The Disease of Permanent War

The Military Industrial Complex that Eisenhower warned about in his farewell speech has crippled this country ethically, morally, spiritually and physically ...

Chalmers Johnson's trilogy of books "Blowback", "Sorrows of Empire" and "Nemesis chronicle in detail how are addiction to War has torn our economy asunder while causing grievous harm to the rest of the world for over 60 years.

Our domestic economy was perverted to raise the taxes to support our War Machine. Conspicuous consumption and planned obsolesence implemented to force feed the civilian economy to create the taxes needed to underwrite our own destruction.

Eisenhower warns of the Military Industrial Complex

And ... in his original draft Eisenhower called it the " Military Industrial Congressional Complex " but was swayed to take the Congressional bit out as it would seem too radical a thing to say.

Thank You Chris Hedges , Thank You Alternet

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Hedges sums it up nicely. The American people have been systematically educated to be warmongers, jingos, bigots and credulous supporters of authority. Churches and schools specialize in this kind of indoctrination, and anyone who questions it or points out any of the numerous, inconvenient truths about our history is branded unpatriotic and dangerous.

Imperialism and militarism are expensive, and we're borrowing like crazy to support them. It's not sustainable, and when foreigners stop financing our wars by buying our paper, we're done for. It's not if, but when.

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Dostoevsky said it perfectly. What a fine job they have done hypnotising the public. Boy are we in for a change. Anger just creates more anger, until . . .

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Nearly a thousand years ago William the Conquerer founded a kingdom that remains a dominant power in the world. He probably believed that it was not only his military skill in the Battle of Hastings, but also the military technology (the stirrup) that he imported which were decisive (in actuality, the indigenous army had been exhausted by fighting off the Danes in the North).

We do what works for us (or what we think has worked). Americans are stuck with a dominant mindset that we don't really understand. War and empire are made to seem not only necessary but actually worthy. But it is not our military installations that are in over 100 countries, even though the Stars and Stripes fly over them, but Britain's.

Corporations are a royal institution and what is America today if not its corporations? The "special relationship" is anti-democratic and anti-American in important ways. King George saying that the constitution was nothing but a piece of paper is a very royal attitude. The kings and queens on the other side of the pond have revoked and remade even the Magna Carta over and over again. What to them is the US Constitution? Something to be disregarded! If we are treated like a colony and we act like a colony, we must still be a colony.

Either you believe in privilege or in egalitarianism. Privilege is monarchist, egalitarianism is democratic. Kings and queens rely on arms and loyal soldiers. Democracies rely upon peaceful citizens.

The real battle we must take on is against the whole corrupt idea of the corporation. It is unacceptable in a democracy to accord unwarranted privileges to any group, much less grant them to parasites.

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This article makes some great points. I think it de-emphasizes the extent to which many Democratic politicians actively support the Military-Industrial Complex, but otherwise, it's very good.

Massive "defense" contracts do indeed amount to massive corporate welfare. Of all of the wealthy people in this country, executives of these "defense" contractors are probably the ones who least deserve their wealth.

We need to cut military spending now. It hurts us far more than it helps us. I would love to see what peaceful purposes the people of this country would accomplish if so much of their wealth were not taken from them to buy more guns and bombs for the government.

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A fabulous piece of prose, and right on the mark for a critique. I keep telling friends to read "1984" and people look at me like I'm crazy, but Hedges points out the realities of our spending that have long been true and only grow more devastating with each passing day. Has it never occurred to anyone in power that true "homeland security" means redirecting our spending priorities to domestic purposes? Soon we will all be "sitting in a corner," and each of us will bear the responsibility.

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The symptoms are now obvious and very ugly.

Can anything be done to save the patient?

Tony

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Great article and good comments, the explantion of why imho is well served by fllowing quote.

“Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.

Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” ~ Hermann Goering

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They disappeared in the blink of an eye, didn't they?

No entrenched bureaucracy wants to shrink itself, and the Pentagon is four huge entrenched bureaucracies.

Perhaps they should rename the Department of Defense: it's really the department of defending procurement turf, as each service branch fights against the others to enlarge the budget.

We need to shrink our empire before we sink under its colossal weight.

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"War is Peace"
"Freedom is Slavery"
"ignorance is Strength"

Look to Quincy Wright's book STUDY OF WAR. read Andre Gunder-Frank; Read Marcuse, William whyte's ORGANIZATION MAN, read B Traven. Read Camus.

Then can we answer the poster's question: what do we do now?

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I'm surprised no one has busted out this quotation by Sun Tzu:

"There is no instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare."

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Americans continue to elect the Democrats and Republicans who impose this authoritarianism on us.

Hell, even George Washington tried to warn us and still we elect these proto-fascist thugs knowing full well that they will take the democracy we hand them and grind it under their heal.

George Washington: "Let me now take a more comprehensive view, & warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the Spirit of Party, generally."

