Bombs injure. Bombs kill. Bombs destroy... Bombs also make people rich...
Authored by David Vine -Therisa (ISA) Arriola: We
need to talk about what bombs do in war. Bombs shred flesh. Bombs
shatter bones. Bombs dismember. Bombs cause brains, lungs, and other
organs to shake so violently they bleed, rupture, and cease functioning.
Bombs injure. Bombs kill. Bombs destroy.Bombs also make people rich.
When a bomb explodes, someone profits. And when someone profits,
bombs claim more unseen victims. Every dollar spent on a bomb is a
dollar not spent saving a life from a preventable death, a dollar not
spent curing cancer, a dollar not spent educating children. That’s why,
so long ago, retired five-star general and President Dwight D.
Eisenhower rightly called spending on bombs and all things military a “theft.”
The perpetrator of that theft is perhaps the world’s most overlooked destructive force.
It looms unnoticed behind so many major problems in the United States
and the world today. Eisenhower famously warned Americans about it in
his 1961 farewell address, calling it for the first time “the military-industrial complex,” or the MIC.
Start with the fact that, thanks to the MIC’s ability to hijack the federal budget, total annual military spending is far larger than most people realize: around $1,500,000,000,000 ($1.5 trillion). Contrary to what the MIC scares us into believing, that incomprehensibly large figure is monstrously out of proportion to the few military threats facing the United States. One-and-a-half trillion dollars is about double what Congress spends annually on all non-military purposes combined.
Calling
this massive transfer of wealth a “theft” is no exaggeration, since
it’s taken from pressing needs like ending hunger and homelessness,
offering free college and pre-K, providing universal health care. Virtually every major problem touched by federal resources could
be ameliorated or solved with fractions of the cash claimed by the MIC.
The money is there.