gets 24% = low velocity of money within economy. Its an easy read and Tim will have it next.

The kid thing is crazy, we dont have tv in house, but i totally understand why people just stick the kids in front of them.

By  wyldshaman, at Monday, October 18, 2010 11:40:00 PM  

Looking forward to it Jess.I saw an interview with the author on TV not too long ago. Actually I have several books to return to you. Need to make space for the next baby. Got some books to return to Matt as well. Going rearrange the whole basement eventually. Already reworked the utility room.

Anyways, i think you'll be impressed with my lack of progress.

By  T, at Tuesday, October 19, 2010 5:05:00 PM  

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Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Ok, Brian.... 

# posted by NoBrainRequired @ 10/13/2010 07:58:00 PM

Marriage: First Reaction?

3 comments

For me, the engagement was the big deal. Marriage is just kinda like an aftershock.

By  Brancibeer, at Wednesday, October 13, 2010 9:20:00 PM  

Underwhelming, isn't it?
I totally agree with your sentiment. So much goes into engagement, the wedding planning, the ceremony. It just builds and builds and builds and then....then one day later you wake up and its just you and her and nothing is different.

I don't think I actually felt like I was married until 2 or 3 years in.

Best of luck!

Top 5 Phrases in a happy marriage:
1)Yes dear
2)Sorry dear
3)It was Matt's idea
4)I'll try to remember that
5)If thats what you want to do...

By  T, at Friday, October 15, 2010 3:13:00 PM  

haha i like #3

By  josh, at Saturday, October 16, 2010 2:00:00 PM  

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