I wrote a version of this essay three or four years ago when I was a freelance journalist. I submitted it to at least 10 sites that accept freelance submissions, but nobody chose to run it.
I don't think I was supposed to make the points I tried to make.
I updated it for our Covid times to show that these "truths people can't handle" are pretty endemic by now.
My take-away is that it's not politically correct to question the Military Industrial Complex or the Science Industrial Complex. Which is why I think both institutions don't feel that threatened by contrarian writers like myself.
I think they know that their lies aren't going to be challenged at any media sites with a decent-sized audience.
The main theme I've been pounding home in recent weeks is that all the important organizations are captured. I'm primarily thinking and writing about Covid's authorized narratives. By "captured" I mean that all the important people in these organizations do not feel "free" to dissent from the authorized narrative so they just go along with them because that's what's in their best interest.
However, the same thing applies to the "neocon" agenda. If someone says America should just bring its troops home and defend our own borders, this person is going to be cancelled and punished in some way as well.
Bill, you've hit the high note in this article. I couldn't agree more with you! I say this as the daughter of an admiral. Today, he would probably agree with you. Our military is way too bloated and we are not making wise use of our military personnel - who, btw, now wear high heels and lipstick and those are the so-called men. Great points about Cuba - you are right on the money there, sir. The other problem is that majority of Americans have been fast asleep for years and have NO idea what the truth is any more. I think that is starting to change, but we still have a ways to go. As I've said before, Bill, you are an extremely rare journalist - you dig for the truth and then tell it. You are probably risking losing some of your readers, but you will gain the respect of those who know you are right. These are dark times and articles like this give me hope, because hearing the truth in these times of so many lies is a hopeful thing. Thank you for bringing a bright light into the dark world that we have become at this time.
GREAT article, Bill, one of your best - Thomas Paine would be proud of you.
Thank you, E. Grogan. I bet a lot of former officers might (secretly) agree with me. I hope I don't lose any subscribers, but I probably will. I don't know what statement in this piece anyone could really challenge. Or, maybe I'll find out in the Reader Comments.
I agree, a lot of former officers might well agree with you. I hope you don't lose any subscribers either - but in my post where I strongly agreed with you, I've gotten a lot of likes, last count it was 11 and all I did was basically summarize what you said - so I'd say your article went over quite well with your readers!!! Glad to see that. Sometimes the good guys DO win!!!
Timing is everything...Bill, a friend just sent me this Substack....how many young men have to die because the truth about the vaccines is so brutal that people refuse to consider the consequences??
Boy, that's quite a story - another tragedy. I love how the author carefully worded his Facebook post. I hope his message resonates with a few more members of the faith community, who should not be afraid of identifying the truth.
Thanks for providing this link. I hope many of my readers take the time to read it.
My 78 year old sister lives in Brookings, SD...small University town, maybe 25,000... her cardiologist is advising all his patients ( mostly elderly) against getting COVID shots. He’s seen an alarming increase in cardiac inflammation. The truth is out there.
I read that this morning and thought the same thing. Very powerful from Mr Leake and a great article from you! Agree that it is one of your best. So happy to have you back in my feed!!!
The world was a different place in 1992. We still had freedoms back then. It makes perfect sense that we started closing US military bases down in 1988, because the very next thing we did was start building them overseas. The wikipedia page even has the gall to mention that we save $12 billion annually by having these bases closed. How much did we spend to build and man all of the bases overseas for the past 30 years in places that don't want us there? Not to mention all of the refugees we created. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_Realignment_and_Closure
"...or more, accurately, the real enemies were the leaders who’d been issuing him orders and brainwashing him his whole life."
I'd replace 'leaders' with, "Those with power".
I don't consider anyone in government as my 'leader'. Just as I didn't regard most of my command in the military as my 'leaders'. They have, had power...but most definitely not my leader.
My husband always bridled at the usage of superiors. He refused to use that term, substituted seniors. Your thinking about leaders Is on target. Some were incapable of leading children to a picnic.
Not going all commune here, but suggest even superiors doesn't work. I get the need for a hierarchical management structure...but that doesn't make those with authority to wield power any better, or worse, than those they wield power over. And from experience, usually worse the higher you go.
It would save a lot of money. The families of our troops would like having their loved ones closer to home and in safer conditions. I don't think anyone would start a war in country X if America's military left country X. Other nations have their own militaries, right?
It's just America that has to have a military presence in 100 nations.
