THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF OFFENSE
With almost unanimous bipartisan support, the U.S. Congress now spends nearly a trillion dollars a year – repeat that – a trillion dollars a year, on the Department of Defense. If one includes the Department of Homeland Security and the care of disabled veterans, it is actually more than a trillion. This represents the lion’s portion of the U.S. discretionary budget.
What this “defense” budget means in real terms is that all of the physical resources, all of the knowledge, all of the science and engineering, all of the development, all of the jobs, that might have gone to improving life for average Americans, has been used building bombs, missiles, killer planes, killer warships, nuclear armed submarines, over 750 military bases around the world, and conducting wars of choice based on lies in places like Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and heaven knows where else.
So, what the U.S. Department of Defense has given to Americans is:
Crumbling roads and bridges.
The inability to replace lead water pipes harming our children in many American cities.
Railroads whose trains regularly derail causing great harm to towns and ecosystems.
No high-speed rail whatsoever compared to the 25,000 miles of high speed-rail built in China in the last 10 years.
Lack of development of alternative energies or updating of the national electrical grid.
A healthcare system than now ranks among the lowest of the industrialized nations with decreasing longevity, increasing child mortality, and is the single greatest cause of family bankruptcy.
Rising numbers of homeless.
Growing percentage of children living in deep poverty.
A lack of low-cost housing needed in towns and cities across the nation.
No systems for urgently needed childcare or care for the elderly.
Student debt that is crippling and impoverishing an entire generation of young Americans.
A poorly funded public education system resulting in overall national decline.
The destruction of America’s vaunted “middle class.”
A military/industrial/congressional complex that is the single greatest polluter and perpetrator of global warming in the world.
Dwindling respect for America by the people of the world.
Growing hatred of America by the people of the world.
Etc.
This is how the U.S. Department of “Defense” has “defended” Americans. In reality it is the U.S. Department of Offense and, first and foremost, it has declared war on the working people of America.
But even worse – much worse – the billionaire class, the oligarchs that purchase our legislators and gain fabulous riches from the military/industrial/congressional complex, with 750+ military bases around the world, have declared war on all humanity, declared war on Planet Earth.