How's it go; "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" which
means, since my country is the most powerful ever seen, its also the
most.... naw... it couldn't be... this article is nothing but a pack of
lie, or is it...

Bob
************
America's War Incorporated: Weapons and Wars 'R' US By John Stanton and
Wayne Madsen Online Journal Contributing Writers

April 1, 2002-Critics of the US war machine frequently cite U.S. President
Dwight Eisenhower's seminal speech in which he uncannily predicted the
threat the "US military industrial complex" would pose to America and the
world.

In 1961, Eisenhower, a retired U.S. Army general who led the allied
invasion of Germany in WWII, uttered these prescient words, " . . . 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 . . ."

If only the citizenry had listened.

Eisenhower's feared military industrial complex has been swept aside by the
U.S. War Corporation. It took just 42 years for the War Corporation to
eliminate the dividing line between the U.S. military and U.S. industry and
eradicate the troublesome provisions of Posse Comitatus-an 1878 law that
forbids military involvement in most domestic affairs, including law
enforcement. The War Corporation has its tentacles in every element of the
American political, military, economic and cultural milieu, and it affects
the lives of every citizen in every country on the planet. It operates in
the heavens, has claimed the Earth's moon and, perhaps, through the U.S.
Air Force's Planetary Defense operation, has some Strangelovian designs for
Mars.

The United States of America has been at war with the world since
Eisenhower made his remarks 42 years ago. From 1961 to 2002, the War
Corporation has fueled the fires of death and destruction in every corner
of the globe in order to make the world safe-for-profit, using the clever
ruses of freedom and democracy. The evidence is astounding and sickening:
the Cold War, the Vietnam War, the bombing of Libya, the indiscriminant
offshore shelling of Lebanon by U.S. battleships, the invasion of Grenada,
the invasion of Panama, the Persian Gulf War, daily bombings of Iraq in the
"no fly zone," ill-conceived military interventions into Somalia and Haiti,
cruise missile attacks on Afghanistan and innocents in Sudan, U.S.
state-sponsored assassinations in Chile, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Congo,
Rwanda, Brazil, Colombia, a likely resumption of nuclear testing, and,
finally, the War in Afghanistan and the War on Terrorism.

To make some interventions more palatable to the public, the Pentagon
devised Orwellian-sounding code names to convey "good
intentions"-Operations Provide Comfort (Kurdistan), Noble Eagle (the War on
Terrorism), Enduring Freedom (War in Afghanistan), Restore Hope (Somalia),
Just Cause (Panama), Uphold Democracy (Haiti), Guardian Retrieval (Zaire),
Shepherd Venture (Guinea-Bissau), Noble Response (Kenya), and one that
could have only been devised by a military Freemason with entirely too much
time on his hands, Noble Obelisk (Sierra Leone).

How many wars will a society tolerate until it says no more?

Arms for All

Consider the despicable global arms trade in which the U.S. dominates. The
U.S. will sell weapons, gear and training to all comers with cash or a
country with exploitable geography and resources. The U.S. War Corporation
counts as its clients Chad, with an annual per capita income of $230, and
Kenya, whose law enforcement is skilled at "common methods of torture . . .
including hanging persons upside down for long periods, genital mutilation,
electric shocks, and deprivation of air by submersion of the head in
water," according to the Council for a Livable World (CLW). Despite all
this, the American citizenry refuses to heed Eisenhower's warning and has
taken its liberty "for granted," placing its trust in U.S. officials who
see "evil" and threats in every corner.

For this ignorance-of-the-damned, the American people have now brought upon
themselves the militarization of American society that Eisenhower so
feared, and that Herbert Marcuse so eloquently described in One Dimensional
Man. The American people are routinely psyop'ed by the War Corporation into
an "us-versus-them" mentality; we're right, your wrong-no argument allowed.
Is it any surprise that a less enlightened retired U.S. Army general, Colin
Powell, recently admitted that the War on Terrorism will never end "in our
lifetime"? Today, sadly, the U.S. War Corporation has taken almost complete
control of America and has marshaled its entire war machinery against
approximately 33 foreign terrorist groups, numbering perhaps 5,000 to 8,000
individuals who are mostly impoverished and oppressed by ruthless regimes
who retaliate with the armaments, strategies and tactics purchased from the
U.S. War Corporation.

GlobalIssues.org reports that close to $1 trillion dollars is spent on
worldwide military expenditures and the international weapons trade. They
rightly point out that globalization has caused weapons makers to take a
globalization and porous border approach to selling weapons. In the words
of one U.S. "defense" contractor, "We have no allegiance, this is a
business and we sell to whatever country can afford them." The CLW's
research indicates that U.S. military spending comprises over half (53
percent) of total discretionary spending ($755 billion), an increase from
48 percent in fiscal year 2001. The proposed military budget of $396.1
billion is 15 percent higher than the average Cold War budget, even in
today's dollars. CLW reports that from 1946 to 1989 the U.S. budget
authority for defense was an average of $343 billion a year (fiscal year
2003 dollars). In terms of outlays, according to the Senate Budget
Committee minority staff, the proposed spending in fiscal year 2003 exceeds
the Cold War average by $44 billion. How much money is enough?

