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It's how Seymour Melman (1917 - 2004) characterized it in his books and frequents writings on America's military-industrial complex. On March 15, 2003, one of his last articles headlined, "In the Grip of a Permanent War Economy," saying:
"(A)t the start of the twenty-first century, every major aspect of American life is being shaped by our Permanent War Economy." Its horrific toll includes:
-- a de-industrialized nation, the result of decades of shifting production abroad, leaving unions and communities "decimated;"
-- government financing and promoting "every kind of war industry and foreign investing by US firms;" war priorities take precedence over essential homeland needs;
-- America's "permanent war economy....has endured since the end of World War II....Since then the US has been at war - somewhere - every year, in Korea, Nicaragua, Vietnam, the Balkans - all this to the accompaniment of shorter military forays in Africa, Chile, Grenada, Panama," and protracted ones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Palestine, Somalia, Yemen, Central Africa, Libya, and increasingly against perceived homeland enemies;
-- "how to make war" takes precedence over everything, leaving no "public space (for) how to improve the quality of our lives;"
-- "Shortages of housing have caused a swelling of the homeless population in every major city (because) State and city governments across the country have become trained to bend to the needs of the military....;" the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) estimates nearly 90,000 homeless Chicagoans during the 2009-10 school year through June 1910, a 19.9% increase over the previous year; the National Coalition for the Homeless estimates about 3.5 million nationwide;
-- the result is a nation of growing millions of poor, disadvantaged, uneducated, and "disconnected from society's mainstream, restless and unhappy, frustrated, angry, and sad;"
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