Tag: Military-Industrial Complex

Tired Of War Yet?

I do a lot of reading and some it I use and some of it I save in case it is needed later and other times I flush it out of my system because it is total crap……then I read something that I found interesting and the more I thought about it as I was reading I came down with a case of calling it “CRAP”…..

The piece was printed in The Hill……it states that Dems need to be aware that voters are tired of war……really?

With the nomination and likely confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, the party of Donald Trump is on the precipice of dominating all three branches of the federal government. After sweeping to victory in the 2006 midterms and then electing a popular two-term president in 2008, the collapse of Democratic influence in Washington represents an astonishing turnabout of political fortune.

A study suggests that a pivotal moment in the Democratic collapse happened in a Republican presidential debate in 2015, when Donald Trump established his reputation as an opponent of interventionism in the Middle East. During the debate, Jeb Bush chided Trump for his lack of foreign policy experience, and Trump unleashed a roundhouse punch that not only flattened Bush but ultimately Hillary Clinton.

http://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/397010-will-democrats-realize-that-americans-are-tired-of-war

I disagree!  If Americans were truly tired of war then they would demand it end…I am not talking about campaign slogans, chants or applause….they would vote to end it….so far they roll over and support the troops with slogans and chants and ignore the veterans.  They are NOT tired of war!  They relish it!

This piece was an outside attempt to influence the direction of the Dems during the Mid-Terms…..

Even in the day when wars make little sense we are still fighting in many countries all in the name of national security…….but nonetheless war makes little sense anymore…..

America spends more on its military than all its enemies put together yet it still can’t win wars. Failed adventures in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan have drained America’s power and diminished its prestige. The bloated Pentagon budget actually makes us weaker.

Here’s the weird bit: nobody seems to care. If any other government department spent as much and accomplished as little, the populace would be in arms, complaining about wasteful government spending. Instead we mumble “Thank you for your service” and increase defense appropriations.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/war-doesnt-make-sense-anymore/

Regardless we will continue to fight these wars of adventurism and the American people will care less that our troops are dying for what?

Back during WW2 the nation shared the experience with our soldiers…..civilians had to deal with rationing….not as life changing as combat but the people were asked to sacrifice….something they are not capable of doing these days…..the people are more spoiled than a 2 year old….

Revive The “Middle East NATO”

Over the weekend I read a piece where Our Dear Leader wants to revive something that he proposed on his first overseas trip as president to Saudi Arabia…….

The Trump administration is quietly pushing ahead with a bid to create a new security and political alliance with six Gulf Arab states, Egypt and Jordan, in part to counter Iran’s expansion in the region, according to U.S. and Arab officials.

The White House wants to see deeper cooperation between the countries on missile defense, military training, counter-terrorism and other issues such as strengthening regional economic and diplomatic ties, four sources said.

The plan to forge what officials in the White House and Middle East have called an “Arab NATO” of Sunni Muslim allies will likely raise tensions between the United States and Shi’ite Iran, two countries increasingly at odds since President Donald Trump took office.

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2018-07-27/trump-seeks-to-revive-arab-nato-to-confront-iran

As you might expect I wrote about this a year ago when it was first purposed on that trip to pay homage to the Saudi monarch.

https://lobotero.com/2017/05/22/new-plan-a-middle-east-nato/

As I point out in the original post there is already an organization that acts as a NATO style organization…it is called the Arab League…..and as I suspected in the original this proposal was merely as a counter to Iran…..

Trumps group will be made up of the countries that spend the most cash with the US arms dealers….has little to do with the region or the people…..these are not even secondary considerations….but business is the prime motivator.

This is a total waste of time and money.  Dear Leader does not think the the original NATO is not working why would a cheap knock-off work?

Closing Thought–31May18

The one country that gets our aid without question is Israel and those funds were to be spent on American made equipment so Israel gets out taxpayers funds and spent in American to enrich the M-IC……but it seems that Israel wants to change this program…..

As the record-large 10-year US military aid package to Israel is set to go into effect, Israeli MPs are lobbying the Trump government to make substantial changes. In particular, they object to the made-in-USA rules.

The $38 billion aid package is to be spent on US-made equipment. This has been a common way to make foreign aid politically safe, as it means that money is ultimately going to US arms makers who have a lot of influence.

Israeli officials, however, see this US armament as a problem for their economy. The Israeli Knesset Finance Committee is estimating that 22,000 Israeli jobs would be lost if the US doesn’t just send Israel the money straightaway and let them spending on Israeli-made arms.

