Get News & Views Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
One Thriving Sector: The Business of War
Pentagon's contractors are looking for help
SOUTH NASHUA, N.H. - Across the nation, companies are lopping off hundreds of thousands of jobs, retailers are shuttering stores, and automakers are tottering on the edge of bankruptcy.
Candidates spoke to hiring personnel (at tables) about 200 job openings during a job fair Tuesday at BAE Systems in Nashua. (David Kamerman/Globe Staff) But here in the Merrimack River Valley, and over the state line at several industrial sites around Massachusetts, defense contractor BAE Systems is hoisting "Help Wanted" signs.
BAE develops technology in fields like electronic warfare and cybersecurity, sophisticated systems that are key to combating a new wave of threats around the globe. At a time when 1.7 million jobs have been lost in the United States this year, the company is hiring 200 engineers and manufacturing workers in Nashua, Hudson, and Merrimack, N.H., and Burlington, Lexington, and Marlborough, Mass.
Other defense electronics contractors, such as Waltham's Raytheon Co. and General Dynamics Corp.'s communications systems center in Taunton, also continue to ramp up. Such companies remain awash in orders from the Pentagon and American allies increasingly worried about terrorism and missile proliferation. They are also facing the pending retirement of many baby boomers in their labor force, a factor lending greater urgency to their hiring efforts.
"We're acting very aggressively when we find a good match," said Christopher Sherman, engineering manager at BAE's Electronics & Integrated Solutions division here.
The company has already hired 475 people in New Hampshire and Massachusetts this year, mostly to meet growing demand, but in some cases, to replace departing workers.
Back-to-back BAE job fairs Tuesday and Wednesday drew 1,462 candidates, including recent college graduates in pressed suits, Cold War-era defense industry veterans with salt-and-pepper hair, and commercial engineers who had previously worked at computer software or telecommunications companies. All hoped to land jobs at BAE's electronics programs, some of which are highly classified.
"I've challenged my team to hire 70 people out of this crowd tonight," said Amanda Arria, the company's Northeast regional talent acquisition manager, pointing to lines of applicants waiting to meet with hiring managers in the BAE cafeteria Tuesday night.
Patricia Heckley, 50, a software engineer from nearby Tyngsborough, Mass., stood in one of the lines. Heckley said she had never worked in the defense industry, but was confident her skills were transferable in a period when high-tech companies are scaling back. "It's a jump, but I think it's a reachable jump," she said.
Hunting for his first job was Curtis Jerry, 22, of Sanbornton, N.H., who graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute earlier this year. "I love defense in general, because that's where all the interesting technology is now," Jerry said. "I'd really like to work testing guidance and navigation systems, but I'd do just about anything."
BAE and other military contractors have become islands of growth in a national job market that is underwater.
The growth in defense may not continue for long. Industry analysts are projecting budget cuts in major US weapons programs as the war in Iraq winds down and the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama wrestles with other priorities. Defense spending has climbed steadily during the Bush administration, reaching $671.7 billion in the 2008 fiscal year, including emergency supplemental appropriations for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That represents a 72 percent increase from fiscal 2000, after adjusting for inflation.
But the budget reductions are not likely to start until next fall, when President Obama's national security team will be in place and the next federal budget year begins, suggested Loren B. Thompson, chief operating officer at the Lexington Institute, an Arlington, Va., think tank.
"There will be breathing space because of the rhythm of the budget cycle," Thompson said.
"And even when the cuts come, some companies, because of what they do or because of emerging threats, will fare pretty well. Companies in Massachusetts and New Hampshire will weather the downturn better than others are likely to."
One reason is that, rather than building entire jets, ships, tanks, or ground installations, many of the region's defense firms develop the electronics, combat, and communications systems they use. Even when a massive weapons program is cut back, as the Navy's $20 billion DDG 1000 destroyer program was last summer, contractors like Raytheon can market their combat systems for use in other new ships or in older vessels in the Navy fleet.
