STRATCOM Wishes You a Very Scary New Year

The U.S. Strategic Command has deleted a New Year’s tweet that revealed its true values, as Caitlin Johnstone explains.

By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com

U.S. Strategic Command (or “Stratcom” if you’re trying to make a nuclear-capable arm of the U.S. Defense Department sound cool) has issued an apology for a poorly received New Year’s Eve tweet which has since been deleted.

“#TimesSquare tradition rings in the #NewYear by dropping the big ball…if ever needed, we are #ready to drop something much, much bigger,” the offending tweet read, with an attached video featuring B-2 stealth bombers flying all stealth bombery and causing gigantic explosions with bunker buster bombs while words like “STEALTH”, “READY”, and “LETHAL” flashed across the screen. The tweet concluded with the ostensibly unironic hashtag “#PeaceIsOurProfession”.

“Our previous NYE tweet was in poor taste & does not reflect our values,” Strategic Command tweeted. “We apologize. We are dedicated to the security of America & allies.”

This statement is, obviously, a lie. The part about “security” of course, because dominating the globe with nonstop military violence and aggression has nothing to do with security, but also the “does not reflect our values” part. The U.S. military deleted the post and apologized for it because it received an angry backlash from hundreds of commenters and was circulated virally on Twitter for its jarringly creepy message, not because it did not reflect their values. It reflected their values perfectly.

The deleted tweet.

The only way you could possibly encapsulate the U.S. military’s values in a 42-second video clip more perfectly than cramming it full of footage of $2,000,000,000 war planes cruising around dropping $3,500,000 GBU-57 bombs would be to also show the human bodies they land on being ripped to pieces. Inflicting death and destruction using unfathomably expensive machinery is the U.S. military’s whole job. Of course it reflects their values.

The real issue here was not values but perception. The U.S. war machine pours an immense amount of energy into perception management, making sure that ordinary Americans either (A) ignore the horrific things that are being done in their name or (B) think that those things are awesome and patriotic. The offending post was clearly attempting to accomplish (B). A team of paid social media propagandists simply did not understand that ordinary human beings wouldn’t resonate with a message that amounts to “Hey I see you’re all preparing to bring in the new year, so watch how good we are at killing large numbers of people!”, and some damage control became necessary when everyone got freaked out. Can’t have people opening their eyes to how insane America’s relentless military expansionism has gotten, after all.

Watching the propaganda arm of the U.S.-centralized war machine is a lot like watching a manipulative sociopath learning how to function in normal society. Sometimes they’ll slip up and fail to react the way someone with a healthy sense of empathy would respond to the death of a pet or someone’s emotions or whatever, and they risk alienating whoever’s around them and losing access to the resources they could exploit them for if they can’t manipulate them out of the creeped-out feeling people get when they’re around someone who doesn’t empathize like a normal human being. I suspect many of the commenters who flooded in telling Stratcom to delete its tweet were not so much interested in eliminating a violent social media post from the internet, but in eliminating that creeped-out feeling you get when the sociopath’s mask slips a bit.

And that’s understandable. One of the biggest obstacles in getting people to realize how deeply propagandized they are is the cognitive dissonance which comes rushing in when one considers the implications of viewing the world free from the lens of military psychological manipulations. Without the lies about how beneficent and necessary and awesome the military is, all you’ve got is trillions of dollars worth of instruments of death circling the globe to facilitate the daily slaughter of men, women and children to advance agendas of power and profit while ordinary people struggle just to get by in your own country. It can be deeply psychologically uncomfortable to grapple with the reality of what that means for your beliefs about your nation, your society and your very identity, in much the same way realizing you married a manipulative sociopath can be an uncomfortable truth one might feel tempted to compartmentalize away from.

A lot of people got upset about that tweet, but they really shouldn’t have. The tweet was not the problem; it was just a few perception managers for the U.S. military being more honest and straightforward than usual. The problem is that money is being stolen from ordinary Americans to murder strangers on the other side of the planet to advance agendas of power and profit, and everyone’s being propagandized into accepting that as normal. The sociopathic propaganda engine slipping up and stirring the populace from their slumber a bit is nothing to complain about, the actual reality of our actual situation is.

Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper who publishes regularly at Medium. Follow her work on FacebookTwitter, or her website. She has a podcast and a new book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. This article was re-published with permission.

