I think it would be more accurate to say that "The Military-Industrial Complex Ate Our Government." As you explain, this rip-off goes well beyond the Pentagon. We are forever indebted to Eisenhower for warning us of the danger of the MIC almost 70 years ago, even if no one in a position of power in DC has bothered to heed the warning ever since. On the contrary, the military-industrial complex of today makes the one that existed back in the 1950s during Eisenhower's time look rather harmless in comparison. It is now an all-consuming, multi-headed behemoth that is sucking the lifeblood out of this country.
I take the top figure on that graph as a given, Bill, and don't expect any change absent a complete upending of how things are done in this country (with repeal of Citizens United as a foundational step). The figure simply becomes more egregious every budget cycle.
But to me, what really tells the tale are the bottom three numbers on the graph. In other words, dumbing-down across the board; lack of funding for scientific research; lack of support for the DoJ; paring down of IRS resources; lack of funding for labor, housing, healthcare, and other services; and so on. That is, what we're seeing is a two-pronged attack on the country's wherewithal. Dumping billions into the MIC while depriving ordinary citizens of basic needs and services. The inequality is breath-taking. And of course, the GOP is hoping to gut Social Security and Medicaid in the meantime. Couple that with the ongoing (under several Presidents) giving away of Medicare to private insurers, and we little guys will be lucky to get crumbs by the time another decade---or less---has passed.
The Blob ate everything, and it is still hungry. Instead of fixing things and improving life for Americans, The Blob has instead decided that using our tax dollars to kill and destroy overseas is a better option. What do you expect from a government controlled by the ultra-wealthy? After the New Deal, the government controlled capital. Now, since the Reagan Revolution in the 1980s, capital controls the government (again, like it did in the 1920s).
... where most of the money goes tells us clearly what kind of a country we are, and who is really in charge of things... we are a war-economy-country... war is good, it keeps us strong, so our 'leaders' keep telling us ... we need LOTS of new-different-better-leaders
And i’m curious: How many folks here at BV know of or remember an extended crisis in 1983 that brought America and Russia to the brink of nuclear war a couple of times? Mr Hoh refers to that and, given that i don’t remember or know of a near nuclear war back then, i did some Google Hunting and Gathering and found this: “The Near Nuclear War of 1983” at https://www.airandspaceforces.com/article/the-near-nuclear-war-of-1983/ .
Senior U.S. Diplomats, Journalists, Academics and Secretaries of Defense Say: The U.S. Provoked Russia in Ukraine
Read in detail what these diplomats, secretaries of Defense, journalists, academics, and politicians have to say:
Former U.S. Ambassador to the USSR Jack Matlock says in Ukraine: Tragedy of a Nation Divided:
“Interference by the United States and its NATO allies in Ukraine’s civil struggle has exacerbated the crisis within Ukraine, undermined the possibility of bringing the two easternmost provinces back under Kyiv’s control, and raised the specter of possible conflict between nuclear-armed powers. Furthermore, in denying that Russia has a “right” to oppose extension of a hostile military alliance to its national borders, the United States ignores its own history of declaring and enforcing for two centuries a sphere of influence in the Western hemisphere.”
Diplomat and historian George Kennan, quoted in Thomas Friedman’s This Is Putin’s War. But America and NATO Aren’t Innocent Bystanders, discussing NATO expansion:
“I think it is the beginning of a new cold war. I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies. I think it is a tragic mistake. There was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anybody else. This expansion would make the founding fathers of this country turn over in their graves.”
William J. Perry, Secretary of Defense under President Bill Clinton, wrote How the US Lost Russia – and How We Can Restore Relations in Sept. of 2022:
“Many have pointed to the expansion of NATO in the mid-1990s as a critical provocation. At the time, I opposed that expansion, in part for fear of the effect on Russian-U.S. relations….Still, the first step in finding a solution [to the war in Ukraine] is acknowledging the problem and recognizing that our actions have contributed to that hostility.”
Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush, in We Always Knew the Dangers of NATO Expansion:
“[T]rying to bring Georgia and Ukraine into NATO was truly overreaching, … recklessly ignoring what the Russians considered their own vital national interests.”
Ambassador Michael Gfoeller and David H. Rundell: in Newsweek‘s Lessons From the US Civil War Show Why Ukraine Can’t Win:
“Before the war, far right Ukrainian nationalist groups like the Azov Brigade were soundly condemned by the US Congress. Kiev’s determined campaign against the Russian language is analogous to the Canadian government trying to ban French in Quebec. Ukrainian shells have killed hundreds of civilians in the Donbas and there are emerging reports of Ukrainian war crimes. The truly moral course of action would be to end this war with negotiations rather than prolong the suffering of the Ukrainian people in a conflict they are unlikely to win without risking American lives.”
Christopher Caldwell: in the New York Times‘ The War in Ukraine May Be Impossible to Stop. And the US Deserves Much of the Blame:
“In 2014 the United States backed an uprising – in its final stages a violent uprising – against the legitimately elected Ukrainian government of Viktor Yanukovych, which was pro-Russian.”