Area contractors, for instance, work on electronic eavesdropping, signal processing for radar systems, and equipment used to integrate intelligence from different sources, technologies critical to helping the US military and allies battle terrorists in multiple countries. General Dynamics, at its Taunton site, is developing a new generation of command, control, and communications systems that enable the Army to coordinate simultaneous operations at far-flung locations.
The economic downturn has given defense contractors a boost by expanding the pool of potential employees, since workers from civilian industries have lost jobs due to cutbacks.
But the ongoing housing slump has made it difficult for workers from other states to sell their homes and move to New England, forcing contractors here to compete with one another for local talent.
"To move people right now is problematic," said Keith J. Peden, senior vice president of human resources at Raytheon headquarters. "That makes the universe we recruit from smaller."
Raytheon, which is sitting on a $37 billion order backlog, has added more than 200 jobs so far this year at more than a dozen sites in Massachusetts, from Tewksbury to Marlborough. The company projects that it could add another 400 jobs in 2009, in programs ranging from border security and training systems to radar and Patriot missiles.
Over the past year, US allies such as Kuwait, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan, jittery over the missile threat from Iran and North Korea, have placed orders for Raytheon's antimissile Patriot weapon systems.
- Posted in
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
50 Comments so far
Show AllI wonder what country will be "freed" (from its oil?) like Iraq was, next? Venezuela? Iran?
.Apparently Venezuela is wondering too as they have just negotiated with Russia for a closer relationship...I dont know about you but I'm exceedingly frustrated by living in a nation whose course is both reckless and feckless.
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
Sioux Rose
ARDEE: America appears to be exploring a 21st century version of feudalism... the children of serfs are available for war, as there are few other jobs pending. The elite have now laid claim to the contents of the US treasury, and the "house of the people" serves THEIR interests as much as the other two. Obama carries the aura of such promise and yet serves his masters unless he's a Svengali who's just waiting for the right moment to throw open the curtains and show the audience who's pulling the strings. Unlikely, but we are here in this "commons" to dream.
.Magic is nothing more than sleight of hand and Svengali wasn't a good guy. Trilby was carried to great heights, talent wise, but became totally dependent upon her "master"...Obama serves at the pleasure of those who provided the 750 million dollars he used to gain the White House, so, if you think he is behind the curtain then there is yet another curtain behind him.
Those who believe Obama will lead us out of the wilderness should read that novel. The real problem with this nation is that most seem to believe in a hero riding in on a white horse to save the day. Any solution will have to come from the electorate demanding a sea change in our course. We need far too many reforms to hope for a quick solution. We need far more involvement by our citizenry before any change will occur. Those in charge are doing quite well thank you very much.
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
Sioux Rose
ARDEE: I thought I made it clear that Obama was NOT the savior, however, if he were willing to risk his life (none of us dare ask that of him, it is only his to give if he is so motivated) he COULD certainly open some curtains and expose a lot of what passes for political representation today. That would be quite an education...
.Sorry for the misunderstanding. I never questioned your opinion of our new President, in fact I tried to note that I share it.
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
Should read: "The Business of Empire".
These Merchants of Death are key to creating a new wave of threats around the globe.
Our young men set out to slay another but only slay themselves for pride and profits and
they return broken in body and soul. Thus they become the evil they sought to destroy.
Indeed. That's exactly what the Merchants of Death want --- enemies --- so they can use and sell their weapons of death for more war profiteering $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
Jeevee
Let's work on educating people re. PRIORITIES. Who on this unutterably suffering planet, are among those who really need the most help???
Jeevee
For example, those who are "at risk" or those whose lives have already crumbled but are still existing and taking the consequences?
There was a brief time after Glasnost and the disassembly of the CCCP that the MIC was facing an end to their hitherto endless profits. They were facing the possibility of having to manufacture refrigerators and stoves and such like.
