Military

Here’s What We Could Have If We Slashed The Military Budget

September 29, 2018 Lindsay Koshgarian, Jacobinmag.com Educate! Budgets, Military, US Imperialism

The Pentagon is set to receive $717 billion in 2019 — more than half of the roughly trillion-dollar annual budget. That level of Pentagon funding is immense by any standard. Next year’s budget will be roughly twice the size of military appropriations in the mid-1990s, before George W. Bush and his twin wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And it will be higher than the peak of Pentagon spending during the Vietnam War. None of this is necessary. The Pentagon is the least accountable part of the federal government, wasting billions of dollars on needless bureaucracy, pouring billions more into dangerous (and redundant) nuclear weapons, and cozying up to contractors who siphon off roughly half of the Pentagon’s budget each year.

The Day U.S. Military Supremacy Publicly Ended

September 10, 2018 By Donald W. Miller, Lewrockwell.com Educate! Military, US Imperialism

This article updates and expands one I wrote on this subject for LewRockwell.com posted on March 8, 2018, and again on July 20, 2018. I presented it at the 36th Annual Meeting of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness in Las Vegas last week. Some of the slides I used for that talk are reproduced here. When WW II ended with two atom bombs dropped on Japan the United States emerged a superpower. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and with Russia struggling, the U.S. became the world’s sole superpower, militarily supreme.

Active Duty War Resisters Unite

September 1, 2018 Staff, Redacted Tonight Resistance Report Military, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

Lee Camp, of Redacted Tonight, speaks with Mike Prysner of the Empire Files about his reasons for opposing the war in Iraq, where he served in the military. Prysner describes how he and other soldiers resisted the war while they were involved in it. Prysner also describes US imperialism and how the US government prioritizes which countries to invade either through regime change or military efforts. And he talks about his new podcast, Eyes Left, with Spencer Rapone, which is geared toward others in the military who want to resist.

Israeli Soldiers Beat, Stripped And Robbed Freedom Flotilla Activists

August 7, 2018 By Middle East Monitor, Mintpressnews.com Educate! Activists, Flotilla, Israel, Military, Solidarity

“If we were Palestinians it would be much worse with physical assaults and probably loss of lives. The situation is therefore dire for the Palestinians.” Founding trustee of Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) Dr Swee Ang was on board the Al-Awda boat sailing to break the illegal Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip when occupation forces commandeered the vessel. In a personal testimony Ang outlines the violent treatment the unarmed activists received at the hands of heavily armed Israeli soldiers in international waters. After boarding Al-Awda, occupation forces were “twisting the arms of the participants”, “lifting” and “throwing” others out of their way and tasering those they could not manhandle, Ang explained. Al-Awda was taken over by Israeli forces on 29 July, after it was surrounded by them and had its crew detained.

Israel Targets Rights Groups With Bill To Outlaw Filming Of Soldiers

June 18, 2018 Jeffrey Heller, Uk.reuters.com Resist! Israel, Legislation, Military, Repression

Rights groups frequently film Israeli soldiers on duty in the occupied West Bank, documentation the organisations say is necessary to expose abuse by the military. A video filmed by Israeli rights group B’Tselem in 2016 showing an Israeli soldier shoot dead an incapacitated Palestinian assailant drew international condemnation and led to the soldier’s conviction for manslaughter in a highly divisive trial. The proposed law, formulated by the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, would make filming or publishing footage “with intent to harm the morale of Israel’s soldiers or its inhabitants” punishable by up to five years in prison. The term would be raised to 10 years if the intention was to damage “national security”. A ministerial committee which oversees legislation voted to approve the bill on Sunday.