Chas W. Freeman, former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and a Lifetime Director of the Atlantic Council, says in The Many Lessons of the War in Ukraine:
“Less than a day after the US-engineered coup that installed an anti-Russian regime in Kyiv in 2014, Washington formally recognized the new regime… The United States and NATO began a multi-billion-dollar effort to reorganize, retrain, and re-equip Kyiv’s armed forces. The avowed purpose was to enable Kyiv to reconquer the Donbas and eventually Crimea…. Crimea was Russian-speaking and had several times voted not to be part of Ukraine.” And: “From 2014 to 2022, the civil war in Donbas took nearly 15,000 lives.” Freeman says that the U.S. undermined several possible peace deals. “Ukraine is being eviscerated on the altar of Russophobia” but Russia has not, after all, been weakened............
It think it wise to view the State Department as the Board of Directors for national security. That security really extends to the entire globe when you consider that many of our adventures overseas are mainly to ensure uninterrupted global trade. That can mean supporting rebels so they are pre-occupied with national squabbles, ensuring the safety to expand US commerce in a developing nation, or interrupting trade among countries competing with the US or just proving to be annoying - like Russia. While that costs a lot to do, the payback for the US generally is usually $ignificant as heck. Thus, despite the Trillion-dollar expense, we are getting that back with interest as our global trade expands. Ca-ching.
The US could cut the DOD budget in half, but the impact would be noticed immediately in US GDP.
Thinking of DOD using Eisenhower's MIC stereotype makes national defense seem like an evil money-making scam. However, much of what the MIC manufactures is sold to foreign countries. Ca-ching!
Ukraine is one example. They are a huge grain exporter to developing nations, and, Russia's take over of Crimea has meant that they own the Black Sea which affects several large EU nations - esp. Romania and Bulgaria - and Greece to some extent. Turkey benefits too as it applies for EU membership. Of course with Erdogan in charge EU membership will be slow because he is a crook. Nevertheless NATO would prefer to have Turkey as a pal, so Erdogan flirts with Putin regularly for EU leverage. Once trade opens up in the Black Sea Russia-free - increased trade will trickle back into US coffers. Ca-ching.
Having survived 2 combat tours in Vietnam, I am not a fan of war, guns, or the military. My point is merely to point out that tarring the MIC has consequences for US economic dominance as well as national security. It is not so much that the Pentagon ate our government as it is that our country thrives by eating the MIC. I think we could save a lot of tax dollars by being more rational about weapons systems, budget management, etc. We piss away a lot of money on useless high tech like electronic auto pilots for Navy ships, aircraft like the F-35 - an elephant designed by committee, surface ships with more tech than their mission requires, etc. I argued for 3 decades that cheap little drones were an emerging threat. The US is just now realizing that thanks to the Ukraine war. Stuff like that is probably the best place to start reforming the MIC.
I think this report from Global Research is credible no matter what the US/NATO says about how bad Putin is for Russia. He outsmarts the US/NATO at every turn. And he is a devoted Orthodox Christian.
'Why So Many Voted for Vladimir Putin – Remarkable Growth, Wage Rises and Social Provision'
It is too early to judge the obscene Crocus City massacre as evidence has still to be collected from the captured perpetrators, their enablers and captured phones but it does not look like a typical Islamic State operation. Freenations will cover it soon.
In the Russian elections Vladimir Putin got 87% of the vote on a 77.44% turnout (UK general elections since 2001 have averaged 64%).
The main opposition in Russia to Putin are the communists, who got 4.31% of the vote – about the same level achieved in opinion polls by the late western sponsored Navalny. Although electorally weak the Communists are organisationally strong with an inherited cross national party infrastructure.
Putin is a Christian (whose late mother was devoted to the Church) and has the fervent support of Russian Orthodoxy. He has on many occasions made his opposition to communism clear and said it would be “brainless” to recreate the old Soviet Union. On the centenary of Solzhenitsyn’s birth Putin unveiled a statue to him and on 30th October 2017 he attended the unveiling of the ‘Wall of Grief’, a monument erected in Moscow to the victims of communist repression. The results of the Russian Presidential election were:
Turnout: 77.44%
Vladimir Putin, Independent 87.28%
Nikolay Kharitonov, Communist Party of Russian Federation 4.31%
Vladislav Davankov, New People 3.85%
Leonid Slutsky, Liberal Democratic Party of Russia 3.20%
The 87% support for Putin was fully in line with the polling of the Levada Center – a Russian independent, polling organization founded in 1987 which was labelled a foreign agent under the 2012 Russian Foreign Agent law but managed to survive without being seen as a tool of government.
Vladimir Putin Blames West for Starting War in Ukraine
Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000 after the most disastrous years under Boris Yeltsin when economic collapse, social degradation and political powerlessness (with western officials virtually dictating policies and western corporations moving in) dominated Russia.
