We Are the Redcoats Now
by Mark Luedtke
The US government today is far more oppressive than King George III back in 1776. King George held zero political prisoners. He allowed the colonial press to operate freely. He allowed the colonists free elections. He imposed virtually no restrictions on trade. He imposed no restrictions on travel. American colonists were among the lightest taxed people in the world. But the key word is ‘allowed’. The Founding Fathers demanded freedom, not permission, and they fought and died to win that freedom.
Compare that to our oppressive government. American citizens can be imprisoned and held without trial. Paramilitary police routinely kick in doors and assault peaceful Americans. Our elections are rigged so that only members of one of the two parties can win. Every aspect of trade in the US is restricted by government. The government can block Americans from getting on an airplane without explaining why and without providing recourse to challenge their no-fly status. Combining federal, state and local taxes, we’re among the most heavily taxed people in the supposedly free world with some Americans paying up to 50 percent of their income in taxes. The Founding Fathers would roll over in their graves if they saw how we’ve submitted to our oppressive rulers.
And the US government is not just worse than King George in domestic policy. The US has troops in 135 countries. The US has nearly 1,000 military bases in foreign countries. King George couldn’t dream of projecting military power on that scale.
Which brings us to Afghanistan. Does anybody remember who attacked us on 9/11? The left did a wonderful job of reminding Americans that Saddam Hussein didn’t attack on 9/11, but they’ve done a terrible job of reminding us it wasn’t the Taliban either. The Taliban wouldn’t be our enemy except we’ve been killing them and their civilian neighbors for nine years.
The press never reports there are fewer than 100 al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan. We defeated al Qaeda in Afghanistan in early 2002, yet as of January of 2009, there were 55,000 NATO troops killing Afghans in Afghanistan. That was before President Obama sent 30,000 more Americans to kill more. Clearly they’re not fighting our real enemy. They are not fighting for American security. They are fighting for Afghanistan’s mineral wealth. Like King George’s redcoats, they’re fighting a colonial war for treasure.
In fact these wars make us less safe. Nidal Malik Hasan was a loyal American Army psychiatrist until years of US aggression against Muslims pushed him over the edge and he murdered his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood. Homegrown terrorists didn’t just wake up one day and decide to kill their fellow Americans. They have been pushed and pushed and pushed to the breaking point by government’s policy of aggression against middle-eastern Muslims. The US government has been toppling governments and funding wars in the middle-east for 60 years, pushing many Muslims to the point of responding to US aggression with violence of their own. We’re creating terrorists faster than we can overcome them. We cannot win the war on terror with bombs and bullets. We’ll win it by respecting mainstream middle-eastern Muslims’ right to self-determination and engaging them in a system of mutually beneficial voluntary exchange that rewards freedom and independent thought instead of fear and submission.
I get a good laugh when conservatives correctly proclaim that American central planners can never succeed at central planning the US at the point of the government’s gun but then foolishly claim American central planners can centrally plan foreign countries (nation building) at the point of the government’s gun. Holding both these positions is irrational. I also laugh when conservatives complain about irresponsible government spending then support spending billions of dollars every month on wars of aggression. That’s equally irrational.
Wars of aggression are the ultimate conclusion of socialist oppression, and oppression can only exist in darkness. It’s the responsibility of the free press to shine a light on oppression, to shine a light on government aggression and violence so the people can stop it. Unfortunately the media in the US long ago ceased performing that function. The accomplice press, both right and left, are mere propaganda arms for the two parties of government, and both parties support colonial wars. There is no anti-war left, only an anti-Republican war left that is deathly silent now that Obama owns the war in Afghanistan.
So I applaud Julian Assange for publishing tens of thousands of documents highlighting the aggression of the US government in Afghanistan. These documents show that our troops are not fighting for the security of Americans. They’re fighting a civil war on behalf of rival gangs in Afghanistan so that politically connected US groups can reap the rewards from extracting Afghanistan’s mineral wealth without having to compete for it. For this, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange fears for his life from American agents.
I feel sorry for Americans who have been misled into thinking our troops fight and die in Afghanistan to protect Americans. I get frustrated when I hear people say they support the troops in one breath and say they support sending them into harm’s way in Afghanistan the next. Robert Gibbs claims, “We believe that this has the potential to put troops, those that cooperate with our efforts, into harm's way.” Bush, Obama and their aristocrat allies are responsible for the risks and the casualties, not Wikileaks.
