War

Study of hunter-gather tribes undermines theory that war has deep, evolutionary roots.

"Instead, Mead proposed that war is a cultural “invention”—in modern lingo, a meme, that can arise in any society, from the simplest to the most complex. Once it arises, war often becomes self-perpetuating, with attacks by one group provoking reprisals and pre-emptive attacks by others.
The war meme also transforms societies, militarizes them, in ways that make war more likely. The Tiwi seem to be a society that has embraced war as a way of life. So is the United States of America.
The Deep Roots Theory is insidious because it leads many people to succumb to the fatalistic notion that war is inevitable. Wrong. War is neither innate nor inevitable."

A little social commentary there.

A good description of NATO as a welfare program and the motives behind all welfare programs.

"No one likes a bully, and Washington’s NATO puppets have been bullied for six decades. British prime ministers, German chancellors, and French presidents have to salute and say “yes sir.”
They all hate it, but they love Washington’s money; so they prostitute themselves and their countries for Washington’s money. Even a person of Winston Churchill’s stature had to suck up to Washington in order to get his bills and his country’s bills paid."

Welfare addicts the recipients to the money, allowing the provider to control them. I doubt revelations about NSA spying will change anything.

Why fight for your country?

"I can understand why a man might take up arms in defense of himself, his family, his friends, perhaps even his neighborhood or his town. But once we get past the lived-in milieu, a man’s risking his life, limbs, health, and mental composure to fight for a large politically defined unit makes less and less sense, the larger the unit. Why, for example, should a man from Arizona go to war on behalf of people from New Jersey, people with whom he is not acquainted, people about whom he knows little or nothing."

Because an enemy with the power and inclination to invade New Jersey won't stop at New Jersey. It will continue conquering, and it will conquer Arizona, unless and until people unite to stop it. This is why the states united to secede from the British.

US drones are everywhere, not just war zones.

Recent Israeli attack on Syria came from a submarine, not planes.

88 Iraqis killed. 242 wounded.