{"id":353824,"date":"2018-03-25T16:04:18","date_gmt":"2018-03-25T15:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=353824"},"modified":"2018-03-25T20:06:48","modified_gmt":"2018-03-25T19:06:48","slug":"military-controls-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/military-controls-america\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Military Controls America"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike corporations that sell to consumers, Lockheed Martin and the other top contractors to the U.S. Government are highly if not totally dependent upon sales to governments, for their profits, especially sales to their own<\/i> government, which they control \u2014 they control their home market, which is the U.S. Government, and they use it to sell to its allied governments, all of which foreign governments constitute the export markets for their products and services. These corporations control the U.S. Government, and they control NATO. And, here is how they do it, which is essential to understand, in order to be able to make reliable sense of America\u2019s foreign policies, such as which nations are \u2018allies\u2019 of the U.S. Government (such as Saudi Arabia and Israel), and which nations are its \u2018enemies\u2019 (such as Libya and Syria) \u2014 and are thus presumably suitable for America to invade, or else to overthrow by means of a coup. First, the nation\u2019s head-of-state becomes demonized; then, the invasion or coup happens. And, that\u2019s it. And here\u2019s how.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because America (unlike Russia) privatized the weapons-industry (and even privatizes to mercenaries some of its battlefield killing and dying), there are, in America, profits for investors to make in invasions and in military occupations of foreign countries; and the billionaires who control these corporations can and do \u2014 and, for their financial purposes, they must \u2014 buy Congress and the President, so as to keep those profits flowing to themselves. That\u2019s the nature of the war-business, since its markets are governments \u2014 but not those governments that the aristocracy want to overthrow and replace. The foreign governments that are to be overthrown are not markets, but are instead targets.\u00a0 <\/span>The bloodshed and misery go to those unfortunate lands. But if you control these corporations, then you need these invasions and occupations, and you certainly aren\u2019t concerned about any of the victims, who (unlike those profits) are irrelevant to your business. In fact, to the exact contrary: killing people and destroying buildings etc., are what you sell<\/i> \u2014 that\u2019s what you (as a billionaire with a controlling interest in one of the 100 top contractors to the U.S. Government<\/span><\/a>) are selling to your own government, and to all of the other governments that your country\u2019s cooperative propaganda will characterize as being \u2018enemies\u2019 \u2014 Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, etc. \u2014 and definitely not<\/i> as being \u2018allies\u2019, such as are being characterized these corporations\u2019 foreign markets: Saudi Arabia, EU-NATO, Israel, etcetera. In fact, as regards your biggest foreign markets,<\/i> they will be<\/i> those \u2018allies\u2019; so, you (that is, the nation\u2019s aristocracy, who own also<\/i> the news-media etc.) defend them, and you want the U.S. military (the taxpayers and the troops) to support and defend them. It\u2019s defending your market, even though you as the controlling owner of such a corporation aren\u2019t paying the tab for it. The rest of the country is actually paying for all of it, so you\u2019re \u201cfree-riding\u201d the public, in this business. It\u2019s the unique nature of the war-business, and a unique boon to its investors.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thus, on 21 May 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump sold to the Saud family, who own Saudi Arabia, an all-time-record $350 billion of U.S. arms-makers\u2019 products<\/span><\/a>, which they\u2019re now obligated to buy during the following ten years, with an up-front commitment of $100 billion during just the first year, so as to make even that one-year commitment an all-time record. This deal is by far the biggest part of Trump\u2019s boost to American manufacturers \u2014 but it\u2019s only to military manufacturers, the people who depend virtually 100% on sales to governments, specifically to \u2018friendly\u2019 governments: to \u2018allies\u2019, such as, in this case, to the Saud family. <\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, the Sauds\u2019 war against their neighbor Yemen is a good example of just how this sort of operation (profit to the billionaires, bloodshed and destruction to \u2014 in this case \u2014 the Yemenites) works:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Yemen\u2019s war goes back to the \u201cArab Spring\u201d revolution in Yemen, which overthrew the U.S.-and-Saud-backed President, former Colonel and then General, Saleh. Wikipedia says of him<\/span><\/a>: \u201cAccording to the UN Sanctions Panel, by 2012 Saleh has amassed fortune worth $32-60 billion hidden in at least twenty countries making him one of the richest people in the world. Saleh was gaining $2 billion a year from 1978 to 2012 mainly through illegal methods, such as\u00a0embezzlement,\u00a0extortion\u00a0and\u00a0theft\u00a0of\u00a0funds\u00a0from Yemen’s fuel\u00a0subsidy\u00a0program.[75][76][77]\u201d And, furthermore: \u201cNew York Times\u00a0Middle Eastern correspondent\u00a0Robert F. Worth\u00a0described Saleh as reaching an understanding with powerful feudal \u2018big sheikhs\u2019 to become \u2018part of a Mafia-style spoils system that substituted for governance\u2019.[18]\u00a0Worth accused Saleh of exceeding the aggrandizement of other Middle Eastern strongmen by managing to \u2018rake off tens of billions of dollars in public funds for himself and his family\u2019 despite the extreme poverty of his country.[19]\u201d Saleh fled to Saudi Arabia. Yemen\u2019s Army installed the Vice President, and former General, Hadi to succeed him. Then, there was a second revolution, and, on 21 January 2015, the Shia Houthi tribe<\/span><\/a> took over, and the rabidly anti-Shia<\/span><\/a> Saud family promptly started their bombing of Yemen, using American training, weaponry and tactical and refueling support. The U.S. Government \u2014 like its ally the Saud family \u2014 is rabidly anti-Shia<\/span><\/a>. That\u2019s to say: The U.S. aristocracy<\/i>, like Saudi Arabia\u2019s aristocracy (the royal family), is rabidly anti-Shia. But, whereas for the Sauds, this is motivated more by hate than by greed, it\u2019s more greed than hate on the U.S. side, because at least ever since the U.S. coup in the leading Shia country, Iran, in 1953, it\u2019s been purely about greed, specifically that of the oil (and other) companies who also (in addition to the armaments-firms) control U.S. foreign policies. (For example, international oil companies need to extract and sell oil from many countries<\/i>. They\u2019re highly dependent upon the military, though not nearly to the extent that the weapons-firms are.)<\/span><\/p>\n

