How can a tiny group of elite maintain
themselves in power, not only as the rulers of the United States but
also a global empire?
The military, FBI, CIA, cops, Border
Patrol, courts and prisons—the armed power of the state—are
essential to the rule and wealth of the 1%: the capitalist class.
Sustaining and expanding the military is a fundamental cause of why
there is no money allocated to meet people’s needs in the United
States.
This year, the real military budget
will be more than $1,300,000,000,000—that’s one trillion, three
hundred billion dollars. The war in Afghanistan alone costs $330
million per day. Or, to put it another way, one day of that war
equals the annual salaries of more than 6,000 teachers! And the
Afghanistan war accounts for just about one tenth of the total U.S.
military budget.
Today, there are more than 750 U.S.
military sites in over 130 countries. U.S. troops are waging war in
Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, and threatening other
countries, including Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. The U.S. ships $3
billion every year to Israel to support its illegal occupation of
Palestine.
Why? We’re supposed to believe that
these wars and bases are “defending democracy” or protecting the
people of the United States. But the U.S. military budget is bigger
than the budgets of all the other countries on earth put together. No
other country is thinking of attacking the United States—it would
be suicidal.
Global domination and profit are the
real reasons for these massive expenditures and deployments on every
continent. We pay for these wars in blood and taxes. For the banks,
oil companies and military corporations—many of which pay no taxes
at all—they are another source of super-profits.
The U.S. military and CIA have been the
hammer of counterrevolution from Vietnam to Angola, Iran to Central
America, Chile to the Congo, and in many other countries. But it is
not just in other countries.
The military, FBI and police have
launched countless attacks against unions, organizations based in
oppressed communities, and other progressive movements. The Army was
called in to suppress mass rebellions in Black communities across the
United States in the 1960s, and were used in attempts to crush the
pickets of workers on strike.
The key weakness of the war machine is
that most service members are themselves part of the 99%. Just as in
the Vietnam War, many of those who have been deployed to Afghanistan
and Iraq have come to see that they have no interest in fighting,
killing and dying so that the super rich can get even richer. More
and more are joining the movement everyday.
