War: Organized Murder and Nothing Else

From my primary "I Protest" Substack (November 2023) at donaldjeffries.substack.com

This piece from nearly three years ago has special relevance today, with the U.S. mired in a disastrous conflict with Iran. I think-I hope- that more young people are seeing the absurdity of war, and in the event of a draft would refuse to “sacrifice themselves on the altar of freedom,” to paraphrase Lincoln.

The title of this subversive little missive comes from a quote by Harry Patch, the last surviving soldier from World War I. The great Smedley Butler said that war is never about enemies, but opportunities for profit. Butler was one of Huey Long’s closest friends, and retreated from politics after the Kingfish was assassinated.

Jeanette Rankin was the only member of Congress to vote against WWII, and had to have a police escort out of that sanctified temple of democracy afterwards. She noted that “You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.” She explained, in her unique fashion, “As a woman I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else.” Her courageous stance ruined her political career. Then, as now, it wasn’t popular to stand for peace. In my view, she is the greatest woman in American history, and should have her likeness on a fiat currency bill over Harriet Tubman or any other female. I’m confident that only a very small percentage of today’s dumbed down Americans have even heard of her.

The last war that America was justified in fighting was the War of 1812. Our shores were undeniably invaded. The White House was set on fire. They say that Dolley Madison saved the Gilbert Stuart painting of George Washington. Of course, they say a lot of things. Still, picture Hillary Clinton or Michelle Obama doing something like that. I’m no literal pacifist. You have to defend yourselves and your family when you are being attacked. I don’t count the Pearl Harbor false flag. FDR might as well have been flying one of the Japanese planes himself. Every other war revolved around a dubiously perceived threat emanating from one of those “foreign hobgoblins” that the great H.L. Mencken so colorfully described.

James Polk was elected president on a saber rattling platform. A warlike stance rarely fails in American politics. The 1848 invasion of Mexico was not only unconstitutional, the atrocities committed there created resentment that lingers even today, in groups like La Raza. Ironically, one of those who opposed this unnecessary skirmish was Congressman Abraham Lincoln. Honest Abe wouldn’t bat an eye just over a decade later, when he ignored his own advice and pushed for the bloodiest war in our history. That internal conflict shattered the old Republic, and made a mockery of the guiding principle behind our War for Independence. The Confederates didn’t consent to those governing them. Period. As the first Imperial President, Lincoln set countless ugly precedents that paved the way for today’s America 2.0.

The Civil War was unlike all our others. The enemy wasn’t a foreign bogeyman. It was, in too many cases, someone’s brother or cousin. Such a sad internal bloodletting was simply permitted to happen. As I pointed out in my book Crimes and Cover-Ups in American Politics: 1776-1963, not a single public official tried to stop it from happening. The pointless carnage wiped out one quarter of the young males in the south. We became the United States, singular, as a result. Centralized government won. Press censorship won. Lack of due process won. “Total War,” the scorched earth policy, won. The Imperial Presidency won. Nothing good came out of it. This includes freeing the slaves, something the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t in fact do.

The court historians tell us that the greatest presidents preside over wars. In 1898, a reluctant warmonger, William McKinley, would be pressured into our disastrous venture in Cuba, which further crossed the unconstitutional line that was first seen in Mexico. One of the most aggressive proponents of the ridiculous Spanish-American War was young Teddy Roosevelt, who would become McKinley’s second vice-president after Garret Hobart died at just fifty five. Which put Teddy into a convenient position to assume the presidency when McKinley was assassinated a few years later. The first real false flag came with the misrepresented sinking of the Maine. Remember it. As William Randolph Hearst put it, they gave us a damn war.

Woodrow Wilson was, like Lincoln, a phony who masqueraded as a voice for peace. He ran on a campaign to keep us out of the European war, but once elected president he conspired behind the scenes to get us involved. Franklin Roosevelt was even busier finagling us into the next world war, despite saying, “I’ll say it again and again and again: your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.” FDR was the first of the great chicken hawks. He never came close to any field of battle, but lusted for any armed conflict. His chicken hawk descendants are everywhere today, from Bill Clinton to Lindsey Graham. The entire neocon movement consists of laughably weak chicken hawks. They all talk very loudly and carry no stick.

