They only call them that on US soil.

I think we already have war - intelligent war without force - invisible war. :@

The press in this country is so not free, the American people hear about chemical weapons in Syria but are kept almost completely in the dark when revelations about their own government come to light. If not for a few local papers I never would have known what was happening just down the street from me:

leaking mustard gas shells

The federal fascists could probably gas everyone in the whole town and get away with it.

What's equally outrageous is that the US condemns Syria but took 50 years to ratify the Geneva Protocol itself! And the US was a major user of chemical weapons in the Vietnam War, supplied by those fine upstanding corporations Monsanto and Dow.

And to this day the US denies any legal responsibility for dropping such chemicals, and offered very little if any support for those affected to this day by agent orange.

Now that inspectors are in and progress has begun in dismantling Syria's weapons, this is now a major coup against the US and I am sure that the US is just frothing at the mouth now, because they can't use their tomahawks or other forms of aggression.

0311 in Bravo 1/6 and Alpha 1/8, 2nd MarDiv here

We are all grateful to you for your Service.

Our objective, as a country, should be to minimize the situations that place you and your comrades in harm's way. Your lives should be precious.

I, for one, am very unhappy that you are being continually placed at-risk (of your life(!!)) for ... "a (corporate) racket."

But ... thank you. I mean that (we mean that ...) from the heart.

I'm sure Americans are grateful but lets remember that more than American citizens have taken part in this thread and saying we indicates everyone. I for one am not grateful, their service does nothing for me and America's penchant for war has put many people, not only its own citizens, at risk.

Believe me, I hear exactly what you are saying ... and I daresay that a whole lot of American soldiers do, too.

"America's penchant for war" has always been the problem, especially given that it is often done for business reasons. There are plenty of examples of it, too:

• The Spanish-American War ("Remember the Maine"!) was basically started and ended as a distraction.
• "War is a Racket!" Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler, the most-decorated American officer at the start of the 20th century, very eloquently and forcefully said that.
• "The Military Industrial Complex." 'Ike' Eisenhower's coined phrase.
• "Mission Accomplished." By the most foolish of the fools.
• "Generals don't start wars ... politicians do." Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.
• ... and it is a list that never ends ...

All of this says nothing of the "grunts on the ground," who see it as their national duty to obey the orders that are given to them by their respective governments. They're the ones who are really left at the end of the stick, their bodies often half blown-apart. I think it's okay to acknowledge their service.

It has always been the case that people, who kept themselves most-carefully out of any harm's way, pursue war because there is money in it. Vast, indeed unthinkable, amounts of "top secret" money. And this is what I think we need to acknowledge, and to refuse to accept, and to fight against.

I'm an American citizen. Yes, I am. But don't think "for a New York minute," as the song says, that I endorse what my government is doing, or fail to perceive its dreadful cost both here and abroad.

"There's no such thing as a 'winnable' war. It's a lie we don't believe anymore." -- Sting, "The Russians"

It's not surprising that generals like Grant and Eisenhower criticised warmongers: they had seen the consequences. And the time was when politicians were not so gungho:

"War is the parent of armies: from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, debts, and taxes are the known instrument for bringing the many under the dominion of the few. In war ... the discretionary power of the executive is extended ... and all the means of seducing the minds are added to those of subduing the force of the people." James Madison