Steve Weismann: Rethinking the Military-Industrial Complex

Ike’s warning about the military industrial complex was a two edged sword. (photo: wikicommon)

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By Steve Weissman, Reader Supported News, 15 August 2013

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hen President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned his fellow Americans about the dangers of the military-industrial complex, he did both good and bad. As a widely respected military leader, he made it possible for ordinary citizens to challenge the Pentagon’s growing power in so many aspects of our economy and foreign policy. But, by focusing on the military, Ike misdirected our attention away from other, often more important segments of Big Money’s collaboration with Big Government.

No question, the military chiefs, the manufacturers who supply and then often hire them, and the members of Congress who take political contributions from the armaments industry or look to lucrative careers as lobbyists for them all work together as a standing lobby for incredibly wasteful Pentagon budgets. The same groups also support the endless fear-mongering, whether of the old Soviet Union and Red China, the newly capitalist Russians and Chinese, al Qaeda terrorists, or whatever other threat appears to justify massive spending and – as we now see – massive surveillance.

But let’s get real. Most of us could make a good case that Big Oil exercises far more influence on our imperial foreign policy than do the Big Brass and their merchants of death. Major oil companies are top Pentagon suppliers, I know, but selling fuel to the military is not why they try to control the lion’s share of the world’s oil and natural gas. Nor do most people have the oil companies in mind when they talk of the military-industrial complex.

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Cohn and Mirer: No Reckoning over Agent Orange

Consortium News, August 10, 2013

 

Official Washington often lectures other countries on the need for accountability, especially when governments have engaged in war crimes. Yet, one of the clearest cases of a U.S. war crime – the mass spraying of Vietnam with Agent Orange – has escaped any reckoning, note Marjorie Cohn and Jeanne Mirer.

By Marjorie Cohn and Jeanne Mirer

Aug. 10 marks the 52^nd anniversary of the start of the chemical warfare program in Vietnam, a long time with little or no remedial action by the U.S. government. One of the most shameful legacies of the American War against Vietnam, Agent Orange continues to poison Vietnam and the people exposed to the chemicals, as well as their offspring.

For over 10 years, from 1961 to 1975, in order to deny food and protection to those deemed to be “the enemy,” the United States defoliated the land and forests of Vietnam with the chemicals known as Agent Orange. These chemicals contained the impurity of dioxin – the most toxic chemical known to science.

A U.S. military helicopter spraying the defoliant Agent Orange over Vietnam during the Vietnam War. (U.S. Army photo)

Millions of people were exposed to Agent Orange and today it is estimated that three million Vietnamese still suffer the effects of these chemical defoliants. In addition to the millions of Vietnamese still affected by this deadly poison, tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers are also afffected.

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Eid Mubarak a thousand times

by Badri Raina, Aug 2013

Finally, our actions must make
Our wishes  horses,  so we ride
To embrace every one’s human need;
Let that be the gift of this year’s  Eid.
Let  illiterate doctrine  stay above,
And angry  law yield to love.

Let the grand Mufti drink copiously
Of the  incandescent  wisdom of  Chisti.
Let Kabir, Nanak, Bulla, Farid
Illuminate the meaning of Eid.

Let not the husband beat the wife,
Or the man of god misuse the knife.
Let no one ever again be the “other,”
But  friend, sister, comrade,brother
Across all faiths and denominations,
Lands, rivers, borders, stations.

Let the Allama bow to Ghalib and Mir,
And the music of the Sufi uplift and bear
Our basest  self-righteousness beyond
The hate-filled, scared, sectarian pond.
Let god be found upon the earth,
Dancing to the innocence of mirth.

Eid Mubarak a thousand times,
Ring the bells, unleash the chimes.

Eid greetings to all

Nasir Khan, Aug 7, 2013

As a humanist, I extend my Eid greetings to Muslims and all other people with any religious or non-religious orientation. Let’s hope all people of goodwill will strive to uphold human values and struggle against  anti-human forces of religious extremists and fanatics who kill fellow human beings in the name of their brand of religion or sect in Pakistan and Iraq. They also terrorise other religious minorities.

We are human beings first and last. Religions and religious consciousness can also be used to advance human values and human happiness. Luckily some religious  people work for social welfare of  the people and  we can be proud of their work.  But a  tiny minority of  misguided and brainwashed goons is perpetrating random killings.

However, it is unrealistic to think that any  government can cope with these rogues if  the people  are not motivated to  cope with them. Again, it is  the  people who can uproot this menace by their constructive and educational work among the masses.

Marxist dialectics is not deterministic

Nasir Khan,  August 3, 2013

In a Facebook comment Rahul Banerjee offered his views on Marxist dialectics that I thought needed my brief reply.

Nasir Khan: Mr Banerjee, as a casual reader of Marx and Marxian concept of dialectics, I find your views on dialectics interesting on a number of points. But if I understand you correctly, then your notion of dialectics seems to me mechanistic and deterministic; it has little in common with what Marxist dialectics stands for. No wonder the question of thesis and a ‘matching antithesis’ in ‘natural or social developments’ you have summed up falls in that category! I don’t know how you have arrived at the view that for Marx the process of thesis and antithesis inevitably is ‘progressive’. I have not found anything like that in my reading of Marx’s texts. What you say does not represent Marxist concept of dialectics. No, Sir; Marx did not expound such a view. Another puzzling thing is that you name quantum physics and molecular biology to elaborate on the social development of society. In my view any advances in physical sciences do not lead to the negation of dialectics, which essentially is a model to analyse social change.

Rahul Banerjee: what marx took from hegel was his version of dialectics. now this form of dialectics too is shabby stuff that is not borne out by reality at all times. there is not always a thesis and matching antithesis in natural or social development and the synthesis that results even if there was such a pair may not always be of a progressive kind!! instead the process of change in the real world is of a very chancy kind and not deterministic and linear as envisaged in the dialectical method. now that we have a better understanding of this chanciness due to advances in quantum physics and molecular biology and the unpredictable development of society, we need to move on from what Hegel and Marx could surmise in their day.

Hiroshima Child

by Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963)

I come and stand at every door
But none can hear my silent tread
I knock and yet remain unseen
For I am dead for I am dead

I'm only seven though I died
In Hiroshima long ago
I'm seven now as I was then
When children die they do not grow

My hair was scorched by swirling flame
My eyes grew dim my eyes grew blind
Death came and turned my bones to dust
And that was scattered by the wind

I need no fruit I need no rice
I need no sweets nor even bread
I ask for nothing for myself
For I am dead for I am dead

All that I need is that for peace
You fight today you fight today
So that the children of this world
Can live and grow and laugh and play

The importance of separating Religion and State in Pakistan

Nasir Khan, August 2, 2013

The mixing of Islam with the politics of Pakistan has been a recipe for disaster for the people and the political system of Pakistan. It is obvious to all of us what people say in matters of faith is full of controversies, divergent interpretations and inter-sectarian conflicts that result in much bloodshed and social polarization. While every sect repudiates other sects in doctrinal matters while maintaining its own version to be the only genuine and legitimate one!

As long as Pakistan does not follow the principles of a peoples’ democracy and separate religion from politics, more and more disasters and mayhem will follow. I think, one important step for Pakistani secular activists is to show the importance of the separation of religion and the State. When this is made possible then the people should follow whatever religion or sect they choose or reject in their personal lives. That should be their option and no one should interfere with that. The State should be neutral in religious matters. When this happens, religion (Islam in the case of Pakistan) will stop being a power that poisons the body-politic of Pakistan as it also does in many other Muslim countries.