The average age of an graduating American Marine is 19. During their boot camp training, they are effectively brainwashed and taught the finer points of killing without remorse, or "for fun" as many of them have described it. While officially classed as "men", when we factor in the severely retarded state of the American society, and particularly the American education system that spawned them, the recruits are in fact little more than children, albeit trained killer children.

Small wonder then that, when let loose on the streets of Iraq with a gun and a Humvee and told to "go get some bad guys", these gun-toting grunts should end up killing and torturing indiscriminately, and in doing so, stoke the flames of hatred and anger among the Iraqi people.

Of course, we realise that the average American soldier that blows the head of an Iraqi child cannot be held fully accountable for his misdeeds. If it were not for the elitist social policies, dehumanising military policies, Orwellian education policies and the fascist propaganda of US government officials, there would be far fewer impoverished, dumbed- down, aggressive and wholly deceived teenage American boys to sign up to fight the wars for profit of their so-called leaders.

There is obviously a massive gulf in knowledge between the high-level members of the US government and military and the millions of American men and women who sign up to man the battle stations of manufactured wars. From the point of view of people like Rumsfeld, Cheney and the various US military generals, they see nothing unjust or wrong about they way they wilfully deceive and sacrifice the lives of American citizens. Quite the opposite in fact.

If there is one concept to which American political and military leaders cling dearly and to which they turn as the final arbiter of their actions, it is the maxim that "the end justifies the means". From the point of view of Rumsfeld, Cheney et al, the very fact that they find themselves in a position where they can command 150,000 young American men and women to die fighting a fabricated "war on terror", is evidence enough of the legitimacy of their positions as leaders. Indeed, they afford the U.S. population access to the same system of "justice" and offer them the chance to prove that they have a right to freedom of any kind. After all, if young American soldiers, or American citizens, are too stupid to see through the lies of their leaders, then who is to blame when they pay the ultimate price?

It's the age-old game of "survival of the fittest", and while they would be forced to admit that all players in the game do not start out on a level playing field, reality creators like the Washington NeoCons would also bring our attention to the fact that the playing field is not not level by accident. Such is the logic adhered to by the big men and women in the halls of power, and the end result of such a grossly immoral stance among the ruling elite is never pretty for the rest of us.

Of course, all of this is a long way from the founding fathers' declaration of inalienable rights for all, and the requirement that those elected to govern should uphold those rights. Somewhere along the line (quite close to the start actually), the idea of upholding the rights of the population was deleted from the great Democratic experiment and, in its place, systematic policies of corporate and political elitism leading to economic deprivation and class structuring, followed by intellectual "dumbing-down" of the "lower" classes (lower classes being all but the elite), and finally the promotion of jingoistic fervour as a distraction and to ensure a continuous supply of cannon fodder, were developed.

The harsh reality then is that, far from honouring war heroes and supporting the troops, the American political and corporate elite have always viewed the American population, and particularly those they see as stupid enough to fight their wars for them, with nothing but the deepest contempt. To them they are "useless eaters", good only for paying taxes and being deceived into marching off to war, to kill and maim their fellow humans for the profit of the ruling elite. Of course, there is always the option to prove them wrong, regardless of our past record. Whether we as a race do so, depends entirely on our ability to recognise the truth of everything that has been said above.

If there is one thing above all others that has lead to the precipice upon which we currently sit as a species, it is knowledge, or the lack of it, and the fact that certain small groups of so-called 'elite' have always sought to maintain a monopoly on it at the expense of the masses of humanity. Clearly therefore, it is knowledge that is and always has been the most prized 'commodity' on this planet. Unfortunately, the catch 22 to beat them all is the fact that almost no one knows this.

Why?

Because the knowledge that knowledge is key has been deliberately and rigorously denied them by the propaganda of religion where "faith" and "blind belief" in the leader is the key to salvation. The salient point is that it is, and always has been, only in the darkness of ignorance of the true state of their reality that ordinary people can be merrily led down the path that leads, over and over again, to their own destruction. It is only in the darkness of ignorance of the true state of their reality that ordinary people can be merrily led down the path that leads, over and over again, to their own destruction.