From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Thu Feb 19 2009 - 18:07:24 EST
Barack Obama Administration Continues US Military Global Dominance
by Prof. Peter Phillips
Global Research, February 19, 2009
The Barack Obama administration is continuing the neo-conservative
agenda of US military domination of the world- albeit with perhaps a
kinder-gentler face. While overt torture is now forbidden for the CIA
and Pentagon, and symbolic gestures like the closing of the Guantanamo
prison are in evidence, a unilateral military dominance policy,
expanding military budget, and wars of occupation and aggression will
likely continue unabated.
The military expansionists from within the Reagan, George H. W. Bush,
Clinton, G. W. Bush administrations put into place solid support for
increased military spending. Clinton's model of supporting the US
military industrial complex held steady defense spending and increased
foreign weapons sales from 16% of global orders to over 63% by the end
of his administration.
The neo-conservatives, who dominated the most recent Bush
administration, amplified this trend of increased military spending. The
neo-cons laid out their agenda for military global dominance in the 2000
Project for a New American Century (PNAC) report Rebuilding America's
Defenses. The report called for the protection of the American Homeland,
the ability to wage simultaneous theater wars, to perform global
constabulary roles, and to control space and cyberspace. The report
claimed that in order to maintain a Pax Americana, potential rivals -
such as China, Iran, Iraq, and North Korea - needed to be held in check.
This military global dominance agenda required forward deployment of US
forces worldwide and increasing defense/war spending well into the 21st
century. The result was a doubling of the US military budget to over
$700 billion in the last eight years. The US now spends as much on
war/defense as the rest of the world combined, making Americans the
highest war-tax payers in the world.
Barack Obama's election brought a moment of hope for many. However, the
Obama administration is not calling for decreased military spending, or
a reversal of US military global dominance. Instead, Obama retained
Robert Gates, thus making Obama the first president from an opposing
party, in US history, to keep in place the outgoing administrations'
Secretary of Defense/War. Additionally, Obama is calling for an expanded
war in Afghanistan and only minimal long-range reductions in Iraq.
The US military industrial complex is deeply embedded inside the
Washington beltway. According to the most recent reports from
OpenSecrets.org, 151 members of Congress in 2006 had up to $195.5
million of their personal assets invested in defense companies.
Major defense contractors were seriously involved in the 2008 elections.
Lockheed Martin gave $2,612,219 in total political campaign donations,
with 49% to Democrats ($1,285,493) and 51% to Republicans ($1,325,159).
Boeing gave $2,225,947 in 2008 with 58% going to Democrats, and General
Dynamics provided $1,682,595 to both parties. Northrop Grumman spent
over $20 million in 2008, hiring lobbyists to influence Congress, and
Raytheon spent $6 million on lobbyists in the same period. In a
revolving door appointment, Obama nominated Raytheon's senior vice
president for government operations and strategy, William Lynn, for the
number two position in the Pentagon. Lynn was formally the Defense
Department's comptroller during the Clinton administration.
The International Monetary Fund's prediction for global economic growth
in 2009 is 0.5 percent-the worst since World War II. The United Nations'
International Labor Organization estimates that some 50 million workers
will lose their jobs worldwide this year. There are an estimated 62,000
U.S. companies expected to close in 2009, and while official
unemployment is at 7 percent in the US, when you add people no longer
looking for jobs and part-time workers, joblessness is closer to 14
percent. The military-industrial-political elite are worried about the
potential of increasing global insecurity. The answer inside the Obama
Administration is to continue high defense/war spending to insure
military control of both domestic and foreign instabilities.
The military, industrial, congressional, and administrative elite profit
from defense spending, both financially and ideologically. Insider
profit taking from pentagon spending is widespread in Washington. But
perhaps more important is the belief that this global military machine
is seen as necessary for the protection of US corporate interests and
the American upper classes in an increasingly destabilized world. Given
that belief, the Obama administration is unlikely to change the defense
spending policies of the previous US administrations without significant
disruptive pressure from anti-war activists and global empire resisters.
Peter Phillips is a Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University
and Director of Project Censored a media research organization. His 2006
study on the Global Dominance Group in the US is available on line at:
http://www.projectcensored.org/articles/story/the-global-dominance-group
/
Peter Phillips is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global
Research Articles by Peter Phillips