Every
gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket
fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those
who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not
clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone.
It
is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its
scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way
of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening
war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
-Dwight
D. Eisenhower, from a speech before the American Society
of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953. 34th president of
US 1953-1961 (1890 - 1969)
Nearly
60 years ago, when Republicans were of a different breed
of politician, the president of the United States, the commander of the allied forces
in Europe during World War II, knew
the problems of an escalating hostility toward peace in
a country that was just beginning to bristle with the
armaments of a world-wide empire.
America had played the biggest role in winning the war against
a formidable enemy and the arms and weapons industries
were geared up for continued full-scale production, but
with no more war to fight. Eisenhower, however, saw the
energy of an entire people and the material wealth that
had been expended and must have been somewhat alarmed,
even in 1953, about the shortchanging that other aspects
of the society were about to experience.
Seven
years later, in his now-famous farewell speech, he warned
about the �military-industrial complex,� but most who
cite it forget that he also warned about what the budding
complex was doing to another institution, higher learning.
He said, �Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his
shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists
in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion,
the free university, historically the fountainhead of
free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a
revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because
of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes
virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. 
For
every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic
computers. The prospect of domination of the nation's
scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and
the power of money is ever present � and is gravely to
be regarded.�
Since
many of us have lived through the intervening years, we
have seen first-hand the accuracy of his warning. The
corporations involved in the military-industrial complex
have not stopped developing new weapons and appear to
have succeeded in convincing Congress and subsequent presidents
that weapons systems and a mighty military should replace
diplomacy and the State Department, which, in the minds
of some, has become an arm of the same military-industrial
complex.
Why
would a free people living in a democracy allow their
government to build up a Defense Department and weapons
systems that effectively force social programs to wither
and disappear? Mostly, it�s fear. And, since the Sept.
11, 2001, attacks, it has been easy to instill fear in
most Americans, even those who know the insidious nature
of official propaganda. Even though there are no enemy
states to threaten the U.S.,
it has been widely reported that U.S.
defense and military spending is more than the other developed
nations on Earth combined.
This
ensures that we are not in much danger of attack from
any country, but it is impoverishing a large percentage
of the people. Now, the danger is from terrorist attack
and the authorities have been expert at whipping up the
fear of an imminent terrorist attack, which fear results
in general support for military and defense buildups,
even though it pours billions into the coffers of corporations
in the military-industrial complex. Although it is difficult
to protect a country as big as the United
States from terrorist attacks, invading
other countries is not the way to provide that protection.
The
transfer of the American manufacturing and industrial
sectors over the past four decades to dozens of other
countries has deprived American workers of making the
kind of living they thought had become standard and would
never end. Incomes for the average wageworker that have
been cut in half is a common problem and more and more
people are coming to depend on government programs to
survive. To feed the military and defense budgets, however,
those programs are being slashed or eliminated.
It�s
a little late, but Americans are beginning to question
the amount of money that has been spent in waging war
against Iraq
and Afghanistan. Of course,
the claim by official Washington
was that they would be short wars, and even that the Iraq invasion and war would be paid for with oil
from the vast reserves in the country. The casualties
on all sides were staggering, with thousands of Americans
killed, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed, and a
large proportion of American troops (more than 2 million
served there) suffering from maiming wounds and post-traumatic
stress disorder. That war cost will remain to be paid
over the next 40 or 50 years.
Even
though there was not a draft, that it was a volunteer
army fighting in those two countries, the people did finally
stir and began to question the cost of the wars in blood
and treasure. What might be the solution to the problem
of general opposition to U.S. military adventures
in the future? How about fighting wars or war-like action
by proxy, without troops being involved?
That
problem is on the way to being solved. Waging constant
war without troops can be done, up to a point, and the
ever-innovative research into weaponry has come up with
drones. Unmanned aircraft of various sizes and shapes
that can stay in the air for a day, or so, can photograph
or provide real-time observation of activity on the ground,
and can unleash some of the most awesome firepower available
to the U.S. arsenal. Drones
have been used to kill many �militants� or �insurgents,�
but unfortunately, there have been families and wedding
parties and many other civilians killed using these weapons.