They serve to Organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force--to put in the place of the delegated will of the Nation, the will of a party; often a small but artful and enterprizing minority of the Community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public Administration the Mirror of the ill concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the Organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common councils and modefied by mutual interests. However combinations or Associations of the above description may now & then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the Power of the People, & to usurp for themselves the reins of Government; destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

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the conservatives prefer to call it moral clarity (and pay especially close attention to the subtitle on the link)...but quite obviously..its permanent war.. as long as theres someone for them to "otherize"...the problem is whether its possible to deal with these ppl without stooping down to their level...

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Every Sunday churches spoon-feed pablum to congregations of strangers while the slaughter continues unabated. Killing a fetus by abortion is a sin, but killing a fetus by bombing a pregnant woman is okay.

You hear a lot of ersatz Christians like Bush and Obama saying God this and God that, but you don't hear much about Jesus.

Jesus never killed anyone, neither did he advocate killing anyone, nor did he sanction killing anyone. As he made perfectly clear to Peter, he possessed the power to destroy the Roman Empire which occupied his nation through force of arms, and he could even annihilate all of mankind, but he laid down his life rather than kill and commanded his disciples to follow his example. "Yet will I show you a more excellent Way." Christians by definition follow the teachings and example of Jesus and "love not their lives unto death."

Christianity itself has been perverted beyond all recognition in this endless lust for war.

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If perpetual war is the failure of strong nations and the demise of empire, then I am all for it. My God, we'll collapse into...socialism!

Peace

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The military industrial complex, its brainchild the CIA, and Operation MOCKINGBIRD with its control of the public mind have created Orwell's nation at eternal war. I have been aware since having heard the valedictory of President Eisenhower that those who made tremendous profits in World War Two were moving to seize power and assure that war and war spending would never stop.

I first began talking and writing about it while in my teens. No one - no one - would listen. Almost eighteen trillion dollars later, and counting, it is beginning to dawn on - witness comments here - some of us that something is, and has been, afoot.

It will stop only when the taxpayer - I stress the word, its exact meaning, and its implication - stops it. That's about as likely as pigs flying, thanks to Operation MOCKINGBIRD and its control of the public mind. And example of that control is the fulminating diatribe so characteristic of this forum and those like it: people screaming investive and insults, writing utter nonsense logically, and more.

A public divided against itself is not likely to make the concerted effort necessary to control government by military industrial corporation, in short.

A nation that believes it can be both free and stupid believes what never was and never will be, to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson.

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And it's not a "disease" - it's behavioral conditioning, the kind known as propaganda.

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For the next 50 years we're going to have 300,000 guys with IED concussion injuries. 250,000 guys will have Gulf War Syndrome, it's permanent. Guys with missing limbs and whatever will be doing as best they can, but they won't be 100%.

There's no money. We borrowed $10T and counting from China. Now China is slowly buying up the world's gold along with lots of other countries. What are we going to do when the first $500B of taxation every single year goes to debt payments through our grandchildren's retirement? Beyond that, foreigners now own big chunks of U.S. companies and real estate so that money doesn't stay here either. Goodbye lots of things forever.

Personally, I think we're trying to sell off our innovative leadership, the golden goose of America. Other democracies are figuring all of this out now.

Get out of war. Now. It's a business that doesn't pay anyone but Daddy Warbux.

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We develop these massive conventional weapon systems that are designed to invade a country and commit genocide to win a war. If not genocide at least kill enough of the civilian population to force unconditional surrender. Then we get tangled up in occupations where the goal is to kill only a few bad people, now are annihilation war machine becomes useless. Then we can not figure out why with all this military power, we can not win an occupation. We need to fire all the generals in the pentagon and hire some football coaches, who know that the best offense is a good defense. We call it defense spending but it is in fact offense spending. Defense spending would cost very little in comparison, because of our natural geographical defense. We need to change the justification attitude of, if you invade them I will invade you. We need to get back to the good old days, if you invade them I will nuke you. Then all we have to do is play defense, because we already have the nukes. In time people would figure out that no one is going to get nuked, only then could we get rid of the nukes.

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Chris Hedges says that "permanent war is a parasite that devours the heart and soul of a nation". If you get rid of a parasite, it is quick and the results are generally good. I think permanent war is more like a tumor or calcification, infiltrating and invading every tissue of our national body. Removing it will not be easy. It has become intertwined, part of the structure.

Yesterday on CD, when someone admitted that he works as a defense contractor but tried to offer a helpful analysis and view, the progressives and liberals treated him as if he were OJ Simpson and unfairly attacked him. So much of the contention comes from the limited opportunities people have, the way that military projects dominate the universities and the economy. There are weapons plants and military suppliers distributed through many communities in many states. There are hundreds of smaller companies and services that feed into or rely on business from the weapons and soldiering industries. I believe it is getting worse. The local peace group has had to change its campaign against military recruiting in High Schools. The military is no longer sending recruiters to schools. Enlistment is up. Young men and women are voluntarily signing up in larger numbers because they have lost hope of getting a normal job.

