Between the wars

moar LOLcats

Besides the basic unassailable emotion of the above LOLCat, I'd like to point out something that, despite all the changes to acceptable age and stop-lossing being done, is a never-changing aspect of industrialized war:  look closely at that soldier.  He's a kid.  A brave and worthy kid, no doubt, but he could barely buy a beer back here.   As ever, this damnable War is being waged by old white guys, but it's still -always- the kids who are dying.

Except for all the Iraqis, of course. Those, we are apparently not so picky about.

The picture is a moment of solace in an unending wall-to-wall spasm of violence and dis-humanization.  It belies the basic humanity of the participants; But if this young man ever makes it back to us at home, will he ever be able to pet a kitteh again without thinking of the hell he participated in?

And on a more 'big picture' note, the always-excellent Glenn Greenwald today has a post up regarding what was known once-upon-a-time as the Military-Industrial Complex.

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Today, we might just as well call it the American Economy.  The imbalance of money, both among the other nations of the world and within our own economy, is mind boggling and appalling.  There is no justification for this kind of insanity anymore, unless you are an insane warmonger or have world-spanning imperialistic notions.  Unfortunately for us and the rest of the world, we are currently being governed by people who are both.

The rates of military spending are unsupportable, as Russia's demise shows.  We lasted longer because we started with more industrial capacity; but the end is the same.  It's as if Russia simply spent all their savings, while America was able to rack up some massive credit card debt; the end result is going to be catastrophe.

As GG says, we are not allowed to discuss this in the current political climate; because there are Enemies.   If you do, you are branded as unserious and far-leftist; a Dirty Fuckin Hippy who has no right to participate in the direction of the country.  We can safely ignore that these enemies pose no serious threats to America as a country; it is rather belief in Red Dawn and 24 that rule our discourse.

It's appalling.

Greenwald accurately states that none of the current candidates make any statements that would change this trend.  Military commerce has become far too much of America's economy to be willing to stand for that kind of nonsense.  We'd much rather let sick kids or old people die than sacrifice a small portion of the profits of our beloved military contractors; or - heaven forbid!- change the contracts to development and purchase of industrial goods or infrastructural expenses!!!  Swords into plowshares is fine for the Bible, but this is business.  

But.... just for a moment, imagine if Lockheed Martin was developing a mass transit system.  Or Raytheon was working on power generation and distribution for cities, or water cleaning systems, or even just new paving and bridge systems that would last a thousand years....  If we spent 1% of our military budget on development of alternative energy sources, America could be a world leader in future energy.

Imagine.