So THAT’S What ‘OUR Vital Interests’ Are

Every time the neocons instigate another war, as they are now trying to do with Iran and Syria, they declare that “WE” must do so to protect “OUR” vital interests in “the region.” There is never, ever, any definition of WHAT those “interests” are. This of course is because “WE” the people have nothing to gain at all from any of these wars, and are simply forced to pay for them. The great William Graham Sumner described what these “interests” apparently are in War and Other Essays:

“We were told that we needed Hawaii in order to secure California.  What shall we now take in order to secure the Philippines? . . . We shall need to take China, Japan, and the East Indies . . . in order to ‘secure’ what we have.  Of course this means that . . . we must take the whole earth in order to be safe on any part of it, and the fallacy stands exposed.”

Update:  Yesterday’s news reported that the U.S. military now has an expanded presence in Chile.

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8:54 am on June 5, 2012