It Doesn't Matter What We Think About War and Military Spending
Until It Does
Sad to say it doesn’t seem to matter what we the people think about war and military spending.. President Trump doesn’t care that at least 70% of Americans are against the Iran War. Dick Cheney infamously replied, “So?” when he was told by a reporter that Americans opposed further escalation in the Iraq War.
It might matter what we thought if we lived in a democracy, but we don’t. We live in a kleptocracy, a kakistocracy.
First, we must recognize we’ve lost our say--that we don’t have a government that represents us--then we need to reform, re-create, or otherwise change that government.
Again, in the main, Americans don’t want militarism and wars--but there are other forces at work that do want these things, for their reasons, and they are in control.
Americans, I believe, don’t want more nuclear weapons. We’re getting them anyway. Read this article by Bill Hartung on the profiteers of Armageddon.
Americans, I believe, don’t want to spend between $1.5 trillion to $2.3 trillion each year on the Pentagon and war (read this POGO report on the true total U.S. military budget), but the warmongers and the military-industrial complex spend that money anyway.
As George Carlin said, the owners don’t care about you—at all! At all! At all! Your preferences, your needs, simply don’t matter. You have no say. To “our” leaders, the owners, inflation is good—just ask President Trump. Rising gas prices are great—for fossil fuel companies. Rising credit card balances and debt are healthy—for bankers.
We need to act. We need to change American-made destruction into American-made construction. We must become builders again, not destroyers.
The weapons they fund and build, the wars they prosecute, all the shredded human bodies, and for what? What morally abject fools the weapons makers and warmongers are. Why do we allow them to get away with it?
Until we regain our morality and our nerve, until we cast aside the kakistocrats and kleptocrats ruling us, we will remain stuck in the malaise of mindless militarism and endless war.
Withhold your consent. Run for office yourself. Organize and protest. Talk to your neighbors. Even write a blog. Whatever you can do to derail the war train rushing toward Armageddon is a good thing.
And don’t ever give up.
Well said, Bill. Add to it the disregard for public disagreement and protest for data centers and the opening of public lands for private extraction and it’s a compounding problem.
Kakistocracy -- such an apt word to describe our government. I agree that we must act. The oligarchs have the populace fearful of where their next paycheck is coming from -- in my state the weapons manufacturers offer jobs that are secure and pay well. SNAP is not adequate for providing food and healthcare is often not available. We need to build our communities and develop more mutual aid groups so that workers don't have to be so afraid of losing everything. I have hopes that the FIFA events in cities across the nation will help to wake people up to the fact that even sporting events are only for the rich.