Lew Rockwell Institute

“Man has no right to kill his brother. It is no excuse that he does so in uniform: he only adds the infamy of servitude to the crime of murder.”

~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

In 1931, a quote from an opinion piece by Kurt Tucholsky, under his pseudonym Ignaz Wrobel, in the weekly German magazine Die Weltbühne, stated: “Soldiers are murderers.” This quote is very simple but very true, and although many will cringe at the suggestion, with any critical thought or scrutiny whatsoever, there is no other conclusion that can be reached. Any man who orders another to kill a third party has committed a heinous crime, and should the individual given this charge to kill complete his task, he is guilty of murder. Should this sanity ever become the rule, wars would immediately cease, and peace therefore, would reign.

Before you call for me to be drawn and quartered, or hurl expletives in my direction, allow me to explain my reasoning and expand my thoughts on this subject. First and foremost, I was in the military a few decades ago. I was conscripted by this government, which means I was forced, obviously against my will, into slavery. My very first act when I arrived at the Army inception center in Memphis, was to stand up and say as loudly as I possibly could, that I would never take any order to kill any individual in Vietnam. This caused quite a stir of course, but I was still forced into active duty. My dissent was not tested, as one of my drill sergeants knew of what I was capable of doing, and made sure I stayed stateside for the balance of my two years. The bottom line here of course, is that I refused to kill anyone on orders. If I could do that, any others can as well.

Obeying orders to kill another is never a valid excuse for murder, but soldiers continue to kill knowing that they will be protected by the State. In many cases, this is due to actual fear of state retribution, as most assigned to kill on orders are young and brainwashed, have already been thoroughly indoctrinated since birth to support the nation-state, and due to the lies of which they have been fed, they ‘believe’ in the propagated cause. In other words, the entirety of war and aggression is based on total deception. Regardless of the reasons for this insanity, stupidity, and evil, I agree completely with Herbert Spencer’s view when he said:

“When men hire themselves out to shoot other men to order, asking nothing about the justice of their cause, I don’t care if they are shot themselves.”

The only use of violent force acceptable in any moral society, is that of actual self-defense against threats of harm or death to self, family, or others, when no other option exists. If in fact one has to defend self, that defense should end once the threat is squelched, or the perpetrator(s) is eliminated. This does not carry over to the idiocy of nationalist State wars, nation against nation, or any aggression supposedly ‘warranted’ by any government. All U.S. wars in history, have been wars of aggression, and never defensive, and killing those in other countries (or domestically) on orders is always an abhorrent crime against man.

Have any of you heard about U.S. soldiers standing down and refusing to kill on orders? Have you heard of any soldiers attempting to stop other soldiers from killing innocents on orders? How many military resignations have occurred for the explicit reason of a refusal to kill based solely on orders? The answer to these questions is in almost every case, none. I am sure there are a few exceptions, but they are not reported, or ever seen on any mainstream media outlet.

Currently, the U.S. government, its military, ICE, and the so-called ‘intelligence services,’ whether directly or by proxy, are funding, arming, or killing on orders in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Ukraine, Somalia, Niger, Libya, parts of South America, and who knows in how many other countries as well? The criminal murderer Trump is ordering boats off Venezuela and Columbia to be blown up with missiles; not knowing who is being killed, as if he or any other has any right to demand the murder of anyone. Soldiers are aggressively killing people far away in other nations on orders , all without any attack on this country of any kind. Soldiers seem always to follow orders without any resistance.

Domestically, Trump has used martial law actions to take over many cities, and killings have occurred on this soil by ICE, police, and military personnel; all on government orders . If any dissent deepens, and ‘planned’ civil unrest takes place, these State atrocities will only worsen, and all brutal and violent enforcement will be levied based on orders.

As I stated almost 15 years ago:

“Is there any order given to U.S. military personnel that is not obeyed? Is there anyone that the U.S. military won’t kill (murder) when given an order? Will there ever be an order that U.S. troops will disobey? As far as I can tell, the answer to all these questions is no!”

“Many who commit horrible deeds have excused these acts by simply saying, “I was just following orders.” This is an empty excuse, and has been used in the past to give cover for some of the most heinous crimes of mankind. Most of those crimes were carried out in the name of war, and those willing to prosecute those unjust wars are just as responsible as those who start them. Guilty all those who purposely participate in these heinous crimes against mankind, every damn one of you!”