 

63 comments for “STRATCOM Wishes You a Very Scary New Year

  1. January 8, 2019 at 09:31

    Thank you for the rare look behind the curtain as our peace loving military continues to extend American values at the cost of a declining home institutions and infrastructure. Whatever happened to President Eisenhower’s words half a century ago that “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense a theft from those who are hungry and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed?” Whatever happened to the lessons of implosion of all previous well intentioned empires – an overextended military robbing the foundation of the country that feeds it until internal collapse and the ash bin of history is the only result.

  2. January 5, 2019 at 15:06

    The Author of the above article was on target (excuse the pun) and a reflection of my own views on the militarization of our country….it didn’t happen over night – the build-up of the U.S. military, arms, weapons and bombers prowling the world to show our strength is to control nations and has nothing to do with “bringing democracy” . People don’t matter and bombing them to pieces, with the middle east to rubble is in the power elite’s interest to control and devour the resources without conscience. But empire’s ultimate fall one way or the other – I only hope the hubris doesn’t take the planet down.

  3. Greg
    January 4, 2019 at 15:51

    Thank you for the article. You’ve hit the nail on the head or into the coffin lid.

  4. vinnieoh
    January 4, 2019 at 15:33

    There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between Stratcom’s statement and the one delivered by MBS in the Turkish embassy.

  5. Joe T Wallace
    January 3, 2019 at 17:10

    “Without the lies about how beneficent and necessary and awesome the military is, all you’ve got is trillions of dollars worth of instruments of death circling the globe to facilitate the daily slaughter of men, women and children to advance agendas of power and profit while ordinary people struggle just to get by in your own country. It can be deeply psychologically uncomfortable to grapple with the reality of what that means for your beliefs about your nation, your society and your very identity, in much the same way realizing you married a manipulative sociopath can be an uncomfortable truth one might feel tempted to compartmentalize away from.”

    Whenever some horror perpetrated by our military was inadvertently exposed, President Obama could be counted on to assure the American populace that “that’s not who we are,” as though the report unfairly highlighted an anomaly. I cringed to hear this language, which is one of the surest “tells” that ill disguises what our armed forces are up to.

  6. Mild -ly Facetious
    January 3, 2019 at 16:24

    Those here at Consortium who stand in defense of Trump, arguing that the “Deep State” is out-to-get-him / against him
    — must remember that the “Deep State” / “Invisible Gov’t” has decades upon decades of operative existence. Lt. General Smedley Butler is one prominent case study from the 1930’s. So too the 1962 book by Dan Smoot titled, “The Invisible Government”.

    ======== The thing is, Trump’s total agenda of self-aggrandizement is in Lock Step Agreement with the “Deep State” agenda.
    How can some of you here refuse to see and/or ignore that reality??? !
    Trumps’ agenda has no aspect of “Peace Seeking”nor “Making The World Safe For “Democracy”!

    TRUMP IS ALL ABOUT TRUMP !!

    >>>> To Wit :Trump in the mood to grumble
    Jan 2, 2019 ( LA Times )

    Trump defended his decision last month to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria and sharply cut the deployment to Afghanistan, …

    “Syria was lost long ago,” he said.

    “Look, we don’t want Syria,” he continued.
    “We’re talking about sand and death.
    That’s what we’re talking about.
    We’re not talking about vast wealth.
    We’re talking about sand and death,” he said,

    THERE YOU HAVE IT !!!! — IN HIS OWN WORDS ! ! ! ! !
    He gives a Crap as for the lives of Human Beings lost in the Cause of Boeing/Raytheon/Wall St. Billionaires, tax cheats, etc., etc., etc..

    … “Sand and Death” – that’s how he characterizes the DEATH & DESTRUCTION that hit the sovereign nations of Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan after 9/11.
    As If the WTC act wasn’t a PLANNED EVENT Orchestrated by the DEEP STATE Project For A New American Century !!!!!!

    Trump is an ignorant deviant looking to raise his Capital Equivalence and Escape the Prison Time he’ll face for Tax Evasion and other Cheating Crimes Affected by Economic and Political Criminals.

    “GOD BLESS AMERICA” – ?

    as if…

  7. Maxine Chiu
    January 3, 2019 at 15:26

    I think Giuliani/Trump are lying in order to lure Julian Assange to come to the States, thinking he’ll be safe, only to be thrown into isolation/interrogated/tortured/disappeared.