The owners typically make spectacular profit margins on military contracts and so they will resist cuts in military spending. Politically they, and their paid-for legislative toadies, will sabotage any search for peaceful approaches to the world. But the workers too may feel threatened by reductions in weapons production or other forms of military spending. Sometimes such spending is the central source of employment in a community, especially as family farms decline.

This is a reality we have to face if we want to build up support for changing the economy from war-based to peaceful. These jobs are important to people who have a family to feed and no cushion of wealth. Therefore the concept of CONVERSION and RETOOOLING needs to be developed.

As the article mentions, for example, nobody here is producing subway cars. There is no quick profit incentive to invest in downtime and conversion of a plant that produces tanks to one that produces subway cars. The profit margins for useful goods tend to be much lower than for war goods, which can be justified by urgency and panic rhetoric. Yet public transportation is another way to increase safety and security. It would reduce our energy needs and soften the push to invade everywhere that has oil and gas. It would spare the world some carbon flooding and help stabilize the ecosystems or at least slow down the changes.

SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES is what we need as a massive political and economic goal. On a personal level, we can refuse to work for the most heinous enterprises. Like Sioux Rose, we have worked only for good or neutral enterprises, and so have our children. We have not become rich or even comfortable, but we are OK. Thanks to special public High Schools and the library, we are educated. We live in New York, where there are a variety of choices.

While the current structure remains in place, many, especially in smaller towns and cities, will feel they have little choice. This has to be taken into account by the peace movement if we are to build support for the massive task of removing the horrible dead weight and drain of the war economy that is suffocating our spirits and laying waste to much of the world.

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Most of us knew that the hope of returning to a peaceful, prosperous United States was lost when Barack Obama named Robert Gates as the Secretary of Defense. The fix was in, and we all lost.

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"Permanent crisis justifies permanent control of everybody and everything by the agencies of the central government."
Aldous Huxley - Brave New World Revisited

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Yes, our foreign policy is degenerative and the cause of moral decay. But it is something more, that is utterly ignored here and in most liberal anti-war essays. It is likely the means to our own physical destruction. There is little evidence any more to support an Orwellian scenario in which the more powerful more or less permanently suppress the less powerful. There is ample evidence to suggest that the fate we design for others, we shall share. No citizenry today can be protected by it's military from being killed back.

Certainly this proposition is strong enough to deserve serious discussion. Instead we are constantly implored to be nice, or suffer only the fate of becoming degenerate, awful people, but continuing to live well as others die.

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"The hollowness of our liberal classes, such as the Democrats, empowers the moral nihilists."

Is this why soldiers and even good workers who have nowhere else to turn to for employment but DoD get persecuted? I would not limit this to Democrats and Republicans alone. The other day on another progressive site, I made the case that even as a defense contractor, I saw the need for single payer and I even came out in strong support of it but guess what happened? Personal hate attacks calling me a "war criminal" and so on so forth as if I was Rambo returning from Vietnam. I already had a tough enough time trying to reason with conservatives but here I am finding it just as tough trying to help find a home in the progressive community. I may not have served in Vietnam or Iraq but having met soldiers who have served one or both, I understand a lot of societal hate they are forced to go through when they return home and are treated as unwelcome murderers or something like that. And yet most of these same anti-war folks elect and reelect the same pols who put us all through this mess again and again. I may work for a defense contractor company but half of my projects were associated with smaller business customers that relied on our applications that we program all the time. In fact, a couple of small businesses in my area would not have survived had it not been for my contribution in programming those applications. I understand the anger against the war and the Military Industrial Complex and I share it too. However, it's good to know that some people on this site are sympathetic and tolerant of the fact that it is the system and the pols and business elites that run it, not us workers and soldiers, who are to blame. I program and submit my work to production. Where it goes I am not authorized to control. Sometimes, it goes to good causes and sometimes it doesn't. My company has customers of various industries. Likewise, when soldiers are to serve and protect, they too face tough choices and dilemmas. Protesting is one thing but at some point, collective tolerance and understanding of each other's differences and working on better solutions to force competition is the only way out.

Mr. Hedges, I would also like to thank you for pointing out the fact that even in the progressive realm, when it comes to giving aid to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and other dictatorships aside from Israel are often ignored and that those of us who bring it up are unfairly attacked as "pro-Israeli". There are good things I love about Israel but not the warmongers running the country.

