No longer credible, America’s fake military

A short time ago, US President Donald Trump threatened to obliterate Afghanistan with nuclear weapons stating that, at the last moment, he thought killing millions of innocent people might well be “wrong” in some way. Here is exactly what he said: “If we wanted to fight a war in Afghanistan and win it, I could win that war in a week. I just don’t want to kill 10 million people.

I have plans on Afghanistan that if I wanted to win that war, Afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the Earth, it would be gone.”
No longer credible, America’s fake military is the title of an article on the useless military power boasted by Trump to act as hegemon. That is pinned down by Gordon Duff who is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. He’s a senior editor and chairman of the board of Veterans Today.

According to legend, the Roman Emperor Caligula planned to name his favorite horse, Incitatus, a Consul of Rome. Historians generally agree, despite Caligula’s reputation as perhaps the most despotic and insane ruler in history, this story is unlikely. With Trump, however, the tale is a different one. Trump “trumped” Caligula in the “lunatic” category and did it in front of live television audiences around the world.

In general, the media ignored Trump’s gaf and failed miserably to gauge responses around the world, running from incredulity to horror. After all, Trump told the audience, with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan at his side, that it wasn’t his idea in the first place.

America talks military power but fails miserably when it plays “strongman” in Asia and elsewhere, now moving to softer methods, propaganda, false flag terrorism, fake democratic movements, sanctions and now utterly insane threats. Are America’s threats insane? As America wins battles now and again but invariably loses war after war after war, is nuclear annihilation of the defenseless now the “go to” expression of waning American power?

Is it insane to threaten wars America is simply militarily unprepared to fight, threatening nations that are utterly aware the threats that continually come from Trump, Bolton and Pompeo are not just vacuous but “goofy?”

Donald Trump, thus far, is “0 for 3” in his attempt to portray himself as a wartime president. First North Korea, then Venezuela and now Iran, all making a mockery of American invasion threats. Why is this, what is America’s real military capability and why is a nation that has bankrupted itself throwing money at its defense industry “neutered?”

It didn’t start with Vietnam. It’s true, 15 years there, stumbling up and down the peninsula once known as Cochin China, was a great military disaster. After losing 20,000 men and controlling only 5% of the country, the then new American president, Richard Nixon, announced America’s surrender under the guise of what Henry Kissinger called “Vietnamization.” Of course, the Vietnamese were never really taking part in the war, had never built a real army and hadn’t, as the US had done, instituted a program of military conscription. Those in Vietnam who wanted to fight for their country were doing so already. They were called the Viet Cong and they fought against the United States.

Once the Nixon/Kissinger announcement was made, that the US would leave, it was no longer necessary for the Viet Cong to hold territory or defend anything. Thus, they turned to another tactic, that of slaughtering Americans wherever they found them, killing another 35,000 and wounding 20 times that number.

Few are aware the US lost 5000 combat aircraft, excluding helicopters, over Vietnam. From Veterans Today, we read: “Do remember, we lost 5000 combat aircraft in Vietnam including 31 B 52s. The rotting airframes of 500 Phantom II’s are still in the Vietnam jungle. America doesn’t have 5000 aircraft anymore. Add to this 5200 helicopters lost by the Army alone, 10,000 aircraft. Hey, the US lost 95,000 aircraft in World War II, a figure we lie about also with deaths in that war twice what we report, well over 1 million.
Our losses in Vietnam, depending on stats used, 58k or 1.3 million. When you add the slower Agent Orange deaths, it hits 2.2 million.”

The wars, of course, were losses, where America’s military might, when placed on the ground in Asia, mistakes repeated in Iraq and Afghanistan as well in recent decades.  The real story, of course, is why American threats against Iran, Korea and Venezuela, not “Asian” we admit but the lesson applies there as well, are “nuts.”

Let’s add to the group Afghanistan. In a White House conference with Pakistan’s Imran Khan, Trump announced he could “win the war in Afghanistan in ten days.” He said he wouldn’t do it but, according to news reports, Pentagon commanders had presented Trump with a plan to do exactly that.

What wasn’t reported is that the plan presented involved the use of 3 dozen thermonuclear weapons used on the civilian population, something Trump confirmed to Khan, when he stated that the Pentagon’s plan would involve millions of civilian deaths. The Pentagon recommended a nuclear war on Iran because the Taliban has handily defeated the US for 19 years. The reason for that?

America went into Afghanistan in 2001. Sadly, the Taliban, most former Mujahideen once allied with the US, never hated the US but simply refused to be ruled by what they call “puppets” imposed on them against their will. Do remember, General Mac Arthur was fired by Truman in April 1951 when he told the President that Korea could not be held against the Chinese People’s Liberation Army without the use of nuclear weapons. That story was just repeated in Washington under Trump though the lunatic or lunatics at the Pentagon, possibly General Joseph Dunford himself, are managing to hide from public scorn. Why are Trump’s threats not just rhetoric but empty rhetoric? Simply put, the US lacks the resources to invade Iran, something the US promises continually. America’s regional allies, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, have been fought to a virtual standstill by poorly armed revolutionaries in Yemen. Additionally, those nations though their military is well financed, have no experience in real combat operations whatsoever and are subject to massive defensive operations from Iran that would be, minimally, devastating.
Moreover, any war on Iran would spread to an attack on the usurper regime of Israel that has threatened Iran several times. Israel is undoubtedly incapable of enduring such an attack without very heavy losses, and the virtual erasure of America’s military in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia along with any naval vessels in the region.

Similarly, America’s threats against Venezuela are past “empty.” Here it isn’t the powerful military that Iran possesses but rather that Venezuela is simply “unreachable.” You can’t land on their coast, you can’t approach from land, you can’t drop paratroopers on a nation that has modern air defenses, and this is the real story behind Venezuela. In North Korea, America’s attempts first to threaten and then to “talk to death” have led to rather than disarmament, a military buildup. Here, worst of all, America chooses to ignore what goes on rather than openly admit humiliation. Admitted or not, the humiliation is noted around the world, same as with Iran, same as with Venezuela.

America’s embargo on Iranian oil has pushed oil prices up $20 per barrel, enriching America’s own breed of oligarch, long partnered with military contractors and the hedge fund billionaires who make up much of Trump’s cabinet heads.
What we address here is the role military power plays when said power has, through advances in technology, become “improbable.” Once generals led armies from the front. Now generals are nameless bureaucrats and “grocery clerks” who lead nothing.

ME/MG