But mostly I feel sorry for our troops and their families. I hope supporters of the war read the documents and discover the real reason Americans are dying there. I hope that understanding helps bring the troops home before more are killed. End King Obama's war.
by Mark Luedtke
The US government today is far more oppressive than King George III back in 1776. King George held zero political prisoners. He allowed the colonial press to operate freely. He allowed the colonists free elections. He imposed virtually no restrictions on trade. He imposed no restrictions on travel. American colonists were among the lightest taxed people in the world. But the key word is ‘allowed’. The Founding Fathers demanded freedom, not permission, and they fought and died to win that freedom.
Compare that to our oppressive government. American citizens can be imprisoned and held without trial. Paramilitary police routinely kick in doors and assault peaceful Americans. Our elections are rigged so that only members of one of the two parties can win. Every aspect of trade in the US is restricted by government. The government can block Americans from getting on an airplane without explaining why and without providing recourse to challenge their no-fly status. Combining federal, state and local taxes, we’re among the most heavily taxed people in the supposedly free world with some Americans paying up to 50 percent of their income in taxes. The Founding Fathers would roll over in their graves if they saw how we’ve submitted to our oppressive rulers.
And the US government is not just worse than King George in domestic policy. The US has troops in 135 countries. The US has nearly 1,000 military bases in foreign countries. King George couldn’t dream of projecting military power on that scale.
Which brings us to Afghanistan. Does anybody remember who attacked us on 9/11? The left did a wonderful job of reminding Americans that Saddam Hussein didn’t attack on 9/11, but they’ve done a terrible job of reminding us it wasn’t the Taliban either. The Taliban wouldn’t be our enemy except we’ve been killing them and their civilian neighbors for nine years.
The press never reports there are fewer than 100 al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan. We defeated al Qaeda in Afghanistan in early 2002, yet as of January of 2009, there were 55,000 NATO troops killing Afghans in Afghanistan. That was before President Obama sent 30,000 more Americans to kill more. Clearly they’re not fighting our real enemy. They are not fighting for American security. They are fighting for Afghanistan’s mineral wealth. Like King George’s redcoats, they’re fighting a colonial war for treasure.
In fact these wars make us less safe. Nidal Malik Hasan was a loyal American Army psychiatrist until years of US aggression against Muslims pushed him over the edge and he murdered his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood. Homegrown terrorists didn’t just wake up one day and decide to kill their fellow Americans. They have been pushed and pushed and pushed to the breaking point by government’s policy of aggression against middle-eastern Muslims. The US government has been toppling governments and funding wars in the middle-east for 60 years, pushing many Muslims to the point of responding to US aggression with violence of their own. We’re creating terrorists faster than we can overcome them. We cannot win the war on terror with bombs and bullets. We’ll win it by respecting mainstream middle-eastern Muslims’ right to self-determination and engaging them in a system of mutually beneficial voluntary exchange that rewards freedom and independent thought instead of fear and submission.
I get a good laugh when conservatives correctly proclaim that American central planners can never succeed at central planning the US at the point of the government’s gun but then foolishly claim American central planners can centrally plan foreign countries (nation building) at the point of the government’s gun. Holding both these positions is irrational. I also laugh when conservatives complain about irresponsible government spending then support spending billions of dollars every month on wars of aggression. That’s equally irrational.
Wars of aggression are the ultimate conclusion of socialist oppression, and oppression can only exist in darkness. It’s the responsibility of the free press to shine a light on oppression, to shine a light on government aggression and violence so the people can stop it. Unfortunately the media in the US long ago ceased performing that function. The accomplice press, both right and left, are mere propaganda arms for the two parties of government, and both parties support colonial wars. There is no anti-war left, only an anti-Republican war left that is deathly silent now that Obama owns the war in Afghanistan.
So I applaud Julian Assange for publishing tens of thousands of documents highlighting the aggression of the US government in Afghanistan. These documents show that our troops are not fighting for the security of Americans. They’re fighting a civil war on behalf of rival gangs in Afghanistan so that politically connected US groups can reap the rewards from extracting Afghanistan’s mineral wealth without having to compete for it. For this, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange fears for his life from American agents.
I feel sorry for Americans who have been misled into thinking our troops fight and die in Afghanistan to protect Americans. I get frustrated when I hear people say they support the troops in one breath and say they support sending them into harm’s way in Afghanistan the next. Robert Gibbs claims, “We believe that this has the potential to put troops, those that cooperate with our efforts, into harm's way.” Bush, Obama and their aristocrat allies are responsible for the risks and the casualties, not Wikileaks.
But mostly I feel sorry for our troops and their families. I hope supporters of the war read the documents and discover the real reason Americans are dying there. I hope that understanding helps bring the troops home before more are killed. End King Obama's war.
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