Blundering On

Speaking of blunders, there's increasing agitation among Pacific Islanders regarding the likelihood that militants who depend on LAWCAP's welfare system are going to further despoil the Pacific environment as they put on a show of doing their "work" (a kind of theater).

Mostly males engage in this lifestyle.  They enjoy being told what to do and carrying out orders, don't actually prize thinking / acting for themselves that much.  They cost a lot to sustain and their "war games" help exhaust peak oil, putting more strain on everyone.

As Smedley Butler pointed out in no uncertain terms, war is a racket.  The USAers are being groomed to hate / fear the North Koreans by LAWCAP's investment bankers, as stockpiling antipathy is a necessary prerequisite to the massive waste, the orgy of destruction, called "war" in modern times (more it's just barely managed mayhem, and a way to win fat contracts).

George Orwell and President Eisenhower were both prescient.

In earlier times, we had this myth that civilians could control the militants in sophisticated democracies, whereas Banana Republics where characterized by "juntas" who "governed" by self-appointment and cronyism.

The Gitmo saga has made this myth a lot less believable.  Presidents have been shoved aside in the mad rush to create a post USA or pseudo USA of gigantic proportions.

It's hard to "just follow orders" and "defend democracy" at the same time.  With enough choosing the former over the latter, one loses that which originally supplied some legitimacy to one's cause.