    • Maxine Chiu
      January 3, 2019 at 15:35

      Sorry, that was a reply to another article!

  8. don
    January 3, 2019 at 14:51

    And now I check my investigative news and find this new headline!

    Reporter Quits NBC Citing Network’s Support for Endless War

    “Arkin makes clear that NBC is in no way the sole mass media offender in its refusal to question or criticize the normalization of endless warfare, but that he feels increasingly “out of sync” and “out of step” with the network’s unhesitating advancement of military interventionist narratives.” -theantimedia.com

  9. don
    January 3, 2019 at 14:44

    Wiki “Greta Thunberg”.

    I just posted here about reading a sci-fi short just before I read your exposé. Now, at lunch (do not take food for granted), I saw the following quote in our local homeless-people newspaper. Yes, our fair city has an immense (chronic) homelessness epidemic – recently publicized to be the worst in this “First World” nation and increasing quicker than ever – and we write about it.

    “Why should she go to school on Friday when the world she will grow up in is threatened by all of us who continue to act as if nothing has changed in our world?”

  10. don
    January 3, 2019 at 12:30

    I read your exposé on CN right after reading this science “fiction” short:

    https://dailysciencefiction.com/hither-and-yon/tales-of-the-rose-knights/ruth-nestvold/fruite

    • don
      January 3, 2019 at 15:20

      Hint on the topic: it’s the same. Think knight, quest, endless….

  11. Anonymot
    January 3, 2019 at 08:09

    The MIC and the CIA have been in exactly the same mode for precisely 70 years since Truman, allegedly reluctantly, allowed the formation of the CIA. They have brought us war after war after war and they have lost each and every one.

    Those losses are not only a demonstration of the failure of West Point, but of the success of the profit-making goals of all concerned. There’s not a General who is not filthy rich by the general public’s standard nor any executive or investor in the war world they call Defense.

    Militarily they are incompetent sluggards. Economically they are brilliant at their own enrichment. They have drained America into their own pockets at the cost of millions of lives – none of which mean anything to them.

    Theirs has been the reality of the American Dream.

  12. twitcher
    January 2, 2019 at 23:54

    rogue is so on-tarket ( in description of author )

  13. robjira
    January 2, 2019 at 22:44

    “Well, I don’t think it’s fair to condemn the whole program based on a single slip up…”
    ~Gen. Buck Turgidson, USAF

  14. F. G. Sanford
    January 2, 2019 at 22:34

    Seventeen minutes. That’s the most important thing anyone should think of whenever they are shown pictures of the bat-like aircraft believed by delusional General Officers to preserve the archaic notion that there is still a viable strategy called “strategic bombing”. They continue to fight, as the saying goes, “the last war”. Strategic bombing arguably “won” the Second World War. It did so after the Red Army had already largely annihilated Germany’s ground forces. The Allies invaded with eighty five divisions. Germany had only twenty six divisions left to defend itself. In North Korea, despite killing an estimated twenty percent of the civilian population, “strategic bombing” failed to achieve anything resembling a “victory”. It was even less effective against Viet Nam, and has proven entirely useless in every campaign since. Today, it can only be carried out against third world countries with no air defenses. Seventeen minutes. That’s how quickly Russia or China could respond to an incursion attempted with this aircraft. Within seventeen minutes, any number of American cities would be destroyed by MIRV warheads launched from ballistic missile submarines. Within seventeen minutes…the fools in Washington who believe that a “sneak attack” with stealth aircraft could successfully neutralize eleven time zones, redundant command and control assets and all retaliatory capabilities would be reduced to nothing more than superheated vapor. Seventeen minutes. Strategic bombing is an obsolete military doctrine. But, it keeps McDonnell-Douglas and Boeing in business, a business that could be eliminated very quickly. It would only take seventeen minutes.

    • Skip Scott
      January 3, 2019 at 10:21

      Very true F.G.. Our air craft carriers are also sitting ducks with today’s missile technology, yet we keep them manned and afloat, mostly to intimidate “lesser” nations, like some schoolyard bully picking on the runt. Until mankind evolves to the point where we lock up our sociopaths and psychopaths instead of electing them to high office and putting them in charge of our so-called “Intelligence” agencies and “Defense” department we only have “Mutual Assured Destruction” keeping the schoolyard bully at bay. Meanwhile they are pulling their hair out trying to figure a way to get around that 17 minutes.

