Military Industrial Complex

Tomgram: Nick Turse, Putting the Pentagon on the Auction Block

Back in September 1989 -- almost a lifetime ago -- I published an article in The Progressive magazine under the title "Star Wars Won't Die." Star Wars was, of course, the movie-inspired nickname for Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), his vision of putting an "impermeable shield" against nuclear weapons in space. ("The Force is with us," he joked at the time -- and when it came to high-tech R&D weapons research he wasn't wrong.) I wrote then that SDI would never be cancelled, no matter how many of its prospective parts failed. ("The loss of any particular [weapons] system," I indicated, "can only lead to the creation of others.") And today, of course, we still have SDI's impaired progeny: the missile defense system that the Bush administration has tried so hard to install in Poland and Czechoslovakia.

More generally, nearly two decades ago, I suggested that we already had a highly militarized country "that conforms to no notions we hold of militarism… The United States… still has the look of a civilian society… In the Reagan-Bush era, the military has gone undercover in the world that we see, though not in the world that sees us. For if it is absent from our everyday culture, its influence is omnipresent in corporate America, that world beyond our politics and out of our control -- the world which, nonetheless, plans our high-tech future of work and consumption… Those who fantasize about the possible militarization of America in terms of a future military coup should not hold their breath. To the extent that any takeover may be possible, it has already taken place, hardly noticed, in the economic sphere of our lives."

ACLU Demands Information on U.S. Military Domestic Operations

On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request demanding information from the government on U.S. Northern Command’s (NORTHCOM) deployment of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Combat Brigade Team (BCT) on U.S. soil for “civil unrest” and “crowd control” duties.

Iraq vets and post-traumatic stress: No easy answers
By A. Chris Gajilan | CNN.com

Excerpt: A more recent RAND Corp. study, released in April this year, found that nearly 20 percent -- or one in five returning war veterans -- reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or major depression. But, only slightly more than half of them sought treatment, the study found. That compares with a prevalence of 4 percent for the general U.S. population, according to a 2005 study in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Walking through a crowded shopping mall can bring back memories of war. The shifting crowds, the jostle of passers-by and the din can all trigger Army Sgt. Kristofer Goldsmith's post-traumatic stress disorder.

"You get used to scanning what everybody's doing. Your brain just starts working so fast and it's purely instinctual because you want to know what everyone's intent is around you," said Goldsmith, who served four years in active duty.

"You want to know if anyone has the intent to harm you or the capabilities to harm you."

That hyper-vigilance is one common symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD, an anxiety disorder, can develop after a terrifying or life-threatening event, or a series of events causing extreme stress.

US Iraq casualties rise to 68,474
Compiled by Michael Munk

US military occupation forces in Iraq suffered 36 combat casualties casualties in the week ending October 21, 2008 as the official casualty total climbed to at least 68,474. It includes 34,144 dead and wounded by what the Pentagon classifies as "hostile" causes and more than 34,330 dead and medically evacuated (as of August 2) from "non-hostile" causes.*

The actual total is over 88,000 because the Pentagon chooses not to count as "Iraq casualties" the more than 20,000 veterans whose injuries-mainly brain trauma from explosions--were diagnosed only after they had left Iraq..**

Gates Says U.S. reluctant to alter Iraq troop draft
By David Morgan | Yahoo!News.com | Submitted by Michael Munk

Washington does not want to alter a draft security pact with Iraq, despite demands for change from Baghdad where the document failed to win support from Iraqi political leaders, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday.

After months of painstaking talks that ended last week, Iraq effectively called for reopening negotiations to address objections to the status of forces agreement (SOFA) draft that would require U.S. forces to leave Iraq by the end of 2011.

Protesters call for 'peace' jobs
By Darren Fishell | Submitted by Bruce Gagnon | TimesRecord.com

Nearly 80 peace protesters gathered outside of the gates of Bath Iron Works on Saturday during the christening of the Wayne E. Meyer, urging the shipyard to convert to producing equipment for harvesting sustainable resources.

"Today our message is conversion," said Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. "We want to see taxpayer dollars go to produce more jobs in sustainable industry and to combat global warming."

Russia could buy back Alaska or perhaps Canada could pick up sunny Florida
By ERIC MARGOLIS, TORONTO SUN

At the end of Second World War the British Empire still ruled nearly a quarter of the globe. But the war bankrupted Britain. Its once mighty empire quickly collapsed and the United States inherited much of the British Imperium.

Six decades later the United States is close to bankruptcy thanks to a national orgy of borrowing, the replacement of manufacturing by financial manipulation, ruinous foreign wars and a government whose stunning incompetence and arrant stupidity was exceeded only by its reckless imperial arrogance.

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Blood Money: The Human-Capital Equation of the U.S. Occupation of Iraq
by Stephen "Flint" Arthur | NEFAC.net

When a state is determined to pursue war, and all forms of indirect symbolic protest actions have failed to sway politicians to halt their imperialist aggression, the only remaining option is direct action by the working class. One option is a general strike by workers that can effect the production and transportation of military capital, that is the materials essential for the war machine. The other is to deprive the military of the labor it needs to fight the war. The slogan from the Vietnam War protests deliberately speaks to this, "What if they had a war, and no one came?" The U.S. military is overwhelmingly recruited from the working class, and convincing our class as a whole to refuse to work for this blood money may be our best chance for both ending the war in Iraq and limiting the imperialist ambitions of the U.S. for future decades.

"Endless development of armed force. Every day we hear of fresh inventions for the more effectual destruction of our fellow-men, fresh expenditure, fresh loans, fresh taxation. Clamorous patriotism, reckless jingoism; the stirring up of international jealousy have become the most lucrative line in politics and journalism. Childhood itself has not been spared; schoolboys are swept into the ranks, to be trained up in hatred... drilled in blind obedience to the government of the moment, whatever the colour of its flag, and when they come to the years of manhood to be laden like pack-horses with cartridges, provisions and the rest of it; to have a rifle thrust into their hands and be taught to charge at the bugle call and slaughter one another right and left like wild beasts, without asking themselves why or for what purpose. Whether they have before them starvelings... or their own brothers roused to revolt by famine-the bugle sounds, the killing must commence."~~Peter Kropotkin - War!

Shredding Our Trust in the VA

VA investigators find entire claims and other critical documents in shredding bins at Detroit Regional Office. VA official will only say, "I can't talk about that."

by Larry Scott | VA Watchdog.org

Many veterans who have filed disability claims with the Veterans’ Benefits Administration (VBA) of the Department of Veterans’ Affair (VA) will relate horror stories of misdated, misfiled or lost documents all leading to delays in processing or an outright denial of the claim. The mantra for veterans dealing with the VBA has become: “Delay, Deny and Hope that I Die.”

Butter Battles, But Guns Sell
By John M. Donnelly | CQPolitics.com

One bright spot in the otherwise dismal U.S. economy is the brisk sale of weapons to other countries. The value of major arms exports, according to government figures, nearly doubled from fiscal 2005 to fiscal 2007 — from $62.7 billion to $112.1 billion — and is expected to increase more this year.

Defense contractors were licensed to sell $88.8 billion worth of military goods directly to foreign governments in fiscal 2007— a 71 percent increase from fiscal 2005, if all the sales took place. These direct commercial sales are supervised by the State Department.