The Meaning of War and Economic Collapse

"The real war, of which this sudden outburst of death and destruction is only an incident, began long ago. It has been raging for tens of years, but its battles have been so little advertised that they have been hardly noted. It is a clash of traders." - John Reed, 1914 from "The Trader's War"

I've cross-posted several comments I made at the New York Times on recent articles.  My comments essentially summarize my belief that the purpose and cause of the "War on Terror" has been to plunge the world into conflict to create a permanent state of war.  This permanent state of war achieves important goals for select actors:

• enriches important corporate actors in our economy 
• redistributes wealth to the rich
• destroys and brainwashes the sons and daughters of the working class
• condemns our society to a future of fossil fuels while diminishing R&D into sustainable energy
• diminishes the power of the electorate to create economic justice

An excellent summary of the United States economy and imperialism can be read at "The Breakdown of Capitalism and the Fight for Socialism in the United States".  Corporate profits are now at record highs (1,2,3,4,5).

from David E. Sanger's article: "U.S. Raises Pressure on Pakistan in Raid's Wake"

my comment :

"The profits from war are caused only by the division between sets of true believers. According to his youngest widow, they lived in Abbottabad for the past five years, 800 yards from Pakistan's Military Academy. So we can rough out how this worked. The U.S. gives money and intelligence to Pakistan, who transfers that money to Bin Laden and the Taleban. Both sides create fervent support for war and jehad, so that the military-industrial complex who are selling them arms, contracts, oil can continue to make high profits forever. Meanwhile, all three countries (Afghanistan, Pakistan, United States) continue to rot economically under the burdens of war and debt, impoverishing their local populations, while their rich and elite reap the profits of continual war for ten years! As a side-effect lot of young men die, lots of young men suffer grievous injuries, and lots of families are physically and psychologically destroyed. However companies that make advanced defense systems, missile, telecommunications, etc. continue to reap huge government profits from ever increasing expenditures on defense."

from Paul Krugman's Column : Fear and Failure 
my comment:
"Mr. Krugman:
Great Commentary as always. But let's be frank: It is not possible anymore to use a corrupt system's logic to save a corrupt system. The Republicans and the Democrats engage in class warfare designed to destroy the working and middle classes. It's that simple. They pump billions into government contractors to fight wars overseas we can't win. Or worse they send money and intelligence to corrupt foreign governments who funnel that money to terrorists, thus ensuring that we can keep sending young men to their deaths overseas forever. Instead of simply nationalizing oil, health, finance, transportation, big pharma, etc., they bail out, subsidize, and re-float these industries who continue the same wasteful production methods that leave us bereft of guaranteed health, local energy production, centralized high speed rail, needed tax monies, and safe and clean environments to raise our families. Let's face it, our entire government is designed to bloat the rich to even greater heights of wealth at the expense of the rest of us. That's all our democracy has become. Capitalism has sucked the life out of it."