I don't know why I post this suggestion because we all know the troops aren't coming home. I guess most people do think we'd lose even more freedoms if our troops came home from Germany, Japan, Korea .. . even Syria!
What would we think if Syria has a couple of battalions and military bases in, say, rural Mississippi?
We've got military bases in their country; why can't Syria have a couple of military outposts in our country?
I know and those are the type questions I keep asking. That damn Socratic Method. Just don't ask questions.
That's probably the key for restful sleep for 80 percent of the world. Stay in the right lane and you'll be safe in the cocoon of your protective herd.
My article today mentions Col. Jessep's comment about "the blanket of freedom" that he provides to people like Tom Cruise's character.
As I think about this, what many people really want is a "blanket of ignorance." They are happy as long as they don't question anything they are not supposed to question.
Our rulers know this about them too. That's why they know they can get away with everything they do. They know people want to to stay under that blanket.
My nephew is currently stationed in Afghanistan. Ugh! I was sick when I heard he was going six months ago and have been getting sicker about it as the recent news gets worse. He’s a medic but plenty of them are in harms way and have been injured or killed over the last 30 years. Now I have to worry if we are starting ww3 is my 34 year old son safe? He’s not in the military but...
I was at Gitmo as a 19 y.o. 0311 Cpl /Sgt of the guard on the Marine barracks side. At the time I had never heard of Smedley Butler. Later I did and was able to reflect that in boot camp we never said Good night Smedley wherever you are. It was always good night Chesty (Chesty Puller) wherever you are.
There were some Marines wounded trying to clear a minefield, I don't know about killed. I know because I went down to donate blood but they said they had enough.
At post 21 you could look out on the flood lit bay and see huge shadowy shapes swimming in the water. Across the water from our position there was a jetty with a patrol boat tied up and a machine gun position at the end of the jetty. Every once in awhile some Cuban would swim across the water to get to the U.S. side or so I heard. Never happened while I was there.
I did see a guy get shot in the stomach. An idiot had a negligent discharge with a 1911.
I am completely in agreement with your comments. Too much to talk about here but yeah everything was a lie and a fraud. Which I really found out years later in Haiti 95 and Afghanistan 2003 on my second incarnation of being an idiot.
Thank you for "my blanket." That is sincere gratitude phrased with a humorous touch from this notion of ignorance is bliss narrative.
I am aware of the dangers which were on our doorstep during the Bay of Pigs and while I'm not a neocon I admit to being somewhat hawkish. The USA without a big stick is just a stair-tripping addled octogenarian reading queue cards and, heavens to murgatroyd, exiting stage left.
The Bay of Pigs was a failure. The cold war has been over for thirty years. the U.S. is bankrupt. Afghanistan and Iraq were total strategic failures. When I got on the plane in Kandahar to return to CONUS I knew without any doubt that we would lose the war. The military is weak and can't sustain a high intensity war against a peer or near peer opponent for more that a week or two. Biden drained the strategic oil reserve and gave away the war stocks to Ukraine. Ukraine is losing. Now the U.S. is facing war with the Arabs, Chinese and Russians. None of this is going to end well with the idiot children/crt lgbtq woke marxist NWO lizards running things.
Something I always remembered, you have the best army until you don't anymore.
Hollywood as in infinite ability to twist things concerning the military, especially since Viet Nam. Less than 1% of Americans serve or have served and the current percentage that have seen action is smaller. One thing is certain, the policies from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, either keeps our enemies at bay or needlessly gets our people killed.
It's interesting to me to consider why the scriptwriter wrote his scene, which is powerful. Did he want to show that there are reasons that some military officers act the way they do or think they way they do? That is, it might be "repulsive" to some what the military does, but the military has to behave this way or else we'll all lose our freedoms and we won't be "safe" from the Evil countries that are trying to get us. Most people who viewed the movie would probably agree with this view - so perhaps, in part, this was an effort to present "both sides" of the argument.
Or: Did the screenwriter who put the words into this character's mouth agree with me that this speech was a great example of irony - i..e the man who insisted to us that we "couldn't handle the truth" was actually a person who ... couldn't handle the truth.
That was NOT the take-away of the audience IMO. The audience obviously didn't like and wasn't supposed to pull for this character, who is the "bad guy" in the film. However, I think most people who have seen this movie say, "Yes, I don't like that guy - but he made a great - and true - point with that speech."
I'm just one of the few people that says, "No, his points weren't true." I know just about everyone agrees with Col. Jessep ... but that just proves the power of the pro-war/miltary "national defense" indoctrination we've all received our whole lives.
