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When communism fell and the cold war ended in the early 1990's, there was much talk of a "peace dividend" that would be the result of reduced defense spending. At last Congress would be able to reduce the federal deficit and spend more money on domestic programs. President Bush took the Strategic Air Command off alert status, and the U.S. began discharging military personnel as part of its Reduction in Force (RIF) program. But the "peace dividend" failed to materialize, as there has been plenty of new villains to fear and new weapons being made to use against them.
In a flurry of recent press releases, the U.S. Department of Defense has announced contracts to develop new weapons that will "take us into the 21st century", to borrow a phrase used often by the defense establishment. President Clinton, once opposed to the Vietnam war as a young man, now approves hundreds of billions of dollars in military budget increases, while claiming that his administration is a "bridge to the future." If this next century is to be one of "peace and global cooperation", like the politicians tell us, why this continued development of offensive military technology?
Missile-killing laser - The Air Force just awarded Boeing Corp. a $1.1 billion contract to develop a missile-killing laser that would be mounted on a 747 aircraft. This chemical laser would shoot down short and medium range enemy missiles fired at troops in a combat setting. Called "truly revolutionary" by the Air Force Chief of Staff, this laser could be operational in six years. When the laser enters production, the contract would be worth tens of billions of dollars to Boeing.
Joint strike fighter jet - Boeing Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. are competing for a Pentagon contract to build the F-22 fighter - a contract potentially worth $219 billion. "Compared to current airplanes, (the joint strike fighter) brings a more lethal package into the theater ... and does so with fewer supporting assets and therefore less costs," Defense Secretary Perry told reporters at a news conference. Part of this lethal package is the ability to take off and land vertically and evade enemy radar. The military wants 3,000 of these by the year 2030, even though it will already have 3,000 fighter jets of other makes by the year 2005. Secretary Perry stressed the importance of U.S. air superiority in the Gulf War. He said, "We had it, we liked it and we're going to keep it."
Smart bombs -
The Air Force recently announced the successful test of a new
generation of "smart bombs". Instead of being guided by laser which
has problems in cloudy weather, they fly to their target with the aid
of the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system. These 2,000 pound
bombs were accurate within 20 feet when dropped from 41,000 feet and
six miles away. No price tag was announced for the smart bomb, but
the Pentagon announced that the new bombs will give a new purpose to
the $2 billion stealth bomber that has been without a mission since
the cold war ended.
Arsenal ship - Military
planners, reviewing last month's cruise missile attack on Iraq, have
called for a new class of ship - an arsenal ship - that would be
larger in size than a modern destroyer. This ship would be
essentially a mobile launch pad that would hold 500 missiles that
could be remote controlled by a field commander in a battle on land.
It would be built to evade radar and would have little or no crew on
board. It could be stationed in a strategic area such as the Persian
gulf, for example. The first arsenal ship would cost about half a
billion dollars.
On Sept. 22, 1996, the Associated Press featured an article on the Pentagon's strategy of military supply "prepositioning", which is the concept of stationing substantial heavy supplies such as tanks, armored personnel carriers, howitzers, ammunition, communications gear and fuel at strategic locations around the world. Two of these "brigade sets" are in the Persian gulf region with plans for a third. Prepositioning means that U.S. troops can fly to distant regions with their rifle and knapsacks and "marry up" with their heavy armor within 24 hours. Prepositioning is a key part of the U.S. post cold war strategy.
A world expecting peace in the New World Order may find news of war preparations rather disturbing. Another disturbing element of this arms build-up is the corresponding economic decline in the United States. The massive and ever increasing U.S. national debt is solid evidence that the U.S. taxpayer is unable to support these huge military expenditures. Much of the revenue collected from personal income taxes goes to service the interest on the national debt alone. The U.S. economy is experiencing a series of shocks, thanks to GATT and NAFTA. The hemorrhage of jobs and capital from the U.S. to the third world countries, as well as the massive public, corporate and consumer debt, all indicate the U.S. economy is sliding towards the third world model. As in the third world, American wealth is aggregating in fewer hands, with those hands controlling the government and military.
Like the military spending of the Reagan years, this one is also financed with deficit spending, which receives the generous support of the international bond market. Even though many individuals invest in U.S. treasury bonds, it is the big investors that determine the flow of borrowed capital into the U.S. Treasury. If one were to follow the trail of paper, it would not be difficult to find those who finance America's guns, and, in effect, determine how they are used.
During the Gulf War, President Bush praised the goodness and generosity of the American people for coming to the aid of Kuwait. After the Gulf War was over, the United States sent Kuwait an invoice for $6 billion for services rendered. Germany and Japan were also strong-armed by the U.S. into coughing up a significant payment because their constitutions would not permit them to join the military expedition. The U.S. role in the Gulf War was not that of benevolent savior but of a mercenary.
Dr. Norm Chomsky described this well in "The World's Rent-A-Thug" where he wrote,
"The financial editor of the conservative Chicago Tribune has been stressing these themes with particular clarity. We must be 'willing mercenaries', paid for our ample services by our rivals, using our 'monopoly power' in the 'security market' to maintain 'our control over the world economic system." We should run a global protection racket, he advises, selling 'protection' to other wealthy powers who will pay us a 'war premium.'
"This is Chicago, where the words are understood: if someone bothers you, you call on the Mafia to break their bones. And if you fall behind in your premium, your health may suffer too."
While America is in a rapid social and economic decline, it has emerged from the cold war as the world's preeminent military power. As was seen in the Gulf War, this power is used to promote the interests of the super rich, namely those high up in international finance. While the internationalists rule quite effectively through their system of financial control, they maintain this mailed fist of U.S. military power in the background, just in case someone gets out of control. These bankers might say in the words of Secretary Perry, "We have it, we like it and we're going to keep it."
Like corporate America, the U.S. military is downsizing. It is paring down on personnel and buying machines that can kill more efficiently. The Stealth bomber is expensive but doesn't need all the support required by conventional bombers. The arsenal ship can deliver on short notice a barrage of missiles from its permanent station without having to move those expensive aircraft carriers into the gulf, and all those other ships that are part of the battle group, with so many sailors....
A nation cannot prepare for war and enjoy peace at the same time. The current preparations for war are a guarantee that the New World Order will be a world of force and coercion. If the wars of this century seem like a bad dream, the wars of the next will be anyone's worst nightmare. Aircraft are controlled remotely, peering into homes, cities, destroying with deadly accuracy those who oppose the New Order. Ships without sailors, sleek and crouched low in the water, firing missiles that travel close to the ground for hundreds of miles, will punish uncooperative governments and defenseless populations.
Instead of its mission being to protect from foreign invasion, the U.S. military has evolved into an enforcement mechanism, used both at home and abroad. The Branch Davidian seige proved the willingness of U.S. forces to be turned against domestic as well as foreign intransigence. Legislation to legitimize the use of military forces in police work is in Congress and underscores the trend in that direction.
Waco, the Oklahoma City bombing, the militia movement, domestic terror, are all symptoms of a nation turning on itself. The U.S. is no longer one nation under God, and it has drifted too far to return to the values and spiritual strength that made it one. Martin Luther King Jr. put it this way: "Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men." The God of heaven puts it this way, "You have become guilty by the blood which you have shed, and defiled by the idols which you have made; and you have brought your day near, the appointed time of your years has come. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mocking to all the countries." Eze. 22:4.
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