The New Congress Faces Military-Industrial Complex Issues & Pressures

Industry Counts On Democrats To Support Defense Spending
How bizarre is it that an entire industry based on war--not defense but war--is in the position of influencing not only the hawkish ultra-conservatives of the GOP, but also expects to influence the Dems in the new congress?

President Eisenhower, a man that had intimate knowledge of defense spending and the military-industrial machine, warned us of the dangers of allowing such an industry to have the tremendous influence that it has in his 1961 farewell address to the nation. Specifically, Eisenhower warned us that there was collusion between the defense contractors themselves, as well as between the defense industry and many holding high office and authority in the Pentagon.

Eisenhower's warning continues to be evident in today's context. He warned us that this collusion of big corporations dependent upon our being aggressive enough to demand military equipment and power beyond our own need to defend ourselves and our government would undermine our own liberty and way of life. He asked us to keep our basic values and the value of human life, peace and the spiritual goal of always seeking our ideals:

We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.

Eisenhower also warned us that we needed to seek and maintain a balance between the private and public concerns. Anyone who has read "The American House of Saud" or "Showdown At Gucci Gulch," or even paid attention to the corporate and government scandals we have been subjected to since Eisenhower's farewell address, knows that Eisenhower was correct in his warning...almost prophetic.

But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs -- balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage -- balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.

Alas, we have been witness to one excess after another. We have seen numerous corporate scandals that have harmed not only the individuals that worked and/or invested in these big business entities, but have seen our economic and geo-political standing diminished as well. We have suffered while these big corporations--and the politicians that have sold their souls to these corporations in the process of providing access, favor and influence--have gouged our people, moved their business to places where there are fewer protections of workers and investors, and made a profit at our expense. We have often subsidized their activities and profits by passing laws that were of great benefit to them--tax breaks, low-interest loans, loan guarantees, grants, subsidies, rights of way, and tremendous leeway in the way laws have been applied--without really benefiting from their course of action.

There was a time when these corporations considered themselves "American companies" that made a profit by not only by their commercial activities, but also by helping to protect American interests. That is no longer true. These corporations are only interested in their bottom line: a bottom line based on greed, avarice, disregard of humanity, and screwing everyone possible, even their own stockholders, employees and customers.

In fact, many big business corporations--especially those in the oil/energy, banking, transportation, insurance and defense industries--have been influential in creating conflicts for the distinct purpose of making profits. Certainly those companies that sell military equipment, arms and logistical supplies do not suffer when there is conflict in the world. The oil companies certainly seem to reap greater profits when there is conflict that causes a sharp rise in oil commodity prices. Energy companies seem to be able to reap great profits, or commit great frauds (i.e. Enron, PG&E), with government cooperation, especially when there is conflict in the world.

But Eisenhower warned us that this would be the case. He told us that we should be extremely careful about making this bed because we would be crowded by the corruption that we would have to sleep with in the process.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

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.

It seems that it is not only the military suppliers and vendors that have grabbed onto the government and our economy by the "short hairs," but everyone that is even remotely connected with the gravy train of defense spending has gotten into the game of gouging, defrauding, manipulating and influence peddling.

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.

Despite Eisenhower's call for seeking justice and a lasting peace between all nations, we seem to have embarked upon a course that is dead-set upon engaging conflict. Such is the case all the more so under the current Bush administration. We can barely sustain the conflicts in which we are already engaged and our president is seeking out conflict with Iran, North Korea, Somalia and God only knows where else because he continues to operate in extreme secrecy and outside of the authority given to his office by our Constitution. We have seen other administrations--Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, G.H.W. Bush--become run aways from law and order, but none so bad as this administration. But until this recently voted out GOP-controlled congress, we have never seen the extent of utter contempt for the needs of most Americans and the amount of greed, corruption, swindling and influence peddling, not to mention the kowtowing to the Religious Right. Never before have we seen the stacking of the deck on the various federal courts, including the SCOTUS.

We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.

It would appear that Eisenhower was being prophetic in terms of religious intolerance as well. The Religious Right--especially the Christian Right--have engaged in a form of home-grown persecution of anyone that is not in keeping with their understanding of the faith. It is also significant that they have recognized a spiritual void within our nation and tapped into it in a corrupt and perverted manner, assuring the rest of us that all we have to do is "believe" as they believe and all will be well in the world. In the mean time, they are the ones seeking conflict, plowing divisiveness onto our soil, preaching hate and war-mongering (c.f. Pat Robertson's numerous sermons on invasions, assassinations, etc.; as well as Ann Coulter's various diatribes about killing Muslims and making the world Christian).

But that entire process of manipulating our nation will not stop. Even as we have elected a new congress with a Democrat majority in both houses, we see that the defense industry is seeking to curry favor to help maintain its dominion over us. The oil companies are busy lobbying congress members as we speak not to launch new investigations into price gouging that occurs every time there is a bump in the price of a 33-gallon barrel of crude, but never a corresponding rapid drop in prices at the pump when the price of crude drops.

