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The Corporate Armed Forces of the United States of America |
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 .:: By Robert Miranda ::. l 07.11.05Former Marine Corps General, Smedley D. Butler spoke of being a huckster for Wall Street and gave details of his disdain for war in his book, "War Is A Racket". When he retired from the Marines in the early 1930s, General Butler stated he could have shown Al Capone a thing or two about operating a racket. Indeed, General Butler wasn't far off in his assessment of corporate America's control of the military of the United States. In fact, without a taxpayer-funded military, America's economic engine would be sputtering along. Today, the armed forces of the United States stands as nothing more than a fully taxpayer-subsidized corporate army employed to engage enemies of our economy rather than protect our land and our Bill of Rights. To be sure, the primary role of our armed forces has been to seize the world's precious and dwindling resources through force to protect multi-national corporations and energy giants. American taxpayers spend over $500 billion per year to fund the world's most powerful military force. This money that is being spent on a force that is protecting our nation from two-bit dictatorships that pose no threat to our government or way of life is sheer lunacy. The notion that we must have such a force in readiness to stop Fidel Castro from invading America is wild and a bit of a stretch. Indeed, truth be told, we spend this money not for the purpose of protecting American soil, rather its real purpose is to engage in offensive actions against weak foreign nations in order to siphon-off their wealth and crush resistance movements within nations protecting themselves from the corporate invaders operating out of Wall Street. Any other rationale being promoted to justify this kind of expenditure on the military is purely public relations gobbledygook designed to provide false pabulum to the fool hardy and gullible. Our military under the stewardship of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, has become nothing more than a very expensive security force for Halliburton and the other multi-national corporations operating in Iraq and fleecing the American taxpayer. The so-called "transformation" of our military into a "leaner, more agile" military for the purpose of dealing with the growing threat of international terrorism, is nonsense. Our military is remaking itself into a smaller force in order to meet the requirements of America’s corporate overlords. Iraq and Afghanistan serve as great examples of this argument. America’s corporate leadership refuses to give away goods or services without suitable remuneration. The effort by the Pentagon to close military bases and installations in the United States is a serious matter for the American public to ponder. The closing of military bases will most certainly affect local economies of small communities that depend on these bases for their economic survival. This issue raises an interesting question. The military budget continues to increase, yet efforts are being made to close military installations—why? The answer could be illustrated in the trend American workers are experiencing with the private sector’s closing of factories in the U.S., and instead opting to open factories in countries where the cost of labor is cheap. This is proof of the Bush administration’s push to help corporate America achieve maximum profit while sacrificing the needs of the American public in order to solidify global hegemony of multi-nationals. Indeed, the only American citizens being served by the fiasco in Afghanistan or the debacle in Iraq are the corporate elite. The pilfering taking place in these countries by Halliburton and Bush Inc. industries serves as an example of what General Butler wrote about in his book. Without question, the theft of American resources by CEOs of these major corporations will continue as long as Bush and his neo-conservative cohorts remain in power. • Miranda, is a national award-winning columnist, Latino community activist and columnist for the Milwaukee Spanish Journal. Email at: rmiranda@wi.rr.com |
