Eisenhower, Reagan and Rumsfeld
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| Donald Rumfeld |
At the moment, the coherence of the motives of Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and the retired military officers who now unite in denouncing him can only be dimly imagined. At best, we can expect future revelations to tell us how close we came to the truth. But let's take a stab at it.
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| President Eisenhower |
More than fifty years ago, President Eisenhower baffled most of us by warning about the Industrial-Military Complex, which we now see about like this: military contracts are awarded for technical research in the civilian sector. This system was first devised in 19th Century Germany, with great success in providing the German High Command with new weapons and methods of warfare which three times brought Germany close to conquering Europe. No doubt, many of the more intellectual officers of the military had dreams and fantasies which translated into requests for proposals. No doubt, some scientists have brought ideas of workable research projects into receptive military conferences. It's hard to say where such a process begins, so it's fair to call it a Complex.
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| President Reagan |
Although we fought some moderate-sized wars during the period from Eisenhower to the end of Reagan's second term, there's a short-hand way of describing the Industrial Military Complex during that time: we devised a regular succession of new weapon systems, which we had no intention of using. The final example was Star Wars, the threat of which caused the Soviet Union to surrender the Cold War, when in all probability Star Wars was a project that didn't even work. Never mind the oversimplification; this will suffice as framework for a different proposition.
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| Weapons System |
The spin-offs from this military research explain the sudden flowering of peaceful products from Silicon Valley, and the suburbs of Houston and Boston. Japan, mandated to avoid military development, was particularly active in developing peaceful spin-offs from new technology. Over in the world of the professional American military, the spin-offs were somewhat different. Each new technology needed to be carried forward into what was called a weapons system, where whole industries were shaped around the idea of mass-producing the new system, and regiments of young officers planned their future careers as the spear-heads of the new advance in warfare. And then, as often as not, the weapon system was totally dropped in favor of some newer weapon concept, with new industries to profit from its production and new officers to promote their careers as the leaders. It was a great system for the research industry, but it was hard on its supporters and disciples.
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| Al Queda |
Meanwhile, there were two other negative responses. Military leaders in the under developed world began to imagine that their masses of troops and low-technology style might be able to win wars of attrition against a more sophisticated enemy, and in turn the North Koreans, the Vietnamese, and Al Queda taught us some unexpected lessons. The American military was not asleep, we made short work of the same Afghans who had nearly bled the Russians to death. These constant reminders that the world remains a dangerous place exposed one major weakness in the system of devising new styles of warfare. You can't be really sure it works until you try it with live ammunition on a serious enemy.
So the little wars in Afghanistan and Iraq had the advantage that they tested the new systems for weaknesses to be corrected, and identified weapon systems which ought to be expanded for more serious wars, somewhat to the East. You hate to believe our leaders are thinking this way, but there's no doubt we would blame them if they hadn't identified that Humvees need more side armor, body armour needs more ventilation, the CIA needs more language experts.
On one level, of course, all of this is terribly plausible. On another level, some soldiers are getting killed by it. It is certainly easy to sympathize with officers who had been trained to fight the old way, the tried and tested one. Or others who had staked their future on the potential of a weapon system which was never adopted, particularly one which was an unsuccessful contender for reasons of local or partisan politics. And particularly when the civilian leader did not come through the same cultural conditioning of the military academies, had not particularly distinguished himself in challenges they respected. In fact, a Yale man who was described by Henry Kissinger as the most effective bureaucratic infighter he had ever met. On his second try at the job of Secretary of Defense, nearing the end of his term. Having almost proved his point.
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Defense Pentagon Washington, DC 20310-1400  |
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Google Earth |
Interesting commentary indeed. Factually and perceptually well-conceived I must say. And certainly it must be by such a well educated thinking man and doctor. All of what I read above impressed me considerably.
But there are the factors not really mentioned such as why the elitists who run our country choose to run in the way that they do. If I were to believe for one instant that a group calling themselves Al Qaeda were solely responsible for the attacks on New York and Washington by this terrorist organization, then I must have ignorantly purchased some swamp real-estate in the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia somewhere.
What bothers me is how out of control our government has truly become. The citizens of this once great nation have been lulled into a state of unconsciousness never before seen in our history, and the reason is simple enough to explain. Consumerism is out of control.
The banking system is a predatory system. People pay their bills with credit cards because they have no money. The Federal Reserve Bank is in no way related to the federal government. It is a privately held bank which loans money to the government. By constitutional law, the Congress is supposed to be printing our money, which means they are supposed to be in control of our money, and they are not. And when I confront my representatives in Congress and my Senators about why the government is borrowing money from a private banking system, they refuse to answer the question.
So the whole system that runs this country can do no more at this point other than begin its rapid disintegration into a third world economy as it is now doing. The illegally taxed citizens of this country need only to stop filing their highly illegal and obviously unconstitutional labor tax. The IRS will argue that people such as myself who ARE patriots to this country are breaking the law. But there IS NO LAW stating that you or I have to pay a tax on our labor. And it has been proven time and again in courts of law right here in the good 'ol U.S. of A.
My feeling about whether or not we even need a military infrastructure is that we do. But, 41% of my total and illegal Income Tax is spent on the Military Industrial Complex of Pork Barrel Spending which only in the end profits those who own such War Profiteering Corporations such as Richard B. Cheney and others like him. Personally, it has taken many decades for me to wake up to the truth as to who my leaders really are and what they actually stand for ... which is for themselves and ONLY themselves. The rest of us have to fight these Corporate Criminals to the very end.