THE SPOILAGE OF WAR

Image: Devastation of Agent Orange in Viet Nam

If you Google "The Spoils of War" all you'll find are glowing reviews of the TV series "Game of Thrones".

People seem to be in love with the excitement of it all, despite the chilling line: “To achieve any kind of peace, we’re going to have to murder everyone. You can have whatever loot you can scavenge from the corpse-pile.”

War mongers think only about "spoils" (nowadays being mostly oil) while the families over which they run roughshod  toward their objective end up having to cope with the spoilage.

I did an online search for "the spoilage of war" and there were one or two old war studies but mostly there was talk about how long to store food, the benefits of canning, and instructions about "best by" dates.

At first I was at a loss as to what to write today, and when I don't know what to write, I tend to wander around looking at other websites I don't always have time for.  Like Penny For Your Thoughts, for example. Penny has faithfully, for more than a decade, understood and written about exactly what was going on in the Middle East and what the "spoils" were likely to be. Me, I had trouble with all the acronyms, but did understand that most of what the corporate media were saying (and hiding) was almost entirely in support of Western objectives, right or wrong.

I do read a number of news and analysis sites every day; often with varying opinions. And I collect URLs for future reference to the point where, even though I may have nothing much further to add, it seems it might be wise to record the ones that stood out the most.

So here goes with some of the latest:

The Skripal Case Is Being Pushed Down the Memory Hole with Libya and Aleppo

The best line about the amazing recovery of both of the Skripals- from a deadly poison no less - was this: Wait a second. Haven’t I seen  this Python skit before?

Not meaning to distract from Libya and Aleppo, which were unspeakable tragedies, but at least the Skripal case has a touch of humour.

There's not much else in this list that seems the slightest bit funny.  This next one, in particular, because the US touts itself as being so gawdoffal superior to so many other nations:

More than 40 percent of Americans can't afford basic necessities: study

• A new study shows that the number of families who are struggling financially is more than triple the official poverty rate.
• Wage growth hasn't kept pace with inflation — it's been largely stuck in place since the Great Recession a decade ago. If the minimum wage had kept pace with economic growth, it would be $19.33 an hour, the Economic Policy Center says. It has been $7.25 since 2009.​

Canada shouldn't brag either:
​
Veterans say Ottawa's planned PTSD research centre falls short of what was promised

• At the moment, veterans with severe mental health disorders are sent to addiction treatment centres where, Bedard said, "you're there with drug dealers and gang members.
• After the First World War, Veterans Affairs set up a series of long-term care hospitals for ex-soldiers, sailors and aircrew.
• There were 18 such hospitals in the federal system by the 1960s, serving veterans of the Second World War and the Korean War.
• Bit by bit over the years, the federal government has taken itself out of the business by transferring the hospitals to provincial governments and paying for long-term care beds.

Out of sight, out of mind?  Well, when you lie to soldiers about the real reasons they were brainwashed into wanting to fight for "God and Country", the results are not likely to be something you're going to want to have to think about down the road.  Demographics

And that's not Canada's only black eye with regard to its veterans ...

Ex-soldier says he watched barrels of Agent Orange being buried at Gagetown base

• Did the Canadian military actually track down all of its stocks of the dangerous defoliant?
• White said he recently lost three friends — all former soldiers — to cancer. They all suffered lingering, painful deaths, he said

That's what I call dying because of "God and Country".  But too bad the soldier doesn't express regret over what is still happening to Vietnamese families because of the use of Agent Orange over 40 years ago.

Moving on ... As if there is not enough egg plastered all over the faces of certain Russia blamers these days:

MH17 downed by Russian military missile system, say investigators

• International team say evidence shows missile came from a Russia-based unit

That "international team" consisted of axe-grinding states that could in no way be considered objective.

It's obvious there is a mind-bending campaign going on, and it's leading inexorably to the point where mere accusations will not be the only weapons used.

I'm suddenly recalling something I heard or read back in my working-for-the-man days. It was simply that when an employer doesn't like a particular employee, for whatever reason, and wants him/her gone, before the employer can do the actual firing he/she and all others involved must first be convinced that the employee in question has absolutely no redeeming merit. In other words, the victim can't do anything right at all.

Russia is that victim. The US/NATO will do anything it can to discredit and eventually overpower her (don't you just love that nations are called "she" and "her"?) - no matter what happens to countless innocent families in the process - on all sides of the conflict.

MH17 victims' son says ending Ukraine conflict more important than placing blame

• ‘Finger pointing and blame and inflaming tensions between Russia and the west is not helping anyone,’ Paul Guard says ahead of the criminal inquiry results

Not anyone, except the war effort. Detente is no longer a word to be used with regard to Russia. It was nice while it lasted.

Let us all ring fancy's knell; I'll begin it: "Ding Dong Bell". (Shakespeare)

Guess who began it -- A Nobel Prize recipient:

While Obama rages, Russia calls for ceasefire on all sides.

More recently:
​
Russian MoD: Missiles Shown By MH17 Investigators Were Decommissioned After 2011

• "After 25 years of operation, all missiles of the Buk systems are subject to decommissioning and disposal, and further use of these products… poses a direct threat to the life of servicemen. The maximum lifetime of the missile, the engine from which was demonstrated by the Dutch commission last Thursday was 2011 (1986 + 25), after which all the missiles produced that year were seized, decommissioned and sent for disposal," the ministry said.
• No new anti-aircraft missiles were supplied to Ukraine, which has about 20 battalions of BUK missiles systems since 1991, the ministry said, adding that a special number of the missile allegedly used to down the aircraft shows that it was produced in the Soviet Union in 1986.
• The ministry further says that the Dutch commission has hushed up information about where and when the engine of the Buk missile was found, as well as about those who handed it over to the investigators.

What is Obama thinking today, I wonder.  He might be well-advised to clam up, especially since he's now being pilloried by certain of the MSM for not having acted more aggressively against Russia when the MH17 went down.

They're pretty much saying he should have fabricated something a little more believable.

Below image found here.