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IPFS News Link • Obama Administration

The war complex

• Tom Turnipseed, The News
Obama won the presidency campaigning as a peacemaker but approved $40 billion for arms sales to other countries in his first year in the White House compared to the $34.5 billion President G W Bush approved in his last year in office according to the US State Department. Bush, who blustered his way into war, has been replaced by Obama, a smooth salesman for the US war complex, aka the military, industrial complex or defence industry. Obama has surged the number of troops in Afghanistan; deployed planes, cruise missiles and electronic attacks against Libya; and provided increasing amounts of arms to most of the countries in the Middle East, South Asia and most any other country that wants them.

The war complex relies on war and the threat of war to create their markets. Members of Congress, with defence plants and military bases in their states and districts and war complex contributions in their pockets, put defence spending cuts off-the-table while education, health care and other quality of life programmes are cut to the bone. A commander-in chief that goes to war, okays sales and gifts of killing tools to almost any country that wants them and takes campaign contributions from the war complex is their kind of president.

According to national security analyst Lawrence Korb, the baseline defence budget has grown for 13 straight years. Between fiscal 1998 and 2011, the budget rose from $271 billion to $580 billion. This doesn’t include war costs and the Afghanistan war alone costs roughly $2 billion per week. The US share of global military spending has jumped from one-third to one-half. If big money is made killing people is anyone exempt from being killed?


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