The turnaround since the 1990s has been extraordinary, not least considering the 15,000 sanctions imposed on Russia by NATO and the EU and the costs of fighting a war in Ukraine. Today the Russian economy is growing at a rate half as much again as the USA and about 20 times the rate of the EU.
The cost of living for the average Russian is far lower than in the West. For example a German analyst worked out the wage to costs ratio for a typical restaurant worker: In Russia he would earn post tax 783 Euros a month and in that restaurant a full meal would cost 3.5 Euros. His salary would therefore cover 223 meals. In Germany where the post tax salary would be 1,340 Euros and a full meal would cost 8.5 Euros the worker could buy only 157 meals – 30% worse than the Russian. The income tax for this worker would be 13% in Russia and 25% in Germany!........................................................................
The Future Of Freedom Foundation’s Jacob Hornberger has just posted an article entitled “A Great Book on the U.S. Empire”:
An overview and endorsement USA: THE RUTHLESS EMPIRE by Daniele Ganser, a Swiss historian and founder and director of the Swiss Institute for Peace and Energy Research in Basel, Switzerland.
Excerpt:
“I cannot recommend this book too highly. It is an absolutely fantastic analysis of the U.S. killing machine that the U.S. government has become, especially after the federal government was converted to a national-security state consisting of the Pentagon, the vast military-industrial complex, an empire of domestic and foreign military bases, the CIA, and the NSA after World War II.
“Ganser pulls no punches. HE CORRECTLY POINTS OUT THAT THE U.S. GOVERNMENT IS THE GREATEST THREAT TO WORLD PEACE. YES, GREATER THAN RUSSIA, CHINA, IRAN, NORTH KOREA, AND OTHER NATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN CONVERTED INTO OFFICIAL ENEMIES, ADVERSARIES, OPPONENTS, OR RIVALS OF THE U.S. EMPIRE. He’s not alone. He observes that 24 percent of worldwide respondents to a survey stated the same thing.
“He reminds us of President Eisenhower’s famous warning in his Farewell Address of the extreme danger that the military-industrial complex poses to the American people. He also reminds us that that the U.S. government leads the world in military spending. He writes about the adverse consequences of U.S. military bases in foreign countries. He also writes about the CIA’s regime-change operations, such as the ones in Iran, Guatemala, Cuba, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, and Chile. He details the U.S.-sponsored kidnapping and murder of Gen. Rene Schneider, the innocent commander of Chile’s armed forces. He points out that since 1945, the United States has bombed more countries than any other nation.
“Ganser also has a chapter on the national-security’s state’s assassination of President Kennedy, something that the U.S. mainstream press and mainstream historians have long been loathe to acknowledge. He correctly points out, ‘Important files on the assassination of President Kennedy are still under lock and key today, which prevents a full investigation into this unscrupulous crime.’”
re What CHARLES KNIGHT noted earlier about the “cold war with China” turning hot, and the impact that will have on National Defense/Security budgets… :
Anybody who thinks that war with China sometime this year is not in the advanced planning stage needs to read and reflect upon this piece today from Reuters, US EYES CHANGE TO MILITARY COMMAND IN JAPAN AS CHINA THREAT LOOMS, SOURCES SAY:
TOKYO/WASHINGTON, March 25 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will agree next month to tighter military cooperation, including talks on the biggest potential change to Washington's East Asia command structure in decades, two sources said.
Washington will consider appointing a four-star commander to oversee its forces in Japan as a counterpart to the head of a proposed Japanese Self Defense Forces (SDF) headquarters overseeing all of the country's military operations, said the sources, who have direct knowledge of the plan.
"We are in discussion about how our planned joint command can strengthen cooperation with the U.S. and South Korea," Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Monday at a regular media briefing when asked about the reports… .
The Bottom Line, Bullet-Hits-The-Bone fact of the matter is that American Voters have never voted a “War-Time President” out of office. As it stands rights now, Biden will be able to run as a Two-War War-Time President with Ukraine and Palestine to his credit. And a War with China would make him a Three-War War-Timer.
I read a person who looks at US GDP report each quarter and notes that pentagon is often over 55% of federal consumption/expenditures in most quarters.
That said irrespective of the waste and incompetence of the pentagon, every dollar they consume is better not spent or spent elsewhere.
As an aside the outlays for military pensions were removed from the pentagon's budget a couple of decades ago. The 'trust fund' for military retirement is about $1.2 trillion (Sep 2023 report of the audit of the federal debt), all those special treasuries created by congress with no cash! The OPM retirement trust is about a trillion dollars again mostly congress printed bonds, half of OPM retirees are from DoD.
