by Stephen Lendman

Candidate Obama promised peace in our time. He pledged to "bring America's longest war to a responsible end." He lied saying:

"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do."

"I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank."

Fighting continues. It rages out-of-control. Washington plans permanent occupation. Withdrawal is more fiction than fact.

Thousands of US troops will remain. They'll do so indefinitely. It's just a question of how many.

Obama ravaged Libya. Syria is his war. So is Iraq war III.

Permanent war is official US policy. Obama is the latest in a long line of US warrior presidents. He's a war criminal multiple times over.

He's waging war on humanity. He intends escalating things dangerously. He promised no US ground forces in Iraq.

He lied. Over 1,000 special forces were deployed. Hundreds more are coming. Brigades of US ground forces may follow.

Mission creep often follows initial forays. Another potential quagmire looms.

Joint Chiefs Chairman General Martin Dempsey said he'll recommend deploying US combat troops if ISIS/ISIL/the Islamic State (IS) can't be defeated other ways.

"My view at this point is that this coalition is the appropriate way forward," he said. "I believe that will prove true."

"But if it fails to be true, and if there are threats to the United States, then I, of course, would go back to the president and make a recommendation that may include the use of US military ground forces."

Obama "told me…to come back to him on a case-by-case basis."

In other words, Obama's "no (US) boots on the ground" is another of his many Big Lies.

If Dempsey and other military commanders recommend them, expect invasion followed by full-scale war.

Expect potentially thousands of US troops deployed. Expect protracted fighting.

Expect Obama to begin bombing Syria. According to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel:

"Because (IS) operates freely across the Iraqi-Syrian border, and maintains a safe haven in Syria, our actions will not be restrained by a border in name only."

They'll "require a sustained effort over an extended period of time. It is a generational problem."

Post-9/11, Dick Cheney warned of permanent wars in our lifetime. Former CIA director James Woolsey said:

America "is engaged in World War IV, and it could continue for years."

"This fourth world war, I think, will last considerably longer than either World Wars I or II..."

The Pentagon's 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) called it the "long war." It rages. It's permanent. It's against enemies America invents.

On September 21, 1992, GHW Bush told UN General Assembly members that multinational troops would become a New World Order army, saying:

"Nations should develop and train military units for possible UN peacekeeping operations."

America's permanent war agenda wasn't explained. Nor was using "peacekeepers" as imperial occupiers. Coalitions of the willing came later.

Obama continues America's longstanding tradition. Wars are glorified in the name of peace.

The business of America is war. It's a national addiction. It's a longstanding obsession. Brute force is official policy.

One nation after another is ravaged. They're destroyed. They're plundered. They're transformed into dystopian wastelands. Their people are exploited.

General Smedley Butler called war a "racket." His 1933 speech explained, saying:

"I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as (a Marine). I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General."

"And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers.

"…I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico...safe for American oil interests in 1914."

"I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in."

"I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street."

"The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909 - 1912."

"I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916."

"In China, I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested."

"During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket."

"Looking back at it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints."

"The best he could do was operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."

Today America's global empire extends everywhere. Super-weapons Butler couldn't have imagined enforce it.

Modern-day Butlers don't exist. Profiles in courage aren't a US attribute.

On issues of war and peace, both parties march in lockstep. So do MSM scoundrels, academia, think tanks and other influential organizations.

They ignore rule of law principles. They're on the wrong side of history. They're mindless of potential catastrophic consequences.

Their ideological extremism makes the unthinkable possible. Things today are dire and then some. Potential global war looms.

Preventing it matters most. Not as long as Obama remains unchecked. Not while he pursues open-ended conflict.

Not when permanent war remains official US policy. Not while one country after another is ravaged and destroyed.

Not when warriors run America. Not in the absence of mass public outrage.

Obama insists he's authorized to wage open-ended Middle East war. He lied.

No nation may intervene in the internal affairs of others. None may attack another except in self-defense.

None may do so without Security Council authorization. None exits. Expect none forthcoming.

It doesn't matter. Obama intends making a bad situation worse. He threatens the entire region.

World peace, security and stability hang by a thread. New World Order extremism threatens them.

Ukraine is a global flashpoint. It's the gravest geopolitical crisis since WW II.

Sergey Lavrov accused US-led NATO of "pushing Kiev for a forcible solution" to ongoing conflict conditions.

Ukraine has a choice," he said. It can "to go on the path of peace and constructive dialogue in the society or slide into authoritarianism and nationalist radical dictatorship."

"This is up to Kiev and Ukrainian society to decide.” It depends on "substantial, open and inclusive dialogue involving representatives of all regions and all political forces as quickly as possible."

It's "necessary to discuss the scope of issues concerning constitutional system, the future of the country in general where all nationalities, minorities and regions where human rights would be fully observed in all their variety would live comfortably and safely."

It's what Washington deplores. It's what it's going all-out to prevent.

It's to assure unchallenged imperial control. It's to eliminate Russia as a military and geopolitical rival.

State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin was clear and unequivocal. Irresponsible US policy destabilizes Eurasia. He addressed his lower house colleagues, saying:

"We begin the autumn session amid serious deterioration of the international situation."

"The long-awaited ceasefire regime in Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics suspended massive bloodshed."

"But the crisis and confrontation in Ukraine continue. And chaos instigated in the very center of Europe did not cool down belligerent passions of those who had provoked them six months ago."

"The recent NATO summit has just made the current situation worse."

"We hear from different sources that the Kiev regime was promised deliveries of weapons and military hardware from some countries of this military bloc, and that is already fraught with outright interference in Ukrainian domestic affairs."

"Speaking straightforwardly, (it's aiding and abetting) war crimes committed in the country."

"…(A)ll masks have…been cast away…(T)he moment of truth has come."

"…Citizens of many European countries (are) asking their authorities 'inconvenient' questions."

They know "blindly following Washington (rules turns sovereign) European powers" into vassal states.

"A cynical and irresponsible policy pursued by the United States brings the world on the brink of an essentially new Сold War."

"Its upgraded version is turning into reality of the present day."

War is more than a racket. It's ideologically extreme. It's cold-blooded mass murder and destruction.

It inflicts unconscionable suffering. It's the highest form of lawlessness.

It serves monied interests. It lets them use ill-gotten gains to make more of them.

It makes the world safe for war-profiteers. It lets them gorge at the public trough.

According to Michael Parenti, it lets "the dominant politico-economic interests of one nation expropriate for their own enrichment the land, labor, raw materials, and markets of another people."

Nations are destroyed to save them. They're pillaged for profit. Populations become disenfranchised.

Workers become serfs. Local cultures become mass-market consumer ones.

Agribusiness replaces local farming. Competitive industries are eliminated. Foreign investment crowds out local capital.

Dominance legitimizes capital's divine right. Plunder assures obscene profits.

Capital accumulation demands more. Profiteering and dominance matter most.

Trillions of dollars are spent. Waste, fraud, abuse and the grandest of grand theft are standard practice.

Homeland needs go begging. So do popular ones. Peace is a convenient illusion.

Wars without end rage. No end in sight looms. America's war on terror is state terror.

Howard Zinn once asked "(h)ow can you have a war on terrorism when war itself is terrorism?"

"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people."

There's none able to suppress horrendous genocidal high crimes against peace.

Why most Americans don't challenge what harms them, they'll have to explain. They have a choice.

They can demand peace, equity and justice or potentially perish in a mushroom-shaped cloud. No in between appears likely.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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