Smedley, Ike and Me & Sins of the Empire

Off the keyboard of Phillip Farrugio

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Smedley, Ike & Me

In 1935, an essay was published, War Is a Racket (Google it), by retired Marine General Smedley Butler. In it Butler embellished his belief that our nation’s foreign policy was controlled and manipulated by private corporate interests… all in the name of greed. Wars, invasions and occupations by our military, according to General Butler, were all predicated on the desire for profit by corporations. He himself called his past life as a Marine general as being a gangster for these private industrial interests. He used WW1 as an example of who made the profits for our military being sent ‘Over there’. Apparently, most of the American public at that time could not care less for what Smedley Butler was selling.

In January of 1961, retiring President Dwight Eisenhower gave his farewell address (Google it). In it, this cold warrior made a sort of indirect mea culpa as to the “vast military industrial complex…” as he labeled it. Ike knew just how diabolical this network of war making corporations could be. As president he allowed many dirty deeds in the name of ‘fighting communism’. A whole list of countries that the United States pushed our sabers into, whether overtly or most often covertly, defines how we will be recorded by truthful historians… however few and far between they may be. Our current position as the world’s superpower is the bastard child of this greedy and corrupting military industrial complex… simply known to many as an empire.

This writer stands with sign in hand each week to once again sound the alarm bells that General Butler and President Eisenhower rang. I join with many others who want to finally curtail and pullback this military industrial empire. Many of us are progressives and libertarians politically… it does not matter. The truth of it all is that if this obscene and financially disastrous military spending is not cut drastically, our great nation will crumble from within. No terrorist attack could do as much damage as that! There is a movement nationwide to get the Congress to cut this tragically high spending by a minimum of 25%. Since 2001, military spending has almost doubled! It now hovers at over $ 560 billion a year, or 56 cents of every tax dollar we each send to Uncle Sam. Even if only half of the 25% in savings was passed on to the cities, Daytona Beach, nearby to my town of Port Orange, would receive 35 million dollars a year. That amount would wipe out all of the cuts in services for that community, perhaps even allowing a lowering of property taxes.

It is time for the fine and dedicated Occupy members and the equally important labor union movement to get on board with but one focus: Pullback this military empire! All the other peripherals such as greedy Wall Street, terrible foreclosures, viable and real health care reform, layoffs etc are all connected to this overzealous military empire. It is time for we who ‘know better’ to be role models for the majority of Americans who still buy into the mainstream media’s hype and spin. There is no major difference, so far as this military industrial empire goes, between the two dominant political parties. Yes, the Republicans are more caustic, but the Democrats are more diabolical by their hypocrisy. When, on foreign policy, a libertarian conservative like Ron Paul agrees with a lifelong progressive like Ralph Nader…

Sins of the Empire… Does Anybody Really Care?

 I love the public library system, always have. From my earliest remembrances as an eight or nine year old, the local library was sacred to me. Each Friday afternoon after grade school, I would walk to the library and immerse myself inside the aisles of dreams. All kinds of wonderful books were there for my enjoyment. That little card with my name, address and signature was a passport to adventure. Walking home with an armful of new books, I was on cloud nine.

The movers and shakers of our American empire could not care less for the public library system or, for that matter, the public education system. What they do not need at all are well versed and thinking citizens. No, the more dumbed down the populace is the more they can be propagandized and controlled. If only those who enter and exit the local library in my town would realize the ramifications of our government spending the obscene sum of $ 1.2 million per year to keep a soldier in Afghanistan. The poor soldier only sees about $ 30,000 or $ 40,000 for that year long service to the military industrial empire, in a country that our nation has no damn business occupying in the first place! That is for another column… Let’s focus on waste and mismanagement of our taxes, ok? Here is the kicker to that one soldier being sent to Afghanistan for one year: That amount of money ($ 1.2 million) is the budget for ONE MONTH of the entire library system in my Florida County (Volusia) – which covers THIRTEEN branches! Doing the math and you will find that it would take but the cost of sending TWELVE  soldiers to Afghanistan to cover the budget for the county’s 13 branches for one year. Imagine that a whole entire system of staffing and book buying and community rooms and special events… the maintenance of each facility, all equaling what we spend on sending twelve GIs to Afghanistan. Outrageous!

Here is the real tragedy of this all: Since fiscal years 2005-2007 my county’s library budget has been cut down by 33%! What once was a whole wall dedicated to New Fiction Books and another equally massive wall for New Non Fiction Books has been combined into one wall… with less and less new books! Down the line there have been cuts in everything, so as to meet the budget ceilings. Someday soon, and mark these words, you will hear the trumpeting for privatizing library systems. So, once again, the suckers will pay for the sins of the empire! Isn’t it time for the good folks of our towns and cities of America to speak out and demand a pullback of this military industrial empire, before the bankruptcy is complete?

PA Farruggio

September 26, 2012

{Philip A Farruggio is son and grandson of Brooklyn, NYC longshoremen. He is a free lance columnist (found on the fine Information Clearing House, Activist Post, and Dandelion Salad, Dissident Voice and Smirking chimp sites), an environmental products sales rep and an activist. Since 2010, Philip is a spokesperson for the 25% Solution Movement to Save Our Cities by cutting military spending 25%. Philip can be reached at paf1222@bellsouth.net }