Club Conspiracy Forums - PROTECTING THE PLUTOCRATS

PROTECTING THE PLUTOCRATS
by Mike Whitney
www.dissidentvoice.org
May 26, 2005

The United States military is a fully owned subsidiary of the
corporate and financial establishment. It plays no role in defending
the American people. The function of today's military is to seize the
world's dwindling resources through force of arms and provide a
taxpayer funded security apparatus for multinationals and energy
giants. The notion that the $500 billion per year Goliath is designed
to protect the American people is sheer lunacy. Its real purpose is
to win wars of aggression, siphon off the wealth of foreign nations,
and crush the subsequent resistance movements. Anything else is
purely public relations pabulum.

This is utter nonsense. The military is remaking itself to meet the
requirements of its corporate overlords whose directives are
scrupulously carried out by their ambassador, Rumsfeld. This explains
why there has been no serious effort to rebuild either Iraq or
Afghanistan. The corporate leadership stubbornly refuses to give away
goods or services without suitable remuneration. This is an article
of faith among the uber capitalists in the political establishment.
The military is a business, a fact that is shockingly apparent by the
dismal results in Iraq. The recent announcement by the Pentagon that
it plans to close 33 bases and 180 military installations within the
US is much more serious than many Americans realize.

Apart from the withering effect that this will have on small
communities that depend on these bases for their economic survival,
there's an even more significant reason to be concerned. The
announcement indicates that the Pentagon is shifting its resources
from stateside facilities to permanent bases sprinkled throughout
Central Asia, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. This is just more
proof that the administration plans to sacrifice the needs of the
American people to solidify its global hegemony.

In other words, the military is being outsourced to the locations
where it can protect the vital interests of corporate elites. This
spells trouble for the American people who've already seen their army
overextended and hobbled in Iraq. Now they can see first-hand that
national security is only of minor importance to the ruling body.
With bases shutting down and 40% of America's National Guard serving
in Iraq the American people are clearly less safe than they were four
years ago; this at a time when the threat level from Washington's
unprovoked wars is at an all time high. At present, the military is
used exclusively to serve the interests of a small cadre of elites.
No American citizen is served by either the fiasco in Afghanistan or
the debacle in Iraq. In fact, we are all at much greater risk because
of these policies.

The announcement of closures is an interesting counterpoint to this
month's jobs report. American jobs are being outsourced faster than
America's military. As Paul Craig Roberts reports in Counterpunch,
"of the 256,000 (jobs created) in the private sector" fully "211,000
of these were in the service sector." This trend has continued
throughout the Bush years. It shows that the Bush economy is not
producing any of the high-paying, high tech jobs that will sustain
the middle class life that Americans have come to expect. The
downward trajectory is steep and inexorable, held together by the
slender thread of low interest rates and moderately cheap gasoline.

When the time is right, Greenspan will boost interest rates and the
middle class will slip beneath the waves without a whimper. This may
explain why Bush and Co. are pilfering everything they can, including
$450 billion in deficits every year and zillions sluiced off to
friends in no-bid Iraqi contracts. The carpet bagging will
undoubtedly continue until every last dime is drained from the public
till or until the blinking red light goes on, signaling it's time for
the American plutocracy to board the ships for Costa Rica. No one
will be surprised if they take the military with them either. After
all, it's become little more than a resource for safeguarding the
citadels of personal corruption.
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Sincerely,
Deborah Reid
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wisepeople/message/2393
http://www.angelfire.com/stars4/wisdomforcourts
http://www.webspawner.com/users/wisdomforusa
http://www.wisdomstore.us/charity-profile.html

P.S.: Please forward this important message widely.
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