{"id":351890,"date":"2018-03-13T02:36:59","date_gmt":"2018-03-13T01:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/modernization-medias-favorite-euphemism-for-military-buildup\/"},"modified":"2018-03-13T02:36:59","modified_gmt":"2018-03-13T01:36:59","slug":"modernization-medias-favorite-euphemism-for-military-buildup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/modernization-medias-favorite-euphemism-for-military-buildup\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Modernization\u2019: Media\u2019s Favorite Euphemism for Military Buildup"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_8916523\" style=\"max-width: 361px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-8916523\" src=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Reuters-Modernize.png\" alt=\"Reuters: U.S. F-35 fighter modernization could cost $16 billion through 2024\" width=\"351\" height=\"399\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em><strong>Reuters<\/strong> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-usa-budget-defense\/trump-proposes-bigger-budget-for-pentagon-nuclear-arsenal-idUSKBN1FW1YL\">2\/12\/18<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>One of the most effective rhetorical tools in normalizing massive military budgets is to treat spending billions\u2014and sometimes trillions\u2014of dollars as something one has to do in order to be \u201cmodern.\u201d \u00a0\u201cModernization\u201d is, after all, a normative label; who doesn\u2019t want to be <i>modern<\/i>? Here are just a handful of examples over the past month:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cThe Department of Energy said the money was needed to modernize and restore the country\u2019s nuclear weapons complex.\u201d (<b>Reuters<\/b>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-usa-budget-defense\/trump-proposes-bigger-budget-for-pentagon-nuclear-arsenal-idUSKBN1FW1YL\">2\/12\/18<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>Pentagon Budget Seeks Billions for Modernizing Nuclear Arsenal, Missile Defense (<b>The Hill<\/b>, <a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/defense\/373464-pentagon-budget-request-includes-billions-for-nuclear-modernization-missile\">2\/12\/18<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe United States Army will receive increased funding in the president\u2019s fiscal year 2019 budget proposal as the service struggles to modernize while simultaneously fighting wars in current conflicts.\u201d (<b>National Interest<\/b>, <a href=\"http:\/\/nationalinterest.org\/blog\/the-buzz\/can-the-army-get-ready-war-russia-china-fight-terror-too-24549\">2\/19\/18<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cUS nuclear policy is aimed at deterring Russia through the modernization of the US arsenal.\u201d (<b>CNN<\/b>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2018\/03\/01\/europe\/putin-russia-missile-intl\/index.html\">3\/1\/18<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>US F-35 Fighter Modernization Could Cost $16 Billion Through 2024 (<b>Reuters<\/b>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-usa-lockheed-f35\/u-s-f-35-fighter-modernization-could-cost-16-billion-through-2024-idUSKCN1GK02M\">3\/7\/18<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>Navy to Modernize Its Super Hornet Fleet (<b>Military.com<\/b>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.military.com\/daily-news\/2018\/03\/07\/navy-modernize-its-super-hornet-fleet.html\">3\/7\/18<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A variation on this tautology is \u201coverhaul\u201d (<b>New York Times<\/b>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/08\/27\/us\/politics\/trump-nuclear-overhaul.html\">8\/27\/17<\/a>) or \u201crebuild\u201d (<b>The Hill,<\/b> <a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/defense\/371537-trump-we-must-modernize-and-rebuild-nuclear-arsenal\">1\/20\/18<\/a>), the idea being that something has fallen into disrepair or broken down and simply needs to be put back together. How vast new expenditures on weapons that can already end civilization can be justified in either financial or moral terms is simply breezed past. A \u201cmodern\u201d United States is self-evidently preferable to a pre-modern one, and the United States must be \u201cmodern\u201d to \u201ckeep pace\u201d with perennial Bad Guys Russia and China.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8916524\" style=\"max-width: 361px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-8916524\" src=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Hill-Modernize.png\" alt=\"Hill: Pentagon budget seeks billions for modernizing nuclear arsenal, missile defense\" width=\"351\" height=\"253\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em><strong>The Hill<\/strong> (<a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/defense\/373464-pentagon-budget-request-includes-billions-for-nuclear-modernization-missile\">2\/12\/18<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>As FAIR (e.g., <a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/for-nyt-a-trillion-dollars-worth-of-a-bombs-is-little-response-to-russia\/\">3\/7\/18<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/syria-the-latest-case-of-us-stumbling-into-war\/\">6\/12\/17<\/a>) has shown time and again, the media must frame the US as always <i>reacting <\/i>to military escalations by others; the idea that Russia and China could themselves be responding to long-existing US plans for military buildup by the United States is never entertained. Nor is it often pointed out that the US spends roughly three times as much on its military as China\u2014whose economy is three-fifths as large\u2014and about ten times as much as Russia.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s essential, after all, that the US\u2014when it\u2019s not <a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/syria-the-latest-case-of-us-stumbling-into-war\/\">stumbling around<\/a> like a hapless giant\u2014always be the party <i>responding<\/i>, not provoking. The \u201cmodernization\u201d frame plays into this narrative nicely; the US military is simply updating its massive arsenal, as you would your iPhone software\u2014an inevitable and therefore not at all hostile act.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, \u201cmodernization\u201d has been a popular framing used by the media to casually report on the United States\u2019 constantly growing empire for over a 100 years:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-8916521 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/modernize-image-e1520887946703.png\" alt=\"New York Times use of the euphemism 'modernize'\" width=\"601\" height=\"265\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Things that the government is somehow never obligated to \u201cmodernize\u201d: healthcare, education, family leave policy. The potential funds spent on bringing these programs up to the standard of other wealthy countries are framed as \u201cmassive tax hikes,\u201d and those who promote such programs are challenged to \u201cfind the money.\u201d They\u2019re not inevitable, nor are they a natural part of any \u201cmodern\u201d norm for which the US must strive.<\/p>\n<p>But a slick, sprawling US military, with all the latest toys and bombs, certainly is, and anyone suggesting otherwise is clearly stuck in the past.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"et_bloom_bottom_trigger\"><\/span><br \/>\nThis piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission from <a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/modernization-medias-favorite-euphemism-for-military-buildup\/\">FAIR<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reuters (2\/12\/18) One of the most effective rhetorical tools in normalizing massive military budgets is to treat spending billions\u2014and sometimes trillions\u2014of dollars as something one has to do in order to be \u201cmodern.\u201d \u00a0\u201cModernization\u201d is, after all, a normative label; who doesn\u2019t want to be modern? Here are just a handful of examples over the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2521,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-351890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}