I strongly agree that we need to bring back our manufacturing base and go local. Unfortunately, on the progressive and liberal blogs out there, I noticed a lot of very hostile folks mislabelling themselves as "progressive" and calling for those of us currently with no way out to give up our jobs, call ourselves guilty, and go homeless and butt naked. If these same foul brains would get out there and help us fight for a better infrastructure and decent paying jobs for more people, then those of us working in jobs in the defense sector or even related to it will have a better chance of switching securely without oversacrificing ourselves. If more progressives and liberals would learn to be civil and sympathetic to the plight of others and actually help pave the way for long term cures instead of imitating rightwing bullies, we all would win and the war machine would be put to a peaceful rest.

THANK YOU.

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Our addiction, our unholy worship, our blind lust, our corporate owned politicians, our endless quest on the dead-end road of EMPIRE is literally killing us & our childrens futures!

Corporations & War Machines of EMPIRE are monsters of GREED, devouring PEOPLE for PROFIT!

Only "We the PEOPLE" can stop this madness of EMPIRE.

A TRILLION dollars a year for endless war, TRILLIONS of dollars for criminal & corrupt bankers, only crumbs for the PEOPLE!

The world of EMPIRE only offers more GREED, DESTRUCTION & DEATH!

Stop the madness of EMPIRE!

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Our addiction, our unholy worship, our blind lust, our corporate owned politicians, our endless quest on the dead-end road of EMPIRE is literally killing us & our childrens futures!

Corporations & War Machines of EMPIRE are monsters of GREED, devouring PEOPLE for PROFIT!

Only "We the PEOPLE" can stop this madness of EMPIRE.

A TRILLION dollars a year for endless war, TRILLIONS of dollars for criminal & corrupt bankers, only crumbs for the PEOPLE!

The world of EMPIRE only offers more GREED, DESTRUCTION & DEATH!

Stop the madness of EMPIRE!

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He is simply updating what we have heard over and over again. I doubt many folks read "Underground Man" these days or "1984" as mentioned upthread. Has anyone read Shaw's "Major Barbara" lately. Or how about listening to Bob Dylan who asks us in song "Who's going to bell the cat?"

The problem is not that we believe in war. The problem is that we seem to have no alternative. Hedges' screed makes no mention of an alternative, so it amounts to the question that our literati have posed: How do we stop doing what we have always done?

What I need to hear from Hedges and his kind is, How bad will it have to get before we learn a new way?

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Yes, Chis, like so many otherwise courageous writers, seems to tap-dance around the BIG REASON we have "Permanent War" these days: our slavish allegiance to Israel and it's murderous agenda (which, yes, does include this site, that censors itself and the reader from telling the truth about the true extent of this....something I experienced here personally.)
One only needs to look to YESTERDAY, the sad spectacle of Obama being publicly TOLD by Netanyahoo what THEY plan to do, even as they have their hand out again for more "Support" in the form of Billions ON TOP of what they already have been getting EVERY year for DECADES (so, step n' fetchit, Mr Obama)
It is abundantly clear who the REAL "Superpower" is these days. One only needs to count the many dual citizenship Israelis infesting Obama's cabinet, replete with that evil little gargoyle, Rahm Emmanuel sitting on his shoulder to make sure he kowtows properly. They do, indeed, "Own" US, our corrupt Congress via AIPAC, and most of our "ruling class".
You are entirely correct, pfgetty, that 9/11 is the linchpin to this perversion and these "endless wars". There is no doubt in my mind that the Neocons did it with the help of the Mossad, and now our government, or at least the still-ruling Neocon power structure is being blackmailed by them.

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the largest corporations are the faceless dogs of war, trampling our vision of a healthy society and economy. voracious tycoons have raped the Constitution of the United States, they have made it their Jolly Roger, shielded and bequeathed their plundering outfits human rights to do whatever they please. we must put them on a leash right now

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There has never been anything but wars since the original Puritannical Christianist Pilgrim invaders right up until the present and projections of future wars to come, along with all of the "imaginary enemies" that go along with this perpetual war concept, psychological and otherwise.

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Chris Hedges has again articulated the current condition of our country brilliantly. I remember John Pilger saying that every time he comes to America he was amazed that anyone was aware what was going on given the all pervading and powerfull propaganda machine that controls this nation and after reading some of the excellent comments on this article I too am amazed. However, this does not instill any hope. I contend that the vast majority of Americans are irretrievably insane. The visible symtoms of this are religion, militaristic patiotism, climate change denial and consumerism to name a few. If, after this nation has vanished, there is any history written it will probably be remembered as the most rapid rise and fall of all empires.

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We are warriors and imperialists, and we always have been. This is not a creation of the Bush Administration or the military-industrial complex or the Republican Party or the 20th Century. Europeans hit the shores of the Americas 500 years ago with imperial intentions and backed them up with military strength. We "Americans" then fought to free ourselves from our European source. How did the United States come to exist in a place already occupied by other cultures? How did we expand from the Atlantic to the Pacific? How did we absorb Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, Guam, etc.?