The most recent poll that has been taken of American public opinion regarding America\u2019s arming and training Saudi forces to fly over and bomb Yemen was taken during November 2017, tabulated on 28 January 2018, and finally published a month later, on 28 February 2018. This \u201cNationwide Voter Survey – Report on Results – January 28, 2018\u201d<\/span><\/a> asked 1,000 scientifically sampled American voters, \u201cQuestion: Congress is considering a bi-partisan bill to withdraw U.S. forces from the Saudi-led war in Yemen. Would you say that you support or oppose this bill?\u201d It reported that, \u201cSupport\u201d was 51.9%, \u201cOppose\u201d was 21.5%, no opinion was 26.6%; and, so, 71% of the opinions were \u201cSupport\u201d; only 29% were \u201cOppose.\u201d That\u2019s more than two-thirds supporting this bill to consider withdrawing U.S. forces from that war. But, when the vote was taken in the U.S. Senate, it was 55% opposing the bill, opposing, that is, consideration of the matter, and 44% supporting consideration of the matter (and not voting was 1% of the 100 Senators). 55% of Senators didn\u2019t want the Senate to even consider<\/i> the matter. Here\u2019s how the issue had managed to get even that far:<\/span><\/p>\n

On 4 December 2017, just weeks after that poll of Americans was taken, Russian Television headlined \u201cSaleh\u2019s death means a fresh hell beckons for Yemen\u201d<\/span><\/a>, and the U.S. Government\u2019s participation in the bombing of Yemen then did increase. This event \u2014 the murder of Saleh \u2014 raised the Yemen war to broader public attention in the country that was supplying the bombs and the weapons to the Sauds. <\/span><\/p>\n

