The military industrial complex will be careful not to existentially threaten the nation by antagonizing nuclear powers like Russia or China, since it derives its income from the nation, but third world countries that do not have significant military capabilities are fair game.
The proof of this racket is in the pudding: annual spending on federal contracts to private companies increased by $175 billion between 2000 and 2005, according to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Like a mafia, the military-industrial complex can always manufacture a threat if it doesn't receive its protection money. A mafia will send one of its affiliates to break a few windows if it doesn't get paid, but the military industrial need only to have its representatives in the government provoke foreign hostility to get the same effect. This can be seen in the administration's policies towards Iraq and Iran over the last decade, which, rather than diffuse the situation, have only ever escalated it.
16 comments:
What kind of idiot terrorist strikes a country after public opinion is supporting troop withdraw?
Here is a link to an interesting briefing by Thomas P.M. Barnett, author of "The Pentagon's New Map".
http://www.cspan.org/Search/basic.asp?ResultStart=1&ResultCount=10&BasicQueryText=Thomas+Barnett
Mr. Barnett said a few interesting things:
1. Client states pay the US for protection by buying our debt. I think this is called extortion.
2. Demand for oil in China and India will double in the next twenty years. Mr. Barnett claims that both these countries will be coming (invasion/influence) into the Middle East unless the US controls the area.
Here's the link to Mr. Barnett's video.:
The Pentagons New Map
Very similar to the Senate Committee's investigation of war profiteering after WWI which inspired the essay, War is a Racket by two-time Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, Major General Smedley D. Butler.
What kind of idiot terrorist strikes a country after public opinion is supporting troop withdraw?
i agree.
skull video articles
"The proof of this racket is in the pudding: spending on federal contracts to private companies increased by $175 billion between 2000 and 2005, according to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform."
You are not even close to being logical. That's like saying that the mom and pop shop down the street is provoking street fights to drive band-aid sales. The proof of this is found in increased band-aid sales. That's a totally illogical argument!
Like israel. We should pull all out$$ out of israel. Which means all the wealth of that country. Leave it with the sand they started with before USA tax dollars undemocratically were placed there.
Cool blog, i just randomly surfed in, but it sure was worth my time, will be back
Deep Regards from the other side of the Moon
Biby Cletus
not logical? you won't find anything more logical than this.
no wars means billions in lost profits for the Military-Industrial Complex, on the other hand, if there is a war then we're talking billions in skyrocketing profits.
now given the fact that the Military-Industrial Complex has incredible influence in Washington, are they gonna push an agenda that makes them lose money or one that makes them incredibly wealthy?
those third world countries had it coming.
I think this person thinks that the "Military Industrial Complex" is some kind of building in Washington with a lot of really influential people in it.
At least do a wikipedia search on the subject, jesus...
America's vast number of foreign military bases combined with the popular belief that we have the moral right to forcibly impose our "superior" values abroad results in "blowback" and higher levels of military-industrial complex spending. It appears unlikely that Americans will soon accept the simple concept that we should be concerned with protecting only our own borders while conducting peaceful trade with all nations. Hubris is often fatal.
New theory of Greed -
http://www.g-r-e-e-d.com/GREED.htm
Something important that you left out is WHY the military-industrial complex exists in the first place.
Military spending is America's method of Keynesian stimulation of the economy. We need it to subsidize high tech industries, so we can have things like airplanes, and computers, and the internet, and compete with foreign industries.
Since people aren't going to fork over their tax dollars and willingly pay for the R&D on IBM's sixth generation nanocomputers, or whatever, they need to be fooled into it. So you invent a big threat--the big bad Russians are coming, or Latin American drug lords are going to destroy your family, or terrorists are going to blow up your dog--and everyone huddles under the power umbrella and doesn't question the massive military spending.
This system works, but it happens to be less efficient than other forms of Keynesian stimulation. For example, Japan doesn't bother with the "military" component, they just find direct commercial applications for the technologies the government subsidizes. That's one of the reasons Japan has managed to hit so far above its weight.
In research for my next novel, I found that 30% of the Defense budget is waste and corruption, according to the Center for Defense Information (CDI), a Washington think tank run by retired generals and admirals (obviously, not a left wing organization). Every politician is afraid of apprearing weak. This political vulnerability is exploited to the point of defense contractors getting away with mega-billion dollars worth of out-and-out fraud every year.
Ron Russell, Author of "Don Carina"
Thank you, that was extremely valuable and interesting...I will be back again to read more on this topic.
Another link to the report:
http://oversight.house.gov/images/stories/documents/20061211100757-98364.pdf
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