- (ICH) -- Let us consider the possibility that the USA
has become addicted, in an economic sense, to war. While the evidence offered
below is by no means exhaustive, it is directly relevant and highly probative.
Therefore, the reader should consider ALL of the evidence in Exhibits A
through D before judging whether or not a prima facie case has been made
that America is economically addicted t o war.
-
- EXHIBIT A: US Military Budget Will Equal Rest Of World's
Combined "Within 12 Months."
-
- A new study by the Price Waterhouse Cooper corporate-finance
group concluded that the USA's military "defense" budget:
-
- (A) reached $417.4 billion in 2003;
-
- (B) equaled nearly half - 46% - of the rest of world's
("ROW") combined military expenditures in 2003; and
-
- (C) is growing so fast that it will equal the ROW combined
"within 12 months." [1]
-
- Hence, the American military-industrial complex is poised
to monopolize the global armaments industry. And yet the War Party's leaders
and the Pentagon's brass deem these astronomical expenditures so inadequate
that they're requesting considerably larger expenditures to sustain - or
expand - their romanesque Pax Americana Imperium. [2]
-
- Americans should be asking themselves WHY they're being
advised that they cannot feel safe after they've made grossly disproportionate
investments, by global standards, in what is by far the world's largest
military? What do these exorbitantly expensive forces exist to do? Could
it be that war's tangible rewards are so much greater for militarists than
they are for the average citizen that the militarists are exaggerating
the need for a "Global War On Terror" merely to justify their
empire?
-
- EXHIBIT B: The Far-Flung Global Empire Of American Militarism.
-
- What's all that money buying, aside from endless overkill
through the defense contractors' cornucopia of hi-tech weaponry? It's buying
a far-flung empire of 1,700 bases upon which the sun never sets! Unbeknownst
to most Americans, the Department of Defense ("DOD") currently
lists 725 official US military bases outside of the country, and another
969 inside the 50 states (not to mention numerous secret bases).
-
- According to UCSD Emeritus Professor of International
Relations Chalmers Johnson, this vast military empire constitutes proof
that the "Unites States prefers to deal with other nations through
the use or the threat of force rather than through negotiations, commerce,
or cultural interaction." [3] Dr. Johnson correctly concludes that
American power has shifted from the people to the Pentagon with such dramatic
finality that "a revolution would be required to bring the Pentagon
back under democratic control."
-
- Eight factors have caused this anti-democratic power
shift: the culture of American ultranationalist militarism is deeply entrenched;
the enormous military budget has been used for gross over investment in
offensive - not defensive - war making capabilities under the pretext of
"national security"; the worldwide archipelago of military bases
is being misused to expand the neocolonialist Pax Americana Imperium; Byzantine
layers of bureaucracy and secrecy inside the government-military-industrial
complex allow it to perpetrate illegalities and evade public scrutiny with
impunity; the DOD commands a large private army of mercenaries to conduct
secret black-ops actions that remain ethically and legally unaccountable;
the DOD has successfully manipulated "national-security crises"
as a pretext for centralizing the independent intelligence services under
its propaganda-spewing control; the State Department's statesmen have been
replaced by career soldiers, oil barons, and arms barons, who think the
militarization of US foreign policy is desirable; the federal government's
practically-nonexistent ethical code unwisely permits close ties between
high-level politicians and arms-industry executives. [4]
-
- EXHIBIT C: The Carlyle Group, The Bush Family, The War
Party, And World Leaders.
-
- For at least the last twelve years, George W. Bush and
George H.W. Bush have been engaging in war-profiteering through the CARLYLE
GROUP ("CG"). CG is a consortium of wealthy conservatives who
operate worldwide as a merchant banking firm. CG is also a major player
in the defense and telecommunications industries. CG has been averaging
a whopping 34% return for its investors over the past 15 years, and its
current estimated worth is $18 billion. Largely through war-profiteering,
CG's worth soared from $12 billion to $18 billion between 2000 and 2005.
-
- So who's involved in the Carlyle Group? Among many others:
former President George H.W. Bush (CG's adviser from 1993 to October 2003,
and current investor); Bush I Secretary of State James Baker (CG's $180
million partner); General Colin Powell before he was Bush II's SOS; Reagan
Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci (CG's chairman); Bush I National Security
Adviser Brent Scowcroft; former conservative British Prime Minister John
Major (head of CG's European operations); and the former right-wing presidents
of the Philippines and South Korea.
-
- In the typical revolving-door style that has made postmodern
Washington an ethics-free zone, the Carlyle Group is managed and staffed
by former Republican employees of the CIA, the State Department, and the
DOD. The Saudi royal family also is - and the Bin Laden family recently
was - a major investor in CG. Additionally, many prominent international
bankers are CG investors.
-
- But wait! What about George W. Bush? He was a director
in the Carlyle Group's subsidiary, Caterair, before he managed the Texas
Rangers baseball team. Then, as Governor of Texas, he induced the board
of the Texas teachers' pension fund - the members of which he appointed
- to invest $100 million in CG. Finally, GWB stands to inherit a multimillion
dollar portion of whatever his father reaps through his consultations with,
and investments in, CG. That might explain why GWB was so adamant both
that his illegal elective war against Iraq MUST commence in March 2003,
and that the estate tax MUST be repealed (which his party did in April
2005). Now when Poppy Bush dies, he can receive 100% of that blood-soaked
windfall inheritance. [5]
-
- EXHIBIT D: The War-Profiteering Leviathans Bechtel And
Halliburton.
-
- BECHTEL is a gargantuan multinational construction firm.
The US-based Bechtel's war-profiteering activities are so prodigious that
they're the stuff of legends. Knowledgeable defense experts have characterized
Bechtel as "more powerful than the US Army." After 9/11, George
Schultz, the Bechtel CEO and former Secretary of State, lobbied vigorously
for the invasion of Iraq. The Bush administration rewarded Schultz by granting
Bechtel exclusive no-bid, gold-plated contracts for the reconstruction
of Iraq, then reducing Iraq's infrastructure to rubble during its "shock
and awe" blitzkrieg.
-
- These Iraq War contracts enabled Bechtel to reap record
profits of $17 billion in 2003, and $17.4 billion in 2004. The firm was
founded by the San Francisco-based Bechtel family, who are old friends
with the Saudi-based Bin Laden family. These two families have worked together
on many construction projects in the Mideast. Indeed, they're currently
collaborating on a $20 billion deal with the Saudi government to excavate
two new ports. Furthermore, the Bin Laden family owns a $10 million stake
in Bechtel Corporation's investment subsidiary, The Fremont Group. Of course,
the Bin Laden's are also old friends with the Bush family. It's a small
world, after all. [6]
-
- HALLIBURTON has vaulted to the forefront as the USA's
premier - and most corrupt - war profiteer. Before revolving-door gamesman
Dick Cheney became Bush II's running mate in 2000, he was receiving a multimillion
dollar salary as Halliburton's CEO. Upon becoming Vice President Cheney,
he oversold the invasion of Iraq by falsely alleging that an imminent threat
was posed by Iraq's nonexistent WMD arsenal. Since the invasion, his cronies
at Halliburton have reaped profits of at least $18 bilt cronyism, CorpWatch
disgustedly concludes that "Halliburton's agenda is so merged with
that of the Bush administration that questions raised by auditors, inspectors-general,
and other independent agencies - not to mention corporate accountability
groups - languish silently in Congress and the White House." [7]
-
- Furthermore, these same major defense contractors - the
Carlyle Group, Bechtel, Halliburton, and their subsidiaries - donated millions
to the Republican Party and the Bush-Cheney campaign. Additionally, they
paid for extravagant parties at the 2004 political conventions and the
2005 presidential inauguration. In short, war is a lucrative business that
pays the elite war-profiteers and the Washington bribe-ocrats handsomely,
while it impoverishes the taxpayers, drains the federal coffers, decimates
the target nations, and kills the combatants and their innocent victims
hideously.
-
- Overarching Conclusions: 21st-Century America Is Repeating
Imperialism's Historical Pattern Of Economic Addiction To War.
-
- Warlust eventually ravages nations just like a highly-addictive
narcotic ravages people. Warfare's savagery inflicts destruction on prey
nations immediately, whereas it destroys predator nations mediately. War
initially produces a stimulative "high" for the predator's domestic
economy. Leaders in predator nations ignore this opiate-like economic addiction
to war because it serves to enrich their upper classes. Warfare is instantaneously
lucrative for the military-industrial complex's depraved war-profiteers,
but can cause an entire region's economy to become depraved war-addicts
over time. For instance, the Pentagon's Base Realignment and Closure Commission
("BRAC" ) recently issued its report on military base closings.
-
- In response, US Senators insisted that they CANNOT close
any military bases in their states, because bases provide jobs and generate
income for local economies (e.g., $42 billion annually for California's
economy). And US Representatives like House Armed Services Committee Chairman
Duncan Hunter (R-CA) insisted that their districts CANNOTbillion annually
for San Diego's economy).
-
- In other words, most states and large cities cannot survive
without taxpayer-funded monetary injections from military bases, and this
vast archipelago of bases cannot be justified without an endless succession
of wars, so our regional economies are addicted to war. Hence, BRAC proposed
closing only 33 out of 1,700 bases. And no bases will be closed in Chairman
Hunter's militarily-dependent district, San Diego.
-
- That's 1,000 less base closures than is necessary to
provide adequate funding for America's indispensable social safety-net
programs. And a reduction to 700 bases would still allow the USA to have
three bases in each of the 50 states, and at least one in every nation
in the world. Folks, that's more than enough! [8]
-
- Consider that the economic "high" from an addiction
to war is always a Faustian bargain. It compels the addicted nation to
start an endless succession of destructive wars in order to avoid severe
withdrawal symptoms, which otherwise would appear in the form of recessions
and depressions. Penultimately, it forces the working class to pay the
highest price in blood and treasure. Their children become cannon fodder
and their taxes are squandered to finance military adventures. Militaristic
nations always collapse because their criminal acts of aggression are not
only morally indefensible but also economically unsustainable. Ultimately,
war destroys empires as well as it does people. [9]
-
- Maybe the progressive journalists who "speak truth
to power" should bestow a more accurate name on the DOD: the "Department
of Aggression" ("DOA").
-
- The Bottom Line: Might As Well Face It, We're Addicted
To War.
-
- One certainly need not be a pacifist to recognize that
the Exhibits A-D provide powerful evidence that the USA is economically
addicted to war. If so, this would explain why our political system is
dominated by the ultra-militarist War Party and the crypto-fascist Bush
family (i.e., the pushers), while our economic system is dominated by the
military-industrial complex and its mafiosiesque war-profiteers (i.e.,war,
that raises some important moral questions. Readers of good conscience
should be asking themselves: "Am I willing to engage in loving acts
of nonviolent noncooperation with evil in order to stop my nation's wars
of aggression? Or will I watch in craven silence as this nation descends
- like the Bush family's multigenerational war-profiteers - into a vampiric
career of bloodthirsty murderousness? If it's the latter, won't I be sending
America's children the depraved message that it's permissible to murder
people, so long as it's profitable? Which destiny am I going to choose
-- nonviolent redemption or militaristic perdition?" [10]
-
- In short, we've proved in Iraq that violence only begets
more violence, and war more wars. It's time to show the world the force
of our example, not the example of our force.
-
- ENDNOTES
-
- [1] Guy Anderson's 5-4-05 Janes Defence Industry article,
"US Defence Budget Will Equal Rest Of World's Combined Within 12 Months":
http://www.janes.com/defence/news/jdi/jdi050504_1_n.shtml
-
- [2] Siobhan McDonough's 5-15-05 GU article, "Senate
Panel OK's Defense Spending Boost" [The USA's "defense"
budget will be at least $500 billion in FY 2006.]: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5006745,00.html
-
- [3] UCSD Professor Emeritus Chalmers Johnson's book,
The Sorrows Of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, And The End Of The Republic
(Metropolitan Books, 2004).
-
- [4] Ibid. Also see these essays about militarism and
nationalism:
- A. Norman Solomon's 5-16-05 CD essay, "News
Media And The 'Madness of Militarism'": http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0516-21.htm
- B. Howard Zinn's 5-16-05 CD/TP essay, "The
Scourge Of Nationalism": http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0516-29.htm
-
- [5] These articles provide the factual details about
the Carlyle Group.
- A. HereInReality's article, "The Carlyle Group:
Former World Leaders And War-Profiteering" [Articles and videos about
CG.]: http://www.hereinreality.com/carlyle.html
- B. AngelFire's "Meet The Carlyle Group"
[Similar to 5A, but better organized.]: http://www.angelfire.com/indie/pearly/h.html
- C. Naomi Klein's 10-13-04 GU article, "Why
War? Bush Special Envoy And
-
- Carlyle Group In Scandal Over Iraq Debt Relief"
[In 2004, a Carlyle partner with a $180-million share, James Baker III,
functioned both as the USA's debt-envoy to Iraq to achieve international
debt relief and as the Carlyle Group's stealth representative for debt-collection
from Iraq on war reparations owed to Kuwait, which is a classic conflict
of interest.]: http://www.why-war.com/news/2004/10/13/bushspec.html
- D. William Thomas' must-read 2004 WT article, "Inside
The Bush-Carlyle Group Empire": http://www.willthomas.net/Convergence/Weekly/Bush_Carlyle_Group.htm
-
- E. Jamie Doward's 3-25-03 Rense/TO article, "Bush
Sr's Carlyle Group Gets Fat On War And Conflict" [Backs up his title
with probative facts from Dan Briody's expos book, Iron Triangle: Inside
The Secret World Of The Car lyle Group.]: http://www.rense.com/general36/FAT.HTM
-
- F. Christopher Bollyn's 11-3-01 PP/AFP article,
"War Is Sell: Washington's Power Elite Are The Beneficiaries of War"
[Reports that the Bush family is getting financially fat off of Dubya's
"War on Terror," because 30% of CG's investments are in defense-related
companies, while two-thirds of CG's investments are in defense and telecommunications.]:
http://prisonplanet.com/washingtons_power_elite_are_the_beneficiaries_of_war
.html
-
- G. LT has collected the "Carlyle Group Articles,"
ranging from 2001 to mid-2004: http://linkthing.com/screed/carlyle_group_cluster.html
-
- [6] Jeffrey St. Clair's 5-9-05 CP essay, "Straight
to Bechtel: More Powerful Than The US Army" [Excerpted from his forthcoming
book, Grand Theft Pentagon: How War Contractors Rip Off America And Threaten
The World (Common Courage Press, July 2005).]: http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair05092005.html
-
- [7] These articles address Halliburton's sleazy cronyism
and war-profiteering.
- A. Andrea Buffa and Pratap Chatterjee's 5-17-05
CD/CW essay, "Houston, We Still Have A Problem": http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0517-33.htm
-
- B. Scott Parkin's 5-10-05 CP essay, "Pride
Cometh Before A Fall: Taking Direct Action Against Halliburton": http://www.counterpunch.org/parkin05102005.html
-
- C. The Committee on Government Reform Minority
Office's 5-2-05 article, "Halliburton Asked To Explain Discrepancies
Between Tes. The Committee on Government Reform Minority Office's 4-11-05
article, "DOD Audit Reports On Halliburton" [Government auditors
find that Halliburton fraudulently over billed US taxpayers by $212.3 million
on its Iraq oil contract.]: http://www.democrats.reform.house.gov/story.asp?ID=3D846&Issue=3DIraq=3DReco
nstruction
-
- [8] These essays address the politics and economics of
military base closing s.
- A. Barbara Starr's 5-13-05 CNN article, "Lawmakers
Scramble To Save Bases": http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/05/13/base.closings/
-
- B. Associated Press' 4-25-05 CNN article, "Base
Closing Have Enormous Political Ramifications: Republicans Have as Much
To Lose As Democrats": http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/04/25/base.closings.ap/index.html
-
- [9] The following two essays have been excerpted from
BU Professor of International Relations Andrew Bacevich's outstanding book,
The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced By War (Oxford U.
Press, 2005).
-
- A. Andrew Bacevich's must-read 4-21-05 CD/TD essay,
"The Normalization of War" [Correctly describes the symptoms,
and diagnoses the causes, of America's descent into militarism and perpetual
war.]: http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0421-25.htm
-
- B. Andrew Bacevich's 4-22-05 CD/TD essay, "New
Boys In Town" [Explains the neocons' disastrous role in ratcheting
up America's addiction to war. They're the warmongering public-relations
division of the military-industrial complex.]: http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0422-34.htm
-
- [10] In addition to son George W. Bush and father GHWB,
GWB's paternal uncle , "Bucky" Bush, is a war profiteer, as were
his paternal grandfather, Prescott Bush, and his maternal great-grandfather,
George Herbert Walker. Is this America's destiny too?
-
- A. Evan Augustine Peterson III's 2-28-05 TPV essay,
"On Bush Nepotism And American War-Profiteering" [Reports that:
(1) the American war machine feeds big business, as illustrated by the
fact that entire military-industrial complex is profiting mightily from
its wars; and (2) certain relatives within Bush Family -- including Dubya's
uncle, William "Bucky" Bush -- are making substantial windfall
earnings off of Mr. Bush's elective wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In short,
war is business as usual for the Bush family war-profiteers specifically
and the US military-industrial complex generally.]: http://liberty.hypermart.net/voices/2005/print/On_Bush_Nepotism_And_American
_War-Profiteering .htm
-
- B. Evan Augustine Peterson III's 2-6-05 NFPNZ
essay, "Of Militarism, Fascism, War And National Consciousness: Any
Authentic Pilgrimage Toward A Nonviolent Society Requires A Clearer Understanding
Of The Beast Within" [Concisely explains from a social sciences perspective
the genesis of American militarism, the possibility that we are devolving
into fascism, and the alternative possibility of becoming an authentically
nonviolent society.]: http://nuclearfreen III, J.D., is the Executive Director
of the American Center for International Law ("ACIL").
-
- http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8904.htm
|
