Guest Post by Paul Craig Roberts
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper is a former Raytheon lobbyist and another example of President Trump’s penchant for frustrating his own policies by appointing to power people who oppose his policies. Why does Trump think he can expect a representative of the military/security complex to help him wind down Washington’s hegemonic policeman of the world routine?
Esper is out making speeches that the military/security complex needs 5% real increase annually in order to counter Russia and China—https://news.antiwar.com/2020/10/16/esper-calls-for-more-military-spending-to-face-china-and-russia/ . It is Washington that is aggressive toward Russia and China, not the other way around. The military/security complex desperately needs foreign enemies in order to maximize its budget and power. Russiagate’s purpose was to prevent Trump from removing a valuable “enemy” by normalizing relations with Russia.
The US defense budget could be cut in half and still be larger than the combined defense budgets of Russia and China. China spends about half as much of its economy on defense as the US. If Russia and China intended aggression against the US, wouldn’t you expect to see much higher spending on military?
You could make a case that US defense spending is so high because of inefficiency and enormous profits hidden in “cost overruns.” If so, then increased real spending should come from strict budetary measures and oversight. We should not be accepting a military spending system that cannot account for trillions of dollars and is so poorly controlled that it cannot be audited. Will patriotic conservatives ever realize that blind support for the Pentagon allows the massive rip-off of taxpayers and the neglect of real needs all for nothing but out-sized profits of arms makers?
The military/security complex makes certain that no moves toward peace can succeed. Its lobbyists have succeeded in undoing all the arms control agreements reached with Russia since the 1960s. Russia’s President Putin has made repeated offers to extend the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty, but Washington has rejected his offer out of hand. The reason is obvious. The corrupt puppet regime of Obama agreed to a trillion dollar increase in nuclear weapons spending, and the military/security complex means to get that money.
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Brought to you by the American Public:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ0hNEw6EPo
I’ve been a squadron Budget Officer and there are good controls at that level; at base level, a little less because Generals are gods; at the Pentagon level, ZOG is god and a money must just disappear. It’s no different than any other WDC agency. Nobody can drain the Swamp so Goy need to get prepared to be bled to death by Hyperinflation.
…rhs-your experience and knowledge would sure be welcomed as you separate fact from fiction in regard to matters of the military…please post more, be our eyes and ears…..
Paul.
You and your buddy Pat need to get out of the Hotel Lobby and retire to the Caribbean.
They aren’t the ones responsible for our problems, they are just one more symptom.
Flea – If they leave the lobby, who will buy them a drink to celebrate their past brilliance?
I can imagine them, still in their old blue blazers with old Nixon, Reagan, and Dole GOP buttons on the lapels.
…sailed to the Caribbean already, way too many witless fleabaggs slumming for a safe anchorage…..
Russia is not a threat to the US. China, on the other hand, has empire aspirations and would not hesitate to initiate some underhanded attack, if they could pin it on someone else. A strategic “terrorist” strike against some infrastructure would bring down our house of cards. It would not be that difficult to put a big hurt on the electrical grid of the major cities. Take out a few of the giant transformer stations and it would be years to get enough replacements for them all.
This is a rhetorical question, right? Trump’s cabinet appointments reflect the actual direction of intended action, as opposed to Trump’s words, which usually say the opposite. Or maybe as some people believe, Jared and Ivanka make all of Trump’s appointments for him.
Blaming institutions rather than individual and collective moral failings has spawned a full time career of writing and blabbering for PCR and other misdirection artists like Ron Paul.
There is nothing inherently wrong with institutions- but there is everything wrong with moral failure.
Yep, since 1945.