The defense industry is banking on expectations that Democrats want to avoid looking like softies on military matters -- a notion they hope will translate into continued increases to the Pentagon's budget and a warding off of dramatic cuts in expensive weapons systems.

Maybe it's the wishful thinking of defense lobbyists and analysts, many of whom languished through what some called the "procurement holiday" of the Clinton administration. After all, congressional Democrats are lining up a team of sleuths to uncover contracting waste, fraud and abuse at the Pentagon.

But many in and around the defense industry are betting that Democrats, wary of the 2008 elections, would never dare cut defense spending while the military is deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Doesn't it seem odd that these folks are so enmeshed in the process they don't seem to mind if the majority of our nation has spoken out against the militaristic ways of this administration.

In my own political and activist endeavors I am seeing a rise in spiritual connections that are joining voices against violence and war. We are beginning to see a movement of transformation that calls for end to the collusion between the government, defense industrialists and those that have sought to latch on in the wake of these embroilments. The vast majority of us are tired of being taken advantage of by hotshot elites that are in political, commercial and ideological bed with each other... and don't seem to give a damn about anyone but themselves.

The efforts being made toward a new standard of ethics is a first step. We need to take many more steps. We need campaign finance reforms that will empower good candidates from all political perspectives to enter races. We need to end the two-party domination of our political process and start to vote in regard for the quality of character, ideas and reputation of the candidates. We need to assure that there are stringent controls and accounting standards for all of our endeavors. We need to put forth a new agenda for our governments that places caring about each other over the idea of merely making money. We need a national health care plan and system. We need a system of education that calls upon the best and brightest among us to not only enter a profession to make money, but to bring excellence to the professions. We need to acknowledge and embrace our most fundamental political, social and spiritual values... and embed these values in all that we do. We need to measure all that we do by the end achievement of caring concern and the by the legitimacy and integrity of the process(es) employed to arrive at those ends.

"It's a fine line between providing appropriate oversight and looking weak on defense," said Page Hoeper, the Army's former acquisition chief. "No Democrat is going to want to look weak on defense. They want to look fiscally responsible."

There is no such fine line except in the public relations spin that those who want to manipulate and control us have to offer. Yes, we need a strong military for defense and justice. But we do not need to spend that vast sums we are currently spending to maintain the military-industrial complex. We do not need to be spending billions in Iraq chasing control over vast oil resources when those billions would have been better spent seeking out renewable and environmentally sound energy resources.

The world will always seek out the commodities, manufactured goods and services our creativity, commerce and ingenuity is able to produce. We do not need to market weapons to be prosperous. Nor do we need to ignore the needs of the poor in our nation or throughout the world to remain prosperous. We do not need to use our military for every political conflict. We could use our wealth and resources in a more prudent manner to help end poverty, aid in developing a peacefully implemented democratic process, and provide for the overall general welfare of the world. We need not sell short our own economy, nor abandon capitalism as a system, to achieve these goals.

And, perhaps even more pertinent than current conflicts over the Defense Department's futuristic air, land and sea programs, Iran and North Korea continue to loom large as more traditional threats. China, too, is flexing its military muscles, building an increasingly sophisticated arsenal of equipment -- a concern to the Navy in particular.

There will always be conflicts. However, my training in traditional martial arts, counseling, conflict resolution, military tactics, foreign policy, sociology, social work, psychology, geography, politics and education all contribute to my understanding that military might, invasion and coercive force are not the only tools required--or employable--to achieve our goals. Anyone who is (or has been) a parent knows that corporal punishment is always the last resort, threats are usually ineffective, and healthy relationships based on honesty, recognition of the needs of others, and effective communications achieve more than punishment...always.

John Douglass, president of the Aerospace Industries Association, likewise stressed that future threats indicate the military needs to continue its technology transformation efforts. Fortified, "up-armored" Humvees and body armor, a staple for operations in Iraq, aren't the only equipment the military will need in the future.

"It turns out we actually need all of this stuff," said Douglass.

Again, no one is saying we do not need to stay current, capable, aware and prepared. But we certainly do not need to pay $40 for glass ashtrays, $100 for a hammer, $600 for ashtrays in jets (where smoking is not permitted), and thousands of dollars for corporations to take advantage of us.

The fact that the military-industrial complex and other bug businesses are already voicing pseudo-concerns in order to bring our attention to their PR spin in an effort to manipulate the political process in the wake of the mandates issued in the recent mid-term elections is evidence that we have a long way to go before we actually reach the level of reforms necessary for honest and effective government.

We should plaster the words of Dwight D. Eisenhower on every signboard available in and around DC, along the beltway and on every airplane that carries a congress critter to and from Capital Hill.