Over the past few decades, we’ve seen the birth of the initial band of female chicken hawks. Hillary Clinton is literally the anti-Jeanette Rankin. Like her draft dodging husband, she has been enthralled with all our nonsensical foreign interventions since the Vietnam War. We came, she saw, and they died. The very word “peace” would get stuck in her throat, perhaps choking her to death. Picture a vampire saying “Jesus Christ.” Today’s peace movement, such as it exists, is thanks to Gerald Celente, Cindy Sheehan, Cynthia McKinney, and a handful of others. Peace has never been more unpopular. Considering our history, that’s really saying something.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is an unlikely warmonger. After all, his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was the only president in American history who disobeyed orders from his hidden masters in this regard. After being left hanging out to dry following the Bay of Pigs disaster, JFK fired the top three officials in the CIA, including director Allen Dulles. Then he resisted pressure from the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff, and every leading figure in the Pentagon, and remained cool during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He began the withdrawal from Vietnam shortly before his death. This was all reversed by LBJ, of course, following the events in Dallas. JFK signed his death warrant with his June, 1963 American University “peace” speech.

RFK, Jr. has been tweeting out some pro-peace comments recently. In one tweet, he vowed, “I won’t send our troops abroad for oil wars or regime change wars. Once elected, I will give veterans a formal say in shaping policies that are pro-veteran and pro-peace.” Commenting on the pathetic Republican debate, RFK, Jr. tweeted, “Now they’re talking about war with China. These people are obsessed with it. No wonder our domestic economy and infrastructure is quickly deteriorating to Third World status.” In another tweet, he declared, “As President, my loyalty is to you. Not foreign wars going nowhere.” His critique of the Republicans could have come from me.

He further lashed out at the Republicans for talking only about war, and being “more interested in Ukraine’s border than our own.” He publicly calls Julian Assange a “hero,” and quotes from Orwell. On the latest crisis in the Middle East, he tweeted, “It didn’t take long for the neocons in Washington to spin the Hamas terror attacks to advance their agenda of war against Iran.” He even criticized our massive foreign aid, including the latest $14.3 billion to Israel. RFK, Jr. seemed to be echoing his uncle’s rhetoric some sixty years before. In addition to all his other overtures for peace, JFK was also the last president to challenge Israel. At the time of his death, he was engaged in a battle with David Ben-Gurion over Israel’s developing nuclear program.

So how do we juxtapose these consistently laudable comments with RFK, Jr.’s reaction to Hamas attacking Israel? “This ignominious, unprovoked, and barbaric attack on Israel must be met with world condemnation and unequivocal support for the Jewish state’s right to self-defense. We must provide Israel with whatever it needs to defend itself—now.” Kennedy tweeted. “As President, I’ll make sure that our policy is unambiguous so that the enemies of Israel will think long and hard before attempting aggression of any kind. I applaud the strong statements of support from the Biden White House for Israel in her hour of need.” He went on to note, “we must follow through with unwavering, resolute, and practical action. America must stand by our ally throughout this operation and beyond as it exercises its sovereign right to self-defense.” Hard to believe all these comments came from the same person.

When Vivek Ramaswamy’s mild attempts at even-handedness towards the Middle East situation is the best you have, you know your political process doesn’t represent America’s interests. Our kind of “bipartisan,” interventionist foreign policy is incompatible not only with peace, but with national sovereignty. Ironically, while meddling in the affairs of several other nations, who represented no threat and had never done us harm, our bold leaders have permitted a real invasion to go unchecked for over forty years. If the continuous stream of migrants through our open southern border isn’t an invasion, what would be? While usurping endless authority not granted to it under the Constitution, our government has refused, and still refuses, to perform the most basic requirement of any nation- to protect its borders.

When Donald Trump, in his customary fashion, threatened to do the logical thing, and bring home the troops that nonsensically remain in some 150 countries around the world, the establishment was aghast. How absurd would that be- to remove these troops that serve no purpose whatsoever, and use a fraction of them to guard our own southern border? Just hinting at that brings out the kind of venom reserved for transgender rights and “White Supremacy.” The war fever our “representatives,” state controlled media, and mindless public all habitually suffer from doesn’t feature an affinity for defending the border. In fact, American war fever includes a chronic opposition to guarding the border at all. Well, at least the southern border.