"Somebody exploded an H-Bomb Today but it wasn't anybody I knew. On the way Home I posted a Letter-- been quite a nice day" Ray Thomas, Moody Blues, Album: "On the Threshhold of a Dream" Released 1969- Song, Dear Diary
Another perspective on the looming WAR WITH CHINA… :
THE BUOYANCY OF PSYCHOPATHS AND THE GENESIS OF THE GREAT ASIAN WAR
by Fred Reed / Information Clearing House 25 Mar 24
ON THE EVE OF THE GREAT ASIAN WAR AGAINST CHINA, IN A ROUSING SPEECH BIDEN ASSURED THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THAT THE WAR WAS NECESSARY BECAUSE CHINA WAS THE MOST DANGEROUS COUNTRY IN LATIN AMERICA AND DIDN’T HAVE AMERICAN VALUES. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL POINTED OUT THAT THE US HAD THE MOST ADVANCED, LETHAL, BEST TRAINED, HYPERGALACTIC AND INDOMITABLE MILITARY THE WORLD HAD EVER SEEN AND THE FACT THAT IT COULD NOT DEFEAT ANNOYED GOAT HERDERS WITH RIFLES HAD NO BEARING ON THE MATTER SINCE THE CHINESE DIDN’T HAVE GOATS. [EMPHASIS added.]
Washington was astonished when the Russian fleet showed up in support of China. It hadn’t thought of this. Nor had it occurred to anyone in the Federal Bubble that if America fired on a Russian ship, America would be in a war with Russia. Not a proxy war. Not a regional war. Not a limited war. A war. Everywhere.
This didn’t worry anyone because Washington knew that America had the best trained, best armed, most advanced and hyper-galactic military in the universe. All recent military history supported this understanding, unless you read it, which nobody did. Further, the New York Times demonstrated that the Russians, then occupying Kiev, were badly trained, poorly equipped, suffered from poor morale, and wanted to overthrow their government and divide Russia into five countries under Washington’s control. The Times was famously independent of government, so no further investigation was thought necessary.
Washington had also forgotten Iran. Unfortunately for those in the Potomac Bubbylon, the Iranians, no fools, knew that Washington lacked the manpower, training, munitions, public support, and industrial base, to fight two major wars at once, and probably even one. The mullahs of course had huge stockpiles of missiles and an army not rotted by lgbt, affirmative action, lack of readiness, and impossibly inadequate logistics. So when the IRGC, Syria, Iraq, and all the militias that wanted the US out of the middle east attacked American bases in the region, Washington was sore amazed.
Congress as it turned out had forgotten that Russia had a large, combat hardened, experienced, well-trained and well-supplied army in, who would have thought it, Europe, along with a functioning military industrial base, massive artillery and air support. This Russia was also aware of the inadequacies of the American hypergalactic indomitable social-engineering aquarium that the military had become. Russia also had actual combat experience with hypersonics which America didn’t have, either the missiles or the experience, and Europe didn’t have tanks or ammunition because it had sent them all to the Ukraine where the Russians had blown them up.
Another revelation was that China wasn’t a backward sort of enlarged Guatemala where people manufactured pencils and maybe washing machines under European supervision. Nobody had thought of this. Part of the reason was that the House committee on China had no member who read, wrote, or spoke Chinese but this was not thought important, or thought of, because America was a democracy and thinking had nothing to do with it. It seemed China had a great many engineers of high quality who had spent decades readying China specifically to defeat America in China’s home waters. Simple arithmetic, apparently beyond Congress, none of whose members could calculate a binomial square, suggested that China could build, say, a thousand advanced satellite guided, maneuvering hypersonic antiship missiles, while Washington had at most ten aircraft carriers. A hundred swarm-launched missiles per carrier weren’t important, though. Why not wasn’t clear.
The Navy responded, saying that it was hypergalactic and would defend itself with high-powered lasers that it didn’t have but might get sometime in a few decades, but Lockheed-Martin needed more money to fund this existential etc.
A few in Washington were unsettled when North Korea, seeing a chance to unify the peninsula while Washington was occupied with several major wars, none of which it could win, launched a massive attack southward. Washington didn’t care if a couple of millions of Koreans died, but the South was home to advanced semiconductor fabs, Samsung and SK Hynix. To thwart this threat Washington had to send troops it didn’t have and who in any event weren’t combat-ready by means of logistics that didn’t exist. And of course the North could nuke Seoul and the 28,000 American troops if what’s-his-lunacy had a brain spasm, and could probably nuke Japan.
If treason is defined as ".... giving Aid and Comfort" to the enemy and Russia is our sworn enemy wasn't it an act of treason warning them of an impending terrorist attack? Our tax dollars are being used to protect our enemies? Where is my thinking wrong here? Help!
I think it would be more accurate to say that "The Military-Industrial Complex Ate Our Government." As you explain, this rip-off goes well beyond the Pentagon. We are forever indebted to Eisenhower for warning us of the danger of the MIC almost 70 years ago, even if no one in a position of power in DC has bothered to heed the warning ever since. On the contrary, the military-industrial complex of today makes the one that existed back in the 1950s during Eisenhower's time look rather harmless in comparison. It is now an all-consuming, multi-headed behemoth that is sucking the lifeblood out of this country.