    • Mild -ly Facetious
      January 3, 2019 at 16:49

      Those here at Consortium who stand in defense of Trump, arguing that the “Deep State” is out-to-get-him / against him
      — must remember that the “Deep State” / “Invisible Gov’t” has decades upon decades of operative existence. Lt. General Smedley Butler is one prominent case study from the 1930’s. So too the 1962 book by Dan Smoot titled, “The Invisible Government”.

      ======== The thing is, Trump’s total agenda of self-aggrandizement is in Lock Step Agreement with the “Deep State” agenda.
      How can some of you here refuse to see and/or ignore that reality??? !
      Trumps’ agenda has no aspect of “Peace Seeking”nor “Making The World Safe For “Democracy”!

      TRUMP IS ALL ABOUT TRUMP !!

      >>>> To Wit :Trump in the mood to grumble
      Jan 2, 2019 ( LA Times )

      Trump defended his decision last month to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria and sharply cut the deployment to Afghanistan, …

      “Syria was lost long ago,” he said.

      “Look, we don’t want Syria,” he continued.
      “We’re talking about sand and death.
      That’s what we’re talking about.
      We’re not talking about vast wealth.
      We’re talking about sand and death,” he said,

      THERE YOU HAVE IT !!!! — IN HIS OWN WORDS ! ! ! ! !
      He gives a Crap as for the lives of Human Beings lost in the Cause of Boeing/Raytheon/Wall St. Billionaires, tax cheats, etc., etc., etc..

      … “Sand and Death” – that’s how he characterizes the DEATH & DESTRUCTION that hit the sovereign nations of Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan after 9/11.

      Trump is an ignorant deviant looking to raise his Capital Equivalence and Escape the Prison Time he’ll face for Tax Evasion and other Cheating Crimes Affected by Economic and Political Criminals.

      “GOD BLESS AMERICA” – ?

      https://www.theeagle.com/news/nation/trump-in-the-mood-to-grumble/article_7d50af03-7bbd-52f0-9d3f-476cccbbd032.html

      • Tom Kath
        January 3, 2019 at 20:40

        The only real “support” for Trump you will find here is that he is “the lesser of two weevils”. There can be no question that there were only two REALISTIC alternatives. The list of vitriol against the alternative would appear to be longer.

    • Tom Kath
      January 3, 2019 at 19:03

      You make sense F.G. ! – Even when it doesn’t rhyme!

  15. KiwiAntz
    January 2, 2019 at 19:51

    What’s really laughable about this Stratcom announcement & this ludicrous Sabre rattling exercise is that the Russians have proved, since their intervention in Syria, that the entire American MIC is a paper tiger, a one trick pony which can be been easily derailed? And what’s even more embarrassing is the fact that the US spends $600 billion a year on useless Military Bases & inferior weapons & planes yet Russia spends just $40 billion & achieved far superior weapons for a fraction of America’s expenditure! So the jokes on you Stratcom? Explain away that fact? Russia’s involvement in Syria was a line in the sand moment, a historical pushback against the US Hegemonic Empire & it’s supposed & imaginary Military superiority & dominance which will go down as a pivotal multipolar moment for the History books, when the wheels began falling off the US Empire? Trump’s honest appraisal of the Syrian situation basically admits that the Empire has LOST in the Middle East & withdrawal from Syria with Afghanistan will be next & possibly Iraq! Getting out will also free up trillions of wasted dollars which could be better spent on his WALL project & on domestic issues without begging the Dems or shutting down the Govt for funds? Reality bites & financial gravity will bring the US Empire & warmongering Stratcom & MIC to its knees, sooner rather than later!

    • Tom Kath
      January 3, 2019 at 00:13

      Interesting perspective Kiwi. Given the pentagon missing trillions, it seems MIC robs and plunders not only foreign nations, but its own people as well, without going to the bother of actually making weapons.
      As I’ve been saying, the MIC or the financial “elite” is NOT American, nor any other specific nationality. It is global, and loyal or dedicated only to money.

  16. unfettered fire
    January 2, 2019 at 19:32

    Here’s an excellent Real News Network 5-part series on the rampant fraud in the MIC:

    “After working on the MIT SAGE radar system and at the Joint Chiefs, Earnest concluded “it’s basically a money making system, that’s what it’s about and has nothing to do with real defense” – Lester Earnest on Reality Asserts Itself with Paul Jay”

    https://therealnews.com/stories/dod-criterion-for-success-spend-all-your-money-by-year-end-lester-earnest-on-rai-3-4

  17. mike k
    January 2, 2019 at 14:52

    Holiday greetings from Darth Vader!

