Colonel Crystal's Parallel Universe

by Hufferd, James;

  He was, first, seared by a mounting, if passing, wave of despair, then furious, and viscerally rocked by a quick follow-up bolt of resolve and deadly earnest.

  Darting back inside, he hurriedly made coffee and exchanged his robe for a shirt and skimpy shorts. Then he grasped a trash barrel and rake from the porch and set out to face the mess – finding himself joined with startling immediacy in the task by Jonah Jules, the pastor at Fireside Baptist Church two doors down.

  “Hello, Alva.”

  “Hello, Pastor Jules,” he managed through gritted teeth.

  “Call me ‘Jonah’.”

  “All right. Hello, Jonah.”

  “I see that you have a problem here.”

  “It does seem so, yes.”

  “Let me help you pick this trash up.” (Pastor Jules was carrying his own gigantic rake and trash bag).

  “OK. Thanks!”

  “You know you didn’t have to cause all of this.”

  “What?” He stared at his newfound friend and feigned a laugh. “Damn,” he said under his breath. “Pastor, I’m about as peace-loving as anyone you’ll ever meet.”

  “Oh, I’m sure you are. But, you, can’t go around saying bad things against our fighting men and women. At least, you can’t in this part of the country. Nobody with any sense criticizes the military. It’s at the top of our trusted institutions – maybe the only one left!””

  “I’m aware of that. Look, I’m not condemning our troops, but their deployment. And how they’re literally used. Who says all these brushfire, piss-cat wars, whatever you want to call ‘em – real wars and BIG if you’re over there fighting them – and desperate as hell for the native populations scrapping for their lives, for their targeted families, their country – getting killed anyway – that those wars have to go on? Have to even ever start? And, sorry, the American public has another think coming. The vastly overgrown mission of the military is chockfull of weeds and drastically cries out to be pruned back.

  “But, aside from any of that, you know there is the matter of the Nuremburg protocol we imposed ourselves and signed on to back in ’47, by which the individual participants on our, illegal, side could be prosecuted.

  “Look, did anybody ask you if you wanted a war, three and more times, Jonah? Or to countenance, pay for what has amounted to a shooting-gallery, killing field, high-frequency bombing range, over there for years and years? No? Well, they didn’t ask me, either! But somebody decided it, didn’t they? Who do you suppose that was? And why? No, not the president. I mean, who was behind it, who really was instrumental to fatefully push, get approved and launched such a God-awful policy with no credible announced objectives, and sustain it indefinitely? For what purpose, and what has it achieved? What tiny, concentrated, unrepresentative group of unelected citizens are privileged to start all our wars since 9/11? And repeat the exercise time after time? (Clue: Money shouts.) When have this group of backers’ desires not led eventually to war, with perpetual, multi-front war as their preferred exploitative tool? And why, objectively? After all, is anyone about to attack our country militarily? Invade us? Has anyone done so or seriously threatened to?

  Jonah raised his eyebrows as he considered.

  “Pastor… Jonah, let’s ask ourselves for a minute, let’s take stock. Just what is the military for? Tell me, what is its purpose?”

  “Well, as you have suggested, to protect America from her enemies.”

  “So, from being invaded or attacked militarily within our legal borders? Note that the alleged spontaneous Middle Eastern group ISIS itself, for instance, no matter how evil or directed, or by whom, has never actually struck anywhere close to the United States. Just a few tenuous and usually lone internet-influenced domestic stringers allegedly have, abetted by frantic wall-to-wall TV coverage.”

  “Yes, I guess that would be it, to defend us against outside invasion. But no foreign country is thought to have invaded us on 9/11, or since! No matter how you think all that came about, no foreign country we went to war with, anyway, invaded us on that day! A few unelected, vested individuals started those spreading, connected wars, and sustain them – just, it seems, on their say so! And nobody else – not one of the other three-hundred and twenty million, who are the rest of us, have anything to say about it. Even Congress dances to their tune, goes along! And our part is to pay for it and shut up! Don’t question! The Pastor was becoming a little bit perturbed

  “So, how many times,” Colonel Alva asked, “going back to the beginning, has the anticipated – an invasion – actually happened – how many times has the sovereign United States been invaded or attacked on this soil militarily?”

