My friend and TPJ Magazine columnist, Dr. Steve Jonas said it all about the
world where we as a “Free Enterprise” nation seem to be headed. Dr. Jonas wrote not one but two brilliant
pieces Parts I and II of the “Permanence of Permanent War” for Buzz Flash.
After the first reading I found myself sitting in silence, alone and feeling
as though my very soul and essence as a member of the human race had been
sucked out by a giant syringe. I
thought, how can we do that to ourselves?
To allow elite and powerful members of our species with not so
impressive IQ’s to commit these atrocious acts upon the rest of us, the rest of
our species, and the rest of the human race?
Without a protest, not even a whimper.
A phrase come to be accepted by many as an eternal truth is that man’s nature is to kill and destroy his neighbors, himself, and the planet earth, not necessarily in that order. We must be fearful and vigilant against our own species because we are afraid. Just look at 911 and what happened. But if true, why must we live in fear of being harmed? Why must there be perpetual and permanent war on the planet earth? Those who are the biggest winners due to permanent war are the corporations who win big no-bid contracts from Uncle Sam. Not just peanuts to be earned here, there are literally billions of dollars just waiting to be plucked if a society fears something so much that reason is abandoned and rational thought vanishes from the land.
Selling fear weapons and protection is a philosophy. Those exploited by that fear want to insure their safety at any and all costs. The power that sells the protection is busy preaching to Americans why we need, absolutely need to defeat evil both here and abroad. The MIC preaches the short view that that life is dear and short, so don’t waste it. Then they exploit the fear, consuming much of the earth’s resources without much regard for the consequences and the future. The justification? Because you can’t take it with you. So borrow the money now and spend it to defeat the Evil Empire, e.g., even when your country is not at war.
So burn your candle at both ends, they say, live fully, consume it all, and never mind the price: polluted cities, water, mercury in the fish, and bridges collapsing all over America from disrepair. We are led to believe that our own protection from terror is more important. We Americans have bought into the fear. And that is the fuel for the MIC that fuels the flames of permanent war around the globe.
If we were responsible we would stop seeking quick fixes. For one we would stop fracking in order to suck out more oil from the strata of rock beneath our feet. We would show concern and reverence for the aquifers of fresh water beneath us lest they become contaminated with oil, phenols, and other hazards to biological life. We would unite for more solutions to our needs by seeking renewable sources of energy like wind, solar, hydro. We would pride ourselves in thus creating millions of good-paying new jobs in the field of earth science. We would act like we care about ourselves, our posterity, and our home here in the solar system. Coal-fired power would be phased out, and so would mercury levels in every living fish in every lake and stream in America. Sound like us? Not hardly. We want the quick fix. King Oil. Big Coal. Burn it, inhale it all over the planet every waking hour of our existence. If we cared we would stop the nonsense of living just for today and taking risks and short cuts with the earth that we know will be fatal if not for us, for generations to come. Perhaps our days are not limited. Perhaps we could revive what our forefathers knew about preserving the earth, the water, and the air as sacred gifts to humans all over the planet. But we are fearful. So we live for the moment as if there will be no tomorrow.
We choose not to question the sanity of our own government paying $500 for a hammer if we will feel protected and safe. We have become selfish. The MIC knows that war will justify a price of 20 times the norm just because we are scared. Ike warned us about this foolish and tragic mindset. We didn’t listen.
The name of the game for sovereign nations with superior militaries is war. There is big money in the Military Industrial Complex Eisenhower warned all Americans about when he spoke as the outgoing president at Kennedy’s 1961 inauguration. He warned us that our government and these military corporations that sold the United States war products and machinery might prove to be our demise as a nation. He was right. The permanency of war has become a state of being for Americans. We don’t mind paying for protection even if we have to borrow money to keep our nation afloat. And we no longer can concern ourselves with the consequences of our thinking.
Funny thing, but Ike was a Republican, a far cry from today’s Republicans and all the morphs like Neocons and Tea Baggers, the new kids on the scene. If Ike were alive today he would be demonized and Swift-Boated as a senile old geezer who did not have the proper respect for the hand that fed him, and elected him president. You know them. They are the big military contractors who still have no-bid contracts to sell the U.S. government hammers for $500 apiece. Why Hannity would probably call Ike a bleeding liberal by today’s standards.