I take the top figure on that graph as a given, Bill, and don't expect any change absent a complete upending of how things are done in this country (with repeal of Citizens United as a foundational step). The figure simply becomes more egregious every budget cycle.
But to me, what really tells the tale are the bottom three numbers on the graph. In other words, dumbing-down across the board; lack of funding for scientific research; lack of support for the DoJ; paring down of IRS resources; lack of funding for labor, housing, healthcare, and other services; and so on. That is, what we're seeing is a two-pronged attack on the country's wherewithal. Dumping billions into the MIC while depriving ordinary citizens of basic needs and services. The inequality is breath-taking. And of course, the GOP is hoping to gut Social Security and Medicaid in the meantime. Couple that with the ongoing (under several Presidents) giving away of Medicare to private insurers, and we little guys will be lucky to get crumbs by the time another decade---or less---has passed.
The Blob ate everything, and it is still hungry. Instead of fixing things and improving life for Americans, The Blob has instead decided that using our tax dollars to kill and destroy overseas is a better option. What do you expect from a government controlled by the ultra-wealthy? After the New Deal, the government controlled capital. Now, since the Reagan Revolution in the 1980s, capital controls the government (again, like it did in the 1920s).
... where most of the money goes tells us clearly what kind of a country we are, and who is really in charge of things... we are a war-economy-country... war is good, it keeps us strong, so our 'leaders' keep telling us ... we need LOTS of new-different-better-leaders
Matthew Hoh addressed the United Nations Security Council last Friday on nuclear weapons, Ukraine and Gaza. A video of his statement and a transcript are available at https://matthewhoh.substack.com/p/an-escalatory-game-for-fools-and .
And i’m curious: How many folks here at BV know of or remember an extended crisis in 1983 that brought America and Russia to the brink of nuclear war a couple of times? Mr Hoh refers to that and, given that i don’t remember or know of a near nuclear war back then, i did some Google Hunting and Gathering and found this: “The Near Nuclear War of 1983” at https://www.airandspaceforces.com/article/the-near-nuclear-war-of-1983/ .
Senior U.S. Diplomats, Journalists, Academics and Secretaries of Defense Say: The U.S. Provoked Russia in Ukraine
Read in detail what these diplomats, secretaries of Defense, journalists, academics, and politicians have to say:
Former U.S. Ambassador to the USSR Jack Matlock says in Ukraine: Tragedy of a Nation Divided:
“Interference by the United States and its NATO allies in Ukraine’s civil struggle has exacerbated the crisis within Ukraine, undermined the possibility of bringing the two easternmost provinces back under Kyiv’s control, and raised the specter of possible conflict between nuclear-armed powers. Furthermore, in denying that Russia has a “right” to oppose extension of a hostile military alliance to its national borders, the United States ignores its own history of declaring and enforcing for two centuries a sphere of influence in the Western hemisphere.”
Diplomat and historian George Kennan, quoted in Thomas Friedman’s This Is Putin’s War. But America and NATO Aren’t Innocent Bystanders, discussing NATO expansion:
“I think it is the beginning of a new cold war. I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies. I think it is a tragic mistake. There was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anybody else. This expansion would make the founding fathers of this country turn over in their graves.”
William J. Perry, Secretary of Defense under President Bill Clinton, wrote How the US Lost Russia – and How We Can Restore Relations in Sept. of 2022:
“Many have pointed to the expansion of NATO in the mid-1990s as a critical provocation. At the time, I opposed that expansion, in part for fear of the effect on Russian-U.S. relations….Still, the first step in finding a solution [to the war in Ukraine] is acknowledging the problem and recognizing that our actions have contributed to that hostility.”
Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush, in We Always Knew the Dangers of NATO Expansion:
“[T]rying to bring Georgia and Ukraine into NATO was truly overreaching, … recklessly ignoring what the Russians considered their own vital national interests.”
Ambassador Michael Gfoeller and David H. Rundell: in Newsweek‘s Lessons From the US Civil War Show Why Ukraine Can’t Win:
“Before the war, far right Ukrainian nationalist groups like the Azov Brigade were soundly condemned by the US Congress. Kiev’s determined campaign against the Russian language is analogous to the Canadian government trying to ban French in Quebec. Ukrainian shells have killed hundreds of civilians in the Donbas and there are emerging reports of Ukrainian war crimes. The truly moral course of action would be to end this war with negotiations rather than prolong the suffering of the Ukrainian people in a conflict they are unlikely to win without risking American lives.”
Christopher Caldwell: in the New York Times‘ The War in Ukraine May Be Impossible to Stop. And the US Deserves Much of the Blame:
“In 2014 the United States backed an uprising – in its final stages a violent uprising – against the legitimately elected Ukrainian government of Viktor Yanukovych, which was pro-Russian.”