And this has tended to make ordinary people on the ground
angry, resentful, and hateful. Even though this method
of warfare might get fewer Americans killed, it is far
from clean and tidy warfare. The killing on the ground
is just as bloody and destructive and, seemingly, there
is no defense against the fire from the sky.
The
Pentagon has 7,000 drones, up from about 50 that it had
10 years ago, according to The New York Times.
This year, it has requested $5 billion for its drone program,
indicating continued expansion of the program. Already,
the military has about 4,500 smaller drones, many of which
can be launched by hand and which may be used mainly for
reconnaissance. For launching and landing of the drones,
the U.S. needs bases
and airstrips, some very simple, but there is no shortage
of American bases around the world. Some observers have
set the number of bases at more than 730.
Operators
or pilots of the killer drones are in several bases in
the Middle East, others are, or will
be, located in various states across the country. What
is an interesting twist in the job of killing people half
a world away is that many of the drone �pilots� are showing
signs of post-traumatic stress syndrome. In many cases,
they have observed the people on the ground go about their
daily lives for weeks or months. Then, one day, they have
to kill them and it�s all done with instrumentation and
a push of the button at the end of a joystick. For someone
who makes the kill, then gets up from the computer console
and goes home to dinner, it�s enough to make one sick.
Drone warfare promises that there will be more of it.
That�s
not all to the development of drones. There is a civilian
application, as well. In a national security state, in
which there is a rapid move to control the citizenry in
every way possible, drones can be very helpful in law
enforcement, as some citizens recently learned.
Last
June, a sheriff investigating missing cattle in eastern
North Dakota
was forced off a 3,000-acre ranch by three men toting
rifles, according to the Chicago Tribune. He left
and later, requested help from one of the drones that
are maintained by the Border Patrol in that region, according
to the paper, �As the unmanned aircraft circled two miles
overhead the next morning, sophisticated sensors under
the nose helped pinpoint the three suspects and showed
they were unarmed. Police rushed in and made the first
known arrests of U.S.
citizens with help from a Predator, the spy drone that
has helped revolutionize modern warfare. But that was
just the start. Local police say they have used two unarmed
Predators based at Grand Forks Air Force Base to fly at
least two dozen surveillance flights since June. The FBI
and Drug Enforcement Administration have used Predators
for other domestic investigations, officials said.�
Even
if the U.S. doesn�t want
to engage in full-scale war with drones and other technology,
there is always a civilian use to be found for military
hardware. Most anyone could come up with dozens of ways
that they could be used, and if that doesn�t chill the
average citizens, we have more problems in the country
than just a collapsing economy. In any event, the new
ways of maintaining empire are bound to include drones
and other means. It only takes money and, as President
Eisenhower pointed out, every dollar that is spent on
armaments and weapons systems, is a dollar taken away
from a child�s nutrition, a child�s education, housing,
health care, and myriad other things that make for a life.
Eisenhower,
a Republican, could not have envisioned the depths to
which his party could fall. In this primary campaign season,
virtually all the candidates for his party�s nomination
for president, to a person, seem ready to scuttle every
government program that it is possible to eliminate or
reduce to a shell, except for defense and the military.
Democrats are a little better on this issue. The GOP is
playing to peoples� baser instincts, but it does not seem
to be playing well. 
The
people are beginning to understand, as the old warhorse
knew, that you cannot run a country on brute strength
and you cannot sit astride the nations of the world by
use of the threat of invasion or some other kind of attack.
And now, we have the drones.
BlackCommentator.com
Columnist, John Funiciello, is a labor organizer and former
union organizer. His union work started when he became
a local president of The Newspaper Guild in the early
1970s. He was a reporter for 14 years for newspapers in
New York State. In
addition to labor work, he is organizing family farmers
as they struggle to stay on the land under enormous pressure
from factory food producers and land developers. Click
here
to contact Mr. Funiciello.
