A timely reminder by Jake Lynch in Online Opinion about some of the internal factors in America of why it’s almost always at war with somebody:
For the US to be at war should not be surprising, but seen, instead, as normal: not “man-bites-dog” but “dog-bites-man”. In every case, our attention has been directed to particular, external causes, or threats, from South-East Asian nations “falling like dominoes” to communism, to Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction”. Instead, we should be looking for general, internal causes. What is it about America that keeps it at war, and what is now intensifying the pressures to war?
A colossal arms industry needs periodic advertising campaigns, or slogans like “shock and awe”, more now because the era of “shareholder value” means ever greater returns are required, to meet market expectations. Obama’s first defence budget in early April kept up the previous level of spending. The share price of all the major weapons suppliers turned sharply upwards just beforehand, and they’ve been outperforming the stock market ever since. Recently, the industry managed to inveigle Congress into an appropriation the military itself doesn’t want, the redundant F22 fighter.
Then there’s the media. As Secretary of State Colin Powell took centre stage as America’s chief spokesman for invading Iraq, TV companies waved the flag. At the time, they were hoping Michael Powell would waive the rules. Colin’s son was then Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, and planning deregulation that would make big media lots of money.
One of the three major TV networks, NBC, is actually majority-owned by one of the big four arms dealers, General Electric, also a major backer of the Bush campaigns for the White House and the beneficiary of reconstruction contracts in Iraq worth a cool $600 million. The dots are joined by the proliferation of on-air experts and commentators from corporate-funded think tanks, pushing military stratagems. The idea for the “troop surge” in Iraq was launched, not by government but by the American Enterprise Institute, with a column in the Washington Post.
Where does that leave us? Australian troops are about to take part in Operation Talisman Sabre, in central Queensland, the biennial joint training exercise geared towards maintaining “interoperability” with their US counterparts. We are rehearsing for the next war, and we should think long and hard about whether we really want to.
Obama has spoken about the need for America to regain its leadership as an innovator of civilian technological applications, a reference to the massive misdirection of resources under Bush. He may re-regulate media to dilute control by a handful of multi-purpose corporate players. He may cut the Pentagon’s procurement budgets and he may promote inclusive dialogue and negotiation in Afghanistan. He may prove a peacemaker: but the underlying momentum, in large sections of the US economy, is pulling in the opposite direction.