Just Say “No” To The Draft

May 29, 2018 Cindy Sheehan, Women’s March on the Pentagon Resist! Class Struggle, History, Military, Military Draft

The US Congress has commissioned a “bi-partisan” panel of 11 people to study the future of a military draft in the United States. Since the beginning of forced conscription in the US (Civil War), a military draft for that war and subsequent wars has been highly unfair and class biased. For example, in the Civil War, conscripts could actually purchase the way for someone else to take his place. For every war during the 20th century, draft avoidance, resistance, or “dodging” has been practiced. During the US war crime in Vietnam, 2.15 million US troops were deployed there and at least three-quarter of them were from working-class or poor families. However, we all know the stories of former “deferred” war hawks like Dick (Five-Deferment) Cheney, Bill Clinton, Ted Nugent, Rush Limbaugh, Trump, and Mitt Romney and sub-par humans like George W. Bush being allowed to join an elite (safe) unit to avoid the carnage.

House Passes $717B Defense Bill That Covers Trump Military Parade

May 26, 2018 Sommer Brokaw, Upi.com Educate! Congress, Legislation, Military, Trump Administration

May 24 (UPI) -- House lawmakers overwhelmingly voted for a $717 billion defense bill Thursday, which includes funding for the military parade President Donald Trump asked for. The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2019 authorizes funding for new military equipment -- including new submarine- and sea-launched missile systems -- as part of a nuclear modernization program. The bill also authorized $617 billion for the Pentagon budget, $22 billion for the nuclear weapons program and $69 billion for U.S. military efforts abroad. House lawmakers passed the proposal by a vote of 351-66, despite Democratic opposition for the new weapons.

Audit The Outlaw Military Budget Draining America’s Necessities

May 26, 2018 Ralph Nader, Nader.org Educate! Budgets, Military

Top military, diplomatic, and political leaders have exposed, warned of, and condemned our runaway, unaudited military budgets for decades, to no avail. (For many examples, see America’s War Machine: Vested Interests, Endless Conflicts by James McCartney, with Molly Sinclair McCartney.) They usually come to the same desperate conclusion: that only organized citizens back in their Congressional Districts can make Congress stop this spending spree. Only us, Americans! From 1953, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his “Cross of Iron” speech before the Convention of Newspaper Editors, to full-length addresses by President Obama’s Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, the warnings about unrestrained military spending have not been addressed.

Tax Day 2018: A Bonanza For Corporations And The Military

April 19, 2018 By Lindsay Koshgarian, Truthout.org Educate! Corporations, Military, Taxes

The IRS is projected to gather roughly $1.6 trillion in individual income taxes this year, and these taxes will make up almost half of the revenue of the federal government for 2017. By comparison, corporations are expected to pay $297 billion in federal income taxes. Individuals will contribute five times as much in income taxes to the federal government as corporations do. It wasn't always this way. Corporations used to pay more income taxes than individuals did. In 1943, for example, corporations contributed 40 percent of federal revenues, compared to just 9 percent today. What happened? Throughout the last half of the 20th century, individual income tax revenues kept growing. Corporate income taxes didn't keep the pace, growing much more slowly than individual income tax revenues. The corporate tax rate declined from over 50 percent in the 1950s to 35 percent as of 2017. The Trump tax plan will likely lead to a corporate income tax cut of $135 billion in 2018 alone.

Pentagon Capitalism And Silicon Valley: Google’s Drone War Project Shows Big Data’s Military Roots

April 9, 2018 By Elliott Gabriel, Mintpressnews.com Educate! Capitalism, Drones, Google, Military, Pentagon

SAN FRANCISCO (Analysis) – Google — the advertising and search engine monolith that once touted its official commitment, “Don’t be evil” — has thrown its full weight behind the U.S. military-industrial complex’s fast-advancing unmanned drone program – and more than three thousand of its employees will have none of it. In a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, over 3,100 employees invoked the now-discarded slogan in an appeal demanding that the company not allow its artificial intelligence technology to be used to improve the targeting capabilities of the United States’ deadly drone fleet. Google’s Project Maven is an AI surveillance engine that uses footage captured by the U.S. Armed Forces’ unmanned aerial vehicles to detect and track objects such as vehicles, while combing through, organizing, and feeding the processed data to the Pentagon.

