The Military-Industrial Complex-It's Much Later Than You Think-By Chalmers Johnson

[kpete]

The Military-Industrial Complex
It's Much Later Than You Think
By Chalmers Johnson

..............................

Wolin writes:


"The privatization of public services and functions manifests the steady evolution of corporate power into a political form, into an integral, even dominant partner with the state. It marks the transformation of American politics and its political culture, from a system in which democratic practices and values were, if not defining, at least major contributory elements, to one where the remaining democratic elements of the state and its populist programs are being systematically dismantled." (p. 284)

....................

Mercenaries at Work

Several inferences can be drawn from Shorrock's shocking exposé. One is that if a foreign espionage service wanted to penetrate American military and governmental secrets, its easiest path would not be to gain access to any official U.S. agencies, but simply to get its agents jobs at any of the large intelligence-oriented private companies on which the government has become remarkably dependent. These include Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), with headquarters in San Diego, California, which typically pays its 42,000 employees higher salaries than if they worked at similar jobs in the government; Booz Allen Hamilton, one of the nation's oldest intelligence and clandestine-operations contractors, which, until January 2007, was the employer of Mike McConnell, the current director of national intelligence and the first private contractor to be named to lead the entire intelligence community; and CACI International, which, under two contracts for "information technology services," ended up supplying some two dozen interrogators to the Army at Iraq's already infamous Abu Ghraib prison in 2003. According to Major General Anthony Taguba, who investigated the Abu Ghraib torture and abuse scandal, four of CACI's interrogators were "either directly or indirectly responsible" for torturing prisoners. (Shorrock, p. 281)

...........................

As numerous studies have, by now, made clear, the abject failure of the American occupation of Iraq came about in significant measure because the Department of Defense sent a remarkably privatized military filled with incompetent amateurs to Baghdad to administer the running of a defeated country. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates (a former director of the CIA) has repeatedly warned that the United States is turning over far too many functions to the military because of its hollowing out of the Department of State and the Agency for International Development since the end of the Cold War. Gates believes that we are witnessing a "creeping militarization" of foreign policy -- and, though this generally goes unsaid, both the military and the intelligence services have turned over far too many of their tasks to private companies and mercenaries.

When even Robert Gates begins to sound like President Eisenhower, it is time for ordinary citizens to pay attention. In my 2006 book Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic, with an eye to bringing the imperial presidency under some modest control, I advocated that we Americans abolish the CIA altogether, along with other dangerous and redundant agencies in our alphabet soup of sixteen secret intelligence agencies, and replace them with the State Department's professional staff devoted to collecting and analyzing foreign intelligence. I still hold that position.

Nonetheless, the current situation represents the worst of all possible worlds. Successive administrations and Congresses have made no effort to alter the CIA's role as the president's private army, even as we have increased its incompetence by turning over many of its functions to the private sector. We have thereby heightened the risks of war by accident, or by presidential whim, as well as of surprise attack because our government is no longer capable of accurately assessing what is going on in the world and because its intelligence agencies are so open to pressure, penetration, and manipulation of every kind.

much more at:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174959

[DCKit]

1. I worked for one of the mentioned companies...

and it always pissed me off that foreign nationals always had an easier time with security clearances - because they had no history.

Not to worry, though. I'm sure they'd tell the interviewer if they were terra-ists.

[file83]

5. Hope it wasn't "The Company".

:hi:

[Beam Me Up]

2. Well, I'm speechless. n/t

[Beam Me Up]

3. Actually, now that I think about it . . .

and after having read the whole thing, it gives my signature a whole new context of meaning:

In Deep State Violence and the Hope of Internet Politics, I argue that 9/11 should be analyzed as one of a series of deep events which have become pretexts for war. The similarities between these deep events suggest they are at least in part the product of some on-going deep indigenous force not yet adequately understood.. -- Peter Dale Scott

[AntiFascist]

4. I'm concerned about the United States...

the showing that Obama had in Berlin and the massive throngs of people protesting in international anti-war protests might indicate that the world could easily turn on us if we continue being aggressive. The deep state pulling the strings probably cares less about what happens to this country as long as the multi-national MIC interests are advanced.

Michael Ledeen spelled it out in his book "Universal Fascism" and he later served as foreign policy adviser to Cheney:

http://www.amconmag.com/06_30_03/feature.html

Ledeen’s conviction that the Right is as revolutionary as the Left derives from his youthful interest in Italian fascism. In 1975, Ledeen published an interview, in book form, with the Italian historian Renzo de Felice, a man he greatly admires. It caused a great controversy in Italy. Ledeen later made clear that he relished the ire of the left-wing establishment precisely because “De Felice was challenging the conventional wisdom of Italian Marxist historiography, which had always insisted that fascism was a reactionary movement.” What de Felice showed, by contrast, was that Italian fascism was both right-wing and revolutionary. Ledeen had himself argued this very point in his book, Universal Fascism, published in 1972. That work starts with the assertion that it is a mistake to explain the support of fascism by millions of Europeans “solely because they had been hypnotized by the rhetoric of gifted orators and manipulated by skilful propagandists.” “It seems more plausible,” Ledeen argued, “to attempt to explain their enthusiasm by treating them as believers in the rightness of the fascist cause, which had a coherent ideological appeal to a great many people.” For Ledeen, as for the lifelong fascist theoretician and practitioner, Giuseppe Bottai, that appeal lay in the fact that fascism was “the Revolution of the 20th century.”

[crikkett]

13. someone please explain 'deep' to me as in 'deep state' or 'deep politics'

I don't get it.