  18. Bob Van Noy
    January 2, 2019 at 10:01

    “The sociopathic propaganda engine slipping up and stirring the populace from their slumber a bit is nothing to complain about, the actual reality of our actual situation is.”

    Caitlin Johnstone again demonstrates her ability to cut to the chase. The Sociopathic Propaganda Machine, the perfect title of the entity behind the scenes orchestrating the death and destruction carried out in Our name. We will all be held responsible until it is established how it was done and those responsible for the assembly of The Propaganda are identified and their methods exposed. This painful process, is necessary however for our recovery as a decent Society. Fortunately there have been many who have “spoken up” through the years and they have reported the atrocities and crimes all along they only need broad exposure. Robert Parry was one and I’ll link another for those brave enough to look…

    http://www.douglasvalentine.com

  19. January 2, 2019 at 02:01

    When I think of those who devote their life to military planning, to the creation of new more lethal weapons systems, to developing “strategies” for the use of such weapons, I can’t help but imagine very very twisted human psyches. I’m not talking about the foot soldiers drawn from the ranks of the poor. I’m referring to the well educated and trained “leaders” the “best and brightest” monsters designing of our death machine. You know, the same psychopaths who saw Kennedy as “weak” because he wouldn’t follow their “strategy” to do a nuclear first strike on Moscow and Havana not only incinerating millions but likely leading to the end of life on earth. These are the same monsters who had no compunction torturing and murdering 20,000 Vietnamese in Operation Phoenix. Who didn’t miss a wink of sleep while they carried out the saturation bombing of peasants in Cambodia. Who . . . well, we really don’t have space or time to go through the entire litany here of our open military carnage.

    But there is more, what we do quietly, behind the scenes, in the realm of “plausible deniability,” where these same lizard brained psychopaths create and implement our “counter-insurgency strategies” in Latin America, where not only the most gruesome tortures and beheadings, but even the cutting up of civilians while alive with chain saws in front of their village or family are part of the American sanctioned way of “winning hearts and minds” – (I’ve travelled to Colombia twice as a human rights observer where our death squads used this practice). The intentional mass terrorizing of the civilian populations are actually the “goals” of such U.S. counter-insurgency policies. Imagine how absolutely soul dead one must be to create willful policy designed to produce mass PTSD symptoms in a poor defenseless peasant population and you have a glimpse into the heart of evil that is the U.S. military at the very highest levels.

    What should terrify us all is that we as a society have allowed those who’s life work is the funding, creation, perfection and deployment of the most lethal means of mass murder ever designed to not only dominate our national spending, but to control our national discourse, control our minds, and control our destiny. We are the most highly militarized society in the history of the planet and both our political parties, Hollywood, TV, and our corporate media are now all simply extensions of this mass murder system and its indoctrination systems.

    The sick nature of the Stratcom tweet points directly to the rot at the heart of our society. Sadly Dr. Martin Luther King’s prediction of our impending “spiritual death” as a nation has quite clearly come to pass – just don’t expect the ghouls who inhabit the Pentagon, the CIA and all of Washington to notice. In their world human suffering isn’t something to be eradicated – it is something to be manipulated and is simply a means to their ends.

    • Skip Scott
      January 3, 2019 at 10:31

      Gary-

      I agree with the general gist of your post, but I am thankful for the moment that the Russians have some pretty smart folks developing weapons systems to counter our own. “Mutual Assured Destruction” is the only thing keeping our lizard brained psychopaths in check until we figure out a way to round them up and put them behind bars.

    • RnM
      January 4, 2019 at 10:36

      You’ve hit the nail on the head, Gary. The true deplorables are concentrated in that 5-sided snakepit.
      It’s like a cesspool, where the biggest pieces float to the top.

      • January 5, 2019 at 21:31

        Skip & RnM – here’s a new article from, of all places, the NYT’s – that at least attempts to address our current use of torture & terror in Afghanistan (the CIA all over this operation of course). Rather surprised to see the Times do a fairly good article on the situation. Horrific to see that these typical Latin American death squad techniques are now simply part of our U.S. “hearts & minds” playbook in the Middle East too.

        https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/31/world/asia/cia-afghanistan-strike-force.html

        • Skip Scott
          January 6, 2019 at 09:25

          Hi Gary-

          I read this same article over at ICH a few days ago. Thanks. It is amazing that the NYT occasionally allows some real reporting to slip through the cracks.