It was pointed out, no doubt, in the various board rooms of the Carlyle Group et al., that when someone purchases a stove or a refrigerator, he'll keep it for fifteen or twenty years. Where is the profit in that?
Whereas, if you make guns and ammo, it is shot off and more must be bought. If there is no conflict for a while, the hardware is considered obsolete, so they come to you for more up-to-date weaponry and spend still more.
So all that is needed is keep in control of the various governments and make sure they have some trumped up casus belli and your profits will soar forever.
Seems to be a plan that works well, doesn't it?
"Seems to be a plan that works well, doesn't it?"
Please. We musn't be cynical. DoD contractors have a solemn obligation to their shareholders to maximize profits. It's the law. God Bless the United States of America!
A lands best and brightest, dedicated to creating more powerful and efficient means of KILLING anothers people.
A country that calls itself CHRISTIAN having it entire economy based upon War and death and destruction.
These Evangelists that speak every Sunday as to how Russia is the Magog of Biblical prophecy might want to do a rethink and look in the mirror.
Sioux Rose
GW NORTH: You said what I would have said... I do believe that the extreme patriarchal focus of organized religion and the world of academics & science that emerged in many respects as a rebellion against it, still both see the world through a rather limited polar prism. Without a more unifying vision, this idea of enemy, of self versus other, has gotten ENORMOUS mileage across history and that programming has led to WAR AS PRODUCT, sadistically, a very profitable one.
For those that hunger to feed their families and now think a job "with defense" is the solution, anyone who knowingly plays a part in sustaining or building up the US death machine, will cause their own karmic reverberations.
Martin Luther King as a sage made it clear that a society that invests more in armaments than the social uplift of its people approaches spiritual death, in my view, spiritual bankruptcy. The more this whole macho thing is worshipped by Hollywood, the sporting nexus, the war machine with its ersatz heroes... the less energy is directed at pacifism, finding peaceful solutions, learning the ART of negotiation, and most of all PRESERVING life for all...
Consciousness has remained virtually retarded (with respect to the warrior state) as weapons have advanced at unbelievable speed and "competence" because the best minds ARE courted by the military to make the machinations of death so that more and more thousands are cast to a fate they do NOT deserve, as reasons for conflict are invented to boost the sale of armaments. It does not get any uglier than this, and we wonder why Gaia is having paroxysms of over-kill?
I agree that sexual/cultural context plays a big part in the warfare dynamic.
I suppose one could ask who has the upper hand in the mating game? Perhaps this is very dependent on culture. Strong families, dynasties, women as property, marriage as political maneuvering, treaties between families and nations, powerful families, class divisions.... all point to family/ sexual and power relations.
Competitive nest building seems to be a fairly common pursuit across cultures. In German I think the article to use for mirror is feminine die Spielgel ...perhaps it should be masculine!....time for another verse perhaps on to pronoun envy!
Sioux Rose
EMPIRE PIE: The sexist conditioning is SO covert that few recognize it. I mean there is the obvious surface stuff, but for instance when students study the romance languages, pronouns and nouns are either given masculine or feminine designations. This is funny stuff... my schtick on it? "How do they know if it's feminine or masculine? DO they pull down a verb's pants to see what it's got?"