Forget the Poor

Just a fraction of what is spent on defense might-probably would-eliminate
many of the conditions that breed terrorists in today's world. Oscar Arias
Sanchez, the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize winner and former President of Costa
Rica declared, "The world's priorities are wrong. With just a small amount
of what the world spends on defense, we could address poverty, inequality,
illiteracy, disease, environmental degradation, and drought."

In 2002, the War Corporation's "center-of-gravity or nexus of operations,"
as it is known in war-speak, is in the Washington, D.C., metro region and
includes the U.S. presidency and U.S. Congress, uniformed and non-uniformed
war contractors (to include the four military branches, weapons
manufacturers and mercenaries), war intelligence agencies, various war
departments operating under Zemyatinesqe names like the Department of
Defense, Department of State, Department of Justice, and President of the
United States. Even toy companies and bubble gum trading card companies are
in on the war gig. And why not? It is the number one business in America.
For just $45 American children can have their very own "Tora Bora Ted,
Swift Freedom Delta Force Night OPS" action figure to replace GI Joe.
Operation Enduring Freedom bubble gum cards are also on the streets. No,
not even children are spared the insanity of the War Corporation's propaganda.

A major U.S. War Corporation bureau of information-NBC News-is owned by
major weapons contractor General Electric, which runs advertisements
extolling the virtues of its global reach. According to globalissues.org,
America's leading weapons maker, Lockheed Martin, ran an advertisement
claiming "the perception of peace means less jobs for Americans." But the
Turks build F16s, not Americans. Another Lockheed Martin propaganda piece
claimed the F-22 was an antiwar plane. Many advertisements run on all the
major networks emphasized that a better fighter plane would ensure loved
ones can come back home. The U.S. Congress buys these claims, in the
fishing metaphor, hook-line- and sinker. Between 1990 and 2002,
opensecrets.org reports that the U.S. War Corporation weapons makers
contributed more than $67 million to the U.S. Congress to protect their
global interests. In one of the more crass instances of U.S. "defense"
contractor lobbying, the weapons contractors defeated a U.S. congressional
resolution recognizing Turkey's culpability in the Armenian genocide in
1919. The reason? Turkey threatened to cancel U.S. military contracts.

The War Corporation influences politics and economics in every state of the
American Union and as far away as provinces in China, on the sparsely
populated Cook Islands in the South Pacific, and in more familiar places
like Nicaragua, where it recently fixed the outcome of a national election,
and Colombia, where the U.S. War Corporation helped assassinate a Catholic
bishop opposed to the U.S. puppet regime there.

Profiting From Middle East Bloodshed

Perhaps nowhere is the War Corporation's influence seen more vividly than
in the current turmoil in the Middle East. The U.S. Department of State is
completely militarized under the regime of Colin Powell-who helped
whitewash the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam, his deputy Richard Armitage-a
former U.S. Special Forces and CIA dirty tricks operator in Southeast Asia,
and Middle East Special Envoy retired US Marine Corps General and American
proconsul Anthony Zinni. These so-called "diplomats" are the major U.S.
players ostensibly responsible for bringing "peace" to the region. But as
Robin Wright, a respected Middle East expert, pointed out in her column in
the Los Angeles Times on March 31, 2002, even Kuwait has had enough of U.S.
duplicity in the region.

"11 years after Kuwait was freed, about 4,000 demonstrators rallied at Flag
Square in Kuwait City to denounce Israel and the United States. With the
speaker of the Kuwaiti parliament and other top ministers present, the
crowd shouted, "No god but Allah! America enemy of Allah!" and "Muslims,
Muslims unite! Death to Israel, death to America!" the Reuters news agency
reported.

In a reflection of shifting sentiments over the last 18 months, since the
latest Palestinian Intifada began, the crowd also roared, "America and
Zionism are against the Muslim nation!" Rallying on behalf of the
Palestinians and against the United States is particularly ironic because
the Palestinians sided with Iraq, not the Kuwaiti monarchy, during the 1991
Persian Gulf War." But that's of little consequence to the U.S. War
Corporation.

Most Middle East analysts, from ex-Reagan administration department heads
to former President Jimmy Carter-experts who have traditionally remained
committed to even-handedness in their commentaries-are blaming the Bush
administration, and primarily the State Department, for allowing events to
explode out of control in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There should be
little wonder why the U.S. chose passive disengagement over active
engagement. After all, as Israel commits more occupying troops to the West
Bank and Gaza, they will require more U.S. weaponry-tanks, armored
personnel carriers, artillery, and consultants from the likes of MPRI and
Dyncorp. And who will profit from prolonging bloodshed in the Middle East?
The U.S. War Corporation and its surrogates.