The innate American love for war reflects many of our quaint traditions. The notion that disputes can be settled by “taking this outside.” Good parents teach their children that might doesn’t make right. But everything they experience suggests otherwise. Certainly the culture promotes might makes right relentlessly. If someone can beat someone else up, they were right. They become virtuous. I covered all this extensively in my book Bullyocracy. A society that respects bullies, that thinks “nice guys finish last,” is not likely to be attracted to nonviolence, or peace. There’s a reason why so many politicians, including presidents, came from the military. War heroes have always naturally garnered votes. Who else could be an effective Commander-in-Chief?

I have often observed how the qualities society admires the most- assertiveness, self-confidence, “toughness,” are the traits that bullies, and psychopaths in general are renowned for. Society doesn’t respect the qualities that most rational people are attracted to; kindness, gentleness, fairness, empathy, etc. They are the characteristics of the weak. The losers. “Winners” are strong. They can beat you up. That’s why they’re winners. As Father Flanagan might have said back in 1930s Hollywood- “Put the gloves on and let’s settle this in the ring.” Or the fields of war. That’s how we “settle” things. Whoever has the bigger punch, or the bigger bombs, is the winner. Which makes them right. Just ask the history books, which are written by the victors.

Nikki Haley screams, “Finish them off!” In other words, kill all the Palestinians. They’re all “terrorists” aren’t they? No one criticizes her. Rashida Tlaib makes some very reasonable comments, and she is censured by Congress. Funny, they usually love her anti-White rhetoric. Some controversial comments are more equal than others. RFK, Jr. sure sounds entirely different when the subject is Israel. Tulsi Gabbard threw aside her usual proclamations for peace and insisted that she, too, “stands with” Israel. Who doesn’t? Nobody in Washington, D.C. The old expression about identifying those really in charge, by who you’re not allowed to criticize, comes to mind here. There is no other conclusion that can be drawn.

But leaving Israel out of it, the American public continues to fall for the same stale propaganda that has been used since 1898. Well, really 1860. Lincoln was the first to call those opposed to war “appeasers,” and insinuate that by doing so they were working with the enemy. And there is always an enemy. You can’t have a war without one. Dubya wasn’t quite as poetical as Lincoln, but he echoed him with his “You’re either with us or you’re with the terrorists.” America- love it or leave it, as they used to advise the hippies. Now the aging hippies basically advise the nonexistent “White Supremacists” to do the same thing. It’s a selective patriotic thing, you wouldn’t understand. But Winston Smith would.

The greatest antiwar activists in American history are largely forgotten. Clement Vallandigham, who was arrested in the middle of the night by Lincoln’s uniformed thugs. Eugene Debs, thrown in jail for protesting WWI. Even the socialist tag doesn’t help his reputation. As I will show in my upcoming The American Memory Hole, many WWII protesters were imprisoned as well, and have been ignored by the court historians. To be fair, the court historians ignore a lot. They have to; it’s the only way they could possibly promote the nonsense they do. Huey Long. Smedley Butler. John T. Flynn, classical liberal journalist and head of the New York chapter of the America First Committee, whose career was “cancelled” by the great FDR himself.

Who remembers the poor Irish immigrants who took to the streets of New York for the Civil War draft riots? Who remembers Abbie Hoffman now? My friend Cindy Sheehan was once lauded by the Left when her protests were against then President Bush. But when she pointed out that Obama was the same kind of warmonger, she lost too many “liberals” who had absorbed the new narrative. The “Woke” Left wants nothing to do with any antiwar sentiments. It’s Climate Change, racism, and trans rights. The “Woke” Left supports all war, all the time. And the corrupt intelligence agencies. The FBI is your friend, as long as it’s going after Trumpenstein. As for the Right, you can SWAT team any home you want, unless it’s Mar-a-Lago. Then we have a problem. But the police, and the “troops” are still on “our” side.

