Tag: Military Industrial Complex

Is Obama Warning Us About Perpetual War?

President Obama spoke before the UN General Assembly on Tuesday and spoke of trying to shift America away from what he called our “perpetual war footing.” Are these echoes of President Eisenhower’s warning about the military industrial complex? Our guest is Andrew Bacevich author of “Breach of Truth: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers And Their Country.” This is an excerpt from The David Feldman Show.

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Can America Do Anything Besides Kill?

Eisenhower warned more than fifty years ago about the people who make out bombs

Eisenhower warned more than fifty years ago about the people who make out bombs

George Zimmerman’s Wife filed for divorce alleging that George Zimmerman beat down her self-esteem. If only her self-esteem stood it’s ground.
Speaking of standing your ground, President Obama? How about finally saying NO to the Keystone XL Pipeline? After all, you are opposed to leaders gassing their own people.

I know what you’re thinking. Don’t drag global warming into the debate over Syria. But for the life of me I will never understand why the very same people
who are quick to doubt the evidence on climate change are so quick to trust the evidence that Bashar al Assad gassed his own people.

I also find it hard to believe that the wealthiest most powerful nation in the history of civilization can only solve a problem like Bashar Al Assad by firing missiles at him.

So here’s an idea. Instead of bombs, America should drop Monsanto’s genetically modified soybeans on Damascus. At least we’d be feeding these people as we’re killing them.

But no. We’re supposed to trust Secretary of State John Kerry who says, “Bombs away.” Considering John Kerry lost to George W. Bush in 2004 I hardly think John Kerry should be doling out advice on how to defeat a war criminal.

Most Americans are two paychecks away from living on the street. But let’s bomb Syria to show who’s boss. We can’t afford universal health insurance for American children but let’s bomb Syria to let the world know that Americans will not be pushed around, unless it’s by the five corporations who own America.

Every time my country launches a missile attack I am assured “this time it’s different.” This time they know who the bad guy is, and no innocent children will be killed. And every time these missiles are fired they never hit the bad guy. Never. But every time these missiles are fired they end up killing innocent children.

President Eisenhower was right. Our munitions industry has too much sway in Washington because there’s no money to be made off pacifism. That’s why there’s no Department of Peace. No Senate Subcommittee on Peace. Peace won’t make you rich. Well actually it does. As President Eisenhower pointed out, every dollar spent on bombs is a dollar not spent on the infrastructure that makes our economy hum.

The only ones whispering in President Obama’s ear right now are in the pocket of Boeing, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman. You know them. The people who sponsor Meet The Press. Which is why David Gregory won’t explain the precise difference between an Alawite and a Sunni but will spend an hour talking about whether President Obama looks weak by asking congress if he should go to war.

We, the American people need at the very least consistency. We don’t trust the clowns in Washington because they’re idiots. And that’s fine. But it also follows that we cannot trust these same people with our missiles.

Because our smart bombs are not smart. They only seem smart compared to the generals and politicians who always seem to be champing at the bit to launch them.

So given how cataclysmically imprecise American precision weapons have proven to be in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Pakistan: How many innocent Syrians should America murder in order to punish Bashar Al Assad for murdering innocent Syrians? I’d like a number.

But instead all we talk about are the Syrian children somebody in Syria allegedly gassed.

Picture after picture of dead children.

The corporate controlled American media, which stands to gain from war, won’t show us video of the dead children that America’s predator drones in Pakistan and Afghanistan are responsible for. That’s inappropriate.

The corporate controlled American news media that stands to gain from war will barrage us with video of dead Syrian kids right up until we finally go to war. And then when we start dropping bombs, suddenly showing dead Syrian kids, the ones America killed, is highly inappropriate.

No, once war starts, the corporate controlled media that stands to gain from war gives us wide shots of shock and awe. No close-ups. Just fireworks, which stirs patriotism in the American soul. Because blowing things up makes Americans feel great about their country, yet somehow providing universal health insurance for all our children does not.

I wish America could summon the same compassion for our own children as we do for the children on that video coming out of Syria.

So here’s the bottom line. I live in Los Angeles where the Los Angeles Police Department over the past few decades has morphed into a racist gang of thugs that kills unarmed Latinos and blacks indiscriminately. My fellow Americans, Forget Syria, we need to learn how to police ourselves.

Alas, football starts this weekend. And that takes precedence over everything else. Football is America’s pastime. Probably because, as we’re now discovering, it leaves most if not all of its players completely brain dead.
David Feldman

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Todd Miller

toddmiller

The Military Industrial Complex is now building stuff to be aimed at Americans. We talk with The Nation Institute’s Todd Miller who has researched and written about U.S.-Mexican border issues for more than 10 years. Todd has worked on both sides of the border for BorderLinks in Tucson, Arizona, and Witness for Peace in Oaxaca, Mexico. He now writes on border and immigration issues for NACLA Report on the Americas and its blog “Border Wars,” among other places. He’s completed his first book, Border Patrol Nation, for the Open Media Series of City Lights Books.

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