Roger Hardy
Sep 1, 2018 · 1 min read

Interesting piece, thanks. The heart of the issue is that the last time the US declared war was in 1941. Since then, wa-making powers have slowly elided to the president, it seems. Now with an authoratarian ignoramus in the hot seat, that makes the world a more dangerous place. However, the point that has been missed (maybe intentionally as it opens a whole new can of worms) is the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned of in 1961 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93industrial_complex). Since 1939, the importance of the industrial power to wage war has become far more important to a capitalist economy that is being out-competed by foreigners. For example, US exports Google, Facebook, Amazon and services but not cars or machine tools. However, if you want the best in fighters, bombers, drones, tanks, missiles, bombs etc you need look no further; the US has a full catalog. So, war costs lives. So what if they’re foreigners or even Americans? In a world of limited resources, there is one resource that is not limited and that is the human ability to reproduce itself. Remember that around 25 million Russians died in WW2 but had been replaced in one generation. So, the profit motive cannot be excluded in any consideration of US hegemony. You only need to see who’s getting the business in Iraq these days. Yup, it’s Dick Cheney’s Halliburton.

    Roger Hardy

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