    • Tom Kath
      January 5, 2019 at 21:37

      Gary –
      I understand, sympathise, and agree with the frustration and disappointment, but with a little reflection we must concede that “eradicating human suffering” is childish, unnatural, and impossible.
      Your concluding words, “manipulated and simply a means to their ends”, has occurred to me also, but I have no plausible realistic answer to what that END might be? – They have no intention of eating or consuming these manipulated people or collecting their eggs. Money and wealth creation and appropriation is also severely curtailed by slaughter.
      In my view, I think it most likely that “they” are as short sighted and foolish as those who willingly submit to enslavement and manipulation simply to avoid suffering.

  20. KiwiAntz
    January 1, 2019 at 23:38

    More arrogance from a obsolete Stratcom? Have fun dodging those hypersonic missiles you idiots! You know I am absolutely convinced that a Day is coming, in the very near future, in which the other multipolar powers, such as Russia & China etc will reach a critical mass point & decide that America is just to dangerous & lunatic a Nation to exist & point & fire every Nuclear Weapon they have at their disposal at the USA, in a preemptive first strike? That’s where things are heading if the American Empire doesn’t reign in its suicidal objectives? Happy New Year everyone!

    • OlyaPola
      January 2, 2019 at 07:38

      “such as Russia & China etc will reach a critical mass point & decide that America is just to dangerous & lunatic a Nation to exist & point & fire every Nuclear Weapon they have at their disposal at the USA, in a preemptive first strike?”

      Since 1983 the concept of nuclear winter has been widely accepted by practitioners world-wide and the critical mass to achieve this has been consistently estimated downwards to notions of critical mass being achieved before 1970 , and hence the concept of first strike has been rendered practically redundant, except in the realms of useful ideology to coerce “target audiences”, another useful coercive ideology being the conflation of temporary social relations such as the “United States of America” with “We the people” sustained by “hold these truths to be self-evident” – a facilitator of reliance on fiat (belief).

      Another major existential threat lies in lateral climate oscillation which temporary social relations such as the “United States of America” exacerbates.

      Some temporary social relations such as the “United States of America” are dependent in large assay on fiat and are only sustainable through coercion in various forms including but not restricted to the ideological, the assay being a function of context, including assays of plausible belief/perception, and facility.

      From inception the “Soviet Union” was emulative of temporary social relations such as the “United States of America” and hence never posed an existential threat to temporary social relations such as the “United States of America” although sought to misrepresent this through emulation of reliance on fiat – the “Soviet Union” from the 1970’s on-wards often being described locally as wonderland.

      The “Soviet Union” was and continues to be in the lateral process of transcendence by the Russian Federation and hence has increasingly been perceived as an existential threat by temporary social relations such as the “United States of America”.

      “a critical mass point & decide that America is just to dangerous & lunatic a Nation to exist”.

      Some had attained that perception by 1776 since they were partly immersed in notions of nation states with the conflation of this temporary entity and the people.

      The conflation has largely been transcended outwith temporary social relations such as the “United States of America” and hence processes/strategies of transcendence predicated upon – how to drown a drowning man with the minimum of blow-back ? – have been catalysed including through the complicity of opponents.

      Ideology is immersive – akin to a swimming pool – when you emerge from it you still carry water droplets.

      Consequently although with reducing potency some socialised in temporary social relations such as the “United States of America” have a focus that critical mass is majoritarian and requires control.

      “More arrogance from a obsolete Stratcom?”

      Perhaps more illumination could be derived by researching the following questions:

      Why now?

      Why in this form?

      Why through this portal?

      Such investigation may aid in perceiving that “point & fire every Nuclear Weapon they have at their disposal at the USA, in a preemptive first strike?” is not the only strategic option, nor the preferred strategic option, but perhaps an acceptable alternative to continuation of social relations such as the “United States of America”.

      • RnM
        January 4, 2019 at 10:41

        It is actually in the eyes of the British Crown that the USofA is considered a temporary aberrant experiment. There lie the enemies of the Enlightenment.