... I think one reason I wrote this essay was to try to show that the pro-military industrial complex propaganda or indoctrination programs we've been exposed to our whole lives ... work as intended.
That is, probably 90 percent of film-goers AGREE with the colonel's points in that scene. They agree that A) We need troops in all these countries and B) That "marines with guns" on walls do "protect" us (that is we'd all be at risk - not safe - if they weren't doing this).
So they are really, again, employing contrived fear to get what they really want or to control our collective thinking. They are manipulating public opinion, which becomes accepted "conventional wisdom." Basically, they created a "narrative" that everyone accepts as "the truth" ... but that narrative is not really the truth ... As usual.
... So I hope some readers see how this famous movie scene actually ties into the false truths of our Covid times. They are working from the same Bogus Narrative playbook.
I was once in the position of Santiago & Jessup and did resent providing the illusion of the "blanket of liberty" for the rest of the US for a meager Marine's salary and CNN providing the orders. Then of course came to the realization of the multitude of falsehoods and daily erosion of liberty that are/is endemic to the US govt. And have since learned that the real providers of liberty are people who chose not to be vaccinated for covid at their personal risk of federal punishment, and the lawyers who took vaccine cases to courts, or defended the people charged with crimes who did not even enter the US capital on 1-6-21 (while federal prosecutors look the other way when the presidents son is being investigated for his crimes), and of course the people who wrote about the reality of the covid vaccines, among others. So, thank you !
Could a draft be instituted now, for "service at home" reasons?
Just a question.
My thinking is no:
1. standing army at home in USA not constitutional.
2. inductees too obese
3. might fulfill career bureaucracy permanent positions with temp military
(THAT'S the real threat to the industrial military complex!)
4. "Radar O'Reilly" types might figure out how to scam even more taxpayer money. (NO WAIT. THAT'S NOT TRUTH, THAT'S FICTION: no such waste occurs in reality, hmmm??!)
I wrote a version of this essay three or four years ago when I was a freelance journalist. I submitted it to at least 10 sites that accept freelance submissions, but nobody chose to run it.
I don't think I was supposed to make the points I tried to make.
I updated it for our Covid times to show that these "truths people can't handle" are pretty endemic by now.
My take-away is that it's not politically correct to question the Military Industrial Complex or the Science Industrial Complex. Which is why I think both institutions don't feel that threatened by contrarian writers like myself.
I think they know that their lies aren't going to be challenged at any media sites with a decent-sized audience.
The main theme I've been pounding home in recent weeks is that all the important organizations are captured. I'm primarily thinking and writing about Covid's authorized narratives. By "captured" I mean that all the important people in these organizations do not feel "free" to dissent from the authorized narrative so they just go along with them because that's what's in their best interest.
However, the same thing applies to the "neocon" agenda. If someone says America should just bring its troops home and defend our own borders, this person is going to be cancelled and punished in some way as well.
Bill, you've hit the high note in this article. I couldn't agree more with you! I say this as the daughter of an admiral. Today, he would probably agree with you. Our military is way too bloated and we are not making wise use of our military personnel - who, btw, now wear high heels and lipstick and those are the so-called men. Great points about Cuba - you are right on the money there, sir. The other problem is that majority of Americans have been fast asleep for years and have NO idea what the truth is any more. I think that is starting to change, but we still have a ways to go. As I've said before, Bill, you are an extremely rare journalist - you dig for the truth and then tell it. You are probably risking losing some of your readers, but you will gain the respect of those who know you are right. These are dark times and articles like this give me hope, because hearing the truth in these times of so many lies is a hopeful thing. Thank you for bringing a bright light into the dark world that we have become at this time.
GREAT article, Bill, one of your best - Thomas Paine would be proud of you.
Thank you, E. Grogan. I bet a lot of former officers might (secretly) agree with me. I hope I don't lose any subscribers, but I probably will. I don't know what statement in this piece anyone could really challenge. Or, maybe I'll find out in the Reader Comments.
I agree, a lot of former officers might well agree with you. I hope you don't lose any subscribers either - but in my post where I strongly agreed with you, I've gotten a lot of likes, last count it was 11 and all I did was basically summarize what you said - so I'd say your article went over quite well with your readers!!! Glad to see that. Sometimes the good guys DO win!!!