On 28 February 2018, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders was the lone sponsor of \u201cS.J.Res.54 \u2014 115th Congress (2017-2018)\u201d<\/span><\/a>: \u201cThis joint resolution directs the President to remove U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities in or affecting Yemen, except those engaged in operations directed at Al Qaeda, within 30 days unless: (1) the President requests and Congress authorizes a later date, or (2) a declaration of war or specific authorization for the use of the Armed Forces has been enacted.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

On March 19th, NBC bannered \u201cSenators to force vote to redefine U.S. role in Yemen\u201d<\/span><\/a> \u2014 that was merely to force a vote in the Senate, not actually to vote on the issue itself<\/i>. However, given how overwhelmingly America\u2019s voters opposed America\u2019s arming the Sauds to slaughter the Yemenese, this vote in the Senate to consider the measure was the gateway to each Senator\u2019s being forced to go public about supporting this highly unpopular armament of the Saudis; and, so, if it had gotten that far (to a final vote on the issue itself), the arms-makers might lose the vote, because Senators would then be voting not \u2018merely\u2019 on a procedural matter, but on the actual issue itself. So, this vote was about the gateway, not about the destination.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The next day, Breitbart News headlined \u201cAdministration, Bipartisan Interventionist Establishment Kill Aisle-Crossing Effort to Rein In U.S. Military Involvement in Yemen\u201d<\/span><\/a> and presented a full and documented account, which opened: \u201cThe Senate resolution invoking the War Powers Act to demand the administration seek congressional authorization or withdraw American support from Saudi Arabia\u2019s military operations in Yemen was defeated Tuesday by a vote of 55-44.\u201d The peace-activist, David Swanson, headlined at Washingtonsblog, \u201cWhy 55 U.S. Senators Voted for Genocide in Yemen\u201d<\/span><\/a>, and he alleged that the vote would have been even more lopsided than 55% for the weapons-industry, if some of the Senators who voted among the 44 non-bloodthirsty ones hadn\u2019t been in such close political races. The weapons-industry won\u2019t hold against a Senator his\/her voting against them if their vote won\u2019t even be needed in order to win. Token-votes against them are acceptable. All that\u2019s necessary is winning the minimum number of votes. Anything more than that is just icing on the cake.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, this explains how the U.S. Government really ignores public opinion and only pretends to be a democracy<\/span><\/a>. It\u2019s done by fooling the public. On the issue of which countries are \u2018allies\u2019 and which are \u2018enemies\u2019, and other issues regarding national defense, all necessary means are applied in order to achieve, as Walter Lippmann in 1921 called it, \u201cthe manufacture of consent.\u201d He wrote<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

That the manufacture of consent is capable of great refinements no one, I think, denies. The process by which public opinions arise is certainly no less intricate than it has appeared in these pages, and the opportunities for manipulation open to anyone who understands the process are plain enough. The creation of consent is not a new art. It is a very old one which was supposed to have died out with the appearance of democracy. But it has not died out. It has, in fact, improved enormously in technic, because it is now based on analysis rather than on rule of thumb. And so, as a result of psychological research, coupled with the modern means of communication, the practice of democracy has turned a corner. A revolution is taking place, infinitely more significant than any shifting of economic power.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The CIA virtually controls<\/a><\/span> the \u2018news\u2019 media.<\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore, even corporations that aren\u2019t on that list of top 100 U.S. Government contractors can be crucially dependent upon their income from the U.S. Government. For example, since 2014<\/span><\/a>, Amazon Web Services has supplied to the U.S. Government (CIA, Pentagon, NSA, etc.) its cloud-computing services, which has since produced virtually all of Amazon\u2019s profits<\/span><\/a> (also see \u201cCloud Business Drives Amazon\u2019s Profits\u201d<\/span><\/a>), though Amazon doesn\u2019t even so much as show up on that list of 100 top contractors to the U.S. Government<\/span><\/a>; so, this extremely profitable business is more important to Jeff Bezos (the owner also of the Washington Post<\/i><\/span><\/a>) than all the rest of his investments put together are.<\/span><\/p>\n