        • OlyaPola
          January 5, 2019 at 05:00

          “It is actually in the eyes of the British Crown that the USofA is considered a temporary aberrant experiment.”

          Time is laterally dynamic and you describe a perception held in 1776.

          In 2019 that perception is not restricted to those you outline.

          Thank you for your data-stream.

      • Rob Roy
        January 4, 2019 at 16:14

        OlyaPola: “The “Soviet Union” was and continues to be in the lateral process of transcendence by the Russian Federation and hence has increasingly been perceived as an existential threat by temporary social relations such as the “United States of America”.”
        The Soviet Union ended with Putin. Period. It “continues to be” NOTHING. It’s gone, forever, as is the KGB, which the Dems and Repubs consistently bring up as though the Soviet Union (which the Russians today call the “Time of Terror”) still exists. It’s the talking point of the government in order to keep Russia “a known enemy,” “a know adversary,” in order to use give 760 billion to the MIC for them to pocket as they murder millions, for “our security.” The USA is the evil that will destroy all life on earth, while Putin is the most stable leader of any country.
        BTW, the most destructive person in the world in the last decade was Hillary Clinton. Look how many countries she destroyed, with approval of Obama, and wanted to destroy (read her emails) if she’d become president. What a choice: a sociopath vs. a psychopath. [Americans are stupid. They could have elected Jill Stein.]

        • OlyaPola
          January 5, 2019 at 04:56

          “The Soviet Union ended with Putin.”

          Ideologies/perceptions have half-lives and hence in decreasing assay in amalgam the “Soviet Union” still “exists” and continues to be in lateral process of transcendence by the Russian Federation.

          This perception is not based on assertion and/or belief, but on collectively continually testing hypotheses and deriving/implementing strategies therefrom facilitated by the encouraged complicity/perceptions of opponents.

          This in part explains why the Russian Federation and others are perceived as an existential threat by the “United States of America” and others, since unlike the “Soviet Union” the Russian Federation has shown that it does not seek to emulate the “United States of America” or others.

          Thank you for your data-stream.

  21. Jose Castañeda
    January 1, 2019 at 23:12

    I don’t think you are a rogue journalist. I think you are an enlightened American intent on waking up her countrymen to the horrible effects of america’s foreign policy. I wish you all the success.

    • Laura
      January 2, 2019 at 09:21

      I agree with your characterization of the author, but in the interest of accuracy, she is actually Australian.

    • Skip Scott
      January 2, 2019 at 09:37

      Jose-

      Caitlin is an Aussie. But she is one of the greatest voices out there for truth. I hope she “keeps ’em comin’!”

    • RnM
      January 4, 2019 at 10:43

      Hear, Hear!

  22. voza0db
    January 1, 2019 at 22:35

    It’s always nice to read a REAL tweet from time to time.

    WAR, in the present MONETARY SYSTEM, means PROFIT FOR THE FEW.

    If war meant profit for the many than it would be brought to an END, because Communist Capitalism (the one USA has!) is all about PROFIT FOR THE FEW.

  23. Joe Tedesky
    January 1, 2019 at 21:26

    Would you have been sickened by the slaughter inflicted upon the Native Americans at Wounded Knee, or rather would you have marveled at the efficiency of the multi-rapid firing Gatling Gun? Although celebrating the end of WWII in the Pacific would your better conscience have bothered you about bombing Nagasaki & Hiroshima? Would bombing Hanoi in your eyes be ‘them getting what they deserve’ or would you have cried for humanity? And why in the world does it seem that being a patriotic American is being one who honors war over human life?

    • Jose Castañeda
      January 1, 2019 at 23:21

      Records show it was no longer necessary to use the atomic bomb in Japan. Hirohito was willing to surrender before that. America had no business being inVietnam in the first place. A lot of Amercan baby boomers died for nothing.

    • Rob Roy
      January 4, 2019 at 16:16

      Joe, your best comment ever. Poetic and perfect.

  24. Tom Kath
    January 1, 2019 at 21:24

    Assume just for a moment, that WW3 and climate change are inevitable. They CANNOT be prevented!
    It is then immediately obvious that we should put all effort into dealing WITH, coping, surviving. All efforts to stop or prevent the inevitable are wasted.
    Try to focus on potential benefits or improvements resulting from both events. – US may lose. A multipolar world order may result. A more equitable exchange and wealth distribution system might emerge. Nuclear weapons might be abolished. Different weather may actually be better.
    Small consolation to a self centred individual, but every major war or adversity has resulted in either immediate or very subsequent population INCREASE !

