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I am in my sixth decade riding this mortal coil, and "my" government has been at war, in one place or another, my entire life.

To a large extent, my political awakening and anti-war views were forged watching the evacuation of Saigon. I was still but a child, but I will never forget it.

We had family and friends that fought and died in that war, and when the choppers took off from the embassy several were in our living room watching it unfold. There was much sobbing as the shock of it sunk in.

Only years later, after reading books such as John Paul Vann's *A Bright Shining Lie*, did I understand the enormity of the catastrophe and the criminality of the mountebanks that led us into it.

In the years following I learned that every single war the US has engaged in, save the Revolutionary, and perhaps the Korean, was based on blatant lies and were to a large extent orchestrated by our rulers.

Of all the laudable things that Trump has promised, I hope and pray that he will stop these wars, withdraw all US troops to our own soil, and dismantle the machinery that has cost our nation so much blood and treasure for so long.

Let us hope that enough is finally enough.

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I’m in my eighth decade. Seen a bit more. Agree totally. Bring every soldier home. End NATO. through the UN out of NY. Defend our borders with tanks if necessary. STOP CRIME

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Joseph Kaplan - also in my eighth decade. I agree. Throwing the UN out and disbanding it seems like a great idea. Do you remember during Trump's first term when he tried to stop sending funding to the UN? He soon learned his lesson. Now he has appointed a person as UN ambassador who would be intent on the genocide in the Middle East continuing. Yes, I call it that.

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How much better would America be with the trillions of dollars spent on the War on Terror instead 'invested' at home? Not to mention the thousands of prime-aged Americans who would still be alive.........

And these are the people we're supposed to trust with the next four years of American foreign policy? LOL!

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The war on terror is far worse than just a typical war, because it led to the government being able to wage war against its citizenry through The Patriot Act.

That makes it a triple whammy, because after 20+ years people will look at you crazy if you ask them if trading freedom for safety was worth it.

The scam has become an expectation; not an idea that should be debated for solutions. Precisely because people have forgotten (and therefore can't see) it was a stupid idea from the beginning

"The most dangerous ideas are not those that challenge the status quo. The most dangerous ideas are those so embedded in the status quo, so wrapped in a cloud of inevitability that we forget they are ideas at all."

- Jacob M. Appel

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I am leaving or Europe on Wed. I am packing carefully examining my toothpaste tube. exchanging the 3.4 oz for 2.9 oz. knowing I am keeping my country safe

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Hahaha!

Mask on, pockets empty, shoes off, hands up....BIOSCAN!

All so you can hear a cacophony of barking by those trolls, paid by us, so the government can take otherwise decent people and turn them into little brownshirts.

They haven't improved a bit in 20 years...except at being more obnoxious.

If you want to get your laugh on for this trip, watch this. It's 4 minutes, but I promise you'll laugh your ass off:

https://youtu.be/ysGGVNIG4nE?si=DA9SP5OCX-SXaaE4

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oy. the stories i could tell traveling with a JAP. no not that kind.

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Thanks, I needed that!

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I really wish I had been less eager to embrace the war machine in 2001.

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Yeah me too. It woke my ass up though.

Part of it was I succumbed to misguided patriotism as a result of my relative youth.

They were such masters at developing semantic "stops" and thought-terminating clichés that immediately dismissed dissent.

But when I watched Powell present the dossier to the UN in 2003 justifying the invasion of Iraq, i could tell he was lying.... and that was the pivot point in my life in terms of how i look at not just war....but our government in general.

Now my trust in the government is hovering around Kelvin and I'm white hot with impatience.

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I read the Cheney's memoir. I read Rove's fiction too. And Bush's 'Decision Point.'

By 2016 I had near permanent diarrhea and indigestion, self-inflicted by the realization I was too trusting. And hopeful.

I voted for the felon & the hillbilly, knowing that there's a tiny window (3 out of 4 yrs, perhaps) of opportunity to circle the wagons and get ready for the Poxylips.

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Karl Rove was a required study-topic at University, in rhetoric class.

That alone should tell anyone everything they need to know about him, no?

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Yeah, well, hopefully we have our bull in a sacred cow shop now that we just installed a new "anti-war" POTUS.

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Anti war in our dreams, Ima thinkin'. Sorry. Like the guy in his 80th decade who commented earlier, I am anti war no matter who is doing it. Maybe it was seeing the Vietnam body count and screaming civilians on fire from Napalm on the nightly news that did that.

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As someone who didn't and tried to fight back I gotta tell you in the end it was 6 of one, half dozen of teh other. Either way, they weren't listening to us, they were going to do what they were going to do. The illusion of choice to keep us divided was the purpose in the first place.

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Yes. That's what I'm thinking. Maybe every day of our lives has been April's Fools Day....but we just didn't know it until The Scamdemic?

I guess the world isn't ending; just the illusion.

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And for some of us a lot of the illusion ended earlier. 9/11. Kennedy assassination. Vietnam. The Scamdemic sealed the deal.

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It also layed the groundwork for The Scamdemic

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