[lbo-talk] Hersh on Bush & Iran

[Carl Remick]

>From: Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu>
>
>Carl:
>
> > The source of meaningless babbling here seems to be your own
> > keyboard.  Your "Lord of the Flies" defense -- i.e., that
> > "there is a sadistic asshole in virtually everyone of us" --
>
>Where did you get the idea that what I posted was a "defense" of any kind?
>I simply stated that there is enough debased, sadistic people in the world,
>that the elimination of the military would merely eliminate only one venue
>for the actualization of this vast debased sadistic potential.

As venues for the actualization of sadism go, the military is a beaut ... 
completely in a class by itself.  No other institution -- even capitalism -- 
is better conceived to bring out the worst in people.


>As to the US military -it indeed is the force of the evil empire and all
>that, no question about that.  I also understand that the US military often
>suffers from the "cowboy/badass attitude" - as for example described by
>Parenti in his The Nation piece on Iraq and Afghanistan, much more so than
>the EU or Canadian troops - but let's not lose the sense of proportion 
>here.
>If you think the US military is particularly debased and sadistic, I 
>suggest
>you try other countries - Russia, Indonesia, Pakistan, India, China, 
>Rwanda,
>Liberia, Zimbabwe and so on.
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3756866.stm
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4674366.stm
>By these standards, the US military is a paragon of professionalism.

When these other military gangs get the mischief-making spending power of 
the Pentagon, *then* I will worry about their malign effect on the world.  
As things stand now no other military is within hailing distance of the US 
armed forces as an agency for evil in the world.  Consider these stats for 
world military spending in 2005:

-- US military spending was almost two-fifths of the total.

-- US military spending was almost 7 times larger than the Chinese budget, 
the second largest spender.

-- The US military budget was almost 29 times as large as the combined 
spending of the six “rogue” states (Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan 
and Syria) which spent $14.65 billion.

-- US military spending  more than the combined spending of the next 14 
nations.

-- The United States and its close allies accounted for some two thirds to 
three-quarters of all military spending, depending on who you count as close 
allies (typically NATO countries, Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan and South 
Korea).

-- The six rogue states, along with Russia and China, together spent $139 
billion, just 30% of the U.S. military budget.

<http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/ArmsTrade/Spending.asp#InContextUSMilitarySpendingVersusRestoftheWorld>

Carl