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The fact that our economy would collapse without war
is a secret hidden in plain sight. You won't hear this from the lips
of any politician, Republican or Democrat. You won't hear it from the
churches and you won't hear it from the corporations that flourish and
grow ever richer and more powerful from the death and destruction that
they feed upon.
"In the councils of government, we must guard against
the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by
the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise
of misplaced power exists, and will persist." President Dwight Eisenhower Jan. 17, 1961
Was
anyone listening?
Since that time our educational system has become a
tool for glorifying war and military service at the instigation of the
unscrupulous politicians who work for the war machine. We're told that
we must have soldiers all over the world "to protect us from our
enemies". We're told that every predominantly dark skinned nation has
nuclear weapons hidden under every rock and we must invade and find them
and kill the people who plan to use these weapons against us. Our
school children are being taught that the most glorious
pursuit
they can have is to join the military and to die "for their country".
It's all lies, told to protect the ever expanding control that American
corporations now have over our country.
The
end of the cold war and the collapse of the Soviet Union posed a big
problem for those whose wealth depends upon the constant manufacture of
weapons and military supplies. They desperately needed another war,
several if possible.
Eisenhower was concerned
that the amount the country was spending on war and war related products
would diminish our educational system and our ability to care for the
needs of the citizens. Even he couldn't have foreseen the extreme to
which that prediction would materialize.
The
national debt has risen steadily in direct proportion to the increase in
the military budget. The military budget has risen steadily in direct
proportion to the needs of the arms and military suppliers to keep their
profits on the increase.
Fundamentalist Christian activists have had a
large part in helping this build up of the war machine because their
goal is to bring about the Biblical prophecy of Armageddon. There is a
direct relation between the nation's current dependence upon war, the
rise in militant fundamentalism and the number of Christian
fundamentalists in government positions. Convincing the troops and the
American public that these wars are doing "God's work" has been vital to
the war machine corporations in creating a perception that this
military build up and the constant wars that seem to justify it are
supported by the American public.
According to
an ABC news investigation, coded references to New Testament Bible
passages about Jesus Christ are inscribed on high-powered rifle sights
provided to the U.S. Military by Trijicon, a Michigan company .
Trijicon,
the maker of these sights, has a $600 million dollar multi year contract
to provide them to the U.S. Military and they are being used by American troops in
Afghanistan and Iraq and by the Afghan and Iraqi soldiers being trained
by the U.S. in those countries.
This
flies in the face of the military rules that specifically prohibit
religious proselytizing and supports the obvious fact that the religious
right fully supports these wars and sees them as a religious "Crusade"
against al Qaeda. Trijicon confirmed to ABC News that it adds the biblical codes to the sights sold to the U.S. military and said that any criticism of that comes only from "non-Christians" and is, therefore, not worth consideration.
The
fundamentalist Christian rise to power in the U.S. government coincides
with the rise in power of the Military Industrial Complex. The
inordinate power wielded by the "Tea Party" coincides with the
institutionalization of war as the primary source of employment for a
staggering percentage of our citizens.
Imagine what would
happen if the U.S. ended their wars. Imagine what it would mean for all
of those soldiers and civilian personnel who occupy the military bases
all over the world to be brought home.
The United States dominates the world through its military power. Our garrisons encircle the planet forming a vast network of American bases on every continent except Antarctica . Most Americans do not recognize -- or do not want to recognize
the size and nature of our military involvement in the world. No high
school geography class is going to show the extent that our troops
occupy the rest of the world.
There are at least 700 foreign bases. The
Pentagon currently owns or rents 702 overseas bases in about 130
countries and has another 6,000 bases in the United States and its
territories.
Kellogg, Brown & Root company, a subsidiary of the Halliburton Corporation of Houston have
contracts to maintain and build these bases. Control Supply Company of
Tulsa, Oklahoma and it's subcontractor, Sun Fun Products of Daytona
Beach, Florida sold the military 273 bottles of Native Tan sunblock
while the Defense Department was ordering up cruise missiles and
depleted-uranium armor-piercing tank shells.
Our
installations overseas are relatively luxurious compared to the
facilities of WWI and WWII. They require enormous quantities of
supplies in terms of everything from food to toilet paper and from
suntan lotion to socks. The amount spent on these supplies is hard to
grasp, partly because of the secrecy surrounding the very existence of
these bases and their functions.
It's not hard to imagine the
loss of jobs that would result from the closure of these bases and the
return home of these troops and civilian personnel who work for and with
them.
Not only would the companies, that have these contracts that
have made the likes of Dick Cheney into multi billionaires, suddenly see
their profits shrink or disappear, the larger portion of the people
they employ would be out of work as well.
The number
of military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan amounts to only a third of
the number of veterans who have committed suicide or died after coming
back from those wars. The number of civilian deaths that have occurred
is something the military doesn't allow us to know. The number of
future dead is likely to rise due to the current plans being made by the
MIC to expand war to other parts of the world in their quest for even
more power and wealth.
We are trapped in this
situation. We are the only country in the world whose entire economy is
based on the domination of the rest of the world. We have been duped
into taking part in this unholy alliance between the major corporations,
the religious right and the military. We're now completely dependent
upon continuing to wage war and continuing our military occupation over
the world.
These bases aren't there to protect us. That's propaganda.
They were put there to feed the Military Industrial Complex and they
will remain there because, without them, our economy would fail.
The survival of our country's economy now depends upon war and constant military and arms build up and the people who planned this and set up our situation are in the process of trying to destroy any part of the Federal government that serves to provide a decent quality of life for it's citizens. They are a greedy bunch at the very least and it appears that, soon, every tax dollar we pay will be going to serve them.
