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Containing the Military Industrial Complex
By David Swanson (about the author) Page 2 of 3 page(s)
Of course that makes sense if you're covering a coming war, as opposed to covering a real debate that might not lead to war. When the Downing Street Memo came out, we promoted it at AfterDowningStreet.org, and editors and producers told us it was old news. It was to them. They had known that the war was decided on. They just hadn't told their viewers.
One force that integrates the media into the military industrial complex is advertising. Another is ownership. Many media magnates - people like Rupert Murdoch, who is hosting a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, his designated '08 loser, have links to weapons companies. GE, which owns NBC, is a weapons company. The Carlyle Group is also getting into media ownership.
Another force is ratings. More people watch TV when there's a war. Another force is think tanks. The Project for a New American Century, whose Deputy Director has been hired by Lockheed Martin, had a heavy presence of talking heads and columnists selling the war.
The MIM Complex sold us the WMD lies and profited handsomely. Halliburton even got $40 million to search for the mythical weapons. But a lot of Democrats refused and still refuse to oppose the lie machine. Here's a typical self-destructive pseudo attack on Bush's war penned by Josh Marshall in October '03:
"Every big new piece of legislation needs a catchy title. And I think I've come up with a good one for the $87 billion. How about 'The Bush Crony Full Employment Act of 2003'? Now, before you get up in arms, I'm for however much money our troops need to get the job done in Iraq...."
Were you about to get up in arms? I don't even carry arms.
But we are afraid to speak against war and have been for many years. I'm convinced that the ease with which we've accepted the utterly incoherent notion of a "war on terror" can be partially credited to our acceptance of such language as "war on poverty" or "war on drugs."
How about peace to end poverty, and prosperity to end terrorism? How about media reform, public media, independent media, and honest news?
The SECOND explanation I would offer for why we fight is that the MIM Complex is the major engine driving our economy. Democratic Congress Members support weapons factories for the sake of the jobs, even knowing that two-thirds of the bribes from the profits will go to Republicans. Within weeks of 9-11, the Department of Attack asked weapons makers for proposals to help "fight terrorism," and the Carlyle Group took a company public, citing 9-11 as a reason why it could.
Under Bush, military spending is up dramatically - it's at roughly $400 billion per year, not counting another $500 billion for war, not counting Homeland Insecurity, and not counting weapons sales to other countries. But this is a horribly inefficient way to stimulate an economy. Just like Bush's tax cuts (which, in contrast to his military spending, Democrats are not afraid to criticize) military spending puts too much money in the few pockets that are already bulging - and it is incredibly wasteful and corrupt. We need a way to drive our economy that benefits those who need it and does so without sacrificing American lives to kill other people. And we need to spend in a sector of the economy not associated with flag waving and war anthems, thus allowing Congress to exercise sober oversight. Some ideas include infrastructure in our cities, renewable energy, energy-efficient transportation, and retraining all of those people who can now stop searching our shoes and laptops when we get on planes.
We also need a ban on sending the National Guard abroad, a mandatory use of the draft for any war, taxes for war paid weekly and called a War Tax, and a requirement that children of Members of Congress, the President, and the Vice President go to war.
The THIRD and final explanation I'll propose for the MIM Complex's influence on our government is this: The Bush White House is a wholey owned subsidiary of Weapons R Us. The National Institute for Public Policy, which hired several so-called thinkers from weapons makers has three alumni in the Bush Administration. The Center for Security Policy, which has 8 weapons executives on its board, has 22 former board members or associates in the Bush Cheney gang. Thirty-two major appointees in the Bush Administration are former executives, consultants, or significant shareholders of weapons companies. Seven members of the Bush Administration came from Northrop Grumman and eight from Lockheed Martin - on whose board Dick Cheney's wife served until 2001, receiving a half a million dollars for whatever it was she did.
The Secretary of the Navy came from General Dynamics, and the Deputy Secretary of State from Raytheon and Boeing - a company that Karl Rove owned $100,000 to $250,000 worth of stock in. Then there are those, like James Woolsey, who serve on advisory boards to the Bush Administration, while simultaneously profiting from the policies they advise on. The LA Times had a lengthy article a year ago yesterday on the long list of people who helped promote a war on Iraq and then set up new companies to profit from it. Bush himself has an uncle and two brothers profiting from this war. But then he had a grandfather who profited from the Nazis and worked with one of Hitler's top funders. So there is a substantial family tradition to uphold. Speaking of which, well known people connected to the Carlyle Group include not just the bin Laden family, but also James Baker, Frank Carlucci, and George Bush the First. The Carlyle Group owns an arm of the British Ministry of Defense, a former branch of the Italian military, and the company in Santa Clara, United Defense, where Bush Jr. gave a speech after waddling across a flight deck to declare mission accomplished.
And then there is Cheney. As Secretary of Attack he paid Halliburton to write a report recommending shifting more work to companies like Halliburton, which got most of the work. Cheney then worked for Halliburton for 5 years and $44 million before going back to what he calls governing. But he continued to receive a salary and hold stock options.
We've moved beyond the sort of war profiteering that Truman called treason. We've moved into a threat to our democracy that is exactly what Madison and Jefferson meant by high crimes and misdemeanors. There is only one thing we can decently do, and that is to impeach the criminals and remove them from office.
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