Note: Figures are for 2008 or most recently available. |
U.S. MILITARY IN PERSPECTIVEMany countries go to war, but the United States is unique in both the size and power of its military and its propensity to use it. Since the end of WWII, the U.S. has spent more than $15 trillion to build up its military might. This is more than the cumulative monetary value of all human-made wealth in the United States.
The U.S. alone is responsible for close to half of the world's military spending and spends more than 60 times as much as the combined spending of the so-called "rogue states," Iran and North Korea. Adding up the current Pentagon budget, the nuclear weapons budget of the Energy Department, the military portion of the NASA budget, foreign military "aid" and other military-related expenses, the U.S. spends close to three-quarters of a trillion dollars on its military each year. More than 50% of the U.S. government's annual discretionary spending - the money that the President and Congress have direct control over - goes to the military. By comparison, 7% goes to education and 6% to healthcare. Cutbacks in social programs have caused far more devastation in the U.S. than any foreign army ever has. Foreign InterventionsEvery few years, the U.S. sends soldiers, warships, and warplanes to fight in distant countries. The U.S. government also finances, arms, and directs local "proxy" militias to fight on its behalf to overthrow governments not compliant to "U.S. interests." Since the end of WWII, the U.S. has carried out over 200 military operations in which it has struck the first blow. Foreign military interventions usually serve the interests of global corporate investment, regardless of the human and ecological costs to the region. Rather than being guided by a devotion to moral principles of any kind, they serve to fulfill the following objectives:
In many countries, U.S. troops have remained as an occupying army after invading, enforcing U.S. dictates and putting down local protests and rebellions. The list of those declared to be "enemies" and "terrorists" has included many people fighting for democracy in their country - like Nelson Mandela. Military BasesU.S. control over most of the planet is supported by an integrated network of military bases and installations which covers all the continents, oceans, and outer space. Hundreds of thousands of troops are stationed at strategic locations to be deployed into military action. In addition to 4500 military bases on its own territory, the U.S. has more than 1000 bases in over 130 countries. Of these foreign bases, 761 are acknowledged by the Pentagon and at least 300 more are known to exist, many of them espionage bases. In total, the U.S. has military personnel - combatants and civilians - stationed in over 150 countries worldwide.
September 11, 2001Few people anywhere in the world - including the Middle East - support bin Laden's terrorist methods. But they share his anger at the U.S. for supporting corrupt dictators (including Saddam Hussain during his worst crimes), for supporting Israel at the expense of the Palestinians, and for imposing U.S. dictates on the Middle East through violence and brutal economic sanctions. Until now, the true costs of the wars the U.S. has waged overseas have largely been hidden. U.S. taxpayers had to pay the military bills but the death and destruction was all overseas. That changed on September 11 - for the first time, the violence reached the U.S.
The "war on terrorism" cannot possibly end terrorism. Even if bin Laden is killed, continued U.S. aggression will inspire others to drive the U.S. out of the Middle East, resulting in more terrorist attacks on Americans. "Homeland defense" has become a pretext for eliminating civil rights protections long deemed inconvenient by the FBI and other police agencies. The Pentagon and the CIA now expect to have a freer hand in carrying out wars and violent covert operations around the world. Despite the hypocrisy of Washington's response to the September 11 attacks, it has already produced major benefits for Bush and his friends, not the least of which is practically a blank cheque for the military. Corporate News MediaCorporate-controlled mass media in the U.S. are businesses just like any other - they make a profit by selling a product to a buyer. For news media, the product is an audience and the buyer is another business. In effect, large corporations sell audiences to other large corporations. The product is you, as a viewer of media content and a consumer. To avoid alienating the buyer of their product - other corporations - major news media generally conceal from their viewing audience the corporate interests behind much of U.S. government policy, especially foreign policy. Despite claims that the press has an adversarial relationship with the government, the news media generally follow Washington's official line. The spectrum of debate falls in the relatively narrow range between the Democratic and Republican parties. While Washington policy-makers assert that U.S. overseas interventions are necessary to protect "our interests," the news media seldom ask what "our interests" are, and who is actually served by them. As demonstrated in Iraq, Panama, Nicaragua, and countless other cases, defending U.S. interests usually means imposing neoliberal capitalist ecomonic policies on nations that might strike a course independent of, or unfriendly to, transnational corporate investment. This is never the reason given in the national media. Rather, it is always a matter of "stopping aggression," "protecting national security" or punishing leaders who are said to be dictators, drug dealers, or state terrorists. The major news media expose little about the U.S. role in financing, equipping, training, and directing the repressive military forces in countries around the world. Many of the CIA's "covert operations" - bombings, assassinations, paramilitary massacres - are terrorism by any definition. Yet major news media will never describe such acts as "terrorism" - or describe U.S. foreign policy as "aggressive" - as long as governemnt and military leaders proclaim they have noble intentions. The media in the U.S. will sometimes criticize their government's foreign policy as "ill-defined" or "overextended" but never as lacking in virtuous intent.
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