And just think for a moment of all of the mass killing here and afar that can take place with AI, drones, poisons, and all the technological ways to murder and psychologically destroy the masses of voluntary slaves who inhabit this earth.

What will you do when more war in your name is responsible for the deaths of millions or billions of innocent people? What will those of you in the military do when you are ordered to kill your friends and neighbors, and/or innocent strangers? What will the rest of you do when the National Guard, police, ICE, or military soldiers are ordered to attack you or your family and friends? Have you ever even considered this distinct possibility? I think not.

The military and its soldiers never serve the people, they only serve the ruling State monsters. The next time you choose to utter the idiotic words, “thank you for your service,” remember this: “Soldiers are just government approved terrorists.” Their loyalty is only to their nation-state masters, and never to the lowly masses. Government uses the children of others as its fodder in war, because they can be brainwashed, but only those who suffer greatly due to their contribution to unnecessary death due to orders, have found their conscience.

This article was originally published on GaryDBarnett.com.

The post Killing on Orders Is Murder! appeared first on LewRockwell.

Two years ago, world-class researcher and analyst “Sundance” posted an alarming essay on his website, The Conservative Treehouse.  Taking a look back at the previous years’ severe COVID tyranny, the rise of the Biden administration’s censorship regime, and the false media narratives pushing a NATO-Russia war in Ukraine, “Sundance” soberly concluded that “We the People” are in an abusive relationship with government.  Within that essay, he embedded a picture of a woman holding a sign that reads: “DANGER: You are being conditioned to view your freedom as selfish.”

At the end of the essay, there is a chart from a mental health organization entitled, “15 Signs That You Might Be in an Abusive Relationship.”  All fifteen signs are worth pondering:

(1) Stop you from seeing friends and family.

(2) Won’t let you leave home without permission.

(3) Tell you what to wear.

(4) Monitor your phone, emails, and communication.

(5) Control finances, won’t let you work.

(6) Control what you read, watch, and say.

(7) Monitor everything you do.

(8) Punish you for breaking rules that keep changing.

(9) Tell you it’s for your own good.  They know better.

(10) Don’t allow you to question decisions.

(11) Tell you you’re crazy, and no-one agrees with you.

(12) Call you names, or shame you for being selfish.

(13) Gaslight you, challenge your memory of events, make you doubt yourself.

(14) Dismiss your opinions.

(15) Play the victim if things go wrong.  It’s all your fault.

Although his essay was meant to highlight how government authorities used COVID to advance totalitarianism throughout the West, “Sundance” concludes with a warning about the mass surveillance State being constructed to control the flow of information, isolate us from each other, and make us dependent upon government bureaucrats for survival.  “I never really understood how people could accept the formation of communism around them,” he wrote.  “Now I do.”

Last week, social media users reposted failed California Governor Gavin Newsom’s 2020 Thanksgiving guidelines: (1) No more than three households present; (2) Parties no longer than two hours; (3) Guests must stay outside; (4) Avoid singing, chanting, and shouting.  As Governor Newspeak prepares for a 2028 presidential run (an election he swears President Trump will cancel because his White House renovations somehow prove that he’s a “dictator”), he does not want Americans to remember how ridiculous all his COVID edicts were.  Remember when he arrested paddle-boarders swimming alone in the ocean?

Newsom was far from the only Democrat enamored with his unconstitutionally created COVID powers.  Democrat governors and mayors locked Americans in their homes, threatened Christians for attending church services, bankrupted small businesses, and mandated that citizens wear multiple masks while alone in their cars.  They embraced tyranny without hesitation and did not even feign to acknowledge the seriousness of their actions.  The COVID Era checked off all fifteen signs of an abusive relationship between government and citizens in flashing neon lights.

Although there is no shortage of examples that amply demonstrate how unapologetically politicians justified eliminating Americans’ freedoms in the name of “safety,” a top-five list of particularly egregious offenses would surely include a Humvee rolling down a quiet neighborhood street in Minneapolis while dozens of heavily armed riot cops — tasked with enforcing Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s COVID curfew orders — shot paintballs at residents for standing outside their homes.  While Walz loves to call President Trump a “tyrant,” there is nothing quite so tyrannical as the sight of American law enforcement officers using military equipment to intimidate and assault peaceful Americans for the “crime” of sitting on their front porches.