Yet this was the agreement all along, back to when President Obama got the Israeli government to finally, grudgingly agree to accept $38 billion worth of equipment. While President Trump has suggested the aid couple end up being even bigger, as part of a desire to throw more arms at Israel, the desire to keep growing US weapons exports means he’s probably not going to be eager to send Israel the cash instead.

(antiwar.com)

I do not like the idea of my tax dollars being sent to the thugs in Israel…but since I have no say in where the money goes I’ll just say “Screw Israel”…..you do not like the way things are done then we will keep our cash and they can go f*ck themselves….put that in your matza ball and shove it!

Peace Out…..chuq

Yemen War Update

Recently Congress attempted to flex its muscle and invoke the AUMF in the Yemen War fiasco….

On February 28, Senators Mike Lee (R-UT), Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced Senate Joint Resolution 54, a resolution that seeks to end U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. Even before the resolution was introduced, the Department of Defense responded with the extraordinary claim that Congress lacked the legal authority to “override the President’s determination as Commander in Chief” and end the United States’ involvement in the conflict.

To catch my reader up on the situations……March of 2015, a coalition of nine Arab governments, led by Saudi Arabia, began a bombing campaign in Yemen. The Saudi airstrikes were aimed at restoring to power the internationally recognized government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who had been deposed by an armed rebel group known as the Houthis.

Since 2015, the United States has been refueling Saudi planes in mid-air before their bombing runs into Yemen. As of last October, the military reported that the U.S. had provided over 80 million pounds of fuel, and refueled over 10,400 in “the Horn of Africa region.” (This total includes support for U.S. and allied counterterrorism operations as well as the Saudi coalition’s war in Yemen. The number of airstrikes by the Saudi coalition is orders of magnitude higher than the number of reported U.S. counterterrorism strikes, so refueling for Saudi planes for operations in Yemen likely constitutes a large share of the total). The war has killed thousands of civilians and contributed to epidemics and widespread food shortages.

The M-IC when it heard about the attempt by Congress went into “get tough mode”…….

The multi-trillion-dollar military-industrial-counterterrorism complex (MICC) has a business model for scuttling legislation that would end or curtail the involvement of the United States in military operations overseas.This typically involves leaking classified falsehoods, i.e., a false statement that the executive branch has classified to prohibit disclosure to the general public on the theory that disclosure might damage the national security of the United States (Executive Order 13526). Typically they will purport to demonstrate catastrophic danger or damage to the United States if Congress ends a use of the United States Armed Forces (USAF) in a designated conflict. Leaks like these will tend to fall into the hands of favored columnists like David Ignatius of The Washington Post or Tom Friedman of The New York Times.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/when-congress-tests-authority-military-brings-out-big-guns/

The issue is dead!  The M-IC has defeated any effort to end a barbaric war that is causing a humanitarian crisis….death, destruction, disease, and so much more….but to preserve their profits the M-IC will continue to fuel the crisis on the Arabian Peninsula…..

In a surprising admission on Tuesday, the head of U.S. Central Command — which oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East and Central Asia — admitted that the Pentagon doesn’t know a whole lot about the Saudi airstrikes in Yemen that the United States is supporting through intelligence, munitions, and refueling.

https://theintercept.com/2018/03/14/yemen-war-centcom-elizabeth-warren/

This is NOT what the US is suppose to stand for…but these days it is all we have.

Update to the update……..

Senate Joint Resolution 54, which would force the end of the US involvement in the Saudi War in Yemen, continues to face mounting opposition from the administration. Defense Secretary James Mattis is the latest to express opposition to the bill, in a letter to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

Mattis argues that the US support for Saudi Arabia is “non-combat support,” and that without it, Saudi Arabia would kill even more civilians in their airstrikes. This is a bold prediction given the outrageous number of civilians the Saudis are killing already.

Mattis further claims that the Saudis are engaged in a “legitimate exercise of self-defense,” another outrageous claim that other administration officials have made. This is based on the Shi’ite Houhis firing missiles at the Saudis, though presenting this as a pretext for a war of self-defense is preposterous, since the missiles were fired years after the Saudi invasion began.

Mattis does concede the point in his letter that there is no legal authorization for US involvement in the Yemen War, but insists Congress should “not impose restrictions” based on the war’s plain illegality under the War Powers Act.

Exact timing for the vote on S.J. Res 54 is still not certain, though proponents of the bill are hopeful that the vote will come early next week. Those wishing to contact their senators to urge them to support SJ Res. 54 should call 1 (202) 899-8938.

The US War Powers Act requires that Congress authorize any US military operations of the sort being carried out in Yemen. Since 2015, the US has conducted mid-air refueling for Saudi warplanes, and committed warships to the naval blockade which is fueling starvation across Yemen.