Even when our government and its military were not bent on territorial expansion, the American people were! Texas and Hawaii are instances of American civilians moving in and taking over on their own. The U.S. government reneged on its treaties with American Indian tribes primarily because American civilians were already moving into the tribes' territory and demanding protection from the government. We are what we are today because generations of our ancestors took this place by force, then we projected our will onto the rest of the world, by coercion if possible, but by force if necessary.

We have been in a constant state of war since we hit these shores 500 years ago. Our culture, our education, our economy, our religion, our politics have all demanded an enemy, preferably a big, bad, threatening one, but if not, we will create one. When the Indians were crushed once and for all at Wounded Knee in 1890, America went into a state of malaise due to no worthy opponent. The Hurst newspapers, Teddy Roosevelt and many others helped us create one in Spain. We beat Spain in a few weeks, then spent a few years dealing with the Filipinos, in a war of unintended consequences.

After the Germans and Japanese were thoroughly beaten in 1945, the Soviet Union handily stepped into the opponent's box, and we fought them by proxy in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and other places. When they ceased to exist, as a nation and as a threat, we frantically searched for a new bogeyman, and found him in Saddam Hussein. And on, and on. I have read that the United States has fought over 200 wars and "military actions," which means an average of nearly one a year during our existence as a nation. Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Islam, Iran, the French, the Russians, North Korea, the Chinese, we need someone to be a worthy opponent, we are addicted to war, it is who we are, why we are what we are today. First, we need to understand this, then we might better find a way to move beyond it.

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pfgetty at 2:51 offers the only way out of this mess: a national confession of 911 truth. Confessing publicly that "911 was done by US" is a shibboleth or touchstone by which to tell who is a traitor to truth and who is not. We don't have to be Underground Men but can stand up tall and proud right now and confess who we are without fear of failure.

For my part, I confess my part in 911, especially all the years I lived in fear and ignorance. I confess and forgive myself. I have no faith in any government or system today; therefore I have started Love Government Blogstream. You're free to join me, and believe me you are free; there is no money involved and no coercion of any kind.

-Dennis La Lover of Ojai, California, home of Love Government Blogstream and its RBB Party.

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Extremely well written piece and utterly accurate.
But no solution is offered so what is one supposed to do except become a little more agitated or cynical or hopeless. One, truly effective solution, is simply to cease cooperating with the government. The way we support this insanity is because our labor is wired directly into the machine via taxes. Our minds are directly co-opted by our "democratic" electoral process that offers us the "choice" of voting for either side of the same coin. The whole machine grinds to a halt when we stop supporting it and start a new game. That decision requires incredible courage but as more and more people wake up to the scam being run on the entire country, more and more agreement will be gained as people realize that we all have a role in supporting this madness.

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The articles title should read " The disease of permanent fear" Fearful people invite control and manipulation.

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So, President Obama risks political suicide by taking on the cancerous tumor the Pentagon has become, does he? Isn't that one of the things he was hired for? Isn't COURAGE one of the prerequisites for a Commander-in-Chief? Isn't it time to dismantle the mountain of lies and pathological greed that's characterized our society for so long? Isn't it time to put as much effort into a quest for PEACE as has gone into conjuring up apocryphal "enemies" to conquer for the benefit of our warlords and the evil criminals who get rich from it all? Isn't it time for us to live up to the hopes and aspirations of our Founders? If we don't make some serious changes-and soon-we're probably sunk as a nation of laws and free citizens.

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Finally, someone with the ability to define the "military industrial complex". That's what this article does and I thank the author for his perception. I'm retaining this piece in my favorites for future reference.

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I'm tired or unusually cynical these days ( or maybe its because I just reread a Canticle for Liebowitz), but its hard for me to escape this conclusion. Our goverment has been bought by corporations who run it for their own interests. Even worse, those who get to call the tune are so completely solopsistic that they'll burn the last tree and fish the last fish before they think about the long term consequences for themselves and us. Most people generally have little time to address these issuses in their daily lives (to some extent because of how they are forced to live), or have so little exposure to the truth that they carry on as before. I watch well educated and generally thoughtful people consume ridiculous amounts of resources daily, and never question the economic or political system and its goals.

I'm not perfect, but I do my bit. 25 year old car with 60K miles, rain barrels, recycling, composting, solar power, local food consumption, choosing to spend dollars on small buisnesses wherever I can, and the rest. Countless letters, demonstrations, attempts to educate those around me. For what? Even in the middle of the most gigantic catastrophe in 50 years, and in the undeniable presence of information that we are outstripping our planet's capacity to keep us alive, we are making virtually no progress due to ennui of the general public (not to mention a healthy dose of stupidity) and entrenched, powerful and blind self-interest.

At some point in the foreseeable future, our oceans will be completely over fished, 50% of the species extinguished, and our climate out of control. We'll have bled the water tables dry. At some later time, we will have reduced the avialable energy dense material on our planet and will be unable to do much more than hang on..good luck with that.

