Part 2 of the Military Industrial Complex is Alive and Well
with Larry Wilkerson.
Like any drug addict, our oil-addicted country is going to find it eventually has to make a choice — between life or death, and between health or financial ruin. The drug of oil and the drug of imperialism has a lot to do with our current problems as a country. Why is it that America can’t stop being at war in the Middle East? The answer is obvious — resources and energy. And for those who don’t ‘believe’ in climate change, they are no doubt surprised to find out that the Pentagon and the military are planning for “Abrupt Climate Change”, and have been planning for it for years. (Pentagon report [PDF]). They are also planning for more wars, for water shortages and border problems. The plans include not just dire warnings, but maps of oil fields and new ways to fight a war and lose less American soldiers, which means fighting wars with robots, ’smart’ weapons, and drones.
As Wilkerson says, America can go one of two ways into the future. Water and resource scarcity, due to peak oil and climate change, will lead either to a blueprint, or to a “scramble”, as Royal Dutch Shell calls it. The scramble is fighting others for the last drops of oil and water, and that will lead to a lot of blood and wars. The blueprint is planning for a future without oil and a fair way to share the resources that are left, which means we let go of our American imperialism and our addiction to oil and pass strong climate and energy legislation.
When the Republicans tell Americans that we are the “best country on earth” and that our way of life is “not negotiable” they are brainwashing current and future generations for endless war — war for resources and profit. The idea is to get into people’s heads that America needs to control and lead the world in all things. That opens the citizens up to believing that America deserves all that is out there for the taking. The reason climate change has become a political issue in America but not in other countries is a right to imperialism that many people feel America possesses. They think America should control the world, be the police of the world, and take what we need. They use words like “freedom” and “democracy” and “elections” so that we think this is a noble thing. (The excuses for these wars are nonsensical, if people would just think about what they hear longer than 30 seconds.) The proclamations about freedom though, often repeated by Republicans whenever possible, sink into peoples’ minds so that Americans support whatever wars the government may want to start in the future. The distant vague promise of “helping people” and “building schools” and saving Afghan women is why people support the war in Afghanistan, a war that has no clear purpose at all, other than resources and a pipeline.
People in our government (all Republicans) and in large energy companies say they don’t believe in climate change because they don’t want climate legislation, which is a blueprint forward. Many Democrats don’t want strong climate change legislation because they probably agree with Republicans that we deserve whatever we can take from where ever we can get it. They all seem to want to take the oil and gas that is left by force. They want to conquer countries and occupy them as long as possible, in order to control the last of these natural resources, and now that includes water. I don’t see much difference between (most) Democrats and (nearly all) Republicans when it comes to American imperialism, especially for resources.
Wilkerson thinks wisely that this will weaken America, if we pursue the “scramble” path, and eventually lead to our economic downfall. We are already paying for the wars we are in with printed money and debt. This is all about to collapse, if President Obama doesn’t end it, according to Wilkerson. We will know exactly where Obama stands on American imperialism when he decides to either end the war in Afghanistan or increase the troops levels there. Our fellow pirates, the leaders of NATO, want to increase troop levels, so we know where NATO stands.
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