Remarks at Democracy Fest, San Diego, July 15, 2006
More than any other weapons system, the chief products of the military industrial complex are lies. We just learned this week that Congress was cracking down on corruption by denying another contract to Halliburton. In reality, Halliburton has completed its main task of building five permanent bases and doesn't care as much about more contracts for services for soldiers. And, in fact, last month the Senate rejected, nearly along party lines, a bill to create honest contracting and impose penalties for fraud of the sort almost openly engaged in by Halliburton.
Lies and secrets are what the military industrial media complex sells us. We say the phrase "military industrial complex," but the lies that it hides behind permeate our thinking and dominate the politics of both major parties. Some of these lies are:
Being tough and hungry for war makes us safer.
The wars we wage have something to do with defense.
The wars we wage are fought for reasons related to foreign threats or international relations.
We wage our wars reluctantly.
Working for peace is weak.
These lies are engrained in all of us, and you will find vestiges of them in yourself long after you reject them. The fact is that the larger our military grows, the less safe we are - because the size of it encourages its use, and its use creates enemies and terrorists.
The Bush Cheney gang has increased spending on weapons and wars to create the largest deficit ever. Our kids and grandkids will pay for this with their dollars and possibly their lives.
What drives our government to behave this way?
Congressman John Murtha recently sent his colleagues a letter comparing the $8 billion a month we're spending to kill Iraqis with the costs of various other projects, but Murtha has voted each year to spend that war money, and the alternatives he offered focused on so-called "Homeland Security" and included a plea to build more ships and planes for the military.
Where does this drive come from to only oppose a war with language that encourages the growth of the Military Industrial Media complex?
The first place we instinctively look is bribes, or what in Washington we call campaign contributions. And those are not insignificant: $16 million in 2004 from weapons makers, 63% of it to Republicans, and $53 million from energy companies, 75% of it to Republicans. The biggest profiteers in the current war are oil companies. If the illegal war bothers you and the price of gas bothers you, it may be even more disturbing to understand that the war was fought in order to raise the price of gas.
But the bribes from weapons makers and oil drillers are small beside those of other industries. And there are members of Congress who do not take them but still behave as if they took them. I'd like to suggest three ways to explain this.
FIRST, Congress Members fear and pander to the corporate media, and the corporate media will not tolerate opposition to the military industrial complex. Just prior to the attack on Iraq, FAIR found that over three quarters of the guests discussing the coming war on ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS news were current or former government officials, and three-quarters of those who were not government officials were still supporters of the war. Meanwhile less than 1% were identified with organized protests or anti-war groups.
DAVID SWANSON is a co-founder of After Downing Street, a writer and activist, and the Washington Director of Democrats.com. He is a board member of Progressive Democrats of America, and serves on the Executive Council of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, TNG-CWA. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including Press Secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, Media Coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as Communications Coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Swanson obtained a Master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia in 1997.
You said 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...."
Like most Americans you are a hypocrite. You think you can live there and believe the idea that war is sometimes necessary, and on the other hand don't.
Americans need to realize that there is no middle ground. You can not serve 2 masters! You either support the War machine, or you don't.
David Swanson are you telling us the truth?
by
Dom Jermano (20 articles, 0 quicklinks, 40 diaries, 934 comments)
on Sunday, July 16, 2006 at 6:41:04 PM