So some in this forum argue that WOMEN help to maintain systems that are damaging TO women. Kind of like the voters in Kansas, right? What people (most) will do to remain part of a group is often against their best interests. There are often dark shades of what Shirley Jackson revealed in her scathing story, "The Lottery." People will agree to penalize some as outsiders, in order to strengthen the sense of cohesion of the "in" group. Prejudice is a perfect example. If my context is racism, I can be a disgusting, uneducated fat slow white boy, but accepted into the group just for that skin pigment. I believe group identification holds people back, and the study of child development as related by Joseph Chilton Pierce, in "Magical Child" relates to the degree one African society's members will go to in order to insure that no one LEAVES the tribe. There is cruelty in human nature to be sure, but it's been developed into a high art that positions one group against another to that the elites can watch the unwashed fight for crumbs. One does get tired of this story replayed over and over again, and thus we have to examine the roots of the mechanisms that socialize these behaviors from the onset. Religion definitely (via the belief in sex as sin) has placed a cold wedge between men and women, and as a woman I object to the constant relating to God as a masculine pronoun. (Did they pull down HIS jeans to see what he's got?) I believe at one point Catholic theologians, closet homosexuals I believe, argued among themselves whether women had souls. Some said Jews did not. Blacks were 3/5 citizens, and the list of insanity disguised as state policy, or fashionable beliefs for an era goes on. These injurious beliefs are so much worse for the human story than what we mystics bring to the equation. Yet who's been killed for trying to break the knots that bind minds to entirely materialistic applications for MANY centuries? The crack in THAT cosmic egg has begun...
Actually, the German word for mirror (Spiegel) is masculine.
Not that it matters—gender is an arbitrary thing, with the same word having different genders in different languages.
Sioux Rose, from what I've been studying about in Buddhism, the manufacture and sale of weapons used to kill others is prohibited as a means of employment as it brings bad karma.
Sioux Rose
GREEN IS: It makes sense doesn't it? I mean if you build a product like a car, it CAN do harm (in the US 45,000 die a year on our roads)... but it is not INTENDED for harm. Weapons are generally directly related to violence, the power TO harm. Even if the one wielding the weapon considers him/herself ONLY acting on the defense, they take up the same VIOLENCE as the one who may perpetrate it. I went at length to share what the I ching says about the nature of evil in hexagram 43. We lose innocence if we take up evil's own methods, whatever name: to protect! for freedom! for democracy! to preserve our way of life! It's all empty... the Buddhists have a sophisticated concept of the level of culpability. If I veer off the road to not hit a human being, and inadvertently kill a sheep (this is possible in a rural region), I get less karma. If I aim at the person because I dislike them, I get more. The system reminds me somewhat of US jurisprudence in that the "mens ria" concept relates to the LEVEL of criminal intent. (Maybe Alex Lawyer can correct me if I have gotten this wrong, or add to this discussion.)
Sioux Rose -- As usual, I agree with most your post. However, I would caution you and GwNorth to review what are the "best minds". The best minds, IMO, are minds where rationality and spirituality are integrated (as you have practically stated), whereas the "best minds" of the killing machine are schizophrenic in that two opposing ways of being live in the same mental cage. The ability to tolerate hypocrisy (which it amounts to) is an emblem of a less than best mind and it is a necessary attribute of the bulk of those who work for the military establishment (unless they are entirely unreflective.)
It may seem like a small thing, but I think we have to shift everything, including how we talk about things.
Arry I understand your objection to the term "best minds". However the reality of the warfare state as the US practices is that "ITS" best minds are those who work in the defense industry designing these new instruments of killing.
I do not assign morality or spituality to the descriptive word "best" and as far as "minds" go , like anything they can work for the "best Interests" of groups that one could see work for the greater good, or groups that work to create harm.
That the US war industry thrives and has help wanted ads out there in a crumbling economy shows exactly where the US as a country has decided to commits its wealth and treasure and the path it has chosen for itself as a nation.
It not one of peace and the common good. It one of death and violence.
PK
OK. I was using "best" in a broader sense. I think we'll agree that the best minds of the killing machine are deeply flawed and not simply in the matter of value.
Could be the real best minds of our generation are "destroyed by madness, starving, hysterical, naked..." Nah, I never did buy that... :)
Sioux Rose
ARRY: Point well taken. I suppose by best I meant those of rare academic promise, but as in the case of a Ted Bundy, deep intelligence without compassion as its compass can lead to some pretty destructive ends. Thank you for mentioning what I unconsciously omitted.
The neocons have done a great job in keeping the MIC recession proof.
