The Washington Post ran an article on January 30 headlined "With Iran Ascendant, U.S. Is Seen at Fault" which focused on how the rise of Iranian influence in the Middle East was less due to Iran's successes than it was because of the United States failures. In essence, we have created a greater enemy out of Iran and it's allies. We have also created more terrorists in Iraq and fueled a Muslim-Christian holy war that threatens large areas of the globe. At the recent international Conference on Security Policy in Munich, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that America's "hyper use of force" was "plunging the world into an abyss of permanent conflicts." But why? If the United States intentions are so altruistic- democracy, freedom, liberty- then why do people resent or outright hate the US more than ever? The answer is complex but it starts with a very simple explanation: we need enemies.
The United States has the best military capability in the world and has been at war with one country or another for decades. As lampooned in the movie Team America: World Police, the US has always seen its role in the world as a champion of justice and freedom yet in many instances the US causes more problems than it solves. Take Iraq as a prime example: by importing "liberty and freedom" we've somehow turned the country into a breeding ground for terrorists (not to mention unleashed a civil war) and made it more of a danger to us than ever before. How is it possible, we ask, that with all our supposed good intentions, we now have more enemies and are at greater risk in the world than perhaps ever before in history? To put it plainly, our defense/munitions industry cannot survive without enemies. Since it's inception during World War 2, the defense industry has needed global conflict to maintain and even grow it's business. As shown in Eugene Jarecki's must-see documentary Why We Fight, President Eisenhower's televised warning to the country of the "military-industrial complex" has proved not just true but only an inkling of what this 'complex' has really turned out to be.
Since our defense industry is so intertwined with many of our major corporations and media companies, they have a strong incentive to influence world events to provide themselves with an unending string of conflicts which they can also provide the solution to and spin to their advantage in the media. How convenient! As far as capitalism goes, it's a perfect setup (aside from those pesky unexpected detours in world events from time to time). And capitalism doesn't have to act with a conscience --formulas and principles and even truths don't know emotion-- they just are as they are. It is WE that provide the emotional act of conscience in how we choose to utilize those formulas and principles. And for those of us who wish for and act with good intent in the world, we all realize there are those who act out of malice, greed, and worse. Those who do not consider compassion and conscience in their principles, who do not care for any motivation other than that the principle works. And that their business grows. The person or persons that control a defense corporation with a non-defense arm and a media arm (say, General Electric for example) would in theory want to keep their businesses not just running but growing. You can be damn sure if defense or munitions is your business, you have a vested interest in the armed conflicts of the world. In some sick way, you're hoping for a good, long war. The world's worst news is your best. It's like a doctor or pharmaceutical company that hopes everyone gets sick and stays that way. A business cannot thrive without customers and the defense industry can't survive without enemies. Just like a prison can't survive without prisoners.
In America, we have a greater percentage of our population imprisoned than any other industrialized country in the world (and most of the Third World as well, second only to Rwanda). As of June 30, 2005, about 1 out of every 136 Americans was either in jail or in prison. And why is this? Do we have that many more scofflaws and murderers? Or is it just a reflection of our laws, which have kept our prisons not just full but overcrowded. And you know what that means? Build more prisons! And of course that means hiring more prison guards. Here in California, our prison system has tripled since 1980 to become the third largest penal system in the country. We spend $5.7 billion dollars a year to house over 161,000 inmates. That's big money and the people who lobby on behalf of that money care very much about it. The California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) is the most powerful lobbying force in Sacramento and uses it's might (read:$$) to influence lawmaking to their benefit. For instance, they have worked very hard opposing medicinal marijuana initiatives in California because non-violent drug offenders make up a large percentage of their inmate population. The CCPOA has aggressively lobbied for laws that fit their agenda, including their hefty contributions to the "Prop 184" campaign for "three strikes" back in 1994 (they helped it pass with over 70% of the vote). One little law decriminalizing simple possession of marijuana would clean out more prison cells than legalizing murder by a long shot. But prisons operate for their customers, just like the defense business operates for it's victims, just like the pharmaceutical industry operates for its patients. On one hand, it's good business to make sure you are sick all the time because we got the cure for what ails ya! On the other hand, it's a sick joke and a perverted way to make money off of people who trust you with their lives.
Prisons should not operate by the principals of business, in terms of customers and growth. A prison system must be flexible to the rise and fall of its need in society. And so should a defense industry be flexible to the ups and downs of global conflict. And so should the pharmaceutical companies constantly adapt to the vagaries of disease. But the temptation to influence events that are better for business are often irresistible to those in control and so we have a booming prison system, a costly and prolonged war and a nation of patients that are too slowly awakening from their pill-happy stupor to realize that we have given control to leaders who have sold us out to the highest bidder. Leaders who have ruined our good name in the world and turned us against each other so we'd be too busy worrying about red versus blue or what the gay agenda is (Rev Haggard?) or who does what in the privacy of their bedroom. I'd be much more concerned with what's going on in America's boardrooms than it's bedrooms. Get bent over and screwed long enough and you'll get used to looking at the floor. Or.... you wake up to what's going on and realize that if it's going to change, it has to happen with you, not just with everybody else. Or with nobody else. Think wisely of whose customer you really are and what you are actually supporting when you spend your money as a consumer. Without your support, a business withers and dies. Like the old saying goes, the customer is always right.