“The first causality of war is truth.” Hiram Johnson (1866-1945)

Have any of you watched the 2005 documentary “Why We Fight?”  If you haven’t, you should.  It’s perhaps one of the greatest films I’ve seen in awhile.  Why?  Because it shows how our country generates misery by making war a big business under the guise of spreading democracy around the world.  What’s so provocative about his film is the fact that it alludes to an agenda, set in place perhaps 50 years ago, that our government has been following in order to line the pockets of certain companies and people within the government itself, AND, to bring about the rise of the American Empire.  Using rationale thought (as you watch this film) you begin to realize that there’s a big problem of how the people of America have been duped into believing we need to go to war.  Our government has been perpetuating war for the benefit of not liberty, freedom or the American way of life, but for the almighty dollar.

We spend more money on defense than any other discretionary part of the budget.  We spend more money than the other 18 countries of NATO do.  We’ve gravitated to war and its machines so that our American way of life has become an American way of War.  Companies compete now for bigger and better ways in which to kill people…all under the guise of spreading democracy to the world.  Have we asked the world if they want our way of life? This has become a product competition among big businesses and the government buys these weapons with money which could be spent to end poverty in our nation, find cures for diseases – but instead they outsource war for the benefit of those who head large companies.  I remind you of Cheney and Halliburton.

I’m not going to preach too much from my soap box, but I will ask you some questions: Why do we fight?  Do we really know?  Do we just follow what we’ve been told? Should we question the reasons? Would we really know the truth? Between 2002 and 2003 the Pentagon spent 1.2 billion on advertising for volunteer recruitment into the armed forces.

I leave you with parts of Eisenhower’s farewell speech concerning the militarization of America:

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment.  Our  arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential  aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.

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.

Here we are – at the threshold of American Economic Colonialism and we pay the price for this new era with the lives of our young people.