A Deep Political Sore

Seeking Causes

"Neither drugs nor charms nor burnings will touch a deep-lying political sore any more than a deep bodily one; but only right and utter change of constitution; and they do but lose their labor who think that by any tricks of law they can get the better of those mischiefs of commerce, and see not that they hew a hydra." -Plato
The Military-Industrial Complex

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together." -Eisenhower's Farewell Address to the Nation

Two quotes by great men, separated by thousands of years, yet they are as relevant to each other as they are to the World today. According to Wikipidea the term military-industrial complex usually refers to the combination of the U.S. armed forces, arms industry and associated political and commercial interests, which grew rapidly in scale and influence in the wake of World War II, although it can also be used to describe any such relationship of industry and military. The Military-Industrial complex exists today as the seamless connection between the bush administration, the Pentagon, and large defense companies such as the Carlyle Group and Halliburton.

The roster of Carlyle “consultants” reads like a who’s who guide to government officials of the 1980s, starting with former president George H. Bush, former secretary of state James Baker, and former defense secretary Frank Carlucci. The Carlyle group is essentially in the business of buying out companies which are integral to U.S. defenses, and they make them even more integral. They can do this because of their enormous political influence. George H. Bush, being an ex-president, is given the option to recieve daily CIA briefings, and he takes full advantage of them. Imagine, this man knows the deepest secrets of this country, and is updated on them everyday, and he is a major owner and consultant for global arms dealer known as the Carlyle group. Did you know that poppa Bush is good friends and business partners with the Saudi Arabian Royal Family, and the Bin Laden family? The credo for the entire Bush family seems to be "screw the public as often as possible when personal profit is an option." Bush-Carlyle Connection

Vice-President Cheney was CEO of Halliburton, and still receives large sums of money from them. Payments on his large pension have increased since 9/11 due to profits from the Iraq war and the illegal No-Bid contracts which were given to the company (Dick Cheney and Halliburton).

These collaborations between the publc and private sectors are tatamount to the the powerful and elite of ths country looting the people's taxes. While the public infrastructure crumbles, the rich get richer, the poor poorer, and the middle class shrinks more every year.

"The United States now accounts for about half of world military spending, meaning that it is spending nearly as much as the rest of the world combined," says Natalie J Goldring, executive director of the Program on Global Security and Disarmament at the University of Maryland. "This is difficult to justify on the basis of known or anticipated threats to U.S. national security," she added.

That was said in 2004 and is even truer today. The annual world-wide military budget is about one trillion dollars, and the U.S. spends roughly $500 billion of that. The war on terrorism has replaced the cold war as the assurance that U.S. military suppliers will perpetually garner gross profits from the taxpayer's pockets.

Unfortuneatley republics historically have a tendency to decline into this state where the private and public sectors become indistinguishable, also known as fascism. It is a fact that corporations would relish fascism. The many government restrictions put on businesses, which safeguard the people from abuses, would disappear, and the law would be the corporation. How many environmental restrictions must be repealled or ignored, how many more lives destroyed by corporate greed, before fascism overcrowds any idea of democracy?

Eisenhower tried to warn us of the military-industrial complex which was forming a deep political sore upon the nation. Plato knew thousands of years ago that the "mischiefs of commerce" would try and subvert the law for their own gain, and the only way for the people to regain their checks on these monsters of industry is "an utter change of constitution." The people must recognize what is happening, and the work to change it, as a whole.