The New Militarism: Who Profits?
By Ron Paul
April 14, 2015 "ICH"
- Militarism and military spending are everywhere on the rise, as the new Cold
War propaganda seems to be paying off. The new “threats” that are being hyped
bring big profits to military contractors and the network of think tanks they
pay to produce pro-war propaganda.
Here are just a few examples:
The German government announced last week that it would purchase 100 more
“Leopard” tanks – a 45 percent increase in the country’s inventory. Germany had
greatly reduced its inventory of tanks as the end of the Cold War meant the end
of any threat of a Soviet ground invasion of Europe. The German government now
claims these 100 new tanks, which may cost nearly half a billion dollars, are
necessary to respond to the new Russian assertiveness in the region. Never mind
that Russia has neither invaded nor threatened any country in the region, much
less a NATO member country.
The US Cold War-era nuclear bunker under Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, which was
all but shut down in the 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, is being
brought back to life. The Pentagon has committed nearly a billion dollars to
upgrading the facility to its previous Cold War-level of operations. US defense
contractor Raytheon will be the prime beneficiary of this contract. Raytheon is
a major financial sponsor of think tanks like the Institute for the Study of
War, which continuously churn out pro-war propaganda. I am sure these big
contracts are a good return on that investment.
NATO, which I believe should have been shut down after the Cold War ended, is
also getting its own massively expensive upgrade. The Alliance commissioned a
new headquarters building in Brussels, Belgium, in 2010, which is supposed to be
completed in 2016. The building looks like a hideous claw, and the final cost –
if it is ever finished – will be well over one billion dollars. That is more
than twice what was originally budgeted. What a boondoggle! Is it any surprise
that NATO bureaucrats and generals continuously try to terrify us with tales of
the new Russian threat? They need to justify their expansion plans!
So who is the real enemy? The Russians?
No, the real enemy is the taxpayer. The real enemy is the middle class and the
productive sectors of the economy. We are the victims of this new runaway
military spending. Every dollar or euro spent on a contrived threat is a dollar
or euro taken out of the real economy and wasted on military Keynesianism. It is
a dollar stolen from a small business owner that will not be invested in
innovation, spent on research to combat disease, or even donated to charities
that help the needy.
One of the most pervasive and dangerous myths of our time is that military
spending benefits an economy. This could not be further from the truth. Such
spending benefits a thin layer of well-connected and well-paid elites. It
diverts scarce resources from meeting the needs and desires of a population and
channels them into manufacturing tools of destruction. The costs may be hidden
by the money-printing of the central banks, but they are eventually realized in
the steady destruction of a currency.
The elites are terrified that peace may finally break out, which will be bad for
their profits. That is why they are trying to scuttle the Iran deal, nix the
Cuba thaw, and drum up a new “Red Scare” coming from Moscow. We must not be
fooled into believing their lies.
Copyright © 2015 by RonPaul Institute.
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