tagged w/ Military Industrial Complex
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"Listen to this incredible audio recording of a speech made by JFK before the American Newspaper Publishers Association where he warns the press about the secret societies that are the real power in global affairs.""Listen to this incredible audio recording of a speech made by JFK before the... more
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Please view map at original source:
http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/intervention/2003/0710imperialmap.htm
http://www.nonviolenceworks.com/usmilitaryglobal.pdf
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alternet.org writes:
link: http://www.alternet.org/story/47998/
With more than 2,500,000 U.S. personnel serving across the planet and military bases spread across each continent, it's time to face up to the fact that our American democracy has spawned a global empire.
The following is excerpted from Chalmers Johnson's new book, "Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic" (Metropolitan Books).
"The total of America's military bases in other people's countries in 2005, according to official sources, was 737. Reflecting massive deployments to Iraq and the pursuit of President Bush's strategy of preemptive war, the trend line for numbers of overseas bases continues to go up.
Interestingly enough, the thirty-eight large and medium-sized American facilities spread around the globe in 2005 -- mostly air and naval bases for our bombers and fleets -- almost exactly equals Britain's thirty-six naval bases and army garrisons at its imperial zenith in 1898. The Roman Empire at its height in 117 AD required thirty-seven major bases to police its realm from Britannia to Egypt, from Hispania to Armenia. Perhaps the optimum number of major citadels and fortresses for an imperialist aspiring to dominate the world is somewhere between thirty-five and forty."
Chalmers Johnson interview
http://current.com/items/88918521_nemesis_the_last_days_of_the_american_republic
Please view map at original source:... more
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Think you can spend $3 trillion better than President Bush?
“Just counting the zeroes on the $3 trillion price tag of the Iraq War is enough to induce hyperventilation. But what does $3 trillion really mean? It’s difficult even to comprehend a number that big. Well, try filling your shopping cart with what the cost of the Iraq War could buy: healthcare for every American? A new home for every subprime borrower now facing foreclosure? An Ivy League university? You haven’t even gotten started.”
-Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz
co-author of The Three Trillion Dollar War
Browse through our departments or use the search box to find a product. Once you've found something you like, simply add it to your cart. If you want to add more than one, keep on clicking—after all, our government just loves to spend spend spend. (Can't locate something you want? Simply "add a product" and follow the steps.) When you're all finished, proceed to the checkout, where you'll be able to complete your order and e-mail your virtual gifts to friends.
What are you waiting for? Get shopping!
http://3trillion.org/
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Wow, this is just ridiculous. Entertaining, educational and ridiculous. End the war!!!Think you can spend $3 trillion better than President Bush?
“Just counting... more
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House Democratic leaders are putting together the largest Iraq war spending bill yet, a measure that is expected to fund the war through the end of the Bush presidency and for nearly six months into the next president’s term.
The bill, which could be unveiled as early as this week, signals that Democrats are resigned to the fact they can’t change course in Iraq in the final months of President Bush’s term. Instead, the party is pinning its hopes of ending the war on winning the White House in November.
Bay Area lawmakers, who represent perhaps the most anti-war part of the country, acknowledge the bill will anger many voters back home.
“It’s going to be a tough sell to convince people in my district that funding the war for six months into the new president’s term is the way to end the war,” said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, a leader of the Out of Iraq Caucus who plans to oppose the funding. “It sounds like we are paying for something we don’t want.”
The bill is expected to provide $108 billion that the White House has requested for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lawmakers who are drafting it say it also will include a so-called bridge fund of $70 billion to give the new president several months of breathing room before having to ask Congress for more money.
The debate is shaping up as a key test for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The San Francisco Democrat, who opposed the war from the start, faces fierce criticism from the anti-war left for refusing to cut off funding for the war. She’s trying to hold together a caucus split between anti-war lawmakers, who’d prefer a showdown with the White House, and conservative Democrats, who believe cutting off the war funding would make the party look weak on national security and put its majority at risk.
House Democratic leaders are putting together the largest Iraq war spending bill yet,... more
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Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, who has called for withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq, said on Sunday he will vote to confirm the top commander there for a new job as head of the military's Central Command.
