[Peace-discuss] N-G letter

[Morton K. Brussel]

In all the complaint and tumult about the tax increases passed by the Illinois legislature, I’d like people to consider our financial problems from another perspective. None of the recent letters in the N-G refer to the federal budget and the federal tax structure, to which we all contribute, more or less. No one mentioned the costs suffered due to our wars, occupations, military bases, “intelligence” and “national security”. These costs are upwards of one trillion dollars per year. Military, i.e. ”defense” outlays exist not only in weaponry and associated equipment such as planes, ships, guns, but in personnel, infrastructure, research and development, state department operations, propaganda, and CIA operations. All are associated with what Eisenhower called the “military and industrial complex”, but which also includes, unfortunately, an associated academic and media complex. Some small fraction of our population profit from all this expense, but the rest are in debt from it—just as some have become fantastically wealthy over the past few decades while the rest have suffered stagnated or diminished incomes.
 
U.S. citizens do not seem to complain about their military, and so-called  “national security”, burden, but the total state debt in the nation is now roughly 500 B$, and would be greatly alleviated if the cost of our military and imperial adventurism were reduced, say, by 50%; that would cover all of our states’ debts, and we could then better deal with our society’s many problems—environmental, educational, health, and infrastructure.
 
Here, I do not delve into the moral aspects of U.S foreign policy: why are we killing and destroying in remote lands such as Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Yeman, why are we supporting with our tax dollars repressive governments around the world such as Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt?
 
Our national moral deficiencies in foreign policy are closely connected to our economic and social problems at home. Think about it!
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