Walmart of War No More

Walmart of War No More
Courtesy Photo

Courtesy Photo

“(T)hey shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” -Isaiah 2:4

The New York Times recently published “Criminal Inquiry Sought in Hillary Clinton’s Use of Email.” Regardless of criminality or not, why hide governmental email? The plausible rationale is to shield communications from Freedom of Information Act requests.

That something to conceal may be found in a more alarming story. It was “Clinton Foundation Donors Got Weapons Deals From Hillary Clinton’s State Department,” published by International Business Times.

The article finds: “Under Clinton’s leadership, the State Department approved $165 billion worth of commercial arms sales to 20 nations (including Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar) whose governments have given money to the Clinton Foundation…(that figure is) nearly double the value of American arms sales…during the same period of President George W. Bush’s second term…governments and corporations involved in the arms deals approved by Clinton’s State Department have delivered between $54 million and $141 million to the Clinton Foundation as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to the Clinton family…”

Beyond scandalous odor, the more pressing question is: Why in the f*** are we selling billions of dollars in war machines to hyper-repressive dictatorships at all? Top importer Saudi Arabia has one of the worst human and women’s rights records on the planet. Remember that when Hillary blathers about women’s rights. Additionally, Saudis regularly publicly behead far more people than ISIS for political reasons and petty crimes, including by tortured confessions.

We are spending trillions fighting Middle East wars superficially because of 9-11. Yet, a majority came from Saudi Arabia, none from Iraq. A leaked Clinton memo even found Saudi donors were “the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide.”

Why not invade Saudi Arabia? Instead, Bush holds hands with dictator Abdullah, while Hillary and Obama sell more war machines to them. Why make the world more dangerous by strengthening repressive regimes?

Comedian Bill Hicks said, “You know we armed Iraq…intelligence reports would come out: ‘Iraq: incredible weapons’ …’How do you know that?’ ‘Uh, well…we looked at the receipts. But as soon as that check clears, we’re goin’ in…for God and country and democracy and here’s a fetus and he’s a Hitler. Whatever you f***ing need, let’s go!’…I’m so sick of arming these little countries, then we go and blow the sh*t out of them.”

In the context of the upcoming anniversary of our nuclear bombing of Japanese civilians and the Iran “deal,” question. What moral authority do we have on nuclear weapons considering Obama recently approved a plan to spend $1 trillion to upgrade our nuclear arsenal? We have also invaded dozens of countries since WWII, unlike Iran.

We have a trillion dollar annual military budget, and 1,000 foreign military bases; this has little to do with security of American citizens. The primary purpose is advancing the interests of multinational corporations with no allegiance to any nation. It is the subsidized Corporate Security Complex.

Smedley Butler, the most decorated Marine General in history, told this truth: “I spent (over) 33 years…(in) military service…as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street…I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico…safe for American oil interests in 1914…I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street…I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

President Eisenhower’s warnings about the Military Industrial Complex materialized. Virtually no elected politician is immune. The problem is military-related jobs exist in every state. In Arkansas, a new Lockheed Martin plant is being subsidized, making our politicians even more pusillanimous.

Hillary, Obama and Bush are blatant Complex handmaidens. On the other finger, Bernie Sanders criticizes the Complex, but alas, even he supports Lockheed’s $1.5 trillion F-35 pork warplane.

However, Bernie remains the biggest proponent of improving democracy. Perhaps if he can do this, we can then elect leaders with more complete integrity. Reforming the Complex cannot happen overnight.

Until we stop arming dictatorships and invading for profit, and begin eliminating our WMD too, we must stop kidding ourselves. We are the greatest obstacle to peace.

Moreover, our leaders are intelligent, and must know when we kill civilians, we create terrorists. Terrorism is “good” for business.

Television lies about a noble and exciting war machine. The truth is psychologically crippled and bawling orphans and refugees. It is mothers and fathers driven blind with madness by their child’s brains not in school, but spilled in red hands. Jimmy Carter said, “War…is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.”

Jesus spoke of loving one another and said, “Blessed are the Peacemakers.” Surely, he meant not a similarly named missile exported to holy lands for profit.

Solutions? Shift most Complex employment and funding to peaceful endeavors, like clean energy revolution. Nationalizing all Complex corporations would help eliminate the profit motive for war trade. Join the pleading majority of nations in new and existing arms reduction and peace treaties, and honor them.

Yes We Can transform the Walmart of War!

Categories: Commentary