I'm glad I won't live that long, glad I don't have kids-or I'd be really depressed.

sorry for the rant folks, and I dearly hope I'm wrong.

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I was born a few years after WWII. People working either directly or indirectly for the Military had saved us from invasion by German Nazis.

I've worked on products for the Military and never even thought about it in any kind of negative way. They were just one of our Customers.

But my older Brother-in-Law had already totally rejected it. He actually used to work on weapons design in London in the same office block as EMI studios. He regularly used to see the Beatles coming in to record stuff like "All you Need is Love"

Suddenly he resigned. He simply couldn't do it any more. My sister couldn't understand - and they split up and divorced. She was a Catholic and he was an Atheist.

I didn't understand until years later why he did it. He was very well paid - and ended up losing his Wife and Children for his Principles.

Many of my other relations have worked on weapon systems. The most recent was my nephew.
A few years ago at the age of around 30 - he too resigned and is now training to be a Catholic Priest.

We must all examine our own lives objectively and work out what exactly we are trying to achieve in this life.

If we are working on weapons systems specifically designed to kill and maim millions of innocent people - is that something that we ourselves can live with as a reasonable use of the time we spend on this planet?

Shouldn't we be challenging our leaders and asking them blunt questions - Why Are We Doing This? There is So Much Good Work we could be doing instead.

Look at our crumbling cities - the concrete mess of a society in terminal decline. We used to be able to produce such beautiful buildings and cities which we loved and respected.

All we are creating now are toys designed to fail and be replaced to maintain profit - and guns and bombs to exterminate others less fortunate than ourselves.

The human race has become a disgrace.

What are You going to do about it?

We need to find a new way forward or we will destroy ourselves.

Tony

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This is a point for any country that believes war alone solves problems or protects us from them. War is a weapon of nationalism and it thrives on God and Country and the western world has been a truiumvirate of Military, Merchant, and Missionary.

The military is elitist and not democratic when it is willing to use people as cannnon fodder for the dreams of spoiled rich kids wishing to continue fighting the Vietnam War now that they are Pres. or be on the ground in Afghanistan but sat it out when they had the chance. Or someone who relishes finally having the power to take civilization's pesky gloves off and get down in the mud and get serious. Or just not bother about the untidiness of finding no WMD's!!

We as western civilization have raced around the world now looking to get rich quick and take all the gold and now have nowhere to go to rape and pillage except to go back around again in a downward spiral.

The 21st century of global interdcependence requires us to realize that as a species we cannot feed on ourselves like vultures forever!

We have to learn how to coordinate our bodies and minds in a more effective way. Our instincts of fear, territoriality, and dominance need to to be rewired on a better sexual model of cooperation, compassion, and empathy and not tied to grand conceptualizations necessitating collateral damage to demonized groups.

We need compassionate action with a vision of our interdependence. That is meditation in action.
If we can't do it we may well be the cause of our own extinction.

We are all on a tiny blue jewel of life called Earth and we are all interdependent. Destruction of ourselves is suicidal and a false short term profit.

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The war mentality has become the status quo and there isn't much opposition. There's more news about Alex Rodrigues, than there is about Afganistan and Iraq. We became a very comfortable society without a thought to routine maintenance to protect our way of life. That included opportunities to earn a living. When we were at our best, there was no Walmart. Cars were made here along with clothing, toys, electical appliances, you name it, we made it. Labor unions were considered very American. Well we farmed out much of what kept us housed, fed and able to raise families is comfort. When that was gone, starting wars made us 'necessary' again. Providing arms to other countries whether they wanted them or not. So we became the equivalent of the man out of work with no money, eventually forced to be dishonest and rob a gas station to feed his family. It's amazing how standards are adjusted. We are left with the only thing we do well and continue to create a market for our product. If no one buys we give it away so that everyone is competitive. No one objects. But mention the need for a free lunch program for school kids and everybody raises hell about another "giveaway". Most Americans don't want to know what we're really like. Thanks, ANNA

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Chris Hedges provides a useful (and familiar) overview. But as Raymond Williams put it, world leaders are rarely engaged in overviews. Their intentions have to do with now and the short and mid-term, as they envisage it.

Moreover foul intentions and opportunism are enforced by power-mania and insider-approval.

Why else would the razing of Iraq, madness in Afghanistan, and torture camps occur just 30 years after Watergate and the Vietnam/Cambodia disgrace, which of course is routinely lied about?

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As someone who's been identified as a ringer for the "Underground Man" himself, I have a bit of an issue with this allusion. As far as that diagnosis went, it turns out that the one who pinned this characterization on me was demonstrably more apathetic than I am.

