I'm writing this in response to the Senate's vote to stop buying the F-22-which has been used in neither Iraq or Afghanistan, has become obsolete and is even dangerous as pilots can become trapped in it. To me, this is the first blow to the Military Industrial Complex in a very long time.

In Eisenhower's fair-well address, he warned of the Military Industrial Complex. It basically refers to the very close and shady dealings of the Military, the Contractors, and the Politicians.

Eugene Jarecki's Documentary entitled "Why We Fight"(Named after the Frank-Capra WWII propoganda movies) does a much better job at going into detail than I could but what happens is this:
Corporations compete with each other to sell their product to our government. They also flood our Congressional districts with money and jobs so that if the military no longer uses said product, people lose those jobs and money (B2 Bomber has a piece made in every state). Representatives are terrified of losing these contracts b/c it may cost them thousands of votes. Many government officials have either previously headed these companies or do so after office-a notable example is Cheney and Halliburton/KBR. He was Sec. of Defense, Afterward he ran the company(making quadruple what he did in public service), and then after becoming VP he (in my opinion) saw to it that we went to war and made sure Halliburton got the contracts.

It's all a money-making business and what I personally find the most scary is that these contractors who are basically making our foreign policy have Zero Accountability to the voters.

Check out this website: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/spending.htm Please note that our military expenditures was $623 billion. The next closest was China with 65.0 billion . What is even more jaw-dropping is the total world expenditures(minus US) at $500 billion. Why the hell do we feel the need to spend more on our military than the entire rest of the world put together??

Basically I just want people to be aware and not glorify our militaristic nature. We do Not go into countries to bring freedom and democracy-we go in to loot, plunder, and protect our interestes as the global hegemon. Capitalism is defeating Democracy in this country and only an informed and vigilant citizenry can keep these two in balance. This last election was Huge in the amount of people who got involved and informed-we cannot let that zeal for the democratic process to once again be replaced with ignorance and apathy.


Other News: I finished Reza Aslan's book "How To Win A Cosmic War." I have to say hands-down that it was the best book i've read in years (quite the statement). It was extremely informative, engaging, and insightful. I would def highly recommend it.