We are now several years removed from the worst government abuses during COVID, but no Westerner should be under the illusion that the “Reign of COVID Terror” is behind us or that other iterations won’t soon plague us.  Government tyranny is a hydra-headed beast: For every form of government oppression that is struck down, at least two more grow.

In the United Kingdom, members of parliament are demanding mandatory digital identifications that make it easier to track citizens at all times.  Instead of admitting that they wish to continue constructing a totalitarian surveillance State, British authorities claim that the IDs are necessary to combat mass illegal immigration.  In other words, the same government officials who destroyed social cohesion by flooding the country with migrants now want to capitalize upon a government-created problem and expand the national security surveillance State.  The British motto could be: First, harm citizens; then offer a “solution” that harms citizens some more.

Emily Spurrell, the chairwoman of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners in the U.K., has denounced British citizens for raising patriotic flags in protest of decades of government-orchestrated foreign invasion.  The police commissioner argues that waving the Union Jack and St. George’s flags is “not free expression” but rather “intimidation” because patriotic displays make “our neighbors” feel “unsafe” and “afraid to walk down the street.”  Perhaps someone should suggest to Commissioner Spurrell that foreigners who see British flags as “divisive” probably don’t belong in the U.K.  Would she really expect Beijing to bend the knee to a Scotsman who felt “intimidated” by communist China’s Five-star Red Flag?  Or is this just another opportunity for British authorities to shame and gaslight citizens (signs 12 and 13 of an abusive relationship), dismiss their opinions (sign 14), and tell them that the nation’s divisions are all their fault (sign 15)?

Similarly, the European Union has gone all in on monitoring private electronic messages without first establishing any kind of probable cause or seeking a judicial warrant.  The Eurocrats’ justification for their gross intrusion into citizens’ private lives is that they are trying to battle the proliferation of child pornography.  European authorities settled on this convenient excuse because the arrival of unvetted Islamic “asylum seekers” across the continent has set off an epidemic of Islamic men sexually molesting young girls and boys.

For years, European Union authorities have defamed native Europeans as “racists” and “bigots” for objecting to the mass Islamic immigration that is undermining European culture and increasing acts of terrorism and violent crime.  Now those same European officials are pretending to fight crimes against children by giving themselves the authority to read every European’s personal communications.  So Brussels Eurocrats insist on monitoring communications (signs 4 and 7 of an abusive relationship), punishing citizens for breaking rules that keep changing (sign 8), telling Europeans that the new rules are for their own good (sign 9), forbidding them from questioning official decisions (sign 10), and calling anyone who objects “selfish” and “crazy” (signs 11 and 12).  Do you think Europeans might just be in an abusive relationship with their oppressive government?

Before you answer that question, please be aware that Empress Ursula von der Leyen and her censorship-loving Commission are watching.  They are right now creating a so-called “Democracy Shield” that is meant to identify and remove “false content” from the internet (sign 6).  As one European diplomat describes the new “monitoring center” without any sense of shame: “Freedom of speech remains for everyone.  At the same time, however, citizens must be free from interference.”  In the name of “democracy,” the Eurocrats must stop us from communicating with undesirable friends and family (sign 1) or leaving Brussels’s information “safe space” without permission (sign 2).  It’s for our own good (sign 9)!

Across the West, governments broadcast the same public message: The beatings will continue until morale improves.  Who needs to venture out to slay the authoritarian dragons in Russia and China, when Hell is empty and all the devils have government jobs at home?

There are only two ways to survive an abusive relationship: leave the abuser or learn to fight back.  Most of us have nowhere else to go.

This article was originally published on American Thinker.

The post Westerners’ Abusive Relationship With Their Governments appeared first on LewRockwell.

Trump’s South America policy is getting more ridiculous by the day.

Yesterday he announced a pardon for the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, who is serving a 45-year sentence for partnering with drug traffickers who had allegedly shipped 400 tons of cocaine to the United States. He also endorsed a right wing candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura for Sunday’s election in Honduras. Asfura belongs to the same party as Hernández.

This is unlikely (archived) to have the effect that Trump desires:

The reaction to Mr. Trump’s pardon in Honduras was one of shock, and many wondered how it would play into the elections this weekend.

“It will obviously stir up the same powerful negative sentiment seen in the 2021 elections that pushed Juan Orlando out of power,” said Leonardo Pineda, a Honduran analyst, who said that by linking the conservative candidate, Mr. Asfura, with Mr. Hernández, Mr. Trump could actually hurt his chances of winning.