If Hedges were to do much more than write about this dismal attitude we all have toward war, I would be very impressed. I appreciate his excellent writing in general, but how are (mainly North American) Westerners going to turn around the "bankrupt ideas of liberalism" when the known forces (that exist outside of terms like 'liberal' or 'conservative') which dominate the political landscape are absolutely bent on undermining all opposition? What do you suggest moral nihilists should do?

The main point of the piece is very clear and reasonable. But I see nothing yet to suggest that a moral and social movement is gathering to present a real challenge to the permanent war situation. Only when a huge number of citizens are involved rather than merely 'liberal classes' (whatever that actually means) will we see an end to this war-based existence. Obama is definitely not accomplishing this shift toward sanity himself, but I doubt that any American statesman could do this and last very long in office anyway.

No, I'm one example of an 'Underground Man' who expects to stand up for himself when cornered... despite leaders or liberals. Better to be a hibernating (not sterile, as you suggest) dreamer than an apoplectic observer who castigates the victims of the condition more than the condition itself.

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...was way ahead of us.

If you have not read his treatise, you need to.

War is a Racket by Smedley Butler

Smedley Butler Bio

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You say "Foreign aid is given to countries such as Egypt".
Ahem.
What about Israel whose sole existence seems to be based on endless war against Arabs.

Our only solution is when China says enough. China has so much vested in the US economy and will only stop investing here when the economy shows some signs of recovery. It cannot pull the plug before hand otherwise we are in serious trouble. Obama will not and cannot help.
Read The Limits of Power by former military officer Andrew Bacevich for a realist picture of what is at stake.

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Chris Hedges has done it again: Describing reality in America. This time he focuses on the military-industrial complex with insights that are illuminating.

The mass media really has to smarten up or we will all go down with a superficial understanding of the important issues.

Bill Hawkins
Straight Arrow PR

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Inspiring it is to have brave and and articulate leaders like Chris Hedges and the hundreds of well-informed critical/analytical/diagnostic commentators on Alternet.
I read them every day and wish they were all down here in the deep South where the citizens that this ancient mariner tries to engage are almost all afraid to talk about our drift into permanent American genocide.
But, with the passion of the Alternet reality-awareness celebrations we may yet turn America in a healthy and safe direction!
Dr. Robert MacDonald www.psycho-imperialism.com

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I agree the perpetual war sought by Dick Cheney and the neocons was, and is, a formula sure to erode the Constitution and enable an impregnable imperial presidency to install itself. Trillions of dollars are being squandered on unnecessary armaments and wars. However, the president of Iran actually seeks stability in the Middle East, but not at the price of permanent Israeli oppression of the Palestinians. The perpetual war or near-war is fomented by Israel and its militarist policies associated with the idiotic attempt to keep the West Bank and the Golan Heights.

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A lot of us have our own private definitions of "war".
Here is OUR actual definition:

US Constitution
Article One, section eight, 11, 12, 13,14,15-

Powers of Congress
"11- to declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;"

Okay, Congress declared war in 2003 against "terror"? against Iraq?
On whom did WE declare war?

Congress has the power to
"12- To raise and suport armies, but no appropriation to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;"

No matter upon whom we declared war,
WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA haven't been at war for four years.
Article One has expired on the 2002 non/wishy washy/fear-mongered so called "declaration."
They never declared war on anybody.
WE haven't been at war since 1945.
If Congress doesn't assert its' authority, it has just given up its' role, and its power.
My guess is the money's just too good, and our "Congress" is scared of being run against by more money from any "candidate" who promises to be a more loyal and acquiescent whore to the corporate bastard masters of this nation, especially the military corporate pigs, who expect their place at our trough.
All of the above just STINK.

Anybody (mccain, right wing check cashers, et al) who says we are at war is simply mistaken.
Any of the geniuses who bandy the term "war' about on this and other sites,
as "reasoning" for any policy, ideology, belief, etc.,
need to return to OUR actual argument.
I appreciate your outrages.
The fact is,
Congress declared peace in 2005.
WE the PEOPLE, are at PEACE.

This is the ruling of YOUR Constitution.

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The Logic of Suicide Terrorism

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Memorial Day - 2009

On radio one morning, defending our internal spying program, a U.S. Senator reminded us that ‘we are a nation at war’. Sobering news. I know I had forgotten. However, particularly since it is Memorial Day, it started me thinking about the sacrifices Americans have made over the past six years and are continuing to make to bring peace, freedom, and democracy to Iraq and the Middle East.

The sacrifices are quantified, seemingly, with decreasing frequency as the war plods on, as we are presented with the counts of dead and wounded men and women. In an accounting directed at our more materialistic side, we are occasionally updated with disparate estimates of the out-of-pocket costs of our nation’s unflagging determination to defeat terrorism.

Still, it occurred to me that something very important is missing from our sacrificial balance sheet. That is the incremental cost of life for each day spent by those who labor to conduct our military expeditions.

