by: Melvin A. Goodman, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis
EXTRACT 1: The defense budget is, in fact, out of control, increasing funding for both near-term and long-term programs and activities.
EXTRACT 2: In addition to unprecedented military spending, the Pentagon has gained increased leverage over the $75 billion intelligence community as well as increased influence over the national security and foreign policies of the United States.
EXTRACT 3: Spending on intelligence has tripled since 9/11, marking the rise of a national security state that finds all branches of government, even the judiciary, bowing to the demands of the military and intelligence communities. Like the Bush administration, the Obama administration used the state secrets privilege to block a lawsuit by former CIA prisoners who were tortured in overseas prisons. We have had four directors of national intelligence in the past five years, and they have failed to correct the decline in strategic intelligence or strengthen the overall intelligence apparatus.
Melvin A. Goodman
EXTRACT 4: Since 9/11, the national security process has been in a state of decline with a dearth of statesmen and an abundance of shadows on issues dealing with Iraq, Afghanistan, terrorism, insurgency and, now, cyber-war that are swaying the actions of American policymakers.
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I suggest to you that this article is a keeper, that David Woods gets it. While it focuses on the Army, I think it's applicable in significant part to the other
David Wood Biography
DoD military Services, particularly to the Marine Corps, and to one or two non-DoD Federal agencies have been close partners in the national security effort.
V/R,
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In the 10th Year of War, a Harder Army, a More Distant America
The U.S. Army now begins its 10th continuous year in combat, the first time in its history the United States has excused the vast majority of its citizens from service and engaged in a major, decade-long conflict instead with an Army manned entirely by professional warriors.
This is an Army that, under the pressure of combat, has turned inward, leaving civilian America behind, reduced to the role of a well-wishing but impatient spectator. A decade of fighting has hardened soldiers in ways that civilians can't share. America respects its warriors, but from a distance.
“A lot of us are here because society has no further use for us,” he said. “The Army has become home for a lot of restless souls who can never really go back.
Bike, Corey. and Donoso, Juan.“Domestic Instability and US Military Aid: Doing More Harm Than Good?” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association, Town & Country Resort and Convention Center, San Diego, California, USA, Mar 22, 2006Online <PDF>. 2010-09-10 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p99929_index.html>
Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript Abstract: In this study we seek to capture a deeper relationship between US military aid and the levels of violence in the world, what we term as “instability.”
Key sentence: This confirms the notion that as conflicts arise the US acts in a manner of sending military more military assistance purportedly to lend a helping hand. But as table 1a describes, with more military assistance the US actually exacerbates the conflict.
EXTRACT: Enough pieces have come together for Alroy to speculate on his findings’ implication for the future, given that Earth is now experiencing another mass extinction. Starting with extinctions of large land animals more than 50,000 years ago that continued as modern humans proliferated around the globe, and picking up pace in the Agricultural and Industrial ages, current extinction rates are far beyond levels capable of unraveling entire food webs in coming centuries. Ecologists estimate that between 50 and 90 percent of all species are doomed without profound changes in human resource use.
EXTRACT: Also exceeded are limits for species loss, which the scientists set at 10 per year per million species, and nitrogen use, pegged at 35 million tons per year. The current extinction rate is ten times higher than advised, ostensibly compromising the ability of ecosystems to process nutrients. The use of nitrogen — which is needed for fertilizer, but causes oxygen-choking algae blooms — is nearly four times higher than recommended.
What Did the Pentagon Do With That Extra Trillion Dollars?
The Surge in Defense Spending
By WINSLOW T. WHEELER
EXTRACT: Finally, that $102 billion efficiency drive being pursued by Secretary Gates is over five years. The current Pentagon budget plan is to spend $3.245 Trillion over that period. In other words, the much touted Gates plan would shift from overhead to hardware just 3 percent of the planned spending.
The Angelides Commission Squints Back at the Bank Bailout and the Fall of Lehman
Does Our Economy Really Have to Run on Fraud?
By MICHAEL HUDSON
EXTRACT: Given today’s florid emotionalism when it comes to discussing Wall Street finances, it hardly is surprising that the Angelides hearings do not dare venture into such territory as to ask whether the bottom 90 per cent of the U.S. economy might need to be bailed out with debt relief just as Wall Street’s elites were.