Thanks

[Beam Me Up]

15. Here you go:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_politics

Deep politics is a phrase coined by researcher and academic Peter Dale Scott, which he describes thus;

“My notion of deep politics… posits that in every culture and society there are facts which tend to be suppressed collectively, because of the social and psychological costs of not doing so. Like all other observers, I too have involuntarily suppressed facts and even memories about the drug traffic that were too provocative to be retained with equanimity.(1)”

Scott has spent an enormous amount of time researching political processes that fly under the radar of conscious political activity, are omitted from discourse on the right and the left, and are many times intertwined with global drug traffic. Here is Scott’s definition of “parapolitics”;

par a pol i tics (pa˘r ə po˘l ə tı˘ks), n. 1. a system or practice of politics in which accountability is consciously diminished. 2. generally, covert politics, the conduct of public affairs not by rational debate and responsible decision-making but by indirection, collusion, and deceit… 3. the political exploitation of irresponsible agencies or parastructures, such as intelligence agencies… Ex. 1. ‘The Nixon doctrine, viewed in retrospect, represented the application of parapolitics on a hitherto unprecedented scale.’ 2. ‘Democracy and parapolitics, even in foreign affairs, are ultimately incompatible.’

More at link.

Peter is an associate of mine. Here is his political home page: http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~pdscott/q.html Lots of links to information and video there.

The point is, Scott's analysis of our situation fits fairly well with Johnson's -- although the latter may be even more alarming.

[crikkett]

18. Thanks very much for this. n/t

[Beam Me Up]

21. You might find this of interest

An hour long interview of Scott at UC Berkeley, August of last year. Goes into detail about his personal, academic and political background and then gets into a discussion of the origin of "deep state" concepts and his book, "The Road to 9/11."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YFBzjlFuFQ

[defendandprotect]

26. Which brings up the question . . ..

WHY in the hell are all of the "signatures" so damned hard to read -- so pale??

I'm with you on 9/11 . . . but, basically, I never "saw" your signature before -- !!!

If I had, I would have given you a toot and cheer ---



Unfortunately, 9/11 was enabled by greed/capitalistic instincts -- and a strong desire

to erase evidence of criminality among the group and its friends - evidence which resided

at WTC7. And, of course, it was about pushing us to war, expanding our presence in the

ME --- and oil.

The concensus seems to be that our corrupted government - Bush/Cheny

and MOSSAD are responsible. Not to mention many enablers along the way ---

[mmonk]

6. Yes, I'm sure this is so.

In fact, I'm not even sure government can control all the players now. It has reached a point where it has masticized in our government.

[JohnyCanuck]

7. "I advocated that we Americans abolish the CIA altogether"

We know where that line of thinking got JFK.

[mmonk]

9. Being outside the law, secret, and outside of scrutiny,

its easy for them to maintain their existence. Personally, I would advocate reform. Any privitization and adding of mercenary businesses which now will emerge in the security state I would seek to abolish. That would lead to us only having one group, them, without having to contend with data on so many Americans floating around with the new privitization state and its "contractors".

[Phred42]

8. K & R !

[happygoluckytoyou]

10. BIG GOVT IN MANY AREAS IS NOT A BAD THING...just like TAXES... they have a place

[Joe Chi Minh]

12. As Mythsage put it: why would anyone trust Big Business more than Big

Government?

[happygoluckytoyou]

14. agreed... at least with BIG GOVT we get to pretend we vote them out every few years

[Joe Chi Minh]

29. That is an excellent point! We must be grateful for small mercies...

At least that's what the DLC will tell y'all.

[defendandprotect]

27. Right . . it's whose in control that is important --- like a "typewriter" . . .

it depends upon who is doing the writing ---

[Joe Chi Minh]

11. Don't you people go thinking the Vietnamese aren't on their way over to your shores, because

you didn't git them over there. That's what the Pentagon and CIA are really preparing for: the big showdown with Charlie Kong. All the rest is flim-flam, feinting, setting up dummy scenarios to make 'em think you've forgotten all about 'em. But they haven't fogotten YOU! And the CIA knows this.

The only thing standing between you and Charlie's assault force is your military-industrial complex's brightest and best. You should get down on your knees and thank the CIA and Pentagon for their eternal vigilance and the incredibly potent protection they afford you all. Your airports, even for internal flights are now fortresses. And your police, with their trusty tasers ever at the ready, keep guard over ther rest of the country.

[defendandprotect]

28. Wherever there are natural resources, oil or DRUGS . . . US will be there --- !!!

[redqueen]

16. When even Robert Gates begins to sound like President Eisenhower, ..."

it is time for ordinary citizens to pay attention"

How about long past time?

*sigh*

[lonestarnot]

17. I saw that in action in China this a.m. The government police authorized the reporter

to go behind closed gates after a review of press credentials. Once she and the crew had been let in, the private police came rushing in and pushed her and the crew back out the gates. It was reported that the private police were hired by the corporation taking the property from the Chinese families.

[pleah]

19. K&R

[Baby Snooks]

20. Eisenhower was a Democrat...

That must be what most Republicans think. Easier to think that than to accept that their own party provided the means of ensuring that this country became a fascist oligarchy.

The only way to stop it is to get rid of those who enabled it. And with few exceptions, that means not only getting rid of the Republicans in Congress but the Democrats as well.

Nancy Pelosi in particular. Her table was their table. Not ours.

[Lasher]

22. I like Ike.

I have never voted for a Republican so far, but I think I would vote for Ike if he were running today.

http://blueworksbetter.com/EisenhowerFlamingLiberal

[Karl_Bonner_1982]

23. Let's write in his name on the ballot NT

[flashl]

24. Last count, Private Military Mercenaries (PMM) on the ground in Iraq are > U.S. troops

when are we going ask, when they are coming home?

[The Backlash Cometh]

25. Excellent article