Departments

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military industrial complex

  • SOURCE: Foreign Affairs
    7/3/2023

    America Broke its Own Military Industrial Complex

    by Michael Brenes

    Privatization has worked out great for defense contractors who rake in money for big-ticket experimental programs without any expectation of producing basic military hardware. 

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    3/21/2023

    Despite Ike's Warning, We're Still Nailed to a Cross of Iron

    by William Astore

    At the start of his presidency, Eisenhower warned of the dangers and costs of escalating militarism. By the end of his term, he was convinced the Military-Industrial Complex had entrenched itself. It was only getting started. 

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    12/12/2021

    Going Nuclear on Military Spending

    by William Astore

    "Why, despite decades of disastrous wars, do Pentagon budgets continue to grow, year after year, like ever-expanding nuclear mushroom clouds?"

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    11/16/2021

    The Pentagon as Penta-God

    by William Astore

    "Paraphrasing Joe Biden, show me your budget and I’ll tell you what you worship. In that context, there can’t be the slightest doubt: America worships its Pentagod and the weapons and wars that feed it."

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    11/9/2021

    Is Reining In the Pentagon Even Possible?

    by Mandy Smithberger and William Hartung

    The CBO's recent study proposes three paths to cutting $1 trillion from the defense budget. Even these proposals still leave in place massive Pentagon budgets and affirm the nation's use of military force as the first option for resolving international security issues. 

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    9/21/2021

    The Profits of War

    by William Hartung

    Between weapons systems and a shadow army of contractors and logistics consultants, the War on Terror has been a bonanza for large corporations that shows no signs of abating. 

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    9/19/2021

    After Afghanistan: Will Peace Get a Chance?

    by William Astore

    "Here’s the rest of my message to my fellow citizens. Stop rewarding the Pentagon and its failed generals and admirals with yet more money."

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    3/4/2021

    Rewarding Failure

    by William Astore

    One place a little cancel culture could come in handy is in the halls of the Pentagon, where costly and pointless weapons programs prove impossible to kill off. 

  • SOURCE: Tom Dispatch
    7/16/19

    Eisenhower's Worst Nightmare

    by William D. Hartung

    When, in his farewell address in 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of the dangers of the “unwarranted influence” wielded by the “military-industrial complex,” he could never have dreamed of an arms-making corporation of the size and political clout of Lockheed Martin.

  • SOURCE: Atlantic
    1-1-15

    The Tragedy of the American Military

    by James Fallows

    " [The] reverent but disengaged attitude toward the military—we love the troops, but we’d rather not think about them—has become so familiar that we assume it is the American norm. But it is not."