by Stephen Lendman – 12-12-17
What’s euphemistically called defense spending is all about funding America’s war machine – always active, never idle, inventing enemies to attack.
No real enemies have existed since imperial Japan formally surrendered in 1945. Yet America is permanently at war directly or indirectly – at home on streets in minority communities turned into battlegrounds, abroad in multiple theaters, new ones pending.
The Washington Post (WaPo): “The Pentagon and the welfare state have been locked in brutal combat for decades, and the Pentagon has gotten clobbered.”
“Protecting the country was once the first obligation of government. No more. Welfare programs – Social Security, Medicare, food stamps and other benefits – dwarf defense spending. As a result, we have become more vulnerable.”
Fact: The neocon Washington Post is connected to America’s intelligence community, mainly the CIA, operating as its virtual house organ, promoting militarism and warmaking, deploring world peace and stability.
Mackenzie Eaglen is a resident fellow at the hard-right American Enterprise Institute’s Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies.
She works on defense strategy, defense budgets, and military readiness – earlier worked on these issues with House and Senate officials, as well as at the Pentagon’s Office of the Secretary of Defense.
WaPo quoted her saying “(t)he United States now fields a military that could not meet even the requirements of a benign Clinton-era world.”
“The services have watched their relative overmatch and capacity decline in almost every domain of warfare…for nearly two decades.”
“As rival nation-states have accelerated their force development, the Department of Defense has stalled out, creating a dangerous window of relative military advantage for potential foes.”
“While the United States continues to field the best military personnel in the world, policy makers have asked them to do too much with too little for too long.”
Fact: With all categories included, America spends over $1.5 trillion annually on militarism and warmaking, the so-called defense budget at over $600 for FY 2018 is only one part of it. Lots more goes unreported by mainstream sources, suppressing the nation’s total spending.
It’s prioritized at the expense of ordinary Americans to make corporate predators and super-rich ones richer.
Militarism is deep-rooted in America, military bases located in most nations worldwide – for offense, not defense, for advancing the nation’s imperium. Its special forces operate in over two-thirds of the world’s countries, mostly covertly.
They perform belligerent missions, little or unreported low-profile warfare, enormous amounts of money spent on their destabilizing activities, operating in what they call a “gray zone,” under-the-radar hostilities against targeted nations or groups.
Fact: America’s only enemies are invented ones – countries threatening no one. So-called defense spending should be sharply cut, not increased, warmaking ended.
A new era of peace should be fostered, but never will as long as neocons, militarists, warmakers and profiteers run America.
Analysts like Mackenzie Eaglen promote warmaking. So does WaPo. They are against world peace and stability. They oppose America’s resources being used for homeland needs benefiting Americans, not just its privileged few.
WaPo: “Sizable increases in defense spending seem warranted to compensate for past underfunding and to confront new challenges.”
“China and Russia loom as potential adversaries; North Korea could become a global menace; the Middle East remains a cauldron of conflict; global terrorism survives; and new forms of warfare – cyberattacks, drones and space-based conflict – demand new responses.”
Fact: Washington threatens China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and other countries, not the other way around.
Fact: America transformed the Middle East into a “cauldron of violence.” Endless wars weren’t waged until America showed up, along with Israeli naked aggression against Palestinians and neighboring countries.
Fact: America poses a grave threat of using “new forms of warfare,” mostly against those who are unable to strike back hard.
As long as Washington prioritizes endless wars of aggression, humanity may be consumed by its hubris, arrogance, and imperial rage for dominance.
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