  “Well, it’s true, 9/11 wasn’t exactly that, but… And I guess in 1812, in this area of the country and…” (Pause).

  “A couple of times max, then?”

  “Well, successfully in so far as mounting an invasion, yeah. But how many have we stopped in the bud?”

  “You tell me, Jonah. How many?”

  There was an uneasy pause.

  “OK, then, a couple of time, would you say?” the Colonel went on. “I’ll accept that, for purposes of the discussion – with one of them questionable. Why do you think it’s been so few times, in almost two hundred and fifty years?”

  “I suppose because they wouldn’t dare.”

  “Well, why not?”

  “Because they are aware of the overwhelming strength of our military.”

  “So, do you think Canada might have been invaded more?”

  “No. What are you getting at?”

  “Canada doesn’t have a comparably powerful military, on the scale of ours, scattered to the winds, all over the earth!”

  “Yeah, but they have us to protect them, too.”

  “Right. Our taxpayers – not theirs, at least generally – are for the most part on the hook to pay for defending them, as well as other countries and places too numerous to mention. With your money! What generosity! I suppose there might be something to what you said. So, OK, let’s take Australia or New Zealand, on the opposite side of the earth. They haven’t been invaded a lot, either. And our military protection of them would be just a little behind the general curve, considering the distance and logistics factor, wouldn’t you think? Just slightly more exposed than other places closer. But all the necessary R & D could still go ahead.”

  “And also, what would anyone really stand to gain by invading them? I mean, China might like to resettle part of their population, but…” The Pastor paused. “Great point! Other than that particular nightmare scenario, why would anyone seriously want to invade such basically peaceable countries? Let me ask you another question: How many outright military invasions of sovereign countries do you think the U.S. has mounted since the end of World War II?”

  “No idea.”

  “Well, the best count, based on a reliable listing I’ve seen, is sixty-nine. That is sixty-nine countries invaded or bombed by the U.S. military – more than a third of the United Nations.”

  “I never would have… But these countries were clearly in the wrong.”

  “In all sixty-nine instances? Have you examined any of them?”

  “No, but… And in some of those cases, it was to prevent them attacking here.”

  “At least, that’s how it’s usually announced, if it is, and justified, isn’t it? We’re tricked into keeping our mouths shut!”

  “Exactly. I think I see what you mean.”

  “But, of all the countries the U.S. invaded or bombed, what if some of those had invaded here first, in order to keep their countries from being invaded – following that same logic our leaders claim to use?”

  “Well, they wouldn’t dare try!”

  “OK. So, what you’re saying is that the U.S. can invade them at will, because we’re tough and we can get away with it? Might makes right, in other words?”

  “Well…, not exactly. But I think I see where you’re going.”

  “And what if I told you the
U.S. itself supports and/or implants horrific death cults – including parts or all of what goes by the names of al-Qaeda and ‘ISIL/ISIS’ and all their aliases intended to confuse – sometimes with locally charismatic and scarifying leaders, routinely, in countries it targets? Trains and arms and commissions virtual and for-real death squads, some right here on our own soil? Instigates and directs conflicts, like the many ‘color revolutions’ to overthrow and implant groomed and servile new leaders? Pays and honors treasonous informants in the countries? That the U.S. right now has silent troops and/or missions operating, assault rifles, anti-aircraft guns, howitzers, fighter jets, etc., etc. at the ready and blazing, openly or clandestinely, in nearly every country on earth – and on more than 700 known assorted, obtrusive, offensive, revealingly authoritarian military bases? Look, it’s a fact that there are considerable efforts, probably futile, in countries all over the world to close unwanted U.S. bases and nuclear deployments. In addition to those known, there are undoubtedly an unknown number more that are totally secret – very likely, a whole lot of those, some no doubt nuclear-armed, scattered here and there, everywhere. Deliberately provocative, falsely justified forward missile-system deployments for perpetual, everywhere war and deliberately provocative war prep. “Plus, the known, and more than likely, hundreds, or even up in the thousands or even more than that secret special-forces lethal missions being carried out routinely, who knows where or why, with or without anyone’s permission or perhaps even awareness, outside a tight little circle of planners. Plus, world-dominating U.S.-based international death-dealing arms sales, now easily totaling $100 billion annually. All of this is the empire – not yours, not of or for the American nation – but an empire for world control by a tiny, eccentric, wildly dangerous, self-serving multi-billionaire elite. And obeying, serving, fabulously enriching no one else – on your dime! Jonah, do you know what ‘objectification’ is?”

