The Shootings In Paris, An Act of War?

Friday the 13^th 2015, the day when an apparent terrorist attack struck Paris, and more than a hundred people got killed. The French president responded with saying that the attack is an act of war. However, I would say that this is not a correct assessment of the situation, and more importantly, it is not a effective way of approaching what has happened.

If we roll back the time for a moment, 11^th September 2001, two planes flew into the World Trade Center, killing thousands. The American government blamed the Taliban’s and decided to invade Afghanistan, and later Iraq, in the so-called war against terrorism. Obviously, it was never about a war against terrorism, as rather it was a way for the corpocracy of America to feed its enormous military industrial complex. Though, for a moment, let us assume that the war on terrorism was actually a real attempt to make the world a safer place. It is time to ask, did this war actually make the world a safer place?

The simple answer is no, and it takes no rocket scientist to understand that wars, whatever reason that is used to justify them, creates even more consequences. As such – we require a new way of dealing with things, a new way of approaching conflicts, a new way of handling consequences, were we do not hit back but instead look at how the consequence came about, and more importantly how we were a part of creating that particular consequence.

When it comes to terrorist attacks, it is not difficult to understand why some individuals in this world develop an urge to fight back against the establishment with brute force. The reasons are poverty, war, lack of education, and the nonexistence of opportunities. For some, born in the wrong country, at the wrong time, there is absolutely no hope, and for those, terrorism is a way of saying: ‘Look at what you have done to me! Look at what you have done to my life!’ – and that is what we in the western world must understand – that terrorist attacks is an indication that we have to steer things in another direction. Terrorist attacks is as much a cry for help, as they are a sign we humans have not yet been able to unite as ONE group.

Though, I will admit, it is very easy for me to say that ‘we have to change’ – but how to practically do that? What can we possibly do on a individual basis to have any impact on a global level? Truth to be told, there is no single person that can actually change the world, but we can change the world together, through each of us making the decision to stand up in our own lives.

For example, one solution that we can implement is to, when conflicts emerge in our own personal worlds, someone lashing out on us (a micro terrorist attack), that we then look at how we were a part of creating that conflict, and also why that conflict came about, and what we are able to do to in the future, to prevent it and find sustainable solutions – thus living the example of PEACE, CONSIDERATION, RESPONSIBILITY and UNDERSTANDING.

When we live what is best, when we stand as an example of a better, upgraded human being, a human capable of forgiveness, that will have a impact. Maybe it will not come through on a global level, though we will be able to see it in our personal relationships, in our communication with colleagues and acquaintances. And what does this world consist of but personal relationships, family relationships being the very core bonding that holds society together. When these relationships change, it is clear that it will have an effect on other, larger, collective relationship groups as well.

So, consequences are not bad, they are opportunities for learning and self-growth. Each consequence is a sign, a signal, that there is something about ourselves that we can change. This is so equally on a personal as well as global level. Thus, instead of saying that these terrorist attacks are an act of war – let us instead recognize them for what they really are – a cry for help and a indication that we can do better to ensure that each human being on this earth lives a life of dignity.

For more solutions and ways to tackle the current state of human affairs, investigate the Living Income Guaranteed.

Who Benefits From a War In Syria?

The Syrian war is a perfect example of how the western countries utilize media to sway and manipulate the public into a false understanding of reality. The story being repeated is how the Arabic spring during 2011 spread to Syria – and where the Syrian demonstrators desired to have democracy. However, Bashar al-Assad and his regime instead responded with violence, which lead to the current civil war. This is simplification and a biased view on what have occurred in Syria. Even though Bashar al-Assad have potentially taken actions that should be condemned, there are other indirect parties in this war that bare a great responsibility for what has happened.

“Both the Syrian government and the opposition have received support, militarily and diplomatically, from foreign countries leading the conflict to often be described as a proxy war. The major parties supporting the Syrian Government are Iran and Hezbollah. Both of these are involved in the war politically and logistically by providing military equipment, training and battle troops. The Syrian government has also received arms from Russia and SIGINT support directly from GRU, in addition to significant political support from Russia.

