Admiral Holsey's Early Departure is a Sign of Serious Problems in Trumpland

Source

Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

HEO/GED

10-21-23

 

The state controlled US mass media has not made much of an issue of the resignation of the head of the US Southern Command, Admiral Alvin Holsey. But it is no small detail. By Southern Command, I assume that to mean anywhere south of Ciudad Juárez but no matter where it is, Admiral Holsey is no lightweight.

 

The career military man has not said much about his reason for leaving his post early but if you were a normal human being in this Trump Administration, wouldn’t you want out?

 

Could the Trump regime’s undeclared war against Venezuela have anything to do with it I wonder? I should add I have lived through the Gulf of Tonkin, Watergate, Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction and more so I am a bit weak when it comes to trusting what the US government has to say. After all, we were told Biden was ok, of sound mind and sharp as a tac.

 

Then truth is, I think the Trump Administration is in deep trouble, and I would hazard a guess that this would also include serious divisions opening up within the US military. Holsey is not the first military official to sign or be fired by the cretin Hagseth. The whole scenario reminds me a bit of the Roman Senate during the reign of Caligula.

 

When a regime feels it is in trouble, one that claims the mantle of democracy, it takes measures to divert attention elsewhere, away from the chaos. The US ruling class does this all the time mind you, we are always told to be fearful, threatened at all times; foreigners, immigrants, communists, Muslims. Remember the African bees that could invade from our southern border?

 

During the 1980’s when the US repressed any movement in Central American nations that threatened US corporations’ profits in the region, billions were spent funding right wing neo-fascist forces. The US blamed the aspirations and desires of these countries to control their own resources on communism and that they were a threat to our freedom and national security. Ronald Reagan, the former B movie actor, warned us in 1986:

 

“The link between the governments of such Soviet allies as Cuba and Nicaragua and international narcotics trafficking and terrorism is becoming increasingly clear. These twin evils—narcotics trafficking and terrorism---represent the most insidious and dangerous threats to the hemisphere today.” * Sound familiar?

And now, 40 years later, the White House (the center of operations), has moved a lot of military hardware and some 10,000 forces to the Caribbean, some as close as 7 miles from the Venezuelan coast. This is without doubt terrorism of the state variety and beyond that, Trump authorized the murder of 27 people though missile attacks on what we are told are small boats bringing drugs in to the US. Trump has justified these killings as necessary and an act of self-defense in response to the high overdose deaths in the US. There is a high suicide rate among veterans as well I am not sure who he thinks should die for that statistic.

 

Even if these boats are smuggling drugs, it is against international law to simply kill people rather than arrest them and bring them to justice. They deserve a trial and a right to a defence. The problem with that of course, is we will hear the other side of the matter. Now, Colombians have also been killed by the US president’s actions and there have been survivors this time.

 

The success of the “No Kings” rallies yesterday, some 7 million participated from what I can gather, will likely cause the Trump Administration and the supporters in the US Congress further concern. This in turn will increase the maniacal activity coming out of the White House in my opinion.  US imperialism is in decline on the global stage and, like all empires, from the Roman to the British, it will not leave the stage gracefully. The South African Apartheid regime, like British Colonialism in its war against the Mao Mao in Kenya, knew its days were numbered but felt the necessity to inflict some severe violence on the way out the door. The US is no different other than having the capability to blow us all to bits.

 

While the forces and impetus for the No Kings rallies in their beginnings are in and around the Democratic Party and the movement lacks any serious demands other than defence of the First Amendment and no, "Kingly Rule" according to one of the founders, Ezra Levin, millions of Americans have many demands of their own that stem from decades of declining living standards and attacks on public services from health care to education. And as Ken Klippenstein points out in his excellent article I posted to this blog, the rallies are about more than Trump

 

It's important for me to stress that the Trump regime, is a product of the decline of US capitalism, its implosion from within, so his arrival on the scene shouldn’t be seen as some sort of aberration; it’s been a while coming. But don’t take the present assault by the US government on the American peopled globally, as a sign of its strength; it aggression is a sign of its weakeness and Caligula and his menagerie are in for a hard time ahead.

 

*Ronald Reagan 1986 Quoted in Cocaine Politics, chapter 2 p 23 by Peter Dale Scott and Johnathan Marshall.