[JSB]

The thing is, if the US pulls back its military and stops buying so many weapons, those regions where a US military presence was providing "stability" (i.e. maintaining a local balance of power) will now find themselves in a state flux where local nations, factions, client states and sponsor states will scramble to gain the upper hand, or at least prevent "the other guy" from gaining the upper hand. (Not necessarily a bad or good thing, just a shifting around until a new equilibrium is found). So, they will all have to arm themselves, meaning the defense contractors will still have plenty of customers, though they will need to compete with European, Russian, and Chinese military-industrial complexes to make their sales.

My point is, there's always someone who's looking to blow someone else up, and there's always a market for things that go boom. No need to shed a tear for the defense contractors!

Originally Posted by royster

Quite the opposite: Europeans have a better honesty about world affairs, and aren't afraid to speak openly about them. Much of the news in Europe is sensored here in the U.S.. America's #1 export is Denial.

Cache, M.T. and Beingist are pretty much expressing the crux of the matter, but to put it bluntly: U.S. weaponry industries depend on conflict, and as an industry, intends to stay in business. A constant stream of 'customers' insures a constant 'business'. It's my view that the C.I.A. is little more than the marketing department that creates disharmonies so that weaponry is in constant demand.

A story in yesterday's local paper reports the last F-22 rolled off the assembly line...$140 million per plane.

Another story reports of a lost $20 million prison 'contract' here in Virginia, forcing the prison industry to close down the prison. On both accounts, the first mention is of job loss...not human loss or the suffering at the bottom of the profit pyramid. Need I mention that "prison" should not be an economically~feasable industry that perpetuates itself? The only difference prisons have from factory farming is that we don't eat prisoners...but the system sure feeds off of them, for-profit. And while called "Corrections", they only stand as an institution of suffering.

Yes, the U.S. creates enemies as we plod along to secure other country's resources, and that's part of the plan. The hypocracy of justifying force to rid the world of dictators is appalling. Understanding this, and seeing it clearly, makes it even more stunning that people would take mainstream events and simply agree with them. The fact is, we can do very little outwardly to change this military cancer that has been polluting the world for several decades.

I am glad people are talking openly about it, here. At this point in my existance, I can only strive to not be that Military Industrial Complex within myself. If 10 billion people did the same, we would see s significant change. The good news is: there ARE 10 billion people doing this .