Department of Defense: The Biggest Corporation of All

[Political Heretic]

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life…. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.

–Dwight Eisenhower, American Society of Newspaper Editors, 16 April 1953

The DoD – the biggest corporation of all
By SAUL LANDAU and NELSON P. VALDES

President Obama called his $3.8-trillion budget a big step in restoring America’s economic health. Last year he promoted TARP, the Troubled Assets Relief Program to bail out the financial sector at a mere $700 billion. Anyone – even billionaire bankers — can make mistakes that wreak ruin on the rest of us!

Obama also declared as “untouchable” the Pentagon budget of $1.5 trillion (including hidden costs in other government branches), which dwarfs the rescue package for the financial oligarchs. Both payouts, however, used the same logic: Congress taking from the have-nots and giving it to the have-mores. Indeed, the economic, political and military potentates depend on the federal budget to transfer taxpayer resources to them.

This evolving military-industrial complex, a partnership of interlocking government and corporate networks, has used public wealth to enrich itself. The manufacturing part of this complex rarely produces anything people live in, wear, or eat. Despite National Rifle Association claims, armaments do not meet civilian needs. In fact, there exists a dramatic gulf between a healthy economy and a social order based on military spending. During the very period (1998-2008) when the US economy’s share of global output dropped from 32 to 23%, the Defense budget doubled. (Loren Thompson, “QDR Can’t Solve Three Biggest Defense Challenges, Lexington Institute, January 28, 2010)

The Defense Department’s eschewal of economic reality finds its counterpart in its disinterest in accountability. The dramatic admission of this statement of priorities came from Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who admitted publicly that that DOD could not find $2.3 trillion. The money is still missing. (“The War on Waste: Defense Department Cannot Account for 25% of Funds – $2.3 Trillion, CBS Evening News, January 29, 2002)

(more)
http://dailycensored.com/2010/03/07/the-dod-%E2%80%93-the-biggest-corporation-of-all

[Mari333]

1. amen knr

[patrice]

2. Creates the "need" for itself and then punishes anyone who questions that SELF-justification.

You should have seen what happened here the other day when I tried to ask a recent enlistee to stay fully informed on ALL of the issues when he votes. You should have seen the MIC-groupies go all indignant on me.

[L0oniX]

3. Token repost of pie chart...

(defense pie chart)

[Political Heretic]

7. Where does that come from?

I've seen many, but just curious as to the source of this one.

[L0oniX]

13. repost...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7856361

you can Google "defense spending pie chart"

[rug]

8. What is the X?

[L0oniX]

14. repost...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7856361

you can Google "defense spending pie chart"

[rug]

15. Ah, that's much more telling.

[leveymg]

4. Too big to be a mere corporation, Ike called it a "Complex"

Beware "the military-industrial complex" were his parting words as President as he addressed Congress for the last time on January 17, 1961, in which he also warned us of the companion danger of the capture of government by the "scientific-technological elite":

. . . Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

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.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present

* and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.

SNIP

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

5. Where can I buy Department of Defense stocks? I had no idea it was incorporated.

[Political Heretic]

6. You can buy stocks, in a sense

Just invest in anyone of these subsidiaries of the Defense Department:

Lockheed Martin

Boeing

Northrop Grumman

Raytheon

General Dynamics

United Technologies

Science Applications International Corporation

Health Net

L-3 Communications Holdings

Honeywell Inc.

Hughes

Rockwell

Textron

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

10. These are not "subsidiaries". You've listed public corporations.

In fact, they sell to other national governments as well as to other non-government groups.

I'm sorry, but "investing in bread making and meat farming" is not the same as "investing in McDonalds".
A more correct answer would be to buy US treasury and US war bonds.

[Political Heretic]

12. Okay.

:shrug:

Does this in any way alter the point of the article?

Of course they're not literal "subsidiaries." When I say that the Republican party is a wholly owned subsidiary of the financial elite - anyone replying that, no they aren't literally such looks like an idiot.

Yes, The Department of Defense isn't literally a corporation. However, in making a critique of the DOD, its fair to say that it acts a lot like a huge for profit enterprise - the very "military-industrial complex" we were warned about.

It is most certainly driven by the interest of making tons of money for those involved in the complex. It has most certainly become a driving force behind our public policy, much to the detriment of social and economic justice. It's also horrendously wasteful costing us the bull of the revenue taking in while every other social investment program or department is asked to cut and settle for less.

So - can we don't quibbling over the technicalities? No one was "confused" about whether or not DOD was a literal corporation when this was posted. It's an analogy to illustrate a point based in cold hard facts. Got it?

[Uncle Joe]

9. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Political Heretic.:thumbsup:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. But, unlike most corporations, it produces nothing, nada, zip.

[blindpig]

16. k&r

[leftstreet]

17. Should be renamed Dept of Offense, or Dept of Occupations

What a joke

[L0oniX]

18. K & R

[G_j]

19. follow the real money

it's untouchable