Military-Industrial Complex
Updated 2024-04-03
Theaters of War Documentary – Wikipedia a 2022 American documentary film that examines the influence of the Pentagon and CIA in shaping Hollywood and television scripts, making use of the Freedom of Information Act to acquire internal state files. The film also features interviews with academics, government officials, veterans, and industry players including Oliver Stone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theaters_of_War
2024-03-14 100+ Musical Acts Boycott SXSW Over US Army, Defense Contractor Ties More than 100 musical acts have pulled out of the music and cultural festival South by Southwest in protest of the event’s close ties to the U.S. Army and numerous defense contractors which have displayed exhibits at the week-long gathering, with one hip hop trio from Northern Ireland saying they would face a “significant financial impact” due to the decision.
The financial loss, said the Belfast-based band Kneecap, “isn’t an iota of hardship when compared with the [unimaginable] suffering being inflicted every minute of every day on the people of Gaza.” The Austin For Palestine Coalition (AFPC) has been campaigning in the Texas state capital for several weeks to push bands and speakers to boycott the festival, which is commonly known as SXSW and has been based in Austin since 1987. https://www.commondreams.org/news/musicians-boycott-sxsw
2024-02-16 Yankees Go Home! Isn’t It Time to Put Down Our Deadly Toy Soldiers? America’s leaders, possessing a peerless Air Force, regularly exhibit a visceral willingness to use it to bomb and missile perceived enemies into submission or, if need be, nothingness. And don’t for a second think that they’re going to be stopped by international law, humanitarian concerns, well-meaning protesters, or indeed any force on this planet. America bombs because it can, because it believes in the efficacy of violence, and because it’s run by appeasers.
Yes, America’s presidents, its bombers-in-chief, are indeed appeasers. Of course, they think they’re being strong when they’re blowing distant people to bits, but their actions invariably showcase a distinctive kind of weakness. They eternally seek to appease the military-industrial-congressional complex, aka the national (in)security state, a complex state-within-a-state with an unappeasable hunger for power, profit, and ever more destruction.
No technology may be more all-American than bombs and bombers and no military doctrine more American than the urge to attain “peace” through massive firepower. In World War II and subsequent wars, the essential U.S. approach could be summarized in five words: mass production enabling mass destruction. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/toy-soldiers-endless-war-us-imperialism
2024-01-29 Genocide Joe is no defender of democracy Any number of voices in Washington have tried to spin the reality that is all too obvious to the rest of the world: Israel continues to violate human rights, and its violations grow more outrageous with every passing day. Yet both parties in Washington remain committed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite his belligerence, and none of them support either the international law or human rights principles adopted after the Second World War. In that context, it is even more disingenuous to suggest that democracy is on the ballot this November. Democracy has no friends among the major parties’ candidates. Last week, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) announced its interim ruling favoring South Africa’s legal challenge to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
This installment will examine the role of the militarism shared by Democrats and Republicans in fulfilling the terrifying prophecy of President Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower was ironically the last war hero to win the White House, and issued a prolific warning in 1961 that an ignorant nation tragically forgot immediately. He warned, in no uncertain terms, that:
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.https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/genocide-joe-is-no-defender-of-democracy
2023-12-19 U.S. Science and the Military KPFA – Against the Grain Advancements in science are seen as symbols of human progress, but science has frequently served deadly ends. Historian Clifford Conner discusses how scientific research in the United States is deeply enmeshed with the military, and considers the purpose of trillions of dollars of spending on the military. (Encore presentation.) Resources: Clifford D. Conner, The Tragedy of American Science: From Truman to Trump Haymarket Books, 2022 Science for the People https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/u-s-science-and-the-military/id78900506?
2023-12-15 US Terror List Hit 2 Million People, Nearly Doubling In 6 Years The Terrorist Screening Dataset, a consolidated watchlist of individuals deemed as known or suspected terrorists, has seen a dramatic increase in numbers. Launched in 2003 with approximately 120,000 individuals, it ballooned to 1.6 million individuals by 2017. As of the end of 2023, this figure has reached an astonishing 2 million, including, as we noted, thousands of Americans.
According to Russ Travers, a four-decade veteran of the U.S. intelligence community who helped create the watchlist: “It doesn’t mean they’re a terrorist. It means there’s something that has led a department or agency to say, ‘This person needs a closer look.’” However, the criteria for adding individuals to this list remain shrouded in secrecy, with the government neither confirming nor denying an individual’s presence on the list.
Monte Hawkins, overseeing watchlisting policy for President Biden, claims that “those 2 million people who are on the list are on there for a reason,” with a majority being non-U.S. citizens or legal residents. Yet, the lack of transparency and accountability in this process raises significant concerns.
Many in the civil liberties field as well as former counterterrorism insiders who have worked directly on the watchlist, have expressed grave concerns over the system’s expansion – noting a multitude of government abuses, errors, and a lack of willingness to admit to and correct mistakes since it launched.https://www.activistpost.com/2023/12/us-terror-list-hit-2-million-people-nearly-doubling-in-6-years.html
2023-11-19 Myth Of “Western Civilization” Destroyed In 2 Minutes By U.N. Palestinian Representative United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese recently addressed the General Assembly and lit into the United States for making any claim to being a force for peace in the world. The United States is a warmongering nations, she said, with a foreign policy wholly based on the demands of the powerful military industrial complex. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx3NbXFkM1k
2023-10-12 Guns for Hire: America’s Crisis State Goes Global Even Dwight D. Eisenhower, the retired five-star Army general-turned-president who warned against the disastrous rise of misplaced power by the military industrial complex was complicit in contributing to the build-up of the military’s role in dictating national and international policy.
The Biden Administration’s response to the latest carnage in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war merely plays into the hands of a salivating military industrial complex for whom war is merely a means to a larger profit margin. War has become a huge money-making venture, and America, with its vast military empire and its incestuous relationship with a host of international defense contractors, is one of its best buyers and sellers. https://www.activistpost.com/2023/10/guns-for-hire-americas-crisis-state-goes-global.html
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