Timing is everything...Bill, a friend just sent me this Substack....how many young men have to die because the truth about the vaccines is so brutal that people refuse to consider the consequences??
https://open.substack.com/pub/petermcculloughmd/p/death-comes-for-the-pastor?r=2n3v7&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
Boy, that's quite a story - another tragedy. I love how the author carefully worded his Facebook post. I hope his message resonates with a few more members of the faith community, who should not be afraid of identifying the truth.
Thanks for providing this link. I hope many of my readers take the time to read it.
My 78 year old sister lives in Brookings, SD...small University town, maybe 25,000... her cardiologist is advising all his patients ( mostly elderly) against getting COVID shots. He’s seen an alarming increase in cardiac inflammation. The truth is out there.
Good news. It's great to hear anecdotes like this.
I read that this morning and thought the same thing. Very powerful from Mr Leake and a great article from you! Agree that it is one of your best. So happy to have you back in my feed!!!
Thank you.
The world was a different place in 1992. We still had freedoms back then. It makes perfect sense that we started closing US military bases down in 1988, because the very next thing we did was start building them overseas. The wikipedia page even has the gall to mention that we save $12 billion annually by having these bases closed. How much did we spend to build and man all of the bases overseas for the past 30 years in places that don't want us there? Not to mention all of the refugees we created. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_Realignment_and_Closure
"...or more, accurately, the real enemies were the leaders who’d been issuing him orders and brainwashing him his whole life."
I'd replace 'leaders' with, "Those with power".
I don't consider anyone in government as my 'leader'. Just as I didn't regard most of my command in the military as my 'leaders'. They have, had power...but most definitely not my leader.
My husband always bridled at the usage of superiors. He refused to use that term, substituted seniors. Your thinking about leaders Is on target. Some were incapable of leading children to a picnic.
Not going all commune here, but suggest even superiors doesn't work. I get the need for a hierarchical management structure...but that doesn't make those with authority to wield power any better, or worse, than those they wield power over. And from experience, usually worse the higher you go.
Good point. I ought to go back in and edit the story and put "leaders" in quotation marks.
Bring them all home. From everywhere.
It would save a lot of money. The families of our troops would like having their loved ones closer to home and in safer conditions. I don't think anyone would start a war in country X if America's military left country X. Other nations have their own militaries, right?
It's just America that has to have a military presence in 100 nations.
I don't know why I post this suggestion because we all know the troops aren't coming home. I guess most people do think we'd lose even more freedoms if our troops came home from Germany, Japan, Korea .. . even Syria!
What would we think if Syria has a couple of battalions and military bases in, say, rural Mississippi?
We've got military bases in their country; why can't Syria have a couple of military outposts in our country?
We've got military bases in their country; why can't Syria have a couple of military outposts in our country?
------
These are the types of questions we're not supposed to ask.
I know and those are the type questions I keep asking. That damn Socratic Method. Just don't ask questions.
That's probably the key for restful sleep for 80 percent of the world. Stay in the right lane and you'll be safe in the cocoon of your protective herd.
My article today mentions Col. Jessep's comment about "the blanket of freedom" that he provides to people like Tom Cruise's character.
As I think about this, what many people really want is a "blanket of ignorance." They are happy as long as they don't question anything they are not supposed to question.
Our rulers know this about them too. That's why they know they can get away with everything they do. They know people want to to stay under that blanket.
I never liked the herd much, anyway.
I can tell. I'm also perfectly content being outside the herd ... although I keep trying to influence the thinking of people who are still in it.
You're a seeker, not a hider. Keep asking.
My nephew is currently stationed in Afghanistan. Ugh! I was sick when I heard he was going six months ago and have been getting sicker about it as the recent news gets worse. He’s a medic but plenty of them are in harms way and have been injured or killed over the last 30 years. Now I have to worry if we are starting ww3 is my 34 year old son safe? He’s not in the military but...
I was at Gitmo as a 19 y.o. 0311 Cpl /Sgt of the guard on the Marine barracks side. At the time I had never heard of Smedley Butler. Later I did and was able to reflect that in boot camp we never said Good night Smedley wherever you are. It was always good night Chesty (Chesty Puller) wherever you are.
There were some Marines wounded trying to clear a minefield, I don't know about killed. I know because I went down to donate blood but they said they had enough.
At post 21 you could look out on the flood lit bay and see huge shadowy shapes swimming in the water. Across the water from our position there was a jetty with a patrol boat tied up and a machine gun position at the end of the jetty. Every once in awhile some Cuban would swim across the water to get to the U.S. side or so I heard. Never happened while I was there.
I did see a guy get shot in the stomach. An idiot had a negligent discharge with a 1911.
