And we and other nations have crossed the line between protecting a nation's interests and corporate greed many times. I assume you'd agree with this? Not to mention government picking winners and losers in the marketplace or the commingling of government and business interests which can go by another name.CID1990 wrote:You know, you're only allotted 50 posts where you beat this dead horse and then I get to point something out for you.Chizzang wrote:This is usually the part where Ivytalk calls me a "Cassandra" and dismisses me with a classic French mans wave and a "Pfft" sound... while rolling his eyes
Did I capture that image for you guys..?
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BUT:
Why should this event surprise ANYBODY in the whole industrial world..?
That Oil was extracted by the companies (Royal Dutch Shell / Exxon Mobil / Saudi Aramco) that our military actually works for / all evidence for the past 40 years confirms this / over and over again
Protecting commerce is one of the primary traditional functions of organized militaries since the days of the ancient Greeks. Defending the home turf is number one, but usually when the army is shooting its bows and arrows or cannons it is in defense of trade routes and protecting Country A's ability to safely see its goods into Country B's harbor. It has always been so.
Heck, even an amateur student of military history knows Alfred Thayer Mahan. Go have a look- the sole purpose of a blue water navy is keeping open the "sea lanes" of commerce and communication.
You're tilting at a windmill as if it is some kind of aberration, when in fact it is precisely the function of militaries since time immemorial.
Now, we can find issues with the fact that the US has volunteered to to hundreds of other countries' dirty work for them (thus sparing them the expense), and I'd be right with you on that. I would also be right there with you in calling out the neoconservatives and their liberal interventionist bedfellows when they claim this intervention or that intervention is for freedom and democracy.
But let's don't go all Spandos over something that isnt news- countries use their militaries to protect commerce as a matter of policy and there is no need to hide it because it has been written doctrine for hundreds of years.
Just because it exists doesn't mean it's a positive in the long term, right?










