United States - The Military/Industrial Complex

Today there are only six states in the world that are hostile to the United States: Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Libya, North Korea and Syria. So it seems that the United States, with its insatiable demand for deadly toys, has become the most dangerous player on the planet. Why? Because it seems that we like to practice on tiny islands or desert wastelands (you get better PR photos that way). Our pyrotechnic show-and-tell supports our $53.9 billion in sales between 1994 and 1998. The Avis to our Hertz is Russia with a pathetic 12.3 billion in sales in the same period. Who is our biggest customer? Taiwan sucked up $13.3 billion, followed by Saudi Arabia at 9.7 then Turkey, Egypt, South Korea, Greece and India. They get the previously owned, flown by an 18 year old only on weekend stuff. The good stuff, well, we keep that stuff. Uncle Sam pockets about $10 billion a year in sales of arms to other nations.

Consider the ultimate plaything: the modern aircraft carrier. Three billion a pop, four and a half acres of space, 6,000 people, can sail 22 years before refueling, can launch 25 different kinds of aircraft in 15 minutes. But we fight wars in Lebanon, Somalia, Kosovo, Kuwait, Colombia, Grenada, Panama, etc. Places where mules and slingshots could come in handy. Go figure.

War is high-tech, according to the boys in the Pentagon. Carefully planted stories about how our air launched missile inventory was down from 300 to a shocking 100, ship launched Raytheon built, Tomahawks down to 2,000 from 2,700, our B-52s are aging, angst, horror, fear and loathing. Coincidentally, the government needs a cool $6 billion to freshen up inventory, 10 percent for missiles. Boeing is busy building 230 more missiles to refill our warehouses.

The Navy blew off 400 Tomahawks against Iraq and Yugoslavia in December 1998. Was it a Y2K thing that would have made them obsolete anyways or just the best way to get some new toys? You would think everything we threw at the swarthy buggers was intelligent. Only 10 percent of the weapons fired during the Gulf war were smart bombs, but the videos we saw made us think otherwise.

Ever wondered why we sent B2s from Guam to bomb skinny teenagers with turbans? Ever wonder why we need stealth fighters but we show videotapes of their bombing runs? Ever scratch your head and wonder why we use a million and a half dollar cruise missiles against Iraqi supply trucks? Ever wonder why we like to invade a little puke country with all those gizmos and then just leave? Now you know.

http://www.mnsinc.com/pogo/mici/

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Economics/MilitIndusComplex_Privit.html

http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/papers/micr/.