I am completely in agreement with your comments. Too much to talk about here but yeah everything was a lie and a fraud. Which I really found out years later in Haiti 95 and Afghanistan 2003 on my second incarnation of being an idiot.
Thank you for "my blanket." That is sincere gratitude phrased with a humorous touch from this notion of ignorance is bliss narrative.
I am aware of the dangers which were on our doorstep during the Bay of Pigs and while I'm not a neocon I admit to being somewhat hawkish. The USA without a big stick is just a stair-tripping addled octogenarian reading queue cards and, heavens to murgatroyd, exiting stage left.
The Bay of Pigs was a failure. The cold war has been over for thirty years. the U.S. is bankrupt. Afghanistan and Iraq were total strategic failures. When I got on the plane in Kandahar to return to CONUS I knew without any doubt that we would lose the war. The military is weak and can't sustain a high intensity war against a peer or near peer opponent for more that a week or two. Biden drained the strategic oil reserve and gave away the war stocks to Ukraine. Ukraine is losing. Now the U.S. is facing war with the Arabs, Chinese and Russians. None of this is going to end well with the idiot children/crt lgbtq woke marxist NWO lizards running things.
Something I always remembered, you have the best army until you don't anymore.
Hollywood as in infinite ability to twist things concerning the military, especially since Viet Nam. Less than 1% of Americans serve or have served and the current percentage that have seen action is smaller. One thing is certain, the policies from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, either keeps our enemies at bay or needlessly gets our people killed.
It's interesting to me to consider why the scriptwriter wrote his scene, which is powerful. Did he want to show that there are reasons that some military officers act the way they do or think they way they do? That is, it might be "repulsive" to some what the military does, but the military has to behave this way or else we'll all lose our freedoms and we won't be "safe" from the Evil countries that are trying to get us. Most people who viewed the movie would probably agree with this view - so perhaps, in part, this was an effort to present "both sides" of the argument.
Or: Did the screenwriter who put the words into this character's mouth agree with me that this speech was a great example of irony - i..e the man who insisted to us that we "couldn't handle the truth" was actually a person who ... couldn't handle the truth.
That was NOT the take-away of the audience IMO. The audience obviously didn't like and wasn't supposed to pull for this character, who is the "bad guy" in the film. However, I think most people who have seen this movie say, "Yes, I don't like that guy - but he made a great - and true - point with that speech."
I'm just one of the few people that says, "No, his points weren't true." I know just about everyone agrees with Col. Jessep ... but that just proves the power of the pro-war/miltary "national defense" indoctrination we've all received our whole lives.
... I think one reason I wrote this essay was to try to show that the pro-military industrial complex propaganda or indoctrination programs we've been exposed to our whole lives ... work as intended.
That is, probably 90 percent of film-goers AGREE with the colonel's points in that scene. They agree that A) We need troops in all these countries and B) That "marines with guns" on walls do "protect" us (that is we'd all be at risk - not safe - if they weren't doing this).
So they are really, again, employing contrived fear to get what they really want or to control our collective thinking. They are manipulating public opinion, which becomes accepted "conventional wisdom." Basically, they created a "narrative" that everyone accepts as "the truth" ... but that narrative is not really the truth ... As usual.
... So I hope some readers see how this famous movie scene actually ties into the false truths of our Covid times. They are working from the same Bogus Narrative playbook.
I was once in the position of Santiago & Jessup and did resent providing the illusion of the "blanket of liberty" for the rest of the US for a meager Marine's salary and CNN providing the orders. Then of course came to the realization of the multitude of falsehoods and daily erosion of liberty that are/is endemic to the US govt. And have since learned that the real providers of liberty are people who chose not to be vaccinated for covid at their personal risk of federal punishment, and the lawyers who took vaccine cases to courts, or defended the people charged with crimes who did not even enter the US capital on 1-6-21 (while federal prosecutors look the other way when the presidents son is being investigated for his crimes), and of course the people who wrote about the reality of the covid vaccines, among others. So, thank you !
Could a draft be instituted now, for "service at home" reasons?
Just a question.
My thinking is no:
1. standing army at home in USA not constitutional.
2. inductees too obese
3. might fulfill career bureaucracy permanent positions with temp military
(THAT'S the real threat to the industrial military complex!)
4. "Radar O'Reilly" types might figure out how to scam even more taxpayer money. (NO WAIT. THAT'S NOT TRUTH, THAT'S FICTION: no such waste occurs in reality, hmmm??!)