I’m going to talk about dead words. Words lying on their backs? No. A Lexicographer would say dead words are obsolete words, words that have passed out of usage. An English professor I used to have said dead words are words that are overused and don’t give the reader a clear picture. “He went to the store.”  “Went” is a dead word. A different image is presented if one says, “He pedaled his bike to the store.” But no, I’m not going to talk about that either. I’m going to talk about words having to do with death.

We try to soften death so that it is more palatable. Our pets don’t die; they cross the rainbow bridge. On the other hand, people buy the farm, pass away, kick the bucket, lose their lease, are no longer with us, have departed, and on and on. These words and phrases make it easier to talk about a difficult subject.

Now the military has a different take on death. They try to hide it as much as possible as if the military’s job isn’t to kill and maim. They “take out a position,” “liberate,” a village, and my absolute favorite is, “the opposition was neutralized.” The wording obscures the fact that people were killed and maimed. The people we are talking about are nothing more than positions or a point to be neutralized. Sometimes, they get a little more personal and call them “insurgents,” or “terrorists.” This grammatical move not only takes away the impact death of humans has, but it gives an excuse for killing them.

That’s what war is: an excuse to kill people without prosecution. Murder. It’s nothing short of murder. We like to say we’re fighting for freedom, or to liberate a certain class of people, but the truth is that we go to war to fill the coffers of those who already have more than they can spend in a lifetime. These wealthy people and their children rarely participate in war in ways that could send them out to buy the farm or cause them to kick the bucket.

Now there is another feature of war that needs softening. That is the people killed, or wounded with their faces and limbs blown off, their minds broken, things the survivors will have to deal with the rest of their lives. We call these unfortunates, “collateral damage.” We’re not talking about combatants. We’re talking about bystanders, people who are not fighting, not killing and maiming others. Collateral damage. Let that sink in.

“Oh but they are Communists (or Socialists, terrorists, or fascists, take your pick) and their people need to be liberated, and we need to stop them before they take us over.” What horse shit! Look at the places we’ve been bombing or threatening to bomb the last few years and what they have to offer the world.

Libya: oil, a monetary exchange that was not the dollar.

Ukraine: agriculture land, oil, rare earths

Venezuela: oil, gold, metals

Afghanistan: rare earths

Iraq: oil

And it goes on- Currently we are supporting Israel in its decimation of a people and their children because of a trillion cubic feet of natural gas and a large petroleum reserve, all offshore of Palestine. There’s also real estate that is valuable as well.

If you don’t believe what I’m saying, I challenge you, that is if you haven’t stopped reading because my words are damaging your world view, to read a book, a very small book, by a man who went in the service a private and came out a major general and the most decorated soldier in US history- War is a Racket, by Smedley Butler. Further understanding can be had by reading A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn. You won’t find any sugar coating in either of these books, but you will find truth.

If you can’t stand the truth, well, then, Remember the Maine! US Attacked in Gulf of Tonkin! Yellow Cake Uranium equals US a radioactive cloud! Operation North Woods! And they go on. All lies.

If you are wondering why you and others cannot stand the truth, check out these few of many operations the US government pulled on its own people:

Operation Monarch

Project Bluebird

MK-ULTRA

Operation CHAOS

COINTELPRO

This is just a start. There are many more and any list of these activities should also include 9-11. I hope that if you weren’t awake before, you are awake now.