B’Tselem Calls On Israeli Soldiers To Defy Shooting Orders, Lest They Commit War Crimes

April 7, 2018 Yossi Gurvitz, Mondoweiss.net Resist! Israel, Military, War crimes

B’Tselem, the respected Israeli human rights NGO, began a media campaign today urging Israel Defense Forces soldiers posted on the Gaza border to disobey “patently illegal” shoot-to-kill orders against unarmed protesters. Last week, the IDF gunned down 17 such protesters and wounded more than 700 of them. Another wounded protester later died of his wounds. Fresh protests are expected on Friday and the IDF already announced it will keep its Rules of Engagement (ROE) as they are. The ad appeared on line today and is set to appear in major newspapers tomorrow.

Israeli Army Kills 15 Palestinians In Gaza Protests

March 31, 2018 Staff, Aljazeera.com Resist! Gaza, Israel, Military, Palestine, Protests

The Palestinian Authority has declared Saturday a day of national mourning after 15 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces as thousands marched near Gaza's border with Israel in a major demonstration marking the 42nd anniversary of Land Day. "Schools, universities as well as all government institutions across the country will be off on Saturday, as per President Mahmoud Abbas' decision to declare a day of national mourning for the souls of the martyrs," a statement issued on Friday said. More than 1,400 others were wounded after Israeli forces fired live ammunition at protesters and used tear gas to push them back from a heavily fortified fence, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Friday's demonstration commemorated Land Day, which took place on March 30, 1976, when six unarmed Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed by Israeli forces during protests against the Israeli government's decision to expropriate massive tracts of Palestinian-owned land.

What Happens To A One-Industry Town When The One Industry Is The Military?

March 28, 2018 By Dahr Jamail, Truth-out.org Educate! Cities, Labor, Military

According to that report, NAS Whidbey contributed $726 million to the economy of Island County in 2011, in addition to other ways the military base benefited the community where it is located, such as bringing in funding to local schools and retirement and disability payments to the local economy. However, a large number of residents from the community surrounding NAS Whidbey -- -- both civilians and people with military backgrounds -- have complained about the negative impacts of the Naval base for years. They've cited issues ranging from extreme jet noise to environmental and economic concerns. Because of these concerns, in 2016 they hired Michael Shuman, a nationally recognized expert on local economies, to investigate whether the Naval base was really bringing economic advantages to the community -- and what burdens the base was placing on taxpayer-supported services and infrastructure.

Google’s Alliance With Military: Ruling Class Responds To Social Unrest In America

March 14, 2018 Andre Damon, Wsws.org Educate! Google, Internet, Military, Repression

Last week, Google confirmed that it has provided artificial intelligence software to assist the United States military and intelligence apparatus in analyzing data as part of its drone war and assassination program in the Middle East and beyond. The website Gizmodo, which first broke the story, reported that the military program using Google is called Project Maven. A military report announcing the project last year said it “focuses on computer vision—an aspect of machine learning and deep learning—that autonomously extracts objects of interest from moving or still imagery.” Marine Corps Col. Drew Cukor, identified as the “chief of the Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Function Team in Intelligence...

Berta Cáceres Murder: Ex-Honduran Military Intelligence Officer Arrested

March 3, 2018 Nina Lakhani, Theguardian.com Educate! Activists, Berta Caceres, Honduras, Latin America, Military, Repression

Honduran authorities have arrested a former military intelligence officer for masterminding the murder of the indigenous leader Berta Cáceres, who was shot dead exactly two years ago today. David Castillo Mejía, the executive president of the company building a dam which Cáceres campaigned against, is the ninth person arrested for the murder, and the fourth with ties to the Honduran military. Castillo Mejía is accused by arresting authorities of providing logistical support and other resources to one of the hitmen already charged. He is the first person to be charged as being the “intellectual author” of Cáceres’s murder and the attempted murder of Mexican environmentalist Gustavo Castro. Cáceres was shot in her bedroom just before midnight on 2 March 2016, a year after winning the prestigious Goldman Prize for leading a campaign against the Agua Zarca dam on the Gualcarque river considered sacred by the indigenous Lenca community.

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