In 1950 Paul Nitze, then head of policy planning for the State Department drafted a National Security Council document-NSC 68. The document stated" ..without an expansion of military spending the U S would face a decline in economic activity of serious proportion." President Eisenhower warned of the military-industrial complex in his farewell address in 1961.
In 1997 The Project for the New American Century was launched by a lot of the dyspeptic personnel that are in power today-Cheney,Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz et al. The PNAC mission statement continues the same ideology." We need to increase defense spending significantly....to perserve and extend an international order which is friendly to our security, our prosperity and our principles."
The fifty- plus intervening years has produced a hypertrophy military-industrial complex-20% of U S GDP is related to military-industrial and it's extensive supporting families and enterprises.
What happens to hypertrophies? By definition they are doomed by their own success. Zero sum planets and by extension zero sum Federal budgets eventually suffocate the hypertrophy because of an increasingly diminished support base. Simply the U S cannot afford the military and it's wars of choice. The growth that it provided for the economy becomes a drag because of dislocation of critical human needs and the unsustainable debt service that accompanies it. Some recent examples include the Joint Strike Fighter, DD(X) destroyer, Future Combat Systems are all over budget. Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan are examples of unconventional wars. We spend trillions on a war plan that our adversaries have no intention of engaging. In the end the foot soldier is the margin of victory. Our soldiers are not motivated like someone who is defending their homeland.
America should rely on a well armed militia and forget dreams of empire. We should be a country that is an example of sustainable (harmonious ) policies.
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