Militarism and the Corporate Welfare State

[bemildred]

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The war machine keeps turning like a sausage grinder, spewing its product into the coffers of the rich. Into the hopper go our sons and daughters and dark-skinned nations—out comes sausage and huge bank rolls for Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld and corporate America. Corporations, government, and militarism comprise the unholy trinity of capitalism. Together they form a corporate welfare state that boggles the mind.

The American military is not abroad defending freedom and sowing the seeds of democracy, as they seem to believe. One need only examine the history of this nation to recognize the familiar patterns of conquest and oppression. The occupation of Iraq is the continuation of the policies that created the institution of slavery, following the genocide of the Indians. The military, far from being a defender of peace and freedom, has evolved into an extension of the corporate welfare state.

The world will know no peace until enough citizens are sufficiently aroused to dismantle the military apparatus. Furthermore, we must recognize the link between militarism, war, and capital and build a better system—a form of government that serves the people rather than capital. Code Pink and other groups that maintain a constant presence in Washington are on the right track. They deserve our full support.

Peoples's Voice

[seemslikeadream]

1. Nationalize the U.S. Defense Industry

http://baltimorechronicle.com/2006/071106STANTON.shtml

Nationalize the U.S. Defense Industry
Public Good Should Trump Private Greed
by JOHN STANTON

.....

Finally, the American public doesn't hear too much about the Lockheed Martin contracts to upgrade Chinese air traffic control systems. “We Never Forget Who We Work For,” says Lockheed. Boeing recently deployed the Sea Based X-Band radar system that's floating off the coast of Hawaii. The platform for that technological marvel was built by Vyborg Shipping, a Russian firm. Is it really North Korea the Missile Defense people are interested in, or is it the Russian arsenal?

....

Some of the more troubling public cases include William H. Swanson, Chairman and CEO of Raytheon, who lifted major portions of his book Unwritten Rules from another author. He was censured and had his paycheck cut by the Raytheon Board of Directors. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, former U.S. Congressman and Chair of the U.S. House Intelligence Subcommittee, is serving an 8.4 year sentence in federal prison for fraud and taking bribes. Jerry Lewis, the Chair of the US House Appropriation Committee, is under investigation by the FBI. Porter Goss, former US Congressman and CIA Director is also the subject of an FBI investigation. In May 2006, Reuters reported that the FBI was investigating allegations that four-star USAF Generals Michael Moseley and John Jumper helped to steer a Thunderbird contract (the USAF equivalent of the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels stunt flying team) to a friend, retired USAF General Hal Hornburg, who once commanded the Thunderbirds.

Corporate Watch is an invaluable tool for tracking the activities of the players in the DIB. The group reported on what, perhaps, is more frightening than the explosion of corruption in the U.S. national security arena: the commercialization of the uniformed military services to the point where distinguishing between corporate operative and uniformed government employee is impossible.
“One of Raytheon's more secretive subsidiaries is E-Systems, whose major clients have historically been the CIA and other spy agencies like the National Security Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office. An unnamed Congressional aide told the Washington Post once that the company was 'virtually indistinguishable' from the agencies it serves. Congress will ask for a briefing from E- Systems and the (CIA) program manager shows up, the aide is quoted as saying. 'Sometimes he gives the briefing. They're interchangeable.''

What is the US Military? What is being Defended?

Ultimately, the entire national security apparatus is going to have to make some decisions. Is it country before agency? Is it profit before country? Is it the U.S. Congress saying “No” to campaign contributions? P.W. Singer, who monitors the DIB for the Brookings Institution, put the issue into perspective:

“The final dilemma raised by the extensive use of private contractors involves the future of the military itself. The armed services have long seen themselves as engaged in a unique profession, set apart from the rest of civilian society, which they are entrusted with securing. The introduction of private military firms, and their recruiting from within the military itself, challenges that uniqueness and the military professional identity. Its monopoly on certain activities is being encroached on by the regular civilian marketplace.”



Washington Babylon this is your final day, this is your final call
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1600797

[acmejack]

2. Meanwhile I go to the VA & see the leftovers from past misadventures

Men & Women missing body parts or having perhaps left a little of their minds behind in some foreign hell hole, one which the uber-patriots were sure to be indisposed and unavailable to participate (but they really, really would have liked to have been there. By God, they would have showed those Commies a thing or two and while they were at it they would have taught all us chicken-shits that did go how to stand bravely in the face of the enemy and fight like Americans, too!) The human waste from these sorry wars is sad to see, shattered dreams, destroyed lives, yes, these people had plans too, but they were interrupted by their Nation's call, nay, demand in many cases, that they serve her war machine.

The common thread in discussions is that people were so glad to survive that they devote much of their remaining days to celebrating that simple fact. When one knows how quickly and brutally life can be snatched from you, one realizes it is something to be savored and enjoyed, not necessarily spent in the service of some Scrooge who is trying to make an extra dollar to fatten their bank account at your expense.

[Douglas Carpenter]

3. thank you

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientist and the hope of its children. This is not a way of life at all. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."

President Dwight D. Eisenhower

[Douglas Carpenter]

4. And I came upon this quote the other day

It was from Kurt Vonnegut as he remembered the bombing of Dresden when he was a POW:

" I have told my sons that they are not to under any circumstances take part in massacres, and that news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee.

I have also told them not to work for companies which make massacre machinery, and to express contempt for people who think we need machinery like that."

from Page 19, in the Introduction to Slaughter House-Five.