It should also be noted that the privatization of the US Armed Forces has proceeded at a highly accelerated rate during the Bush administration. Nearly as many private contractors are deployed in previously military positions in the Middle East as enlisted personnel. This is unprecedented and dangerous. There is no chain of command, and no system of accountability for mercenaries and other private contractors deployed in war zones. It is costing the taxpayers tens, or perhaps hundreds of billions of extra dollars to privatize our military industrial complex. Our money is flowing to these corporations like never before.
The end result of gusher up economics is that taxpayers will be funding the military-industrial complex and offense spending ad infinitum, as will their children and grandchildren.
For me the truly sad part about all of this is that the American government should be working for the benefit of the greater common good rather than for the benefit of oil companies and war profiteers. When a huge proportion of our tax dollars go to funding offense spending on offensive wars the big losers are not only the victims in countries like Iraq, but the US taxpayers whose money is being funneled directly to those running large energy companies and military contractors. The rest of us are on the losing end of this deal.
US taxpayer dollars would be far better spent rebuilding the infrastructure of our country, and on biomedical research to prevent unnecessary death from cancer, heart disease, stroke and other potentially treatable disorders. Instead, our government spends nearly 50 times as much of your money on offensive military actions as they do on biomedical research. Lobbyists for the large corporations are swarming Washington, but almost none of them are there seeking funding for the NIH or other research institutes. Write your representatives and demand that less money be spent on the military, and more be spent on biomedical research which will actually save American lives. Stop funding offensive military actions around the world, and make the world a better place.
Dr. John Moffett is an active research neuroscientist in the Washington, DC area, who has published over 45 scientific articles on the nervous and immune systems. Dr. Moffett is also the author and webmaster of the political opinion website www.Factinista.org, and is a Managing Editor at OpEdNews.com.
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