I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.
-Major General Smedley Butler, USMC, Two-Time Congressional Medal of Honor WinnerAuthor of, War is a Racket!
Now you see it, now you don’t. Think of it as the Department of Defense’s version of the street con game, three-card monte, or maybe simply as the Pentagon shuffle. In any case, the Pentagon’s budget is as close to a work of art as you’re likely to find in the U.S. government—if, that is, by work of art you mean scam.
The Russian Defense Ministry has called on the US Air Force to avoid endangering civilian passenger flights with their “unprofessional” actions. A US defense attache has been summoned after an incident over the Sea of Japan near Russia’s eastern borders, where an American spy plane was detected flying too close to civilian aircraft.
Japan has formally asked the U.S. to end all military-related rapes, deaths and other violence in their country. The Japanese Prime Minister said that he has “no words to express” his horror at an incident involving the disappearance of a Japanese woman, and the involvement of an American working on a U.S. military base who was arrested in connection with her disappearance. Pressfortruth.ca reports: The Japanese leader told the public that he urged the U.S. to “take thorough measures to prevent the recurrence” of any similar events in the future.
If China begins to reclaim and militarize Scarborough Shoal, says Philippines President Benigno S. Aquino III, America must fight. Should we back down, says Aquino, the United States will lose “its moral ascendancy, and also the confidence of one of its allies.”
And what is Scarborough Shoal? A cluster of rocks and reefs, 123 miles west of Subic Bay, that sits astride the passageway out of the South China Sea into the Pacific, and is well within Manila’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone.