"One Man's Meat...

News&Views

The Armchair Curmudgeon

March 19, 2007







The Military Industrial Complex







Who seems to benefit most from untold injuries and endless wars?



Most of us have been brought up to believe in what is for all intents and purposes, a cynical notion, ‘what’s one man’s meat, is another’s poison…” But on the other hand,

It is generally distasteful for even the most cynical among us to assume that there are winners where grief and destruction abound.

But sadly that would be off the mark, too..

As difficult as it may be to wrap our minds about, even as a war unfolds around us to such an extent that many of us cannot bear what we see and hear, it is painful to learn that there are “winners” among the legions of “losers”…..



Most of the “winners” in such embroglios tend to garb themselves in the cloaks of anonymity; still others parade around us pretending that they are doing us outsized favors.



Who are the winners in such an affair? And like the grave diggers during the time of the plagues how do they endure?



They are the those in the top 1% of our economy who former president Eisenhower, also a five star general of the Army, warned us about: “The military industrial establishment.”



They are the ones you don’t hear about; don’t read about; but they are the ones who benefit from the grief of others. They are the ammo makers, the military technology purveyors, the weapons salespeople and manufacturers who make America the most fearsome Imperialists since the days of Rome…



There are several hundred companies in the US and their subcontractors, both here and abroad, who have been in this business since before we engaged in World War II who found out how to capitalize on the business of war. Today, they tap into the largest military budget that ever was, more than 400 billion dollars exclusive of special allocations, a budget shaped by terrorists armed with box cutters....

.

In fact, when Eisenhower saw their power, he issued a belated warning to the American public that they should discourage the idea of a large standing army and a powerful industrial complex that controls such vast sums of money. He understood where such an imbalance leads. And clear eyed generals who are not caught up in this frenzy, will also admit that maintaining military budgets larger than the military budgets of all NATO members plus China and Japan leads one to always find a justification for War.



To make matters worse, we have set aside our treaties with one time adversaries to preach, instead, the notion of pre-emption where America can go to war on the assumption that others may be positioning themselves to threaten us. This would be pushing the Doomsday Clock closer to Armageddon even if we did have measured and judicious leaders capable of sound judgment; but in this environment, we can’t even count on that.

Meanwhile the weapons get bigger and bolder along with our willingness to use them to assert our Imperial authority. In the order of things, it is a bad time for most of us who respect law and order with the exception of the Military Industrial Complex whose strength and power is now instrumental in setting the course of government.



We can only hope that we shall survive long enough in this maelstrom for clear heads to prevail. And perhaps that is asking too much.



Les Aaron

The Armchair Curmudgeon…

www.lesaaron.blogspot.com



THE COMMITTEE FOR POSITIVE CHANGE