Your Perception Is Worth Big Bucks To The Military-Industrial Complex

By Chris Rossini

We all know how Hollywood and the crony media likes to portray the U.S. military. It's almost always presented as this well-oiled machine, good looking people, white teeth, well-spoken, the whole nine yards. 

Hardly will you see how trillions of taxpayers dollars go up in smoke and how the Pentagon mysteriously "loses" track of where the money goes. No, the actual truth about how government bureaucracy works is not what you'll see in the latest blockbuster film.

Perceptions are critically important when running an operation that forcefully takes money from American citizens. Perception is worth big bucks! As a matter of fact, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter had his hands out this week seeking yet another $600 billion.

Carter says:

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"Even as we fight today’s fights, we must also be prepared for the fights that might come 10, 20 or 30 years down the road."

Oh really?

This is where perception comes in. The belief that the U.S. military (a) should be fighting for decades to come, and (b) that it's able to sit down and plan 10, 20 and 30 years down the road. 

If this were even remotely true, was it in the U.S. plans for ISIS to exist right now? How about the fact that the Taliban controls more of Afghanistan than at any time since 2001? Was that in the plans?

Obama's "plan" for Iraq was "an Iraq that is sovereign, stable, and self-reliant." Yet, Iraq today doesn't resemble that at all. Obama was supposed to end the Iraq war, yet mission creep has the U.S. with well above 4,000 troops in that country, and the numbers keep climbing. Was all of this in the plans as well?

The "plan" for Libya was to conduct a "humanitarian intervention," yet anyone who looks at Libya now and sees humanitarianism needs to get their eyes checked. Was turning Libya into a cauldron of misery, and yet another magnet for ISIS, in the "plans"?

What if there's a financial crisis in the next 10, 20, or 30 years? Is that factored into the plans? And are we to assume that the American public will still be OK with military interventionism that far into the future? What if non-interventionist ideas reach a critical mass?

The truth is this: our world is incredibly complex. It's so complex that it's beyond the human mind to "run it" with a military empire. If that were possible, the dustbin of history wouldn't be overflowing with failed military empires.

Who knows what the world will look like 10, 20, or 30 years from now? That's an eternity when you're dealing with human beings that have the ability to choose and contemplate their actions.

One thing is certain though. What happens 30 years from now is insignificant to the military-industrial-complex. They want as much of our money as possible RIGHT NOW.
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