In the fiscal year 2002 budget, Israel was allotted $2.04 billion in U.S.
military aid. Under a memorandum of understanding signed between the U.S.
and Israel on January 19, 2001, just a day before Bush's appointment to the
US presidency, U.S. military aid to Israel will likely grow to $2.4 billion
by 2008. As Israel's right-wing militaristic government continues to flex
its muscles, its Arab neighbors will increase their own military
stockpiles. Three of them-Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia-are among the
largest recipients of U.S. military weaponry. From 1999 to 2000, Egypt
received $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid and Jordan got $123 million.
While Saudi Arabia receives no outright U.S. military assistance, it has
bought over $33.5 billion of the most sophisticated U.S. weapons systems
(AWACS, F-15's and more) over the past 10 years. That's more than U.S.
military assistance given to Israel and Egypt combined.

Among the most vociferous propagandists of the Bush administration's
ratcheting up of Middle East tensions, ludicrous military spending, and
U.S. takeover of the Persian Gulf and Middle East are retired U.S. military
generals whose telephone numbers cram every cable and non-cable network
producers' Rolodex. The current crop of Pentagon generals and admirals
unknowingly betray a long tradition of senior U.S. military officers
refraining from political activity. Generals William Tecumseh Sherman and
George Marshall refrained from voting, reflecting their desire for
political neutrality among the officer corps. But that is of no consequence
to the troupe of military officers who mock Dwight Eisenhower.

Weapons Everyone, Weapons!

According to a Congressional Research Service study, Conventional Arms
Transfers to Developing Nations, poor countries bought 68 percent of U.S.
weapons output. American weapons producers signed contracts for some $18.6
billion dollars in 2000, up from around $12.9 billion dollars the previous
year. U.S. contracts accounted for 49.7 percent of global sales in 2000 and
the U.S. controlled half of the developing world's arms market with $12.6
billion in sales. CLW commented that "this dominance of the global arms
market is not something in which the American public or policy makers
should applaud. The U.S. routinely sells weapons to undemocratic regimes
and gross human rights abusers." That list of countries includes those that
Americans believe are trustworthy allies. These include Saudi Arabia,
Indonesia, Pakistan, Kuwait, Turkmenistan and Turkey.

Meanwhile, back in the United States, War Corporation member, Joint Strike
Fighter winner and largest weapons producer-Lockheed Martin-is busy behind
the scenes operating home mortgage tracking databases for the Department of
Housing and Urban Development and providing state and local law enforcement
and correctional facilities with an "Integrated Justice Information
System," a platform which "integrates and modernize systems for law
enforcement, courts, and corrections." Why do they need that business? The
rationale behind the "commercial" ventures, and for those of every weapons
contractor, is to make sure that enough profit is made courtesy of public
largesse to keep weapons production lines open.

While Lockheed Martin personnel are hailed as "heroes," few know that
Lockheed's mixed history includes bribing Japanese government officials in
1976. That action led fellow War Corporation member, the U.S. Congress, to
pass the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in 1977. And as of 2000, Lockheed
Martin and the majority of U.S. weapons manufacturers refused to renounce
production of landmines and their deployment along the Korean demilitarized
zone and other killing fields in Africa and South Asia.

Landmines

On that cheery note, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines reports
that the U.S. government admantly refuses to ban or place a moratorium on
the production of antipersonnel mines. According to the United States
Campaign to Ban Landmines, those devices kill 18,000 people a year, most of
them civilians. The stockpile cap announced on January 17, 1997, does not
preclude the production of new antipersonnel mines to replace those used in
future combat operations. Former US Army Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, who was
recently portrayed by Mel Gibson in the movie When We Were Soldiers, in a
letter to President Bush, stated, "landmines pose a particularly grave
threat to refugees and the internally displaced as they seek to return home
and rebuild their lives." He and other retired military veterans urged Bush
to sign the international Mine Ban Treaty in a March 12, 2002, letter.

Yet, the U.S. War Corporation ignores their pleas. The U.S. is currently
producing M87A1 Volcano mine canisters containing antivehicle mines at the
Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant in Texarkana, Texas. This is a
government-owned facility operated by War Corporate member Day and
Zimmerman. Although the production of these mines is scheduled to end next
November, the death and mayhem caused by these inhuman weapons have already
been dealt.

In the end, the worst hit are the young people of the world. Because many
anti-personnel mines look like toys, children have been attracted to them,
with many losing their arms, legs, and eyesight, if not their lives. But
there can never be too many weapons. The problem of overproduction was
solved by George Orwell's "Oceania" in 1984: "As for the problem of
overproduction . . . it is solved by the device of continuous warfare,
which is also useful in keying up public morale to the necessary pitch."

Dwight Eisenhower, igonored by the U.S. War Corporation in his
post-presidency, uttered words seemingly too lofty for the current
generation of war mongers to understand: " . . . Disarmament, with mutual
honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn
how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent
purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent I confess that I lay
down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of
disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering
sadness of war-as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this
civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of
years-I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight."

John Stanton is a Virginia-based writer on national security affairs and
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist who writes
and comments frequently on civil liberties and human rights issues.