Is US Military Dominance of the World a Good Idea?

[Guest guest]

> Wed, 8 Feb 2006 18:02:49 -0800

> Peter Phillips <peter.phillips

> [Project-Censored-L] Is US Military Dominance of the World

a Good Idea?

>

> Is US Military Dominance of the World a Good Idea?

>

> By Peter Phillips

>

> The leadership class in the US is now dominated by a

neo-conservative group of some 200 people who have the shared goal of

asserting US military power worldwide. This Global Dominance Group, in

cooperation with major military contractors, has become a powerful

force in military unilateralism and US political processes.

>

> A long thread of sociological research documents the existence of a

> dominant ruling class in the US, which sets policy and determines

> national political priorities. C. Wright Mills, in his 1956 book on

> the power elite, documented how World War II solidified a trinity of

> power in the US that comprised corporate, military and government

> elites in a centralized power structure working in unison through

> " higher circles " of contact and agreement.

>

> Neo-conservatives promoting the US Military control of the world are

> now in dominant policy positions within these higher circles of the

> US. Adbusters magazine summed up neo-conservatism as: " The belief

> that Democracy, however flawed, was best defended by an ignorant

> public pumped on nationalism and religion. Only a militantly

> nationalist state could deter human aggression �Such nationalism

> requires an external threat and if one cannot be found it must be

> manufactured. "

>

> In 1992, during Bush the First's administration, Dick Cheney

> supported Lewis Libby and Paul Wolfowitz in producing the " Defense

> Planning Guidance " report, which advocated US military dominance

> around the globe in a " new order. " The report called for the United

> States to grow in military superiority and to prevent new rivals

from rising up to challenge us on the world stage.

>

> At the end of Clinton's administration, global dominance advocates

> founded the Project for a New American Century (PNAC). Among the

PNAC founders were eight people affiliated with the number-one defense

> contractor Lockheed-Martin, and seven others associated with the

> number-three defense contractor Northrop Grumman. Of the twenty-five

> founders of PNAC twelve were later appointed to high level positions

> in the George W. Bush administration.

>

> In September 2000, PNAC produced a 76-page report entitled

Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a

New Century.

> The report, similar to the 1992 Defense Policy Guidance report,

> called for the protection of the American Homeland, the ability to

> wage simultaneous theater wars, perform global constabulary roles,

> and the control of space and cyberspace. It claimed that the 1990s

> were a decade of defense neglect and that the US must increase

> military spending to preserve American geopolitical leadership as

the world's superpower. The report also recognized that: " the process

of transformation � is likely to be a long one, absent some

catastrophic and catalyzing event such as a new Pearl Harbor. " The

events of September 11, 2001 presented exactly the catastrophe that

the authors of Rebuilding America' Defenses theorized were needed to

accelerate a global dominance agenda. The resulting permanent war on

terror has led to massive government defense spending, the invasions

of two countries, and the threatening of three others, and the rapid

> acceleration of the neo-conservative plans for military control of

> the world.

>

> The US now spends as much for defense as the rest of the world

> combined. The Pentagon's budget for buying new weapons rose from $61

> billion in 2001 to over $80 billion in 2004. Lockheed Martin's sales

> rose by over 30% at the same time, with tens of billions of dollars

> on the books for future purchases. From 2000 to 2004, Lockheed

> Martins stock value rose 300%. Northrup-Grumann saw similar growth

> with DoD contracts rising from $3.2 billion in 2001 to $11.1 billion

> in 2004. Halliburton, with Dick Cheney as former CEO, had defense

> contracts totaling $427 million in 2001. By 2003, they had $4.3

> billion in defense contracts, of which approximately a third were

> sole source agreements.

>

> At the beginning of 2006 the Global Dominance Group's agenda is well

> established within higher circle policy councils and cunningly

> operationalized inside the US Government. They work hand in hand

with defense contractors promoting deployment of US forces in over 700

> bases worldwide.

>

> There is an important difference between self-defense from external

> threats, and the belief in the total military control of the world.

> When asked, most working people in the US have serious doubts about

> the moral and practical acceptability of financing world domination.

>

>

> Peter Phillips is a Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State

University and director of Project Censored, a media research

organization. A more in-depth review of the global dominance group's

agenda and a list of the 200 advocates see:

> http://www.projectcensored.org/downloads/Global_Dominance_Group.pdf

>

> --

> Peter Phillips Ph.D.

> Sociology Department/Project Censored

> Sonoma State University

> 1801 East Cotati Ave.

> Rohnert Park, CA 94928

> 707-664-2588

> http://www.projectcensored.org/

> > _____________

 

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