Jan Oberg
Both NATO and the EU has just announced that their members will now invest more in the military. It’s indicative of the lack of creativity in both organisations. It is self-defeating and counter-productive.
But have you seen it put on top of any agenda and debated? You haven’t, it is so normal — and the argument is that we are threatened. That’s called fearology: Making tax payers pay even more by making them scared.
The military sector is a parasite on society
The military sector produces much less employment than the civilian per invested dollar. It’s a huge burden on the economy because it swallows creativity, research and development badly used to solve humankind’s real problems.
Weapons don’t belong to a market, there is no competition — the state is the only buyer — and thus tax payers must cover the systematic cost overruns.
We are told that there is economic crisis and we must cut down on hospitals, schools and human care everywhere. But this we can afford?
But what if the military did solve our problems?
Well, look at Somalia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Ukraine and today’s Iraq: Where is it the use of armies and arms have made the world better? Where is the human security we provided?
No, whatever the question, the military and its philosophical base in violence is not the solution.
No cold war and no threat — but it goes on
We are told there is no Cold War. Well-informed people know that Russia’s military expenditures is 7% of NATO’s. Russia is a de facto military dwarf in the ‘correlation of forces.’