Chas W. Freeman, former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and a Lifetime Director of the Atlantic Council, says in The Many Lessons of the War in Ukraine:
“Less than a day after the US-engineered coup that installed an anti-Russian regime in Kyiv in 2014, Washington formally recognized the new regime… The United States and NATO began a multi-billion-dollar effort to reorganize, retrain, and re-equip Kyiv’s armed forces. The avowed purpose was to enable Kyiv to reconquer the Donbas and eventually Crimea…. Crimea was Russian-speaking and had several times voted not to be part of Ukraine.” And: “From 2014 to 2022, the civil war in Donbas took nearly 15,000 lives.” Freeman says that the U.S. undermined several possible peace deals. “Ukraine is being eviscerated on the altar of Russophobia” but Russia has not, after all, been weakened............
https://www.globalresearch.ca/senior-us-diplomats-journalists-academics-secretaries-defense-say-us-provoked-russia-ukraine/5852995
It think it wise to view the State Department as the Board of Directors for national security. That security really extends to the entire globe when you consider that many of our adventures overseas are mainly to ensure uninterrupted global trade. That can mean supporting rebels so they are pre-occupied with national squabbles, ensuring the safety to expand US commerce in a developing nation, or interrupting trade among countries competing with the US or just proving to be annoying - like Russia. While that costs a lot to do, the payback for the US generally is usually $ignificant as heck. Thus, despite the Trillion-dollar expense, we are getting that back with interest as our global trade expands. Ca-ching.
The US could cut the DOD budget in half, but the impact would be noticed immediately in US GDP.
Thinking of DOD using Eisenhower's MIC stereotype makes national defense seem like an evil money-making scam. However, much of what the MIC manufactures is sold to foreign countries. Ca-ching!
Ukraine is one example. They are a huge grain exporter to developing nations, and, Russia's take over of Crimea has meant that they own the Black Sea which affects several large EU nations - esp. Romania and Bulgaria - and Greece to some extent. Turkey benefits too as it applies for EU membership. Of course with Erdogan in charge EU membership will be slow because he is a crook. Nevertheless NATO would prefer to have Turkey as a pal, so Erdogan flirts with Putin regularly for EU leverage. Once trade opens up in the Black Sea Russia-free - increased trade will trickle back into US coffers. Ca-ching.
Having survived 2 combat tours in Vietnam, I am not a fan of war, guns, or the military. My point is merely to point out that tarring the MIC has consequences for US economic dominance as well as national security. It is not so much that the Pentagon ate our government as it is that our country thrives by eating the MIC. I think we could save a lot of tax dollars by being more rational about weapons systems, budget management, etc. We piss away a lot of money on useless high tech like electronic auto pilots for Navy ships, aircraft like the F-35 - an elephant designed by committee, surface ships with more tech than their mission requires, etc. I argued for 3 decades that cheap little drones were an emerging threat. The US is just now realizing that thanks to the Ukraine war. Stuff like that is probably the best place to start reforming the MIC.
I saw the other day that the Marine Corps has passed an audit, the first of the services to do so. A tiny ray of light for your Monday. : )
I think this report from Global Research is credible no matter what the US/NATO says about how bad Putin is for Russia. He outsmarts the US/NATO at every turn. And he is a devoted Orthodox Christian.
'Why So Many Voted for Vladimir Putin – Remarkable Growth, Wage Rises and Social Provision'
It is too early to judge the obscene Crocus City massacre as evidence has still to be collected from the captured perpetrators, their enablers and captured phones but it does not look like a typical Islamic State operation. Freenations will cover it soon.
In the Russian elections Vladimir Putin got 87% of the vote on a 77.44% turnout (UK general elections since 2001 have averaged 64%).
The main opposition in Russia to Putin are the communists, who got 4.31% of the vote – about the same level achieved in opinion polls by the late western sponsored Navalny. Although electorally weak the Communists are organisationally strong with an inherited cross national party infrastructure.
Putin is a Christian (whose late mother was devoted to the Church) and has the fervent support of Russian Orthodoxy. He has on many occasions made his opposition to communism clear and said it would be “brainless” to recreate the old Soviet Union. On the centenary of Solzhenitsyn’s birth Putin unveiled a statue to him and on 30th October 2017 he attended the unveiling of the ‘Wall of Grief’, a monument erected in Moscow to the victims of communist repression. The results of the Russian Presidential election were:
Turnout: 77.44%
Vladimir Putin, Independent 87.28%
Nikolay Kharitonov, Communist Party of Russian Federation 4.31%
Vladislav Davankov, New People 3.85%
Leonid Slutsky, Liberal Democratic Party of Russia 3.20%
The 87% support for Putin was fully in line with the polling of the Levada Center – a Russian independent, polling organization founded in 1987 which was labelled a foreign agent under the 2012 Russian Foreign Agent law but managed to survive without being seen as a tool of government.
Vladimir Putin Blames West for Starting War in Ukraine
Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000 after the most disastrous years under Boris Yeltsin when economic collapse, social degradation and political powerlessness (with western officials virtually dictating policies and western corporations moving in) dominated Russia.
