[Peace-discuss] Letter in NG

[David Green]

Mike Woods is a former Champaign School Board member whom I happened to get to know a little bit when I worked at the College of Ed back in 2000-01:
America controlled by corporations 

 The U.S. has built the biggest war-making machine the world has ever known. As reported in The Nation magazine on April 3, 2017, “Our country boasts an infrastruc- ture of global surveillance, flying killer robots, and floating aircraft carriers, all administered from a network of more than 800 military bases in over 70 countries. And today we allow the president to make war almost anytime, anywhere, for any reason.” Over the years, our military- industrial complex has become a consolidation of power and wealth that serves only the wealthiest few. The corporate world benefits through defense contracts totaling $600 billion this year as they line up outside the Pentagon like “pigs at the trough” waiting for their economic stimulus package. Raytheon, the fourthlargest military contractor in the United States and the world’s leading producer of guided missiles, received 90 percent of its revenues in 2015 from the federal government.

 In that year, Raytheon CEO Thomas Kennedy received $20.4 million in total compensation. Some call this socialism for the rich while only the naive believe in the existence of free market capitalism. Among the large military contractors this is the norm, according to Nick Turse, author of “The Changing Face of Empire.” Today, President Donald Trump and our Republican Congress want to increase the defense budget by $70 billion, bringing the total just under $700 billion. My fellow Americans, welcome to our society that is governed and controlled by corporations.

 MIKE WOODS rural Champaign

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