Military-Industrial complex rules the USA

....or you might call it the military-corporate complex. Either way, our U.S. military machine is way out of control. We didn't listen to Dwight Eisenhower.

Yes, I heard several of those speeches that Barack Obama made, with all those "CHANGE" signs waving all around him. Change the political atmosphere. Change the dynamic. Change from despair to hope. Change from Bush, at the least.

When I think of the kind of change that this nation needs, a move away from the military-industrial complex would be very high on my list. Our military budget - around $500 Billion per year - almost dwarfs all other nations military spending COMBINED, and we don't even HAVE the money in the first place. We're BORROWING it. Much of it from the Chinese. (And that $500 billion does NOT include ANY of the money that is being shipped - in pallets and otherwise - to Iraq or Afghanistan.)

In the 1990's, after the fall of the Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain, it seemed like we might finally have a chance to reduce the appetite of our military. The so-called "peace dividend" seemed within our grasp.

Then came 9/11. Now we're spending like drunken sailors again. Drunken deficit spending sailors. The military-industrial beast reared its ugly head once again and sunk its teeth into our pocketbook.

It is no surprise to see John McCain out there pitching to increase our military budget and the size of our military. He's military through and through. More. More. More.

It was disappointing to hear Obama recently say that, "given the depletion of our forces after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we will probably need a somewhat higher budget in the intermediate future just to restore readiness and replace equipment." How measured. We would not need to spend ANY more if we would just cut some of the outrageously expensive military hardware that many in and out of the military say we do not even need. Obama wants to add 65,000 troops and 27,000 more Marines. Why? To fight terrorism.

To fight terrorism. You remember those guys that used $3 boxcutters to bring down a few of our airliners? Yeah, those high-tech guys. We'll spend over $500 billion on defense per year to keep us safe from those guys. It's insane. We've fallen down drunk on military hardware, and we can't get up.

Cutting the military will be difficult. The shrieks from the freaks on the right will be shrill indeed. But Barack has built up quite the expectation. Shrinking the military is fundamental to reclaiming our democracy. If we don't, it's just going to suck the life out of most everything else.