Primarily, this cost is being paid by those military personnel in the danger zones. We understand that they number about 150,000 and are generally young, perhaps averaging 25 years old. (The actual numbers are probably classified since, if the enemy knew, it might endanger the lives of our troops.) If we trust that most of these young people will not be killed in this war, but live to an average of 75 years, then they have 50 years (or 18,250 days) of life to look forward to in the comfort, safety, and security of their American homes.

Still, loss of life can be measured in days. For every day that 150,000 American troops remain at war, this equals the consumption of 150,000/18,250 or 8.2 of their residual life expectancies. Over six years, this grinding daily consumption would total 18,000.

As painful as that number appears, I suspect our national sacrifice has been far greater. Many more people than most of us can fully appreciate are engaged in supporting our war effort. The efforts of the vital medical personnel are most evident, but hundreds of thousands more Americans are involved in training, supporting, transporting, and supplying our troops. While not as glamorous, even those involved in manufacturing munitions, materiel, and Hummers are devoting substantial portions of their lives to an international war effort seemingly with no discernible end.

Not to disparage their gratuitous contributions, it sometimes appears that innumerable news reporters, freelance writers, filmmakers, war tourists, and politicians can be found ‘on the ground’ in the war zones. In total, the gross consumption of human life, energy resources, and material are, perhaps thankfully, incalculable.

Calculator cleared, on this Memorial Day, I can’t erase the most searing images of the sacrifices made to war; the unbridled tears and pain of those who have lost their loved ones. How much are the remaining days of one’s life diminished when war has brought death to one’s threshold? Of what diminished value are days filled with mourning, regret, and sadness?

Maybe, next year.

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If there was every a person who can match the power of his truth with the capacity to write, it is Chris Hedges. I have to read him in small doses lest I be moved to storm the castle.

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Good article . Chris also has a book that I am reading now. It is a more in dept study of Wars and some reasoned perspective.But it will only sell books and illuminate the reader , but nothing new will happen to stop war. Wars have been fought for centuries way before the modern state evolved with cooperation's.When a young man comes of age ,he is taught that being a solder can be a rite of passage,He makes a bargain with the devil.The US government will gladly pay him and any other men to do its bidding ............... To die for glory as 400,000 of his fathers did in WW2.
One solution is to never join up --never be drafted never-- do the government's bidding. Leave the country if you have to.Wars will only get more frequent an worse as we move through this next century.

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alternet should break the silence ... investigate 9/11

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I’m a Jeffersonian Democrat and I believe that religious beliefs are a private matter, and that there must be a wall of separation between church and state.

Unfortunately, that wall has been eroding since 1979, to such an extent that being a Christian became a litmus test for being a presidential candidate in 2008. And there never was such a wall in most Islamic countries, or in Israel.

Consequently, proud, militant bigots and hypocrites seek and gain power claiming that God (or Allah) is on their side. That has been and still is a huge part of the problem.

So, I would like to share my discovery of a new singer-songwriter who delivers a courageous and powerful message in songs, reminding us of universal truths and values, and calling for real freedom, especially freedom from religious bigotry and theocratic imposition.

You can listen to the songs FOR FREE at http://www.soundclick.com/davidjnunson

What we need now, more than ever, is religious pluralism and tolerance. However, we should not tolerate bigotry and theocratic imposition, whether it's in the name of Islam or Judaism or Christianity. Rather, we should re-establish the Jeffersonian "wall of separation between church and state," and have real freedom and equality of religions, along with freedom and equality for agnostics and atheists.

I hope you take a look and listen to David's songs, because his poetic, musical message can help a great deal in our liberation from those who want to rule over us under false pretenses in the name of religion and patriotism.

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Permanent war extinguishes liberal, democratic movements. It turns culture into nationalist cant. It degrades and corrupts education and the media, and wrecks the economy. The liberal, democratic forces, tasked with maintaining an open society, become impotent. The collapse of liberalism, whether in imperial Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire or Weimar Germany, ushers in an age of moral nihilism. This moral nihilism comes is many colors and hues. It rants and thunders in a variety of slogans, languages and ideologies. It can manifest itself in fascist salutes, communist show trials or Christian crusades. It is, at its core, all the same. It is the crude, terrifying tirade of mediocrities who find their identities and power in the perpetuation of permanent war.

-------------------
kelvin
lawyer directory

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What our country needs is a regulatory body that encompasses state employees. It monitors external financing or extra-curricular employment, including during the electoral process, getting rid of campaign financing. Candidate selection can be done online. It should be made illegal to have income from anywhere else but the government if you are employed in government office, complete with an audit of all prior income if you are running for a position. Combine the IRS with the DOJ and call it SERA for State Employee Regulatory Agency, with treason as the penalty for lying about your income. If they stopped giving all our money away to there part-time employers, they would have much higher salaries as a benefit.
"Some people see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not?" - JFK [George Bernard Shaw]

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