  25. Esteleen
    January 1, 2019 at 20:58

    Darkness is always on the lookout to check and make sure it is safe to come out.

  26. mike k
    January 1, 2019 at 20:35

    Here is the comment I posted earlier today, which has never appeared yet on this CS site:

    I love you Caitlin, because I love the truth. And you tell it so pure and straight. We are in the hands of monsters. When will we see the military industrial complex for what it is – Merchants of Death.

    • mike k
      January 1, 2019 at 20:37

      Well I see my comment now, but will it be up later? I am losing confidence in having my thoughts posted here.

    • mike k
      January 1, 2019 at 20:44

      I raise questions about the posting mechanisms on CN because I feel it is so important, not for the sake of venting frustration or accusing the good people behind this excellent site of intentional wrongdoing. Sorry to raise such a fuss about it, but I feel it is very important we preserve this valuable site in top condition.

  27. Jeff Harrison
    January 1, 2019 at 19:33

    I always thought that Strategic Air Command or SAC was adequate.

    • mike k
      January 1, 2019 at 20:32

      I guess the question mark was inadequate to bring up the comments. Maybe you could fix this problem?

  28. mike k
    January 1, 2019 at 19:05

    My comment does not appear on my PC until I type a new comment, like this one. Does my comment not show on other’s screens?

  29. mike k
    January 1, 2019 at 18:56

    I love you Caitlin, because I love the truth. And you tell it so pure and straight. We are in the hands of monsters. When will we see the military industrial complex for what it is – Merchants of Death.

    • Tom Kath
      January 1, 2019 at 21:34

      I wish people would stop using this CN commentary section to express their impatience at not being able to read their own contributions.

    • Ray Scott
      January 2, 2019 at 04:08

      Yes. It is that simple. Substitute Love. It is never love to bomb innocent children of ANY background.

  30. January 1, 2019 at 18:01

    People might think long and hard about the implications associated with the United States Strategic Command’s truly frightening Twitter message, now “deleted”. If concerned citizens of the world fail to handle this shocking and alarming matter with the highest level of sobriety, maturity and seriousness it calls for the future may include the unthinkable, where something much, much bigger – civilization itself, all people cherish, and continuity of life for generations yet unborn – becomes, forever, deleted.

    Peace.

  31. Peppermint Patties
    January 1, 2019 at 17:43

    “The real issue here was not values but perception. The U.S. war machine pours an immense amount of energy into perception management, making sure that ordinary Americans either (A) ignore the horrific things that are being done in their name or (B) think that those things are awesome and patriotic.”

    This is the core issue regarding the military in the USA. And most citizens don’t “see” it. Propaganda at its finest. It also doesn’t hurt that so many people make their living off of war, as articulated by Upton Sinclair: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

    • Rob Roy
      January 4, 2019 at 16:29

      Peppermint Patties:
      You make a good point. Every state has manufacturing of war components; that’s why their congress people keep getting elected and keep pushing war. HOWEVER, if the $760 billion given to the MIC for war and to steal were used to rebuild our infrastructure…roads, bridges, schools, underground pipes for water and sewage, provide education and healthcare for all Americans, the jobs created would be TRIPLED. If Congress people pointed that out to citizens as an alternative to making war equipment, they would still be elected. Of course, our Congress is not know for being intelligent.

  32. John Neal Spangler
    January 1, 2019 at 17:39

    Beyond the lunacy of bombing foreigners halfway around the world for insane reasons, a 2$ billion stealth bomber vs countries with no air defense and a 3.5 $ million bomb are going to bankrupt the US. Any profits that oil companies pay in taxes will be offset by the cost of the Air Force. USSTRATCOM is bankrupting the US.

  33. January 1, 2019 at 15:40

    Forget apologizing for bad jokes. What I want to know is when are they going to tell us where went the the $21 trillion the Department of Defense conveniently “cannot find” in their first ever audit.

    https://opensociet.org/2018/12/16/the-pentagon-steadfastly-stonewalls-against-making-its-budget-auditable/

  34. lysias
    January 1, 2019 at 15:34

    The Strategic Air Command of the likes of Curtis LeMay and Thomas Power turned into USSTRATCOM in 1992. They had the motto “Peace is our profession” already back then, but they’ve always been nuts.

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