You may have heard the term, “Military Industrial Complex” or “Security Industrial Complex”. So what is it exactly?
In short it is the relationship between politicians, lobbyists, armed forces and the companies that makes weapons systems (and security devices/ideas/products). And in the United States it is the be all and end all of almost every political decision made there specifically foreign policy and how tax payers money is spent.
In the post American Industrial age weapons systems are about the only large manufacturing done in the U.S. as most of the other industrial work has been “outsourced” a fancy term meaning that the job has been sent to another country.
Daniel Guerin who wrote the book Facism and Big Business in 1936 ( en Fracais but English translations are available) describes the Military Industrial Complex idea as thus: “an informal and changing coalition of groups with vested psychological, moral, and material interests in the continuous development and maintenance of high levels of weaponry, in preservation of colonial markets and in military-strategic conceptions of internal affairs.” end quote.
U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower in his farewell speach in 1961 (Jan 17th) gave a cryptic warning about the Military Industrial Complex and is usually given credit with coining the term:
“A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction… This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.”
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.” End quote.
Well there you have it I dont think the point could have been made any clearer than that, just to bad nobody stood up and listened. That however is changing as you are someone who is reading this right now.
An illustrative example of the Military Industrial Complex in action is Iraq. The country gets bombed, torn up and its armed forces destroyed then the U.S. comes in offering security and new weapons systems as well as offering lucrative contracts to private military companies for “security”. Essentially the 2003 invasion of Iraq was a money maker and it made more money for the MIC (MIC will be used in place of Military Industrial Complex hereon) than the so called oil arguments some have made for the invasion. Iraq had to replace all of its firearms, vehicles, aircraft, radios, parts, etc,etc. And the new government has bought almost all of it from the U.S. MIC.
Right before 9-11 Donald Rumsfeld was testifying to Congress that 2.3 Trillion USD could not be accounted for from the Defense budget. 2.3 Trillion! How in the hell do you loose that much money. We’ll never know as 9-11 happened the next day and was forgotten.
The MIC worldwide is an interesting thing in itself as the so called “Cold War” was really just a money maker to keep buying over inflated stocks of military hardware for a war that was never going to happen. The MIC is another reason we find ourselves in the “war on terror” as it will be a war without end, with continual spending on military/security goods and services at tax payers expense for a terrorist threat that will only materialize in controlled circumstances. If the “terrorists” were really serious there are some very low tech ways of creating scares or fears that dont involve flying planes into buildings, someone could just do a mall massacre or blow themselves up in a crowd. So why the big elaborate 9-11 deals, it sounds like a script from a James Bond movie with a big spectacular explosion or the like. Some could argue because that’s what gets attention(apparently the motivation for terrorism). But maybe that’s the idea, its an attention getter, like a soundbite on a bigger scale. Some legitimate terrorists like the IRA or PLO actually did kidnap and kill military or policeman and did bombings and hijackings and the like, its only the GLADIO or False Flag ops (in my opinion) that go for the big media sensations. These larger events help bring in legislation like the Patriot Act and similar legislation that further erodes freedoms and no surprise brings in more spending for the MIC in everything from more weapons to fight “terrorist” countries and spying on regular people just in case they may harbor some terrorists or any ill feelings to government.
The MIC is not so sole prevail of the United States (although the lions share is theirs), for instance in the “Peoples Democratic Republic of China” most companies and businesses are ultimately controlled by the Peoples Liberation Army. And the PLA nominally under control of the government. It doesnt get any more MIC than that. In Russia many researchers have said that the MIC there is outdated and need of renewal. This could be the case as the May Day parade in Moscow for 2011 was missing the usual fly by of new jets and looked pretty lacking for upgraded kit. The armed forces marching though showed off the new combat uniforms. Maybe this isn’t such a bad thing as maybe Russia has more important things to do then spend all of their money on the MIC. Be sure to check out India and Brazil as future leaders of MIC.
PMC’s or Private Military Companies have become the politically correct term for mercenaries and other facet of the MIC below is a documentary clip explaining the use of PMC’s and shedding some light on them. Along with the War on Drugs (hiring companies like DynCorp) in South America as “advisors” to local governments and militarizing of police,buying military equipment and the so called War on Terror again using PMC’s and buying ever staggering amounts of military equipment and security/surveillance related goods and services. The MIC becomes a self perpetuating entity that doesnt have to rely on wars as much as so called “low intensity conflicts”, “regional disputes” and “police actions”. -EvS