(antiwar.com)

PTSD!

That dreaded disorder the afflicts so many of our service men and women…..well okay but this PTSD means “Peace Through Strength Doctrine”.

Trump has been pushing this slogan for over a year….it goes well with his con job of “Make America Great Again”…….but that is all it is…..a slogan and a racket…….

Donald Trump has embraced the popular “peace through strength” doctrine (PTSD) with his characteristic panache:

“I’m going to make our military so big, so powerful, so strong, that nobody – absolutely nobody – is gonna to mess with us,” Trump says. On other occasions he’s said similar things: “We want to defer, avoid and prevent conflict through our unquestioned military strength” (same link) and, a year ago, “Nobody is going to mess with us. Nobody. It will be one of the greatest military buildups in American history.”

I will acknowledge that the PTSD has surface appeal. Why not show the world the United States is so awesomely powerful that no one in his right mind would even think to get on its wrong side? It seems to make sense in a practical sort of way.

https://original.antiwar.com/srichman/2018/02/16/peace-strength-racket/

Make war to preserve the peace……another silly slogan.

Like I say slogans to try and get the approval of the people….make them think there is a threat and they then will accept massive spending on weapons and ordinance that we do not need for their protection.

The Empire Is Collapsing

Since the end of World War 2 the US has been the pinnacle of military power….not surpassed by any other country or power…..

The Pentagon is worried that their power base is diminishing in today’s world…..so they had a think tank issue a report that would help their case for more and resources…..

An extraordinary new Pentagon study has concluded that the US-backed framework of international order established after World War II is “fraying” and may even be “collapsing,” leading the United States to lose its position of “primacy” in world affairs.

The solution proposed to protect US power in this new “post-primacy” environment is, however, more of the same: more surveillance, more propaganda (“strategic manipulation of perceptions”) and more military expansionism.

Source: Pentagon Study Declares American Empire Is ‘Collapsing’ | Alternet

If you would like to read this war mongers diatribe then below link will help…..

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) faces persistent fundamental change in its strategic and operating environments. This report suggests this reality is the product of the United States entering or being in the midst of a new, more competitive, post-U.S. primacy environment. Post-primacy conditions promise far-reaching impacts on U.S. national security and defense strategy. Consequently, there is an urgent requirement for DoD to examine and adapt how it develops strategy and describes, identifies, assesses, and communicates corporate-level risk. This report takes on the latter risk challenge. It argues for a new post-primacy risk concept and its four governing principles of diversity, dynamism, persistent dialogue, and adaptation. The authors suggest that this approach is critical to maintaining U.S. military advantage into the future. Absent change in current risk convention, the report suggests DoD exposes current and future military performance to potential failure or gross under-performance.

Source: At Our Own Peril: DoD Risk Assessment in a Post-Primacy World

The perfect recipe to incite fear and dread and eventually get all the cash they want….

Everyone needs to read and understand what the Pentagon has planned for the nation in the years to come.

Closing Thought–19Jan17

Speaking of presidents leaving office……Tomorrow is yet another changing of the imperial guard…..but Ike’s parting shot is a classic…..

I have long ranted against the ever expanding Military-Industrial Complex (M-IC)….and yet a GOP president, Eisenhower, was one of the first to warn the country about this phenom in his farewell speech to the nation.

I thought it would be a good way to end the day….the day before a new president is sworn in to the office of president.

Have a day my friends……

Is a Trump Presidency Good News for the Military-Industrial Complex?

During the campaign Mr. Trump made all sorts of promises……the one that I was impressed with was his unswerving commitment to “draining the swamp” of elites and his non-interventionists rhetoric….

I was hoping that his disdain for the M-IC elites would help put the US on new footing in international affairs…

Now that he was won the election and started naming his cabinet my enthusiasm is waning……he seems to be embracing the very people that he bad mouthed all through his campaign……

As with so much of what Donald Trump has said in recent months, his positions on Pentagon spending are, to be polite, a bundle of contradictions. Early signs suggest, however, that those contradictions are likely to resolve themselves in favor of the usual suspects: the arms industry and its various supporters and hangers-on in the government, as well as Washington’s labyrinthine world of think-tank policymakers and lobbyists. Of course, to quote Yogi Berra at this strange moment: it ain’t over till it’s over. Eager as The Donald may be to pump vast sums into a Pentagon already spending your tax dollars at a near-record pace, there will be significant real-world obstacles to any such plans.

Let’s start with a baseline look at the Pentagon’s finances at this moment. At $600 billion-plus per year, the government is already spending more money on the Pentagon than it did at the peak of the massive military buildup President Ronald Reagan initiated in the 1980s. In fact, despite what you might imagine, the Obama administration has pumped more tax dollars into the military in its two terms than did George W. Bush. According to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, the U.S. currently spends four times what China does and 10 times what the Russians sink into their military.

