The Cost of American Militarism and an Absence of Debate
A recent report
by Brown University’s Watson Institute of International and Public
Affairs on the cost of America’s wars in the aftermath of 9/11 estimates
a sum totalling $5.9 Trillion. It is a figure virtually identical to
the $6 Trillion figure projected by Harvard University’s Kennedy School
of
Government in 2013 to be the eventual cost of waging wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet, as with the case of the increased danger of a
nuclear war
that could be the fruit of strained relations developed over the past
decade with the Russian Federation, there has been no public debate in
the United States about why America embarked on a programme of
militarism predicated on the waging of a so-called War on Terror.
Such debate would necessarily have to centre on the three following areas:
1. The “hijacking” (to use the term chosen by retired
US Four Star General Wesley Clark) of American foreign policy in the
aftermath of the September attacks by a group of neoconservatives
operating within the administration of President George W. Bush who drew
up a ‘hit-list’ of seven countries intended to be destroyed over a five
year period.
It would have been expected that all such countries
earmarked for destruction would have had a connection to the planning of
the September attacks, or, at least, have been sympathetic to the
values guiding the alleged perpetrators of the deadliest attack on
American soil since Pearl Harbor in 1941. Yet Iraq, Libya and Syria were
all secular Arab states implacably opposed to the Sunni Islamist
ideology of al-Qaeda, and Iran is a Shia nation. The common denominator
among these states including Lebanon, or more accurately, Hezbollah, the
Iranian-backed Lebanese Shia militia, was an enmity with the State of
Israel.
As Clark stated during a speech
given in October 2007 at the Commonwealth Club of California in San
Francisco, there was never a public debate on a policy which commenced
with the invasion of Iraq and was intended to be completed with an
attack on Iran.
2. The unchanging policy from the administrations led
by Bush Jr to Barack Obama and now Donald Trump due to ‘Deep State’
actors wielding power outside of the separated organs of government. In a
scholarly paper-turned-book entitled National Security and Double Government, Michael J. Glennon,
a professor of international law at Tufts University, has referred to
the power usurping “Trumanite” institutions in contrast to the troika of
“Madisonian” institutions of state, which he persuasively argues are no
longer accountable in the way people think they are.
3. The corporate welfare culture surrounding the
military industry as composed of the Pentagon and corporations such as
Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon and others. The exorbitant costs
involved with the development of the F-35 fighter plane which according
to a number of US generals is pretty much “useless”, is emblematic of
the inefficient weapons development regime that is more concerned with
lining the pockets of corporations than with efficiency and
cost-effectiveness.
The aforementioned, of course, do not mention the
human cost: that of innocent civilian lives destroyed by military
invasions, drone attacks and covert wars initiated by the United States.
It also does not include the number of US service personnel killed,
maimed and suffering from mental traumas.
All need to be factored into a comprehensive debate on
why America’s sovereign debt has spiralled to uncontrollable levels,
and also, why the moral standing of the United States among the
international community of nations has been brought down to an all-time
low.
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This article was originally published on the author’s blog site: Adeyinka Makinde.
Adeyinka Makinde is a writer based in London, England. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.
Featured image is from the author
The original source of this article is Global Research
Copyright © Adeyinka Makinde, Global Research, 2018
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