the invention of a banished ruling class - enriched by the selling of the influence of their positions in government - who had nursed their broken ambitions in exile, and had instinctively constructed their sympathetic webs of wealth to obstruct the remedies of the reformers and hatch the next generation of world capitalists who would inherit the patronage of the next conservative presidency.
Through our nation's faith, and in the trust we place in our representatives that they would be humbled to serve the will of the people, and by their good judgement lead, we have been betrayed by a ruling-class oligarchy which has perpetuated its role and influence in our governance; not by the quality of their service, but through the advantages of patronage and association.
This Republican administration is a reflection of that tiny percentage of the nation's citizens who have maintained their wealth and influence through the last century. Despite the persistent poverty of generations of Americans who work and struggle with no guarantee of success or survival, this same working-class of people routinely elevate these power-brokers to the cadre of the privileged few who would lord over their wealth in the offices of our government.
With our votes, cast for hollow promises of representation in the division and disposition of our contributions of blood and sacrifice, we get no more than spattered remains of precious meal from a pig's trough. And in turn, we assure their ascendency to that two-percent confederation of corporate interests who routinely divide the fruits of our labor for their own benefit and purpose.
Their aim is to enrich their two-percent confederation of corporate interests in our government who perpetuate their class in and out of office by manipulating our precious contributions to democracy; from federal appropriations; to corporate tax breaks; and through sly deregulation schemes that allow them to slough off their responsibilities to worker safety, or to the protection of the community and the environment.
The means to their end is in the unelected, unchecked executive appointments gifted by this two-percent confederation to their power-driven lackeys, to lord over our regulatory agencies; to infect and obstruct the very institutions which are there to protect and assist the common citizen; by under-funding them and intimidating the public servants; barely allowing the emasculated institutions to survive; giving them a reluctance to respond to any but the entrenched, monied interests.
Its also in the systematic targeting and suppression by the forces of our executive government, of groups and individuals who raise their voices in disagreement with its practices or policies. And in the arbitrary expulsion, without due process, of those who would immigrate to America and dare to criticize their benefactor.
The mischief is in a manipulated foreign policy which exploits the resources of the defenseless around the world for the benefit of a minority of industry leeches.
The mischief is in a trumped-up, bloody invasion of a sovereign country and in the theft of its oil and its resources, and in the occupation and auctioning of the vanquished country's industry away from its citizens.
It's in the shackling of countless generations of Americans to a corporate agenda of U.S. world domination, supported by the perpetual sacrifice of the lives and blood of generations of our sons and daughters in a continuous world war.
The present war with Iraq is the ambition of the corporate wing of the conservative establishment who views Iraq as a potential wedge against the domination of Mideast oil-producing nations which, in many respects, are openly hostile to American economic interests in the region. Having failed to turn the first war to their corporate advantage, the exiled power brokers brooded and plotted to revive a public campaign against Saddam Hussein which would unseat the dictator and allow the U.S. to install an authority there compliant to American business concerns.
The election of George Bush and Dick Cheney was a watershed for the military corporations. Both had been stalwart supporters of the multibillion dollar military industry; Bush in his home state and Cheney, wherever he could exploit his tenure as defense secretary during the first Iraq war, and build on his past deal-making with the coalition members.
During the 2000 campaign Cheney complained that "developments of new military technologies (had) reached all-time lows." But that would only be a concern to the industry, not to the average American. The U.S. arsenal is full of high-tech weapons that don't work or that they don't use.
This call for a new generation of weapons is intended to facilitate the agendas of Bush administration hawks who would project U.S. influence around the globe like mercenary carpetbaggers; through intimidation from the force of our weaponry; with our soldiers; and through the supplying of ‘commercial’ armies whenever a commitment of our forces is politically difficult, or prohibited by Congress.
President Bush intends for there to be more conquest - like in Iraq - as the United States exercises its military force around the world; our mandate, our justification, presumably inherent in the mere possession of our instruments of destruction.
One would expect that President Bush would be humbled by his lack of experience in the military and that his same shallow depth of involvement in foreign affairs would cause him to wield our armed forces with caution and restraint.
Yet, upon assuming the moniker of the commander-in-chief he reflexively aligned himself with the armed forces' bureaucracy which has, in the last decade, involved itself more with the projection and preservation of U.S. monied interests around the globe, than with the actual defense of democratic ideals of economic and social justice.
It was that alignment which fostered the unprecedented appointments of hundreds of the who's-who in the military industrial world to the most sensitive positions in our government offices. (see my post: Bush's Military-Industrial Warriors,
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1499287)
The CDI reports that the United States military budget exceeds that of the next 25 nations combined; $400 billion a year, and that's just the public accounting. Russia follows the U.S. with a $60 billion defense budget. U.K. spends only about $35 billion a year.
Since 1992, the United States has exported more than $142 billion worth of weaponry around the world. North America accounts for more than 65% of the world's arms exports. Of the 43 countries with over $500 million in arms imports, 23 obtained 2/3 or more from the U.S.