Remember the saying from the sixties: "Suppose they gave a war and nobody came?"
It is the emperor who drives the economy through his imperial adventures. Do you understand? God Bless the United States of America!
I guess if the Master Race wants to gain control of the world, it has to pour all its wealth into the armament industry, doesn't it?
I mean you can't impose your will upon the world unless you've got the very latest in killing devices, can you? I mean countries are not going to fall in line unless you wield a big stick, do a bit of heavy invading and occupying, build military bases all over the world, are they?
And Obama has already promised to ensure that America continues to have the biggest military in the world, hasn't he?
And the indoctrinated Americans who are in the majority, they applaud these ambitions, don't they?
If you're interested in topics like Master Race, Indoctrination, Human Savagery, Extinction, etc, visit my blog sometime.
www.dangerouscreation.com
Sioux Rose
SHADOW DANCER: Excellent post. I totally agree... I do know that sometimes what is fated can be altered if enough people shift consciousness AND behavior. It is not enough to believe something if actions are not taken in support of such a belief. This is where a lot of arm chair new age types mistake effort for mere alignment with principle. Sometimes the action called for is to NOT-do, to stop consuming, to stop supporting industries that cater TO the war machine. Such a dark labyrinth has wrapped itself around so many otherwise sound industries in America. Nick Turse wrote a powerful essay explaining the depth and breadth of this network, and it was published on CD about 9 months ago. (someone else may be able to produce the link?)
Fabulous places to picket. With "educational" protest signs and flyers.
The World Has Rules?
Rock the culture cradle ....please don't forget the ladle
the stone is for the soup.... the magic is for the group.
The stone has much to say
like stern majestic heads on barren lands
for....
how do you atone with silence?
"The individual whose vision encompasses the whole world often feels nowhere so hedged in and out of touch with his surroundings as in his native land. " Emma Goldman
anybody remember that Clinton who has been called a hawk said she would put an end to Blackwater and other military contractors while Obama has siad we may need them.
"ShadowDancer December 6th, 2008 6:24 pm
There are those who study prophecy that consider the US may be a Beast Kingdom or Mystery Babylon in the Book of Revelation as many Beast Kingdoms are listed."
It's a fitting analogy, or whatever the right term is; but I wonder if SD means that "many Beast Kingdoms are listed" in the Book of Rev., or else across all known writings referring to some country(ies) or govt(s) coming, eventually, to be bestial and therefore "Beast Kingdoms". Afaik, while being far from expert on the Book of Rev., and believing that some experts are right in saying that this text arguably was not written by Apostle John, but rather by another John of the same period; well, I don't know of the text speaking of more than one "Beast Kingdom". Maybe it does, though.
SD: "Mystery Babylon may be the key to building the globalist Beast system through the U.N. as Mystery Babylon fornicates with all the Kings of the Earth. ..."
Yes, and again, fitting analogy, given it's the way the UNSC has been used and the UNGA disrespected by the UNSC, f.e. Also fitting in terms of the UNSC always siding with what clearly are criminal vetoes, like [all] of the well over twenty vetoes the U.S. has placed against UNSC draft resolutions demanding that Israel cease its extreme crimes, genocide, ... against the Palestinians, for another example. The UNGA often comes to good votes, even if some member states act like beasts, but the majority vote is good and the UNSC ... like always disrespects this greater democratic body of the UN and therefore disrespects all of humanity.
Yes, strongly fitting analogy!
SD: "... The so called Christian factions that love & support this Beast may be the False Apostacy written about of whom God said ...."
That is not about "False Aposta[s]y", but simply Apostasy, for a false apostate is someone who would evidently pretend to be apostate, but while not really being one. Such a person could, f.e., pretend to be apostate in order to try to infiltrate groups of suspected or known apostates in order to perform investigations, either for confirming to oneself what one suspected is true, or for exposing the findings to others in order to, say, warn them to beware.
