Is War Mass Mental Illness? By James Jaeger

The important thing to remember about war is that PEOPLE don't generally instigate and fight wars, GOVERNMENTS do, especially EMPIRES. And the most common handy "reasons" for getting a war going are:

1. Real or imagined Limited Resources;
2. Real or imagined Threats from Others;
3. Bank loans going sour.


Real or imagined Limited Resources: The traditional reason tribes, and later city-states and nations, went to war was because their empire was expanding and needed more resources. What better and cheaper way to get them than to just TAKE them from your neighbor. Hey, the American Empire is still doing this, from the Indians' land to Saddam's oil fields.


Real or imagined Threats from Others: But in order for a government to churn its people up enough so they will a) tolerate excessive taxation for the war and/or b) allow their currency to be inflated by printing up paper money, a government has to do a good job pushing buttons, and what better button to push is there than exploiting the "scary differences" between people and groups. Them damn Japs, Krouts, Jews, Nazis, Niggers, Whites, NeoCons, Zionists, Arabs, Left-Wing Extremists, Fundamentalists, Terrorists -- the list goes on.


Bank loans going sour: But nothing is quite so beautiful as starting a war, or joining a war, in order to collateralize a bunch of loans that are going sour -- for instance, like what major bankers in the U.S. did when they machinated to allow the Lusitania to be sunk. This ploy got the U.S. cits so fired up the gov was then in a position to "justify" our entry into WW I. Oh, and did I mention that J.P. Morgan also got to have the U.S. gov collateralize his massive loans to the British, loans which were going south due to superior German submarine technology?


But today, the best wars are reserved for the entity that has a monopoly on force. And fortunately or unfortunately, only one such entity currently fits the bill today: the American Empire as the very DEFINITION of an empire is: an entity that has a monopoly on force. And what is this monopoly on force used for as such pertains to banking? Simple, the reason for the Empire's current wars is largely to roll over its debt. Since the current U.S. debt has increased from $2.7 trillion before Reagan to the current $8.4 trillion under Bush II, there are a lot of Treasury Notes, Bills and Bonds always coming due. And many of them are to the Chinese, so if we default on them: no more cheap DVD players and large-screen TVs.


But how are these going to get paid? And what about the other $29 trillion in off-budget debt the U.S. owes that no one is talking about? How is THIS going to get paid and rolled over (also known as re-financed)? Not by taxes; King Bush II has been LOWERING taxes. Answer: It gets paid by LENDING to a) U.S. citizens and large funds; b) foreign countries like China and Japan and; c) the Federal Reserve (which gets the money to "buy" the Treasuries by literally printing it up). But in order to BORROW enough money to pay and roll over these debts, the U.S. Congress has to have a pretty good excuse as to WHY they need even MORE cash. Hey, what better excuse than TERRORISM! Than WAR! Especially a LONG war, such as the 30-Years War or the COLD WAR or the WAR ON TERRORISM.


Nothing like a war that will "go on forever" to pay those bills and to encourage the public to vote in those Congressmen that will borrow this important money, money that will be used to "do good" and "bring freedom and democracy to the rest of the world." An in this mountain of perpetual WAR FUNDS there just happens to be enough spare cash to pay $500 billion in interest payments as well as a few billion in perks for each Congressman's home district and thus keeping him in office for "all the good work he's doing at home in the fatherland, I mean homeland."


But in order to keep rolling over those loans and paying tat interest to the banks, it helps if the gov can bring 1 and 2 into play. After all THAT'S why we MUST fight. Those goddamn Arabs and Jews or that madman Saddam and all his oil.


So war is not really "mass mental illness" unless you want to consider the public that is getting suckered into them as so stupid they might as WELL be mentally ill. And of course, this DOES perfectly describe much of the lumpen TV-watching, newspaper-reading public that spends its time buying endless consumer goods from China with credit cards and home equity. And running around drugged out of its mind on beer and prescription drugs so it can get it up for some extra leisure time to screw anything that walks. But alas, what else do citizens of an Empire do?!