Source: Is a Trump Presidency Good News for the Military-Industrial Complex?

For all Trump’s disdain for the “elites”….not to mention all of it by Right wing turds….they, the elites, seem to be falling in line with Mr. Trump……

The swamp that was suppose to be drained….seems to be getting a bit more crowded as the days go by……

One last question….is Trump’s phone secure?  I mean he thinks that Twitter is better than sliced bread….is it secure?  What else does he do on that phone?

Who Will Weed Out the Warmongers?

The 2016 election has been the most pro-war election that I have witnessed in my many years (that’s right I am an old fart)…….regardless who wins this stupid thing the US is poised for a generation more of war and wars…..

If we cannot vote for a person to be president that could end all this lame ass interventionism then how can we fight against the war hawks and their handlers, the M-IC?

If Hillary Clinton hangs on to win the presidency, liberal Democrats have vowed to block her appointment of Wall Street-friendly officials to key Cabinet and sub-Cabinet jobs. But there has been little organized resistance to her choosing hawkish foreign policy advisers.

Indeed, Washington’s foreign policy establishment has purged almost anyone who isn’t part of the neoconservative/liberal-interventionist “group think.” That’s why pretty much everyone who “matters” agrees about the need to push around Russia, China, Syria, Iran, etc.

Reflecting that attitude, Sunday’s lead editorial in the neocon Washington Post hailed the broad consensus within the Establishment for more warlike actions once President Obama is gone, taking with him what the Post calls Obama’s “self-defeating passivity.”

Source: Who Will Weed Out the Warmongers? – Consortiumnews

One idea is to defeat the neocons at home….sweep this sort of interventionism from the halls of Congress……

The American Conservative has taken this question to task……

Back in June, I identified five incumbent senators with very hawkish foreign policy records that faced difficult re-election bids or had announced an intention to retire. Of the five I named, four are trailing their challengers or in very competitive races: Mark Kirk of Illinois, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, and Marco Rubio of Florida. The four Republicans were elected to the Senate in the 2010 wave year, and they were all elected in purple or blue states. Even if Trump weren’t the nominee, they would still have been facing a larger electorate in a presidential year in states that are more likely than not to vote for the Democratic nominee for president. Rubio has the best chance of those four to win, and that follows his decision to renege on his earlier pledge not to seek re-election. The fifth senator I mentioned was John McCain, who seemed to be struggling earlier in the year but has since opened up a substantial lead over his challenger. Unlike the other four, McCain isn’t seeking re-election for the first time, and `he is running a traditionally much more Republican state. While Kirk and Johnson appear to be heading to defeat next week, McCain seems to be safe. The other two are close enough that it’s hard to say what will happen.

Source: Endangered Hawk Watch | The American Conservative

It is time for the American voter to remove their heads from whatever candidate’s ass…..and start considering the money and man power that is being wasted on conflicts that have NO value to the population of this country.

Time to vote anyone with the war hawk mentality out of government and look for people that will put the country first and the M-IC second.

What Is To Be Done?

First, no this is not a post about Lenin’s famous pamphlet by the same name……..

This election has proven to be the election that has nothing to offer the people of this country but more and more interventionism….NO where is there a candidate with the exception of 3rd party candidates that has anything to say other than more….more….more to mindless interventionism.

They are, the two major ones, in bed with the defense contractors of the M-IC…..

How can this change?

In the midst of an election in which the issues are largely ignored in favor of sensationalism and smears, the anti-interventionist voter is pretty much at sea. Hillary Clinton’s demagogic Russia-baiting of Trump as a Kremlin “puppet” augurs a foreign policy that will take us back to the arctic winter of the cold war, circa 1950. On the other hand, the GOP nominee, for all his encouraging “America first” rhetoric and his stated unwillingness to get into another arms race with the former Soviet Union, would likely take us into other quagmires – ISIS, China, Iran – and, in any event, cannot be trusted.

So what is to be done?

The first thing is to disabuse yourself of the notion that any politician or political party currently prominent will magically get us out of the business of Empire. This isn’t to say that political action is wrong, or ineffective – far from it. What I’m saying is that it is up to us to build a movement out of which a new politics of peace and liberty can be nurtured and brought to maturity.

Source: What Is To Be Done? – Antiwar.com Original by — Antiwar.com

American people need to stand up and start worrying about the future and the problems that all the nation’s interventionism has created….it is a vicious cycle that needs breaking and only the voter can do it…..

Enough said?