Blood Money:
The Human-Capital Equation of the U.S. Occupation of Iraq
by Stephen "Flint" Arthur When a state is determined to pursue war, and all forms of indirect symbolic protest actions have failed to sway politicians to halt their imperialist aggression, the only remaining option is direct action by the working class. One option is a general strike by workers that can effect the production and transpiration of military capital, that is the materials essential for the war machine. The other is to deprive the military of the labor it needs to fight the war. The slogan from the Vietnam War protests deliberately speaks to this, "What if they had a war, and no one came?" The U.S. military is overwhelmingly recruited from the working class, and convincing our class as a whole to refuse to work for this blood money may be our best chance for both ending the war in Iraq and limiting the imperialist ambitions of the U.S. for future decades.
Military recruitment is a big business. The U.S. federal government spends $2.4 billion dollars a year to recruit soldiers for what is the most capital intensive army in the world. It costs the U.S. Department of Defense about $11,600 to recruit a solider. In addition to the cost of recruitment, training and equipping the average solider costs an additional $50,000. The U.S. Army estimates that each increase in the size of the army by 10,000 soldiers increase costs by $1.2 billion a year.
The U.S. military spending is $395.2 billion, with an additional cost of the current war of $74.7 billion. To understand the kind of money we are talking about, the annual budget for the U.S. Department of Defense (not including the current war) is three times the combined military budgets for Russia, China, Iraq (before the U.S. invasion/occupation), Iran, North Korea, Libya, Cuba, Sudan and Syria.
It also represents
48% of the Federal Discretionary Budget. The U.S. federal spending on education is $61.4 billion -- it is ironic that if not for the huge sums the U.S. spends on the military and the prosecution of various wars, the very economic benefits it tempts recruits with could be shared across the entire U.S. populace. We need resources for housing, education and healthcare -- not warfare.
-snip-
A Lot More:
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=04/08/12/5445550This is a very good introductory article explaining the whole Iraq situation and why you really, really, really have to vote for Kerry and not Nader.
BUSH '04 = DRAFT '05
KERRY '04 = PNAC OUT THE DOOR!
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