It’s the warmongers who get remembered in the history books. George Washington certainly isn’t remembered for his Farewell Address, which is contradicted by every foreign policy decision made from the beginning of the twentieth century, with the exceptions noted earlier during the Kennedy presidency. We love the “Old Ironsides” types. The “Give ‘em Hell” types. Who remembers Henry David Thoreau, the originator of nonviolent civil disobedience? Those urging peace, and cautioning against war, are smeared as “appeasers.” Wussies, as they used to say. That’s probably an offensive term now, what with the whole fifty seven genders thing. But maybe “wussy” is one of those genders. Who knows? Can you name fifty six others?

I just missed being drafted for the Vietnam War. I was already making plans to go to Canada. I was very fortunate that the meaningless quagmire ended when it did. Like all wars, it was stupid. And benefited no one but the bankers and huge corporations. Bell Helicopter, for example. “War crimes” is a misnomer, as all war is criminal by its very nature. When else is murder not only perfectly legal, but lauded? The more you kill, the more medals you can win. There was, and can be, no “good” war. The Civil War created a new nation, and it wasn’t the one the Founders established. It wasn’t “good.” Neither was WWII. How can millions of human beings dying ever be considered “good?” War is basically a plague. We are the virus.

If being for peace makes you weak, I’m as weak as it gets. Christ told us to turn the other cheek. Now, America has turned the other cheek a few times. Like when the Soviets shot down Korean Airlines Flight 007 (does that flight number sound just a bit suspicious?) With American congressman Larry McDonald on board. The only proud “conspiracy theorist” to ever serve in Congress. And Ronald Reagan, bold anti-communist that he was, did….absolutely nothing. He turned the other cheek. But while we never really are literally attacked, we always respond with might. Except for that Korean Airlines thing. And, of course, the nonstop four decades of assault on our southern border. We really, really turn the other cheek there.

Who will admire someone that speaks out against war? The hippie girls did back in the ‘60s, but I was too young then, so maybe that’s just a misconception. Will it score you points on your job? You’d be lucky if you don’t get fired. Especially now, with Israel in the middle. Everybody knows it’s career suicide to do that, although we are assured that this isn’t because there is some disproportionate power involved. As Ben Shapiro and others have declared, such thoughts are anti-Semitic in and of themselves. It’s Hamas, and Hezbolah, that we have to worry about. I apologize for overlooking all the powerful “terrorist” influencers in this country. It’s wrong to stop conservatives from speaking on college campuses. But not “anti-Semites.”

Even if we don’t literally commit troops to an official World War III, we are at war. With each other, in a hopelessly divided country. With our corrupt and tyrannical government. “COVID” was an act of war. Not by any virus, but by the leaders of the world. The entire world. Locked down and masked, under the most ridiculous “science” imaginable. We’ll never be at peace again. Not that we were ever at peace, really. But at least we weren’t locked down to protect us against an invisible enemy. And they know they can lock us down again, whenever they want. The majority will obey, just as they always do. Lemmings. Ours is not to question why.

Whether we remain in an undeclared and unrecognized World War III, against our own authoritarian government, or send hundreds of thousands of young men, women, and transgenders, to “stand” with Israel, the difference will be how and where the culling occurs. They want millions to die, and it probably matters little if that happens on a far-flung battlefield, or in weaponized hospitals, or through weaponized vaccines. They may lock all the Thought Criminals up. Maybe execute some of them. It would make a grand new reality television show- pulling the switch on a new “insurrectionist” each week. Maybe they could have a special guest transgender do the honors. Or an actual Deep State official whose crimes have gone unpunished. This country is full of them.

How many millions have died because their government ordered them off to battle? There is never a good rationale, and diplomacy is always better. War is kind of like The Purge movies. Legalized killing. And lots of rape, too. And looting. My books are full of examples of this behavior on the part of seemingly most soldiers. It’s enabled and ignored, if it has to be, by the authorities who pay them. War is organized murder, as Harry Patch said. Nothing glamorous about it. Nothing heroic. Brutal and mindless. Not a single death served any logical purpose. None of these poor young souls died for anything, other than profit margins and political expediency. Most Americans may be at the point where they believe, as Orwell’s Inner Party proclaimed, that War is Peace.