MAGAZINE OF FUTURE WARFARE says dollar Achilles Heel of US empire
Editorial
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman provided the best summary as to why America easily crushed Iraq when he
wrote: "I am not a military expert, but I can do the numbers: the most recent US military budget was $400 billion, while Iraq
spent only $1.4 billion." Actually, the USA spends almost $500 billion a year when you count spending kept off the Defense
Department books, like the Veterans Department, the Department of Energy (whose main task is to build nuclear weapons),
the secret "Black Budget", and the now annual "Supplemental" spending. Experts have already begun writing about
"lessons learned" and concluded that everything worked great. This is like the Oakland Raiders defeating a junior college
football team (whose coaching staff left at half time) and then gloating about their brilliant game plan.
It is obvious that Iraqi leaders decided not to make a last stand in Baghdad. They were not religious nor nationalist
fanatics, so they just fled with their loot. They saw no value in destroying oil wells, dams, bridges, and Baghdad in futile
attempt to win. We may never know if this happened because Saddam Hussein was killed, Iraqi leaders defected, or Iraqi
units were tricked with false messages. We do know the Iraqis can fight, as evidenced by the bloody battles at the city of An
Nasiriyah, which stopped US Marines for two weeks. News about what happened there is minimal, except that over a
hundred Marines were killed or wounded, several went missing, and the commander of the 1st Marine regiment was
relieved.
Nevertheless, moving an army to the other side of the world and invading a sizable country was a major challenge which
the US military met. The invasion was no brilliant maneuver, just an obvious attack straight from Kuwait to Baghdad. Since
a car can drive that route in less than a day, arriving in Baghdad after three weeks was not a lighting strike. The American
corporate press censored negative reports and bloody images of the war, and stories about problems are rare. The US
Army's 3rd Mechanized Division and the 1st Marine Division were hampered by dust storms, gas guzzling M1 tanks, and a
lack of armored resupply vehicles. Light infantry from the 101st and 82nd Divisions proved too light to fight, and were
assigned security roles with tanks attached.
The big disaster was the destruction of the Iraqi Army. Everyone assumed they would surrender en mass, and then could
be employed to keep order around the country. However, they died or were scattered, and it will take a long time to rebuild
and equip a new Iraqi army. So who will run Iraq for a year or so, 100,000 GIs? Don't expect the UN or Arab world to lift a
finger, and it will be interesting which nations recognize the American appointed puppet regime in Baghdad. The USA has
already chosen four sites as permanent military bases in Iraq, and announced that Iraqi oil operations will become free
enterprise (e.g. turned over to Western oil corporations) which already earned billions of dollars in profits as prices surged
during the conflict. The international bankers have also surfaced to demand that Iraqi oil be used to repay billions of dollars
they loaned to Saddam Hussein.
While the war angered the Arab world, it has been a great success for the Bush Administration and major international
corporations. A year ago, Americans were asking why Enron mobster Kenneth Lay was not in prison, why their health care
system was collapsing, why millions of illegal aliens continue to flow across the borders, and why no one in Washington DC
cares about education. George Bush campaigned on the promise of jobs, health care reform, and better education, as did
Bill Clinton and Daddy Bush. However, all three succumbed to the pressure from big business to secure profits and distract
the American public by starting a war.
During these years, "conservatives" disappeared from the American political scene, replaced by big government
imperialists, who are often called neo-conservatives, although neo-cons is more accurate since they are really con men
posing as conservatives. They are easy to spot since most wear nazi-style flag pins. According to the CATO Institute,
federal government spending increased 0.9% annually after inflation during the eight years of the Clinton administration.
Since "conservative" Republicans took over the Senate and White House two years ago, federal spending has shot up 4.3%
annually after inflation, all funded by borrowing money and looting the Social Security "trust" fund.
Corporate America keeps such facts off their television news. Instead, they hire neo-con men like Larry Kudlow of CNBC
to shout about the need for a big tax cut in one sentence and another huge increase in military spending the next. Kudlow
should have been fired last year when it was revealed that he was frequently paid thousands of dollars by Enron for
"speaking fees" while touting the value of Enron stock on his "news" show. Some neo-cons claim that budget deficits don't
matter, or they are good for America. If that's the case, why not just eliminate all income taxes? And if trade deficits don't
matter, the US Government should buy every American a foreign car.