With the new money appropriated for homeland defense ($38 billion for FY 2003), virtually all of the big defense contractors — Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon have started hawking their products for use in domestic security.
In order to replace weapons used in Afghanistan, and in concert with the military conflict in Iraq, most U.S. weapons makers have increased production. Bombs are big business again and the Bush administration has opened the candy store, exporting death, conquest, and perpetual war.
With a share of 24% of U.S. arms exports, Lockheed-Martin is the world's largest arms exporting company. Lockheed leads the pack of defense contractors who do business with the U.S. with valuable Pentagon contracts worth a total of nearly $30 billion and an advertised $70 billion backlog.
Lockheed has 125,000 employees in the United States and overseas with 939 facilities in 457 cities and 45 states throughout the U.S.; internationally, with business locations in 56 nations and territories.
Lockheed leads the defense industry in lobbying expenditures. Lockheed Martin made over $10.6 million in campaign contributions to candidates and party committees from 1990 to 2000, including $3.4 million in donations in the run-up to the year 2000 elections.
The company actively lobbies for the need to retain substantial numbers of existing nuclear weapons while developing new ones. Lockheed Martin receives more than $1 billion per year from the Department of Energy - to operate the Sandia National Laboratories (involved in the design and production of nuclear warheads) and help run the Nevada Test Site for "sub-critical testing" of new nuclear weapons designs.
The ex-Lockheed Martin employees with the most direct connections to nuclear and missile defense policy are:
Former chief operating officer Peter B. Teets, who is now Under Secretary of the Air Force and Director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), a post that includes making decisions on the acquisition of everything from reconnaissance satellites to space-based elements of missile defense.
And, Everet Beckner, who served as the chief executive of Lockheed Martin's division that helped run the United Kingdom's Atomic Weapons Establishment. Beckner is now Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs at the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, charged with oversight of maintenance, development, and production of nuclear warheads.
In their new positions, both Teets and Beckner are well-positioned to make decisions on procurement and research programs that will directly or indirectly benefit their former employer (Lockheed),which has major portfolios in nuclear weapons, missile defense, and military space systems.
Lockheed Martin also produces the Trident II, a nuclear missile with first strike capabilities. The firm is also heavily invested in ballistic missile defense.
The Arms Trade Resource Center, reported that 80% of Lockheed's business is with the Department of Defense and other federal government agencies. It is also the largest provider of information technology services, systems integration, and training to the U.S. government. Such business has grown substantially during the Bush tenure, especially in fiscal year 2002 as plans for war were formulated.
The ATRC report calculates that Lockheed was awarded $17 billion in defense contracts in 2002, up from $14.7 billion in 2001. First quarter sales for 2003 were $7.1 billion, an 18% increase from the corresponding quarter in 2002.
Bechtel will benefit directly from efforts to expand testing and production of nuclear weapons. Bechtel is part of a partnership with Lockheed Martin that runs the Nevada Test Site for the U.S.
Bechtel runs the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge Tennessee, which makes critical components for nuclear warheads; and it is involved in the management of the Pantex nuclear weapons plant in Amarillo, Texas.
Bechtel's $1 billion-plus in annual contracts for "atomic energy defense activities" are likely to grow substantially under the Bush nuclear plan. In 2002 Bechtel earned $11.6 billion.
The company has built more than 40% of the United States' nuclear capacity and 50% of nuclear power plants in the developing world. That's 150 nuclear power plants.
Bechtel is also in charge of managing and cleaning up the toxic nuclear waste at the 52 reactors at the Idaho nuclear test site from our '50's nuclear program, as well as two million cubic feet of transuranic waste buried on the site, such as plutonium-covered shoes, gloves and other tools used at the nuclear lab in Rocky Flats.
At a military industry conference hosted by the American Enterprise Institute, defense policy advisor Richard Perle mused that, "It would be better if we simply handed the money to the defense industry and let them invest it themselves, . . . but Congress likes to control that . . . , but it gives the impression that the merchants of death are unduly licenced."
Perle then made a weak plea for less regulation of arms exports ($140 + billion since 1992), and suggested that export licencing be consolidated into one agency. I wonder who the administration executives will suggest to head that office. Industry lawyers; resumes at the ready!
You can hear the regret in his statement. If we would only just give the industry the money they want, no strings attached; they would provide for the nation's defense needs. The industry wants us to believe that they are the best judges of what the next generation's needs are in terms of weaponry. But the existence of these corporations and their new hi-tech boondoggles will not make us anymore secure than the existence of these same executives in our government have kept our sons and daughters from dying in senseless wars.
These are excerpts from my book, Power Of Mischief: http://www.returningsoldiers.us/pompage.htm
Download the book for free!
http://www.returningsoldiers.us/Power%20Of%20Mischief4.pdf
Here's my list of numbered, linked references for the book (253 links):
http://returningsoldiers.us/biblio.htm
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