Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte

Adrià Fruitos

Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte's storyline goes like this ...

Forty years ago, on the night they were meant to elope, Charlotte Hollis (Bette Davis) found her lover decapitated during a party, the blood on her dress leading everyone to suspect she was the murderer. Now, in 1964, Charlotte is an old recluse and must fight to keep her home. She enlists the help of her cousin Velma (Olivia de Havilland), who was there at the time of the murder. However, soon after Velma's arrival, Charlotte's mind becomes unstable, and she starts seeing her dead lover's head.

In indirect fashion, Charlotte also applies to how many countries the US military is surreptitiously involved with in the year of our lord 2022 as the MIC has also gone mad in its endless pursuit of money.

Afghanistan, Iraq, maybe Libya. If you asked the average American where the United States has been at war in the past two decades, you would likely get this short list. But this list is wrong — off by at least 17 countries in which the United States has engaged in armed conflict through ground forces, proxy forces, or air strikes.

... and we don't include Vietnam in this truly excellent adventure as this CF started over 50 years ago.

What's worse is the fact congress and DOD appear to be in the dark as well.

Congress’s understanding of U.S. war-making is often no better than the public record. The Department of Defense provides congressionally mandated disclosures and updates to only a small number of legislative offices. Sometimes, it altogether fails to comply with reporting requirements, leaving members of Congress uninformed about when, where, and against whom the military uses force. After U.S. forces took casualties in Niger in 2017, for example, lawmakers were taken aback by the very presence of U.S. forces in the country.footnote3_g1o2r643  Without access to such basic information, Congress is unable to perform necessary oversight.

It is not just the public and Congress who are out of the loop. The Department of Defense’s diplomatic counterparts in the Department of State also struggle to understand and gain insight into the reach of U.S. hostilities. Where congressional oversight falters, so too does oversight within the executive branch.

All into the valley of death rode the 600. - Charge of the Light Brigade/Alfred Lord Tennyson