  Pastor Jonah passed on the last question with a bitter chuckle. “Well, that would seem just a bit too much, if it were all of it true.”

  “Oh, I can assure you, Jonah, it is true. It’s all they live for.” He shook his head. “And they will do anything, anything to get more and more of it.” “You know what else? As I alluded, you are paying for it, for basically all of it, from the aspect of governmental expense, giving all the advantaged contractors their exorbitant pay, budgets, and the venue in which to operate enormously-rich supporting concessions and sales of every kind of service and equipment – all costing you. An empire we in America are dearly paying for!

  “And that, basically, is what it’s for – maximum lucrative perpetual war and war footing – though they possibly don’t always think of it that way and never state it that way – to empower their clout and fleece you, without you having any say, is paradise for them, and they think justified, and, as well, I’m convinced, to salvage their shameless, grimy, bloody-handed substitute for the normal economy they’ve stinted by investing in killing and destruction. Think about it – it’s a system far too neat, systematic. Too neat, because it also tends to bypass productive, positive, valuable goods- and services-making and dealing, preferring the more-lucrative global force and violence route, so far avoiding clashes with forces of comparable, matching power as too ‘terrifying’. (Not to say, of course, there aren’t occasional consumer spinoffs, such as high-tech gadgetry.)

  “Together with compounding interest, the policy of permanent war and militarization of the economy, subtracting as well as adding jobs and resource use, is what serves most to radically redistribute upward – the seldom-if-ever-mentioned reality of active income redistribution and near-monopoly special influence. Congress is accordingly bought and micro-directed to accentuate. Hence, some active military families are left to depend on food stamps. And look, if access to oil is the incentive, as claimed especially early on, then it is, by multiples, the most-expensive oil ever in history – with you, my friend, footing the bill for the companies, along with your kids and grandkids. We all know we have the knowledge and wherewithal to leave oil behind, or very shortly could.

  “And, back to my point, I ask you, are run-of-the-mill Americans by and large warmongering neocon psychopaths, abetted by disregard for others in the world and their accustomed freedom and their own patriotism? I think not. Far from it! And, again, did anyone ever ask you (or anyone with a normal job) if you wanted continual, aggressive wars? Did they ask you, Jonah? Letting an unelected, financially self-interested privileged few arrogate to determine for us all war or no war, with all the direct and indirect implications of that, is, in my opinion, absolutely the most destructive, unfair thing we’ve ever done as a nation. It needs to stop dead. And its potential for harm needs to be cut off.

  “Ask yourself, Jonah, how have all these unspeakably barbaric and highly-costly ‘operations’ of ours done, at creating a more peaceful or safer world, as is their emphatically stated objective? In fact, the whole Middle East and all of Europe are now destabilized, traumatized directly as a result. And we’re traumatized enough to be in denial and avoid the subject. Who have they protected us from, that we couldn’t be at least as well-protected from operating from home, like other countries basically do? And probably save ourselves several trillions over a few years.