The main Syrian opposition body – the Syrian coalition – receives political, logistic and military support from the United States, Britain and France. Some Syrian rebels get training from the CIA at bases in Qatar, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The Syrian coalition also receives logistic and political support from Sunni states, most notably Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia; all the three major supporting states however have not contributed any troops for direct involvement in the war, though Turkey was involved in border incidents with the Syrian Army. The Financial Times and The Independent reported that Qatar had funded the Syrian rebellion by as much as $3 billion. It reported that Qatar was offering refugee packages of about $50,000 a year to defectors and family. Saudi Arabia has emerged as the main group to finance and arm the rebels.”

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Civil_War) (2015-09-23)

Thus we have western super powers engaging indirectly in a military conflict far from their own borders, through supply funding, weapons and training. We, the inhabitants of these western countries, should ask ourselves what is really going on? How is it that we accept and allow our leaders to use our tax money, to support wars far away with abstract, and bogus goals such as creating ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’ for the people in these countries?

It is ridiculous when you look at the situation, how we accept and allow our political representatives to abuse, and misuse their power, and utilize their public trust to support actions of war – and then some of us have the stomach to blame the Syrian immigrants arriving in Europe. Without the financial support of the western countries, there would not be a Syrian Civil War, and there would not be a refugee crisis in Europe. We have ourselves placed us into this position. We can not blame Bashar al-Assad, because without the weapons, the money, and the training, this conflict would have been long over.

It is evident that we cannot solve conflicts and disagreements through wars and weaponry. Still, this is the option that our governments gravitate towards when given the chance. Here we should ask ourselves, who really benefits from these ongoing wars? Who benefits from weapons being exported to lowly educated, and poverty stricken people in Syria, and Iraq? Who benefits from the world existing in a constant state of war?

”The most recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan offer an ominous example about what can happen when the rush to war is met with sharp spending increases coupled with little to no oversight or fiscal restraint. The Commission on Wartime Contracting — a bipartisan congressional body — estimates that there was $30 to $60 billion in waste, fraud and abuse associated with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — a total of $12 million per day. Even worse, at least $6 billion is completely missing, never accounted for, gone forever. That is a stunning amount of taxpayer dollars — yours and mine — to simply disappear into the wind.”

[…]

” The direct costs of the wars in Iraq and Syria may only be a small part of the new business that will flow to Lockheed Martin and its cohorts in the next few years. The new wars will almost certainly extend the life of the Pentagon’s war budget, known more formally as the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account. For the past few years, OCO has served as a slush fund to pay for Pentagon projects that have nothing to do with fighting any war. In its most recent effort to raid the OCO account, the Pentagon has proposed using it to fund eight costly F-35 combat aircraft that haven’t even been certified for combat yet. There will be a strong temptation on the part of the Pentagon to continue padding this slush fund to levels far beyond anything being spent in Iraq or Syria.

Last, but not least, the arms industry will join with the Pentagon and hawks on Capitol Hill to use the current Middle East crisis as leverage to lift the caps on the Pentagon’s base budget that exist under current law. If they are successful, it could mean tens or even hundreds of billions of new business for Pentagon contractors over the next decade.”

Stephen Miles and William Hartung, Huffington post, Who Will Profit From the Wars in Iraq and Syria? (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-hartung/who-will-profit-from-the_b_5915794.html) (2015-09-23)

It is time that we understand something, which is that behind the sanctimonious exterior of the international superpowers there are greedy and power hungry corporate interests. These interests determine the policy, the direction, and the decisions of our leaders. These interests have invested enormous amounts of money to get into the very heart of the democratic decision making process that we have come to trust. Hence, we cannot anymore say that we are living in democracies; most of the western countries are but corporatocracys. They are ruled by the law of profit and have no squirms about using war as a way of increasing cash flow. This is not acceptable, and as citizens of the western world, it is our responsibility to stand up and say no more. We cannot anymore accept and allow our tax money, and our political machinery to be used as tools of destruction.

I suggest that we implement a new economic system, and a new way of life. We have created the current situation, and we can reverse it. War does not have to exist – and together we can make it a thing of the past.

Investigate the Living Income Guaranteed.

Investigate the Living Income Guaranteed.