Plundering the American Dream
“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.”
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address January 17, 1961.
Dwight Eisenhower was a five-star general, a lifelong military man. From the vantage of the presidency (1953-1960), he could see the menacing potential for abuse of power and gross distortion of our national priorities, resulting from the intensifying influence of the military-industrial complex. His worst fears, some sixty years ago, are now the reality of our current political environment.
We should avoid being cavalier about the impact of out-of-control militarism. This is not some abstraction merely to be bandied about by pundits, political scientists, and economists. It is undeniable: There are serious and very real consequences to real people living real lives.
Or as Eisenhower put it in an earlier address, his Cross of Iron speech of April 16, 1953.
Yes . . . THEFT! Theft from each and every one of us. All of the money spent on unnecessary wars and unneeded military junk, on building bases across the planet and weapons in space, on developing more usable nuclear weapons and sponsoring proxy wars, overthrowing other governments and positioning the U.S. as the great conquering ruler of the planet, all of these antics and blunders and reckless misadventures built around twisted priorities, are visits to the doctor that can’t be made, holes in the roof that can’t be repaired. They are the bald tires on the car that won’t start, the kids’ threadbare clothes and old sneakers, the defaulted mortgages and overdue credit card payments. They are the empty bank accounts and empty wallets of millions of citizens who work hard and walk the straight and true but simply can’t get ahead, who find themselves constantly scrambling to make ends meet. Trillions and trillions of dollars withheld or taken from citizens — real people living real lives — only to create chaos in the world, to inflict death and destruction on other countries, to create animus and hostility toward the U.S., to turn potential partners and allies into enemies, dollar-by-dollar stolen from individuals and families and neighborhoods and communities which are slipping slowly and inevitably deeper into poverty and desperation.
Thus, when deciding on how much money to spend on our military, we are confronted with a fundamental choice.
Tragically . . .
Our current batch of warmongering leaders have made their choice . . . THE WRONG CHOICE!
Just in 2024 alone, $886.3 billion was allocated to the Department of Defense. This official total does not take into account the “black budgets” of the CIA and NSA, the portion of the Department of Energy’s budget dedicated to developing and upgrading our nuclear weapons, the bloated budget of the Department of Homeland Security, which supposedly defends us from internal and external terrorism. Since much of the funding for “defense” is cloaked in secrecy or intentionally obscured by bureaucratic smoke screening, it’s almost impossible to arrive at the exact total. Some analysts put it at over $1.5 trillion!
How did our priorities get so skewed? So turned on their head?
One example: The Department of Education’s Title I initiative “delivers critical funding to 90 percent of school districts across the Nation, helping them to provide students in low-income communities the academic opportunities and support they need to succeed.” In 2024, the total funding for this extremely valuable and critically needed program came to $20.5 billion. The DOD budget is 43 times as big. Yes, bombs and bombers over books and teachers.
Yet another example: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ American Rescue Plan for Older Americans offers nutritional support, caregiving, essential transportation services, chronic disease care, psychological assistance, among many other things, to the elderly. Total budget $1.4 billion. The basic DOD budget is 633 times as large. Let the old people starve. Let them fall down the stairs. We’ve got countries to destroy! We’ve got wars to fight!
What does such a twisted agenda tell us? Is this what America is all about? Is this what we as Americans want? Are these the choices we would make if WE THE PEOPLE were in charge?
Highly doubtful.
In fact, if everyday Americans had a truly honest picture, a clear understanding of what’s going on, this is what they’d see . . .
OUR ENORMOUS WEALTH IS BEING SYSTEMATICALLY LOOTED!
OUR FUTURE IS BEING MORTGAGED, SOMETIMES STOLEN OUTRIGHT!
What used to be The American Dream — opportunity for each and every citizen to fulfill his or her full potential and share in the vast wealth and resources of “the richest nation in history” — is being plundered and destroyed.
The American Dream is being replaced by a war movie!
It’s up to us to come up with a new script.