Reply #6: Interesting thesis [View All]

[teryang]

The only problem I have with it is that the American situation is socially and institutionally more complex. It is the huge corporations and banks and their ruling families that are the chief threat to the republic not the military. In fact, we have a military which is mostly corporate in orientation. For all the countless hundreds of billions spent on the military we can field an expeditionary force of only 150,000. The numbers of other American troops stationed elsewhere overseas are little more than a cadre for logistics infrastructure. The US Navy is only one half of its former size. The regular Army regular force structure is smaller than it was before Vietnam. Except for the inevitable rightest careerists in the armed forces, much of the officer cadre was actually opposed to this conflict in Iraq and the unprofessional and unrealistic way it came about.

With the largest budget since the height of the Vietnam war, we have a relatively small professional force. Most of the money goes to defense contractors who bilk the government at every turn. In the current dilemna where the usurper of the republic can't even field a force large enough to suppress and govern Gaul (Iraq), he has to rely on part- time forces such as the guard and reserve to carry out the function of the so called "professional forces." It was Bush I and Cheney that "downsized" the military and this is still regime policy. They call it "lite forces." It's smaller and less capable but it costs a hell of a lot more. It is the part time men ripped from their families and normal occupations, often losing their personal businesses, who must bear the personal costs of war. They really don't owe their allegiance to any general, they are marginalized and impotent socially and politically, like part time workers everywhere.

If anything the corrupt corporatists and their henchman don't want a body of veterans to which they have to be committed. In fact, they can't wait for the baby boomer veterans to die off, they are making far too many claims for government largesse. The neo con elites are committed to profits not patriots. The only republic they have in mind is the banana republic. No doubt the obvious corruption of national security functions, particularly in this regime, does result in the call for a man on horseback. The last of the larger groups of veterans from the cold war face old age with interminable waves of corporate and government frauds endeavoring to take their benefits, social security and their last dime on one pretext after another, including the phony national security issues.

Veterans and soldiers are plebian in orientation and status. The neocons seek to limit their status, resources and influence. Unfortunately, the military being what it is, it is generally ineffective as a check on fascist corporatism, even when it grows in power and influence. A part time military is even less influential. The corrupt corporate defense contractors and their cronies however are having a field day just like their "civilian" counterparts who profit from trading government debt instruments, increasing insurance rates, increasing utility scams, etc.