Few Americans realize neo-cons have increased the size of the federal government faster in two years than during the
eight years of the "liberal" Clinton administration. Military spending is now higher than Cold War levels, even after adjusting
for inflation, and will continue to grow rapidly. Millions of Americans accept the neo-con ploy that it requires more money to
defend against a few hundred Arab fugitives than the entire Soviet Union during the 1980s, and that another terror attack is
far more threatening than total nuclear war was with the Soviets. This neo-con strategy is based on H. L. Mencken's
revelation many years ago when he wrote: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence
clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
Meanwhile, the nation continues its worst economic decline since the Great Depression. Government workers and
military personnel haven't noticed this impact as they continue to receive pay raises ahead of inflation, thanks to big
spending neo-cons. However, since they depend on the soundness of the US government for their pensions, they should
take an interest in the looming bankruptcy of the USA. This may seem unthinkable, but not to the millions of Russian
veterans whose pensions disappeared when the Soviet Union went bankrupt. At the minimum, inflation will soar due to
rampant spending, then Congress will take action by limiting cost of living increases for military personnel and retirees
below the rate of inflation, which is what happened in the 1970s. Nothing is "guaranteed by law", because Congress
changes laws every week.
Most Americans are confused about what's happening because they are told America's Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
continues to rise. They are unaware that GDP is just a measurement of economic activity, not prosperity or advancement.
The World Trade Center attacks were great for GDP since they caused billions of dollars in insurance and rescue "activity".
Hurricanes, plagues, and smoking are great for GDP, as well as lawsuits, automobile accidents, and arson. However, we
are told there is no recession, and certainly no economic depression, since GDP still grows slightly each quarter. Yet GDP
has been buoyed by population growth and such things like airport security spending and rising credit card debt. A better
measurement of American prosperity are tax revenues, which have fallen sharply as Americans become poorer. Last
week, the US Labor Department announced that the median inflation-adjusted weekly pay for the average worker declined
1.5% this past year, but that didn't make news. The US dollar has lost 20% of its exchange value this past year, yet that's not
newsworthy either.
It may seem odd for this magazine to address economics, but the reality is that the biggest threat to the national security
of the United States is hyperinflation and eventual bankruptcy. The Ross Perot movement which deterred massive
government growth has faded, and the increasing corrupt US Congress is looting the nation. This year, the nation will
borrow the same amount of money as it spends on the entire Department of Defense. We will also export enough dollars
through trade deficits to fund the entire Department of Defense. In short, the current dying economy is already propped up
by massive borrowing of nearly one trillion dollars a year, through treasury bonds and IOUs in the form of unspent dollar
credits. America's leading export has become dollars, and we are lucky the computer age allows us to export computer
bytes because printing and shipping tons of hundred dollars bills overseas would be a major burden. The USA is benefiting
from a massive game where we export dollars and then borrow them from foreigners. The question is how long those
foreign suckers will continue accept dollars?
This is why the neo-con hobby of insulting America's creditors is dangerous. Foreigners have worried about the
creditworthiness of the USA for years, and the arrogant attitude of the Bush administration has made matters worse. The
USA has always been considered a safe haven for foreign investors, until the Bush administration suspended the US
Constitution and began seizing bank accounts of anyone "suspected" of helping terrorists. This involves no judicial
process, money is just taken for use by the Justice Department. As a result, foreigners learned that property rights in the
USA are no better than in other dictatorships, so hundreds of billions of dollars of foreign capital in US banks and stock
brokerages has fled to Europe. In addition, America's tourism and airline industry is near collapse as insulted foreigners no
longer spend their dollars in the USA, while US business suffers from boycotts overseas.
Rather than addressing serious economic problems and cutting spending, the neo-cons are pushing for tax cuts while
finding new enemies to justify another expensive foreign expedition. The US government cannot afford an empire; it cannot
even afford to run this nation of 50 states. Flooding the world with dollars is forcing other nations to evaluate the real value
of dollars, and US treasury bonds. After the Soviet Union was destroyed by bankruptcy, the last premier of that other
superpower, Michael Gorbachev, frequently said that an overemphasis on military power ultimately undermined other
components of national security. The USA is now on the path to bankruptcy, led by the neo-cons and cheered by the
Democrats as they scheme to introduce the next hobgoblin to appear on corporate television to distract the American
public.
Carlton Meyer editor@G2mil.com |