The most corrupt part of the U.S. Government is the \u2018Defense\u2019 part. That also happens to be \u2014 and by far \u2014 the most popular part, the most respected (by the American public) part.<\/a><\/span> That\u2019s a toxic combination: toxic not only for a government\u2019s domestic policies, but especially for a government\u2019s foreign policies \u2014 such as for identifying which nations are \u2018allies\u2019, and which nations are \u2018enemies\u2019. This type of mega-toxic combination can\u2019t exist in a nation whose press isn\u2019t being effectively controlled by the same general group that effectively controls the Government (in America, that\u2019s the richest few<\/span><\/a>, by means of their many paid agents), the Deep State. In America, one key to it is that the \u2018Defense\u2019 firms are privately owned.<\/span><\/p>\n

POSTSCRIPT:<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

On March 24th, Zero Hedge headlined an opinion-article \u201cThe Death of Democracy\u201d<\/span><\/a> and Alasdair Macleod said that, \u201cThe Deep State is on course to take control of Congress. If this happens, it will be the next step in a global trend of side-lining democracy in the West, driven in large part by American foreign policy. It has led to governments everywhere increasing control over their people, in an inversion of democratic principles.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore: \u201cThe Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has identified 102 seats as \u2018competitive’ in its red-to-blue campaign programme. Eighty of these seats are vulnerable Republicans, and 22 are seats where the incumbent is retiring. 57 of the 221 candidates standing for the Democratic nomination in these 102 districts are current or past agents of the military-intelligence complex. And of those 102 districts, 44 have one of these candidates, 11 have two, and one has three. Furthermore, there are indications that the financial backers of the Democratic Party are supporting this influx of intelligence operatives, and that they are well-funded.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Macleod went on to say that they\u2019ve already apparently taken over Trump: \u201cThere can be no doubt that the chaos in the White House since Trump\u2019s victory has reflected a fight behind the scenes for control of foreign policy, homeland security and military spending. It has been about the CIA\u2019s ultimately successful attempts to ensure Trump backtracked on relevant electoral promises and complies with its own agenda. So far, Trump has backed down on Russia, North Korea, Iran and on military spending, suggesting he is well on the way to becoming the Deep State\u2019s lackey. It now seems the CIA wants to control the balance of power in Congress.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

His conclusion is: \u201cIf the US military-intelligence complex manages to pack out Congress, it will be the killer blow for any democracy remaining in America. It will clear the field for a secret state organisation, which has shown little or no regard for human life and the rule of law, to accelerate its warlike agenda. It will have unfettered access to the national finances to accelerate its programme of global aggression, and damn the consequences for anyone else.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of\u00a0 They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of<\/span> \u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org Unlike corporations that sell to consumers, Lockheed Martin and the other top contractors to the U.S. Government are highly if not totally dependent upon sales to governments, for their profits, especially sales to their own government, which they control \u2014 they control their home market, which is the U.S. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":261995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461,519],"tags":[115,30,32,96,3604,535,59,804,524,754,523,755,49,76,40,1024],"class_list":{"0":"post-353824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials","8":"category-newswire","9":"tag-barack-obama","10":"tag-big-brother","11":"tag-cia","12":"tag-cover-up","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-global-news","15":"tag-military","16":"tag-politics-2","17":"tag-russia","18":"tag-syria","19":"tag-ukraine","20":"tag-usa","21":"tag-usa-news","22":"tag-warfare","23":"tag-white-house","24":"tag-ww3"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353824","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\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}