Click here to access article by Tom Engelhardt from TomDispatch.
The author shows how political operatives of the ruling One Percent have learned after the debacle in Vietnam that they could no longer depend upon soldier citizens to wage their wars. Something had to be done about this. He shows how the military-industrial complex, which is operated by, and for, the One Percent, adapted to this fact and are now prospering by relying more on high tech, remotely operated weapons in their wars. Also they have established excellent control over the media which has become so adept at both promoting new wars and sanitizing them once they start for the people at home.
Back in the 1980s the Empire builders started with small wars like the invasions of Granada and Panama to get people in the mood. But they soon realized that something big was needed to get the Empire project really going--you know, something like a Reichstag fire or a Kristallnacht event. They knew all about Goebbel's discovery of the "big lie". We have to give them credit for a daring imagination and ability to execute because they proved they were up to the task with their successful engineering of the 9/11 event (see this and this). Brilliant! And it worked perfectly.
This greatly induced panic in the American populace which then went along with a much more aggressive foreign policy and reactionary restrictions on civil liberties here at home. Many young people were motivated to sign up for the volunteer military to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Unfortunately for the warmongers the patriotic fervor of soldiers has gradually eroded after a several years and tours of duty where they saw first hand what was happening, from all the leaked reports of atrocities committed by NATO forces (tortures and renditions), and all the other lies that have been revealed about the justifications for these wars and their mission in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Hence, the new remote controlled wars have arrived just in the nick of time for the warmongers. And, big contracts for the weapons industries to feed more profits to the One Percent! After all, they provide jobs! Who do you think among the One Percent really cares about the fact that these weapons are paid for by ordinary taxpaying citizens of the 99 Percent who must sacrifice to pay for them with cuts to the education, health, and welfare of their families.
Today we learn from the NY Times that we can expect more drones being manufactured to keep watch over our activities. (I wonder if Orwell is laughing or crying in his grave.) So now we see a stampede down on Wall Street among One Percenters to buy stock in companies making these weapons: Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, and General Atomics. Like their Chinese counterparts, the One Percenters' mantra is "to get rich is glorious" --and they don't care how.
And luck also seems to be with the warmongers. The economic collapse of 2008, brought about by the One Percent's reckless gambling at the Wall Street casino, their packaging and selling all those mortgage packages like snake oil, and the implementation of their neo-liberal policies, has greatly contributed to the success of the so-called "all volunteer" military. The armed forces are now populated with young people who join because they have no good alternatives for jobs in the civilian economy, not because they believe in new wars like the one political operatives have planned for Iran.