President George W. Bush has nominated Gen. David Petraeus, who led the buildup of troops in Iraq, to be in charge of operations across the Middle East and Central Asia.
If confirmed by the Senate, Petraeus will still be in that job when the next president replaces Bush at the White House in January 2009. Obama hopes that person is him.
"Yes," Obama told "Fox News Sunday" when asked if, as a senator from Illinois, he would approve Petraeus. "I think Petraeus has done a good tactical job in Iraq."
Obama has said he would start pulling out more troops as soon as he became president.
"My hope is that Petraeus would reflect that wider view of our strategic interest," he said on "Fox News Sunday."
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, who has called for withdrawing U.S.... more
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60 years of enormous military spending is taking a dramatic toll on the rest of the economy.60 years of enormous military spending is taking a dramatic toll on the rest of the... more
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"In his new book, CIA analyst, distinguished scholar, and best-selling author Chalmers Johnson argues that US military and economic overreach may actually lead to the nation’s collapse as a constitutional republic. It’s the last volume in his Blowback trilogy, following the best-selling 'Blowback' and 'The Sorrows of Empire.' In those two, Johnson argued American clandestine and military activity has led to un-intended, but direct disaster here in the United States.
Chalmers Johnson is a retired professor of international relations at the University of California, San Diego. He is also President of the Japan Policy Research Institute. Johnson has written for several publications including Los Angeles Times, the London Review of Books, Harper’s Magazine, and The Nation. In 2005, he was featured prominently in the award-winning documentary film, 'Why We Fight.'"
Amy Goodman // democracynow.org
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/
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The clip is from "Speeking Freely Volume 4: Chalmers Johnson on American Hegemony."
>> "Blowback" was one of the four books that Ron Paul recommended to Rudy Giuliani for an introduction to foreign policy."In his new book, CIA analyst, distinguished scholar, and best-selling author... more
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IVAW members seize National Archives Building in front of hundreds of surprised museum visitors. Response from visitors including teachers, students, vacationers was highly positive though there were a few horrified faces in the crowd. IVAW read the terms of our Citizens Arrest Warrant.
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To these brave men who served I say THANK YOU!IVAW members seize National Archives Building in front of hundreds of surprised museum... more
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When "enhanced interrogation techniques" get a little too "enhanced," they can always be outsourced to private contractors like CACI... for the right price.When "enhanced interrogation techniques" get a little too... more
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Just like in Star Trek, a Transparent, alumiunum based armor is being optimized by engineers at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio.
The Product is called ALON:
"ALONtm [sic] is a ceramic compound with a high compressive strength and durability. When polished, it is the premier transparent armor for use in armored vehicles, said. 1st Lt. Joseph La Monica, transparent armor sub-direction lead
'The substance itself is light years ahead of glass, he said, adding that it offers 'higher performance and lighter weight.'
Traditional transparent armor is thick layers of bonded glass. The new armor combines the transparent ALONtm [sic] piece as a strike plate, a middle section of glass and a polymer backing. Each layer is visibly thinner than the traditional layers.
ALONtm [sic] is virtually scratch resistant, offers substantial impact resistance, and provides better durability and protection against armor piercing threats, at roughly half the weight and half the thickness of traditional glass transparent armor, said the lieutenant."Just like in Star Trek, a Transparent, alumiunum based armor is being optimized by... more
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Is this their way of showing they support the troops? And I bet those troops effected don't even have any recourse.
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON - Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, the Pentagon's internal watchdog says.
A report obtained by The Associated Press said soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq. end.
Is this their way of showing they support the troops? And I bet those troops effected... more
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The Pentagon and Marine Corps authorized the purchase of 84,000 bulletproof vests in 2006 that not only are too heavy but are so impractical that some U.S. Marines are asking for their old vests back so they can remain agile enough to fight.The Pentagon and Marine Corps authorized the purchase of 84,000 bulletproof vests in... more
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Cameo by the Ghost Busters.
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With insight and a creative new voice, two Chicago-area 13-year olds, Stephen Sotor and Trace Gaynor, have written, edited and produced Genie In A Bottle Unleashed, a film that explores the history and consequences of the development of the atomic bomb.
