One concerns the now archaic power-mad institution called NATO, which meets today. The other the cultural rot that has infected the U.S.A. Both essays are extremely hard-hitting, as should be. during this Saturn/Pluto time.

QUESTION: what does war-making have to do with civil society? Can they co-exist? Or does the first inexorably infect the other?

But first, check this out. Thanks to Fred Burks, the wanttoknow.info email list:

America has spent $6.4 trillion on wars in the Middle East and Asia since 2001, a new study says
November 20, 2019, CNBC News
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/20/us-spent-6point4-trillion-on-middle-east-wars…

American taxpayers have spent $6.4 trillion on post-9/11 wars and military action in the Middle East and Asia, according to a new study. The report, from the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs at Brown University, also finds that more than 801,000 people have died as a direct result of fighting . Of those, more than 335,000 have been civilians. Another 21 million people have been displaced due to violence. The $6.4 trillion figure reflects the cost across the U.S. federal government since the price of America’s wars is not borne by the Defense Department alone, according to Neta Crawford, who authored the study. Crawford explains that the post-9/11 wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria have expanded to more than 80 countries — “becoming a truly global war on terror.” The longer wars drag on, more and more service members will ultimately claim veterans benefits and disability payments. “Even if the United States withdraws completely from the major war zones by the end of FY2020 and halts its other Global War on Terror operations, in the Philippines and Africa for example, the total budgetary burden of the post-9/11 wars will continue to rise as the U.S. pays the on-going costs of veterans’ care and for interest on borrowing to pay for the wars,” Crawford writes. In March, the Pentagon estimated that the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria have cost each taxpayer $7,623 through fiscal 2018.

Note: Note that $6.4 trillion divided by the 320 million in the U.S. equals $20,000 spent for every man, woman, and child over the past two decades. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on military corruption from reliable major media sources.

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Meanwhile, please notice that Donald Trump is the first president in 40 years not to have embroiled us in a new hot war. 

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Here’s the NATO article, arguing basically, that it has outlived its so-called usefulness, and should be demolished.

Power Mad NATOs Deep and Pervading Crisis Is Foisted Upon the World

And here’s the cultural article, asking a deep penetrating question that makes me, for one, cringe.

Could America Survive A Truth Commission? 

And here’s one possible conclusion we can draw from the rotting corpse that is supposedly the great “exceptional” nation we call the U.S.A.