  “Just look! Things on such a scale didn’t normally happen, in or out of the Mideast, before we barged in over there to ‘fix’ thing for “us." Our money poured in in the trillions – and how has it fixed anything for us? In fact, it’s mortgaged our future (for our three hundred or so million regular folks, I mean). And we’re still over there, shouting orders and cajoling ‘allies’, cursing and demonizing rivals, hiring terrorist mercenaries.

  “Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Iran – Libya, Yemen – are all our designated “enemies” over there –that have not invaded anyone (Iraq, invading Iran in the ‘80s due to our cajoling being the exception). Otherwise, none of them. “And still, it goes on, on, on. Remember: the business of your/our troops is killing – killing for the profit of others, it turns out. Blood money!” He paused, gazed into the pastor’s unnaturally sky-blue eyes.

  And his discourse, or rant, went on.

  “And Russia our designated ‘enemy’-in chief, who, at least for now, the consensus don’t want to fight, for fear they’d whup us?” he went on. “Or that somebody’d nuke somebody. Maintaining Russia nevertheless as our primary designated ‘enemy’ is absolutely the biggest source of U.S. military funding, for advanced weaponry and high-tech solutions, for missile and conventional forward bases planted on all their many doorsteps, all the way around, or close to it. Even though its – Russia’s – ‘aggression’ has amounted to tiny, provoked adjustments within its one-time and still bloodline- and historically-related family – in support of large ethnically Russian minorities, even majorities, under attack by their own internal enemies – only – over the past sixty years. That is, if there’s been any genuine Russian aggression during that period at all, something extremely doubtful, the question remains: Where have they invaded? They haven’t!

  “We know there’s been a lot, really a lot, of American invasion – invasion pure and simple. Russia’s notorious supposed ‘invasion’ of Crimea, by comparison, amounted to them dispatching a few more troops to a naval base they’d already had there for years. It must be acknowledged that the only real, honest-to-goodness objective reason for ever-deepening animosity against Russia – despite growing frustration with that country’s Mideast aerial pushback, stymying U.S. regime-change plans in Syria, lately – is also the desire to sustain and even increase the flow of tax money from us (we, the people) to our de facto militaristic oligarchs, the supporters and actual members of neocon think tanks, more properly called blood-greed tanks, overlapping with the unelected commissions, or ‘councils’, whose business is aggressive (lucrative) military invasion everywhere. At the beck of certain strong-arm background individuals, for whom it’s full-court, full-time permanent press for war all the time – based, fo
r the most part, on nothing more. Your going along is just donating further to the literally filthy rich and kill-ordering people, while impoverishing us and all our loved ones economically and no doubt morally.

  “And, beyond even that, our hard-earned tax money – by the millions or even billions, trillions of dollars – taken from us for those horrible purposes – gets stolen afterward or, completely, irretrievably, cluelessly ‘lost’ or ‘misappropriated’, more-or-less routinely, shamelessly, by the Pentagon or overseas units, and must be replaced by us of course. Sometimes, it even hits the news. So, Jonah, how do you countenance that?”

  “I know there’s some of that, but the way you put it, I guess, is news to me.”

  “Russian political meddling? Election meddling? Tit for tat with all of ours for years. And, regardless what mainstream media news has told you, as concerns the main part of Ukraine our politicians still harp about – talk about meddling, and right there’s ours in engineering the overthrow. In the east of Ukraine, a case frequently cited, Russian military itself didn’t cross the border there at all, in spite of all the noise from the west that it did, lacking credible evidence. But truth hardly matters. A question: do we ourselves, the U.S.A., ever hold troop exercises near the borders of our own country, where we assume we are free to do what we wish? The Russians did encourage ethnic Russians who live in east Ukraine to fight back against extreme bullying.

  “Or China? They have precisely one foreign military base – in Djibouti, recently-opened. Compared to our seven-hundred-plus that are known. Russia, too, has basically none. They both Russia and China, already have, basically, defense-only militaries. And could enter into mutual agreements to keep it that way.