The turnaround since the 1990s has been extraordinary, not least considering the 15,000 sanctions imposed on Russia by NATO and the EU and the costs of fighting a war in Ukraine. Today the Russian economy is growing at a rate half as much again as the USA and about 20 times the rate of the EU.
The cost of living for the average Russian is far lower than in the West. For example a German analyst worked out the wage to costs ratio for a typical restaurant worker: In Russia he would earn post tax 783 Euros a month and in that restaurant a full meal would cost 3.5 Euros. His salary would therefore cover 223 meals. In Germany where the post tax salary would be 1,340 Euros and a full meal would cost 8.5 Euros the worker could buy only 157 meals – 30% worse than the Russian. The income tax for this worker would be 13% in Russia and 25% in Germany!........................................................................
https://www.globalresearch.ca/why-so-many-voted-vladimir-putin-remarkable-growth-wage-rises-social-provision/5852962
The Future Of Freedom Foundation’s Jacob Hornberger has just posted an article entitled “A Great Book on the U.S. Empire”:
An overview and endorsement USA: THE RUTHLESS EMPIRE by Daniele Ganser, a Swiss historian and founder and director of the Swiss Institute for Peace and Energy Research in Basel, Switzerland.
Excerpt:
“I cannot recommend this book too highly. It is an absolutely fantastic analysis of the U.S. killing machine that the U.S. government has become, especially after the federal government was converted to a national-security state consisting of the Pentagon, the vast military-industrial complex, an empire of domestic and foreign military bases, the CIA, and the NSA after World War II.
“Ganser pulls no punches. HE CORRECTLY POINTS OUT THAT THE U.S. GOVERNMENT IS THE GREATEST THREAT TO WORLD PEACE. YES, GREATER THAN RUSSIA, CHINA, IRAN, NORTH KOREA, AND OTHER NATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN CONVERTED INTO OFFICIAL ENEMIES, ADVERSARIES, OPPONENTS, OR RIVALS OF THE U.S. EMPIRE. He’s not alone. He observes that 24 percent of worldwide respondents to a survey stated the same thing.
“He reminds us of President Eisenhower’s famous warning in his Farewell Address of the extreme danger that the military-industrial complex poses to the American people. He also reminds us that that the U.S. government leads the world in military spending. He writes about the adverse consequences of U.S. military bases in foreign countries. He also writes about the CIA’s regime-change operations, such as the ones in Iran, Guatemala, Cuba, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, and Chile. He details the U.S.-sponsored kidnapping and murder of Gen. Rene Schneider, the innocent commander of Chile’s armed forces. He points out that since 1945, the United States has bombed more countries than any other nation.
“Ganser also has a chapter on the national-security’s state’s assassination of President Kennedy, something that the U.S. mainstream press and mainstream historians have long been loathe to acknowledge. He correctly points out, ‘Important files on the assassination of President Kennedy are still under lock and key today, which prevents a full investigation into this unscrupulous crime.’”
Source: https://www.fff.org/2024/03/25/a-great-book-on-the-u-s-empire/ ; EMPHASIS added.
re What CHARLES KNIGHT noted earlier about the “cold war with China” turning hot, and the impact that will have on National Defense/Security budgets… :
Anybody who thinks that war with China sometime this year is not in the advanced planning stage needs to read and reflect upon this piece today from Reuters, US EYES CHANGE TO MILITARY COMMAND IN JAPAN AS CHINA THREAT LOOMS, SOURCES SAY:
TOKYO/WASHINGTON, March 25 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will agree next month to tighter military cooperation, including talks on the biggest potential change to Washington's East Asia command structure in decades, two sources said.
Washington will consider appointing a four-star commander to oversee its forces in Japan as a counterpart to the head of a proposed Japanese Self Defense Forces (SDF) headquarters overseeing all of the country's military operations, said the sources, who have direct knowledge of the plan.
"We are in discussion about how our planned joint command can strengthen cooperation with the U.S. and South Korea," Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Monday at a regular media briefing when asked about the reports… .
Full article: https://www.reuters.com/world/us-japan-plan-biggest-upgrade-security-pact-more-than-60-years-ft-reports-2024-03-24/ .
The Bottom Line, Bullet-Hits-The-Bone fact of the matter is that American Voters have never voted a “War-Time President” out of office. As it stands rights now, Biden will be able to run as a Two-War War-Time President with Ukraine and Palestine to his credit. And a War with China would make him a Three-War War-Timer.
I read a person who looks at US GDP report each quarter and notes that pentagon is often over 55% of federal consumption/expenditures in most quarters.
That said irrespective of the waste and incompetence of the pentagon, every dollar they consume is better not spent or spent elsewhere.
As an aside the outlays for military pensions were removed from the pentagon's budget a couple of decades ago. The 'trust fund' for military retirement is about $1.2 trillion (Sep 2023 report of the audit of the federal debt), all those special treasuries created by congress with no cash! The OPM retirement trust is about a trillion dollars again mostly congress printed bonds, half of OPM retirees are from DoD.