I don't think the Bible speaks of any "false apostates" at all, but does speak of apostates and "false prophets".
SD: "... Jesus did not teach religion, ...."
FALSE, and the problem is that people don't understand what 'religion' means. He taught religion alright, but did not establish any institutions, including religious ones. He warned against institutionalising religion; perhaps not in explicitly specific terms, per se, but certainly in strongly implied and obvious terms. In a sense, he did establish a minor institutionalisation in assigning authority to apostles while not to other disciples, BUT he also told the apostles that they better understand that while their apostleship was welcome, inferring that that is the case as long as they remain true, don't become "false prophets", well, he also said they had to understand that there'd be people who'd come to him, follow the ways of his teachings and his own social conduct without having anything to do with the apostles or even anyone professing to be a disciple of his. He therein made it clear that absolutely NO institution at all can prevent someone from relating with him and God, etcetera.
By teaching about God, God's way and will; by teaching to love God with all our hearts, minds and strength, and to love our neighbours (a-religiously, that is, without religious discrimination, as well as without sexual and other forms of discrimination) as we do ourselves; to do for others (again, a-religiously, ...) as we would want done for ourselves; and so on; well, he was teaching two things in this, and they are religion, that is, belief in and relationship with or to God, and social conduct between ourselves.
People incorrectly treat 'religion' as if it necessarily means the institutional kind, which it does not.
SD: "... Jesus warned about false teachers & false prophets so those who think this Beast is doing God's work when this Beast is doing the Devil's work may fall under Jesus's teaching of being false teachers & false prophets."
I don't think we need to bother with the word 'may', for they definitely and clearly [do] "fall under Jesus's teaching of ... false prophets" and "false teachers"; although I'm not sure if he said both, only recalling having learned that he said the former. If he said only the former, however, then it does inherently infer the latter when the "false prophet" also pretends to be a valid religious teacher and goes about teaching related falsehoods, trying to "ensnare" or trap, say, innocents in and/or with rotten falsehoods.
SD: "... The only time Jesus got angry was when he overturned the tables of the money changers."
I think he was probably angry when the hypocrite, and so on, pharisees were threatening to lapidate Mary Magdellan; doubting that he was light-hearted about his words to them. Jesus surely did get angry, sometimes, but it was always an honourably righteous, not self-righteous, but righteous anger, and that's good, not bad, anger. It is indicative of healthy passion, as opposed to the sickeningly unhealthy passions too many people have and live by.
Etc. I understand what SD's meaning to say and agree with the essence.
Sioux Rose
MIKE: I wish you could bring these factors forward in a debate with one of the authoritarian managers of the huge mega-churches that teach people to follow rules like clone-robots, rules that so often contradict EVERY teaching of Christ, their purported Master.
How about the truth and call it the war industry. A long time ago the defense department was called by its right name, THE WAR DEPARTMENT. It should be changed back.We need to get rid of that euphemistic, lie.
"War Department." I like that title; it fits. I'm tired of euphemisms. "Defense Department" is misleading as there aren't any countries that are a threat and plan to attack the World's Superpower --- so what is there to "defend?"
But, then again, "war" is never declared anymore. How about the "Department of Imperial Overreach" or the "Department of Corporate Extortion and Murder"?
LOL.......I like your suggestions -- how apropos. Let's not beat around the bush anymore.
Yeah, always remember, under every BUSH there is always dirt!
"Siouxrose December 6th, 2008 5:36 pm
Sioux Rose
ARDEE: America appears to be exploring a 21st century version of feudalism. ..."
Yes, I wholly agree with what Sioux Rose says in that post, including the ending, with respect to precisely what (?) Obama has in mind of doing once he takes over office in January. Given his national and foreign policy teams, however, my hopes are diminished, but maybe he'll surprise us; [maybe], and hopefully.