From the secrets of the Manhattan Project through the horrific devastation at Hiroshima and Nagasaki - these two 7th graders lead a new generation through our nuclear history; along the way they manage to interview Nobel prize winning scientists, the creator of the "Doomsday Clock," the mayor of Hiroshima and even a Hiroshima 7th grader about the legacy of the atomic bomb. Even more creatively, they also track down the proverbial "Genie" to find out why he has created such havoc. Screened at the United Nations, this 15-minute gem received a standing ovation.
Hmm, not bad for 13 year olds.
More on Mayors for Peace here:http://www.mayorsforpeace.org/english/index.htmlWith insight and a creative new voice, two Chicago-area 13-year olds, Stephen Sotor... more
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Blackwater USA isn't alone in Iraq; there are many other private security firms such as the British mercenary Firm Aegis Defense Services. The following link is to a video of what these mercenaries have actually recorded for themselves 'for fun'. The video might be disturbing so watch at your own risk!!!
!Note! Originally wrote this on my blog September 18th, 2007.
In this age where Capitalism affects everything, it's no surprise that its influence in modern warfare has extended further than President Eisenhower's warning of the original Military Industrial Complex. The Military Industrial Complex has gone one step further in today's modern world. In the past where private enterprises would merely just sell and arm world militaries/militias (as they still continue to do), but they have actually started to actually become the military/armed forces they used to supply in the past.
One of these specific private enterprises, who are also currently a private contractor in Iraq, is: Blackwater USA. They've been in the news before for not having to report to superiors and just killing civilians in Iraq without any regard for ethics or morality. But it seems finally, Iraq has had enough of them and the Iraqi interior ministry has cancelled the operating license of the US security firm, Blackwater USA after it was involved in a shootout that killed eight civilians and wounded thirteen others on Monday.
As reported in today's (9/18/07) LA Times:
"They are untouchable," one private soldier told the Los Angeles Times. "They've shot up other private security contractors, Iraqi military, police and civilians."
Blackwater USA Facts:
* The company trains more than 40,000 people a year, from all the military services and a variety of other agencies. Most of Blackwater's work is guarding officials from the State Department.
* 120,000 "private security contractors" are in Iraq, 48,000 of them working as combat soldiers. They get paid far more than real soldiers, their deaths are not included in the official casualty counts, and they are essentially accountable to no one, according to state department officials.
* The company markets itself as being "The most comprehensive professional military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping, and stability operations company in the world".
* At least 90% of its revenue comes from government contracts, two-thirds of which are no-bid contracts*.
*No-bid contracts aka sole source contract A contract awarded usually, but not always, by a government after soliciting and negotiating with only one firm. These contracts can be negotiated much more quickly than a typical competitive contract but they are often fraught with suspicion that the company used illegal or immoral means to exclude competitors (usually cronyism or bribery). Nevertheless, U.S. law permits the government to award sole source contracts under specified circumstances but no-bid contracts are illegal under European Union commissioning law. In case, you didn't get where I was going with this, other corporations such as Halliburton's KBR also receives contracts like this. Meaning our government basically doesn't believe in 'Capitalism's competition' when it comes to doing the 'shopping' for the firms to hire, as if price doesn't matter, don't look at competitor prices, just give the contract to your friends unconditionally. And that's how we a lot of money is 'lost' and unaccounted for and why the Iraq war is also costing so much (money, not even talking about all the lives it has cost).
- RegretFreeBlackwater USA isn't alone in Iraq; there are many other private security firms... more
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14 of the 17 people who were shot in an Iraqi square were determined to be unarmed civilians by the FBI. This comes as the State Departments inspector-general admits family connection to Blackwater.14 of the 17 people who were shot in an Iraqi square were determined to be unarmed... more
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Bush's shadow army in Iraq. Private heavily armed US mercenary soldiers in Iraq, New Orleans (after Katriina) and Africa - very frightening development. WATCH THIS VIDEO - YOU WILL LEARN MUCH! Blackwater:The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army filmed in Chicago by Paul Hubbard, June 16, 2007 Bush's shadow army in Iraq. Private heavily armed US mercenary soldiers in Iraq,... more
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PHubb
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added this
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4 years ago
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