(ThyBlackMan.com) Two weeks ago President Obama announced his process for troop withdrawal in Afghanistan. To the average ear, the news sounded positive, decisive. “We will bring home a total of 33,000 troops by next summer,” proclaimed the president. But if we look at the U.S. history of war and Obama’s war policies, we will see that there’s nothing to really shout about.
Military historian Chalmers Johnston has said that the vast network of American military bases touches every continent except Antarctica. He hints that the American people are “ignorant” of the full scope of the profitable military-industrial complex because of the policies of secrecy and national 
security that cloak specific information. However, it is estimated that there are about 1,000 U.S. military installations around the world.
We are hard-wired to believe that we need all this military might to defend this country, yet there are countries that seem to be doing just fine without a standing military (like Costa Rica) or with a limited military (like Iceland).
One of the main reasons that we in the U.S. need to understand this better is because of what the American military does in all those places. The public relations stories of troops building a school or helping a kid learn English are decoys to prevent us from seeing the cultural, ecological and financial destruction that is being done in the name of democracy, nation-building or freedom.
Military personnel seek distractions from the torments of war. These include being involved in illicit crimes such as drugs, prostitution and gun-running, along with the rape of both local and military women. There’s nothing more dangerous than a drugged or drunk person with an AK-47 or an FIM-92 Stinger, except maybe an ex-military person in our community with post-traumatic stress syndrome who’s trained to kill.
For those following the U.S. aggression in Afghanistan, we know that the withdrawal of 33,000 troops will only take us to the pre-surge numbers. The date of 2014 that was set for completing U.S. combat operations and turning it over to the Afghan government is quietly being described as an “aspirational goal,” meaning it gives our government some wiggle-room. We have seen many examples of changing goals of occupation from peace-keeping to nation-building.
These are disguises for stealing people’s earning power, land and resources. Peoples around the world are getting sick and tired of being sick and tired of this military policy and their own leaders’ complicity with it. Uprisings will be the order of the day for a long while.
In 1940, John Work wrote the Negro Spiritual “Study War No More.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. echoed the sentiment when he opposed the Vietnam War. In the late 1980s, Blues legend Willie Dixon and his grandson penned an updated version of the song. Dixon felt that people had studied war so long that they didn’t know anything else.
It’s time for all freedom-loving people to denounce wars and to force their governments to respect the lives, lands and liberty of all people. The international arms race can be curtailed if the biggest bullies are put in check. These bullies must be made to learn some different alternatives for resolving conflict and be forced to systematically dismantle the military-industrial complex in place of an economy based upon meeting human needs and environmental interests.
Yes, Brother Dixon, that will be “one mighty day when we hear world leaders say, “Ain’t gonna study war no mo’, we’re giving it up, we’re gonna let it go.”
Written By Jamala Rogers