Sioux Rose
Thanks, Mike, the role of Cassandra has not become easier with time, especially when his-story has an uncomfortable way of repeating. Einstein of course explained why that is, that until the MINDSET that gets us into war is replaced by one more aligned with avoiding it (that those who profit from such calamity hold no bargaining chips at the decision-making table) then we can expect this sorry fate to continue. Einstein also said WW IV if there would be one, would be fought with sticks and bones... for those who don't get what he meant, # 3 would wipe the world out and for any surviving, precipitate the next Stone Age. Judging from the "war as artwork" of Iraq & Afghanistan, for those who were behind these senseless destructions the boomerang of karma could justifiably head their way. For the rest of us that saw and identified, even protested the return of the beast, I hope fate will prove kinder. Grace can happen (Cayce said at times it over-rides karma.)
The United States is the leading manufacturer and seller of weapons in the world. That makes us the leading terrorist state. The military industrial complex is so intrenched that to wean itself from it might mean the death of the state. It's time those with a rational mind started considering how the world might look without the United States. Oops, guess that puts me in the same camp as most of the 'terrorist' organizations we are so often warned against.
It better be a thriving segment of the economy because it was not military power that won the cold war it was pure cold cash that won the war. Without cash america is finished, it would not have any moral authority and nobody would fear the armed forces of a country that is hard on cash.
As long as thinking is the servant to the false unexamined concept "me", the defense of this ghost will continue in all different forms. We don't have to be enlightened masters, simply have an honest, scientific, sober inward look at what is being defended.
"99% of everything we think and feel is about ourSELF, and there isn't one.". Wei Wu Wei (not the author of this comment)
In the meantime we live and die in unexamined trance, moving to the beat of fear.
When o when will the American politically, dumbed down public realize the punic, canard of defense of America? America has over 700 bases worldwide for the most egregious of lies: the troops are there to protect American, freedoms. PLEASE! Well, maybe they are partly right; they are there to protect the freedoms of the very wealthy, elite and their multinational, corporations from hostile governments that are detrimental to their business interests. When you realize that the business of America is war,then you see why the military always needs a bad guy to keep the business successful. Odert dum mutant!
This just proves what I've been saying for years. We can't have peace . . . there's no money in it. Until we can figure out a way for the big boys to profit off of peace, none of us will get to reap the benefits of stable societies and reasonable, but temperate, economic growth.
There is one problem with the mastermind's insane genius. The US is dead broke. We make only weapons and vehicles that get lousy gas mileage. It takes money to fight wars. Right now they are borrowing money to stay afloat financially. The taxpayers of this country cannot pay the expenses that it takes to run our current government. Let's say China does not want to pay anymore. What happens to the empire? Unlike everyone else on here, I would say that Obama will be forced to sell off the huge empire. When he takes power those who hold the gold will tell him, no more. He will be slashing it to survive. It will be like a man on a sinking ship struggling to throw off cargo. He will need an army of diplomats to replace the soldiers. Peace out.
As Africa becomes the key battleground for raw materials, oil etc., China & America will find themselves facing off. What will happen then with them holding most of the U.S.'s debt? Will we still be borrowing money gwb style to fight our wars? If so, then we will be borrowing from China to make bombs to drop on them.....Funny, Sad or the PRC is too smart to let things get to that point? All three.
Some mentioned fighting with sticks and bones. Very apt. Consider the US with it's vast array of murderous technology only managed to slow the Iraq insurgency by actually paying a salary to the insurgents. When that dries up the same old merry go round of killing will start again unabated. They plan to try the same tactics in Afghanistan but they'll fail with this for sure. The Iraqis only have oil and even that is no longer a prime earner. However, Heroin and cocaine is and that will continue for years to come. When the Roman Empire collapsed it was due the fact that it was vastly overstretched and could no longer hold it together. There are alot of Neros in the US administration right now they make a full orchestra. They'll continue to play their fiddles as the US finally sinks into oblivion. It was/is bound to happen and when it does we'll all live a quieter life free of US dominance, bring it on!