While pardoning a convicted drug smuggler on one day Trump uses the next one to threatening Venezuela for alleged drug smuggling for which there is no evidence.

A week ago the Federal Aviation Administration has issued a Notice To Air Man (NOTAM) for Venezuela:

The alert speaks of a ‘worsening security situation and heightened military activity in or around Venezuela.’

‘Threats could pose a potential risk to aircraft at all altitudes, including during overflight, the arrival and departure phases of flight, and/or airports and aircraft on the ground,’ the FAA notice states.

The warning is for the Maiquetía Flight Information Region which includes Venezuelan airspace and parts of the southern Caribbean – such as Colombia, Guyana, Brazil, and Trinidad.

Venezuela responded by revoking operation rights for airlines which were following that advice.

Today Trump made an explicit threat to all airplanes in Venezuelan airspace:

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump – Nov 29, 2025, 12:43 UTC

To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP

But is he going to do? Order the military to shoot down random passenger planes?

Before that Trump had announced land operations in Venezuela:

President Trump suggested Thursday the United States will “very soon” take action against alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers on land after weeks of repeated strikes in Caribbean waters.

“In recent weeks, you’ve been working to deter Venezuelan drug traffickers, of which there are many,” Trump told military personnel in remarks on Thanksgiving. “Of course, there aren’t too many coming in by sea anymore.”

“You probably noticed that people aren’t wanting to be delivering by sea, and we’ll be starting to stop them by land also,” he continued.

“The land is easier, but that’s going to start very soon. We warn them: Stop sending poison to our country,” Trump added.

The threat is empty. There is no real option for a military land operation in Venezuela.

All Trump assertions about Venezuela, its alleged ‘terrorist gangs’ and drug smuggling are completely bogus.

This is not at all about drugs but about stealing the huge oil reserve Venzuela has:

“[Oil] is at the heart of the matter,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro told CNN in an interview published Wednesday.

“So, that’s a negotiation about oil. I believe that is [President] Trump’s logic. He’s not thinking about the democratization of Venezuela, let alone the narco-trafficking,” added the South American president, who last month was sanctioned by the Trump administration.

Just a week ago Trump had a phone call (archived) with the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in which he presumably tried to press him into resigning:

The United States has built up a substantial military presence in the Caribbean aimed at Venezuela. Administration officials have said their goal is to deter drug smuggling, but have also made clear that they want to see Mr. Maduro removed from power, possibly by force.

The New York Times reported in October that Mr. Maduro had offered the United States a significant stake in the country’s oil fields, along with a host of other opportunities for American companies, in an effort to defuse tensions. But Mr. Maduro sought to remain in power, and the U.S. officials cut off those discussions early last month.

The Trump administration has falsely claimed (archived) that two criminal organizations in Venezuela, Tren de Aragua and the Cartel de los Soles, are involved in drug trafficking while being controlled by President Maduro:

Henrique Capriles, an opposition figure, former governor and presidential candidate who has been marginalized in recent years, said in an interview that while Tren de Aragua is a dangerous gang, the idea that it was controlled by Mr. Maduro amounts to “science fiction.”
…
Regarding Tren de Aragua, drug trade experts point out that it originated in a prison in Venezuela’s Aragua state and American intelligence agencies circulated findings in February that the gang was not controlled by the Venezuelan government. Its leader is thought to be Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, who escaped from the prison.
…
[N]o evidence has been found that Tren de Aragua is engaged in cross-border drug trafficking, according to Insight Crime, a research group focused on organized crime.

When real drug smuggling occurred in Venezuela it was directed and controlled by the CIA:

[E]xperts who have analyzed the Venezuelan drug trade for decades say the Cartel de los Soles is not a literal organization but shorthand for drug trafficking in the armed forces. That phenomenon is not unique to Venezuela, afflicting democratic and authoritarian countries alike in the Americas.
…
The origins of using the term Cartel de los Soles to describe illicit military activities stretch back to an era well before Mr. Maduro became president in 2013. The term gained traction after a 1993 scandal when the C.I.A. worked with the Venezuelan military to send a ton of cocaine to the United States in a bid to infiltrate Colombian cartels.

The whole Trump South America policy is not about drugs or Venezuela but about U.S. control over the whole continent with the help of right-wing proxy leaders.

