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I forgot TL had a blog feature, I've been keeping a blog for a few months now, after reading this story: https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/us-forces-stay-iraq-long-needed-spokesman/
I got a bit fed up and decided to write about it: http://www.outragednews.com/2018/08/the-never-ending-iraq-war-and-middle.html
If you want to check sources for my claims, check the original blog post, you can just click on the thing and it'll take you to my sources.
Here is the text:
The lives of soldiers mean little in the face of geopolitics and increasing corporate profits
I am 26 years old. My country has been at war with no less than two nations or otherwise militarily involved which now just means bombing without an official declaration, for more than half of my life. Not that the two "official" wars of Iraq or Afghanistan have an actual declaration either. Its all under the now 17 year old AUMF. There is so much to unpack here, lets start with some fun facts to better acquaint ourselves with what is actually going on with our tax dollars in our name.
America Has Been At War 93% of the Time – 222 Out of 239 Years – Since 1776, i.e. the U.S. has only been at peace for less than 20 years total since its birth.
The US Commenced Plan To Dominate ‘Grand Area’ Of The Globe After WWII.
The Neoconservative wing of the US government, after 9/11 decided to "Invade 7 countries in 5 years"
On the oil reserves in the middle east during World War II “It’s a stupendous source of strategic power and the greatest material prize in world history.” “It’s strategically the most important part of the world”
That is all to say that, whatever you think you know about US Foreign policy- its bullshit. Unless it begins with or contains something along the lines "geopolitical strategical importance and/or natural resources." That might be news to some, but it really shouldn't be, this is pretty out in the open if you pay even the slightest bit of attention to the news.
U.S. soldiers are fighting and dying for the bottom line of fossil fuel companies. That's what this is. Its not about "spreading democracy" or "liberating" people in the region. In a day and age when we could convert the worlds energy grid to green technology in a matter of months, this whole ordeal of permanently occupying the middle east is just a bad joke. It really is, there's just no other way to put it, you have a small number of incredibly powerful wealthy people who are playing a chess game with with planet and peoples lives simply so they can keep playing the chess game and maintain their status as players, while the rest of us are expendable pawns.
Do I need to even get into the fact that 15 out of the 19 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia? Perhaps our 2nd closest ally after Israel? No, I don't think I need to, but that information exists as well, and it adds to this picture, this real world picture that the occupation of the middle east has nothing to do with 9/11 or Terrorism (btw the US is the largest sponsor of state Terror and it has been since the end of WWII) or freedom or democracy. It has everything to do with maintaining a monopoly on the worlds primary energy source as well as making sure the folks who run that monopoly fatten their wallets while they do so.
I'm even sure where I'm going with this anymore, but lets recap if only for my own sake: We're there for oil. Everything else said besides that is a lie. Okay. Cool.
So what can we do? We the people? Organize. Push renewable energy. Demonstrate against the wars. Vote for anti war candidates or at least people who will begin the process of unraveling the empire. Aside from being aware, make other people aware of this too. We live in an age where people have the entire accumulated knowledge of human kind on their tiny little fucking rectangle, I believe the colloquial term is "phone". Use that, educate yourself, educate others. Its going to take solidarity on a national if not global scale to undo these things we're doing but its the right thing to do, not just morally but fiscally as well.
I'm going to stop here before I keep going into different tangents. Stay strong, keep fighting.
 
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i think US oil interests want the US Government to keep roughing up oil producing countries. They want the US military to keep doing things that destabilize the world's oil supply so the price of oil stays very high. This allows the profits of US oil companies remain very high. The last thing US Oil companies want is total peace amongst all oil producing countries because the world price of oil will drop.
Can you imagine if Canada started bombing every country that grew wheat and canola in order to increase profits for the wheat and canola growers in Canada? LOL. what an amazing economic strat that is. 
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The Iraq War is only referred to as a "war" for political reasons; calling it a war has been used as a way to use patriotism as a way to keep support for the prolonged occupation.
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The US helped our ally blow apart a bus full of kids and our ally called it a legitimate military strike. It didn't even get a mention in the space here dedicated to US politics.
https://www.vox.com/2018/8/20/17760322/yemen-children-bomb-bus-pentagon
It's about a lot more than oil but the "freedom and democracy" couldn't be more obviously straight up BS as our ally is planning to behead someone for advocating for exactly what we're supposed to be doing with our relationship.
https://www.newsweek.com/who-israa-al-ghomgham-female-saudi-activist-may-be-beheaded-after-death-1083499
US imperialism is cancerous.
EDIT:
So what can we do? We the people? Organize. Push renewable energy. Demonstrate against the wars. Vote for anti war candidates or at least people who will begin the process of unraveling the empire. Aside from being aware, make other people aware of this too.
Organizing is helpful. Whatever plan is established or route chosen, the better organized the allies are, the more effective the transition.
Renewable energy is good, but might be just as helpful to learn Chinese in that regard. Generally good to be aware of as well as the exploitation of the source countries people from which the materials are stolen.
Sure would be nice if there were anti-war candidates to vote for outside of niche races where they are unlikely to gain a significant portion of the votes.
With literally no option outside of forcing change on the parties and removing almost all of their current leaders from positions of power (obviously against their preference), and the clear demonstrations that people are fierce defenders of (or cynically accepting of) much of the status quo (the military-industrial complex namely) you have to identify allies organize, educate/inform, and take direct action.
Direct actions that feed into the cycle of identifying allies, organizing, educating and informing, leading to more direct action are usually best captured at the local level. Get out and organize something modest but positive for your community.
Some examples include, free meals, basic services/goods like free brake light repairs, or whatever skills or resources you and your allies have handy with which you can positively impact your community and utilize those opportunities to learn more about surrounding communities and for them to learn more about why you're out there.
My personal opinion politically is it's mostly a lost cause regarding the larger issues like supporting despicable despots around the world in the interest of furthering US/Corporate imperialism. But locally you can still improve the material conditions of your community with enough effort.
It's just important to note that the entirety of the US political establishment will try to end such efforts by whatever means necessary up to and including assassination and violently overthrowing democratically elected leaders. Despite what some people tell you and as Trump demonstrates in some ways, "the enemy of your enemy" is NOT necessarily your friend. I wouldn't suggest trusting just any anti-establishment rhetorician, but I also wouldn't trust anyone advocating or cynically indifferent to establishment politicians looking to give the status quo a new coat of lead-filled paint.
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EPT
