cmaukonen's picture

    Support the war or lose your job.

    I have blogged about this many times. Mostly it gets ignored. But the truth is that ever since WWII a large part of our economy depends on defense contractors and defense spending. Socialism at it's best. So it's no surprise to me that David Swanson says so too.

    PBS (the P stands for "Pure" I think) is concerned that if the U.S. government stops funding the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. economy will crash:

        "An executive at a small defense contractor recently joked to me, 'Afghanistan is our business plan.' I asked him what he would do if the war ended. He stared at me for a moment and said, 'Well, then I hope we invade Libya.'"

    I've passed this story around on Facebook and Twitter to a general response of complete bewilderment. It seems that not many people are aware that the U.S. economy depends heavily on massive government investment. The investment is through the military, and through the militaries of foreign governments running the full gamut from quasi-democracy to total dictatorship. Making the materials of war is what we do; it is our major industry, and it is funded with about half of our income taxes every year. This helps explain why President Obama was willing to de-escalate in Iraq only as he escalated in Afghanistan, and why he escalated in Afghanistan prior to forming any plan for Afghanistan. War is business. The trick for this business is how to de-escalate in both Iraq and Afghanistan without a major escalation somewhere else.

    Now, our government could take the same money that it invests in wars, and the much larger pile of money that it invests in the base military budget, and instead invest it elsewhere. We could cut the military by 85% and still have the world's largest. We could take some or all of that saved money and put it into infrastructure or green energy or education, each of which would produce more jobs and better paying jobs than the military. But there's a problem. Investing public money in a massive jobs program that doesn't slaughter lots of innocent human beings is Socialism. Slaughtering innocent human beings is something our politicians can stomach, but Socialism is simply beyond the pale. So it's kill people or crash the economy; pick your poison. You can hurt others or yourselves. Or . . .

    Or . . .

    Or we can go with what Americans tell pollsters they want to do: end the wars, tax the rich, tax and disempower the corporations, create single-payer healthcare, and invest in education, green energy, and non-violent jobs.

    I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Relax.

    Is it any wonder that so many politicians support the war...any war ?

    Comments

    "Lose your job", not "Loose" [fixed - d]


    It's actually an important point. It's been said many times by others as well. I don't have much to add, but it is one of the most upside down aspects of our society.

    With the GWOT, one could see in real time how we have this need/drive to manufacture overwhelming existential threats which then have to be defended against because they are overwhelming and existential.

    Got into a long conversation with an old high school friend who lives in a distant suburb of New York City. He said that soon after 9/11, he bought a gun. I asked, "Who do you think you're going to kill with that gun--jihadis coming ashore on the beaches of Long Island Sound like latter day Alan Arkins only this time festooned with turbans?

    He had no answer. He also said that he has "slept with one eye open since 9/11." For ten years. I really couldn't believe it. Yes, if you see something, you say something. But lying awake at night somewhere out in the suburbs. Please. But he was dead serious.


    Not surprising really. Those in the upper middle class have never had to deal with or experience anything more dangerous than getting beaned by a wiffle ball. They have mostly live lives of happy, happy, joy, joy. Never been in the military or had any run ins with the law except maybe a speeding ticket. So for them paranoia really does run deep.


    Well, what's interesting is that, while my friend lives in an upper middle-class town, he grew up working-class. His father owned a nursery. I'd have to call them Reagan Democrats, just to pick a label. Don't know if they were ever Democrats. Overall, a moderate Republican, but with a screw loose, for sure.


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