Meanwhile the U.S. military continues to strike random fisherman near Venezuela (archived) with drones and missiles.

Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, has given verbal orders to kill anyone who survives a first strike (archived):

The longer the U.S. surveillance aircraft followed the boat, the more confident intelligence analysts watching from command centers became that the 11 people on board were ferrying drugs.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation. “The order was to kill everybody,” one of them said.
…
Some current and former U.S. officials and law-of-war experts have said that the Pentagon’s lethal campaign — which has killed more than 80 people to date — is unlawful and may expose those most directly involved to future prosecution.

Hegseth had overruled the most senior military lawyer of the U.S. Southern Command who had called the strikes illegal:

The JAG at Southern Command specifically expressed concern that strikes against people on boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, whom administration officials call “narco-terrorists,” could amount to extrajudicial killings, the six sources said, and therefore legally expose service members involved in the operations.
…
There have been other signs of disagreement within the administration over the strikes. The head of Southern Command, Adm. Alvin Holsey, plans to step down after less than a year in a job that typically lasts about three years.

Holsey announced in October that he will depart next month.

Eleven people in a boat is by the way a sure sign that these were not drug smuggler but most likely illegal migrants:

Current and former officials within the U.S. military and DEA have expressed doubt that all 11 people aboard the first vessel were complicit in trafficking.

The boat in question, a go-fast vessel with four motors, is common in the region and would typically be manned by a small crew — perhaps one mechanic, a driver or two, and another person focused on security, one DEA official said.

More people on board means less room for drugs to sell, the official explained.

I still very much doubt that Trump will order military strikes on Venezuela. Chances are high that any such operation would end in a quagmire. It would lessen the chances of any other policy success he might want to have.

Reprinted with permission from Moon of Alabama.

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Alice’s Restaurant – The Original 1967 Legendary Recording

The “Alice’s Restaurant” story, from Arlo Guthrie’s song, is about the musician and his friend illegally dumping garbage on Thanksgiving 1965, leading to their arrest and conviction.

A year later, this criminal record ironically makes him ineligible for the Vietnam War draft, a central theme of the satirical anti-war protest song. The story is based on real events but is hilariously, comically exaggerated, and the song’s chorus, “You can get anything you want at Alice’s restaurant,” is a nonsensical but memorable line that plays no literal role in the plot.

The song’s lasting impact: “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” became a signature song for Guthrie and a folk anthem for the counterculture movement and its anti-war themes. The story was also the basis for a 1969 film of the same name.

Folk singer Arlo Guthrie endorsed Ron Paul for President during his 2008 Republican primary campaign. Guthrie praised Paul as the only candidate who seemed to believe the U.S. Constitution was still relevant. 

Guthrie’s endorsement was notable because his father was the legendary folk artist Woody Guthrie, a well-known communist and activist. Arlo Guthrie explained his support and registration as a Republican at the time: 

“I love this guy. Dr. Paul is the only candidate I know of who would have signed the Constitution of The United States had he been there. I’m with him, because he seems to be the only candidate who actually believes it has as much relevance today as it did a couple of hundred years ago.” 

Guthrie also stated around that time that he registered as a Republican to encourage more common sense within the party, noting, “To have a successful democracy, you have to have at least two parties, and one of them was failing miserably”. 

The post Alice’s Restaurant – The Original 1967 Legendary Recording and It’s Great Impact appeared first on LewRockwell.

George Galloway has been elected to parliament seven times, and on many issues is one of the most conservative politicians in the U.K. But when he criticized the Ukraine war, he was detained by British police and had his property confiscated. He’s now in exile.

The post The Amazing George Galloway Speaks Out on Being Forced Into Exile After Criticizing Ukraine War appeared first on LewRockwell.

Writes Ginny Garner:

Lew,

X and Rumble broadcaster Ian Carroll analyzed the plotted assassination hit on Candace Owens and how it relates to the murder of her friend and colleague Charlie Kirk. Carroll concludes at 1:43 in this video that credible evidence indicates the leaked information Owens gave the federal government on the plot to assassinate her reveals those behind the plot who have been trained to do the hit are the French Foreign Legion members who have an Israeli connection. This is the exact type of military unit comprised of sketchy individuals, Carroll notes, needed to conduct such operations with forged documents and specialists in new identities. 

The post Ian Carroll: French Foreign Legion Connection to Kirk Assassination and Candace Owens Hit Plot appeared first on LewRockwell.