But what has a “conservative” come to mean? Conserve what? What do they conserve? Not human rights to habeas corpus for sure. Bush II saw to that. And Obama has yet to keep his campaign promise 4 years ago to restore that sacred right. Obama said recently in a vague speech at the World Summit in Northern Ireland that politics is a strange thing. That it is harder to understand that sometimes things take longer than you thought to get them done. Hmmmmm.
Today if you favor the conservative position on most issues it means you as a citizen are okay with not knowing your charges against you if arrested. You might be abducted and sent off to Water board City in Morocco or some other foreign and unknown destination. No phone call to your attorney, mother or spouse permitted. Oh, it hasn’t happened yet, right? And you are not worried because you are honest and do not commit crimes so why worry? Hold that thought as the freedoms we once knew to be alive and well, succumb to the power of the Patriot Act and the whim of somebody sitting at a keyboard in one of our government agencies.
But in all fairness, is Obama any better as an avowed Democrat? He promised to correct much of the Bush II renderings of people and our rights to privacy and a fair trial. And to add insult to injury Obama saw to it that the Patriot Act was strengthened. After he moved into the White House. Is torture still on the table as a means for our American democracy to fight terrorism?
So, in trying to determine who our leaders are these days when the Constitution still shows ragged edges from all the shredding, just who are these Neocons who borrow and spend like big-spending Democrats? And who are these Democrats who are just as draconian as Bush II when it comes to governing by secret decree and stealth? Heck Obama has shown us that he can shoot down suspects now with secret drones by night and Hell Fire Missiles. No right to trial necessary. No need to close down Guantanamo Base, Cuba as Obama promised.
In a nutshell, it looks very much like no matter the political party in power, it is about the business they deem necessary to protect Americans. Don’t ask. You don’t want to know. It keeps the terrorists at bay they say. And the unspoken words are, “Trust me.” No need to allow Congress to make many laws anymore. The Unitary Executive can just modify bills with a “signing statement” that becomes government by one. Obama said Bush II was wrong to attach signing statements to bills passed by Congress awaiting presidential signature. He vowed to stop that practice. But he hasn’t yet.
Obama or any other president since the Bush II legacy of “The Constitution is just a goddamned piece of paper” can drone shoot whoever he wants without any paperwork or explanation. Some democracy we have morphed into. These are new waters.
In truth, didn’t both Reagan and Bush II pull a Houdini and borrow the $7 Trillion extra dollars that got tacked onto our National Debt (not to mention all the interest we paid to China and Japan, our favorite lenders) so that the $500 hammer market would thrive? Of course this is figuratively speaking: billion-dollar Stealth Bombers and all other forms of WAR MONEY NECESSITITIES do add up as well. Fast. Tomahawk Missiles at $1.2 million a copy ain’t chopped liver either. In any case instant money could be paid out to their favorite war contractor cronies, right? You know, to get the big bucks redistributed to the other side of the room? Where power lives to control the world? And makes unlimited campaign contributions to enable purchasing any damned politician you decide to buy? But SCHIPS might have to suffer. Perhaps Social Security and Medicare. And Medicaid. Fighting terror is number one. Just ask a MIC corporation.
Funny, but real money isn’t necessary to make all this borrowing and spending work just like it was real. Just pull a few billion here and a few billion there out of thin air, and (presto!) you got armies, tanks, planes, ships, drones, and elaborate computer software to guide these puppies to their kill destinations. No money necessary, just borrow it, just do it. Just add it onto the National Debt that we all have come to love as a means of blowing up Evil Empires and Axis of Evil countries. The American taxpayer won’t even know what hit him. Later he won’t even suspect how America came to the Fiscal Cliff or how we all got to such a revolting place. Just blame it on the illegals that drain our government for healthcare, jobs they steal, and all the newborn little illegals that are born here and become instant citizens. Blame it on them. Blame it on welfare recipients that Rush Limbaugh says are to blame. Has Rush ever mentioned the folly of borrowing and spending trillions of dollars to protect us from terrorists and Evil Empires? No? I didn’t think so.
In Part II we will consider some of the more intricate connections between those who rule and sell the $500 hammers to the United States government. It looks like legal bribery at many points of the compass at first glance. Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that an unlimited amount can be given to any political candidate’s campaign, well, it begins to look like the Clash of the Titans is nigh. It will be a new world to see what unlimited funds will buy and do to get these candidates elected to do the bidding of major corporations who have a big stake in buying the legislation they must continue to secure in their tireless trek to conquer and rule the world.