If let the construct of “cold war” with China 🇨🇳 develop further the Pentagon will soon have 75% of the discretionary budget.
"Somebody exploded an H-Bomb Today but it wasn't anybody I knew. On the way Home I posted a Letter-- been quite a nice day" Ray Thomas, Moody Blues, Album: "On the Threshhold of a Dream" Released 1969- Song, Dear Diary
Another perspective on the looming WAR WITH CHINA… :
THE BUOYANCY OF PSYCHOPATHS AND THE GENESIS OF THE GREAT ASIAN WAR
by Fred Reed / Information Clearing House 25 Mar 24
ON THE EVE OF THE GREAT ASIAN WAR AGAINST CHINA, IN A ROUSING SPEECH BIDEN ASSURED THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THAT THE WAR WAS NECESSARY BECAUSE CHINA WAS THE MOST DANGEROUS COUNTRY IN LATIN AMERICA AND DIDN’T HAVE AMERICAN VALUES. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL POINTED OUT THAT THE US HAD THE MOST ADVANCED, LETHAL, BEST TRAINED, HYPERGALACTIC AND INDOMITABLE MILITARY THE WORLD HAD EVER SEEN AND THE FACT THAT IT COULD NOT DEFEAT ANNOYED GOAT HERDERS WITH RIFLES HAD NO BEARING ON THE MATTER SINCE THE CHINESE DIDN’T HAVE GOATS. [EMPHASIS added.]
Washington was astonished when the Russian fleet showed up in support of China. It hadn’t thought of this. Nor had it occurred to anyone in the Federal Bubble that if America fired on a Russian ship, America would be in a war with Russia. Not a proxy war. Not a regional war. Not a limited war. A war. Everywhere.
This didn’t worry anyone because Washington knew that America had the best trained, best armed, most advanced and hyper-galactic military in the universe. All recent military history supported this understanding, unless you read it, which nobody did. Further, the New York Times demonstrated that the Russians, then occupying Kiev, were badly trained, poorly equipped, suffered from poor morale, and wanted to overthrow their government and divide Russia into five countries under Washington’s control. The Times was famously independent of government, so no further investigation was thought necessary.
Washington had also forgotten Iran. Unfortunately for those in the Potomac Bubbylon, the Iranians, no fools, knew that Washington lacked the manpower, training, munitions, public support, and industrial base, to fight two major wars at once, and probably even one. The mullahs of course had huge stockpiles of missiles and an army not rotted by lgbt, affirmative action, lack of readiness, and impossibly inadequate logistics. So when the IRGC, Syria, Iraq, and all the militias that wanted the US out of the middle east attacked American bases in the region, Washington was sore amazed.
Congress as it turned out had forgotten that Russia had a large, combat hardened, experienced, well-trained and well-supplied army in, who would have thought it, Europe, along with a functioning military industrial base, massive artillery and air support. This Russia was also aware of the inadequacies of the American hypergalactic indomitable social-engineering aquarium that the military had become. Russia also had actual combat experience with hypersonics which America didn’t have, either the missiles or the experience, and Europe didn’t have tanks or ammunition because it had sent them all to the Ukraine where the Russians had blown them up.
Another revelation was that China wasn’t a backward sort of enlarged Guatemala where people manufactured pencils and maybe washing machines under European supervision. Nobody had thought of this. Part of the reason was that the House committee on China had no member who read, wrote, or spoke Chinese but this was not thought important, or thought of, because America was a democracy and thinking had nothing to do with it. It seemed China had a great many engineers of high quality who had spent decades readying China specifically to defeat America in China’s home waters. Simple arithmetic, apparently beyond Congress, none of whose members could calculate a binomial square, suggested that China could build, say, a thousand advanced satellite guided, maneuvering hypersonic antiship missiles, while Washington had at most ten aircraft carriers. A hundred swarm-launched missiles per carrier weren’t important, though. Why not wasn’t clear.
The Navy responded, saying that it was hypergalactic and would defend itself with high-powered lasers that it didn’t have but might get sometime in a few decades, but Lockheed-Martin needed more money to fund this existential etc.
A few in Washington were unsettled when North Korea, seeing a chance to unify the peninsula while Washington was occupied with several major wars, none of which it could win, launched a massive attack southward. Washington didn’t care if a couple of millions of Koreans died, but the South was home to advanced semiconductor fabs, Samsung and SK Hynix. To thwart this threat Washington had to send troops it didn’t have and who in any event weren’t combat-ready by means of logistics that didn’t exist. And of course the North could nuke Seoul and the 28,000 American troops if what’s-his-lunacy had a brain spasm, and could probably nuke Japan.
If treason is defined as ".... giving Aid and Comfort" to the enemy and Russia is our sworn enemy wasn't it an act of treason warning them of an impending terrorist attack? Our tax dollars are being used to protect our enemies? Where is my thinking wrong here? Help!