OMNI WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, #130, JUNE 14, 2023.

 

OMNI WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, #130, JUNE 14,  2023.

·       Melvin Goodman.  Corporate Media’s Support for Militarism 

·       Abel.  Peacemakers’ ad in NYT. 

·       MR Editors .  “The United States of War.” 

 

  Melvin Goodman.   “The Mainstream Media’s Unwillingness to Challenge U.S. Militarization.”  Counterpunch (JUNE 2, 2023).    FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

The Washington Post finally conceded in an editorial last week that the United States must “spend smarter” when it comes to defense.  Instead of looking for ways to cut defense spending, however, the Post simply wants to spend differently.  It favors more spending on conventional and nuclear-armed submarines, despite the huge U.S. advantage in both power projection and lethality in air and naval resources.  The Post favors greater investment in cyber defenses and secure communications as well as in “predictive analytics” and artificial intelligence.  And, of course, the Post joins the chorus of political and pundit voices warning that China “continues to creep toward Taiwan,” currently the main driver of militarization.

The Post makes no mention of the savings that could result from arms control and disarmament measures such as returning to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty that could abolish the national missile defense.  Freezing the defense budget makes far more sense than freezing domestic spending, and would allow for reevaluating the Operations and Maintenance budget as well as setting realistic priorities in a hardware budget out of control.

The simple fact is that mindless militarization is being challenged by neither the Congress nor the media.  Defense spending is excessive; base agreements are being expanded; large-scale land and air exercises are being resumed; and multilateral embargoes are being expanded on dual-use technology.  Later this month, NATO will conduct the largest air exercise in its history.  Air Defender 23 will involve 25 nations, 10,000 participants, and 220 aircraft that will gratuitously raise the level of tension throughout Europe.  A similar exercise in Europe 40 years ago, Able Archer, led to a war scare in the Soviet Union.  MORE   https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/06/02/the-mainstream-medias-unwillingness-to-challenge-u-s-militarization/

 

Abel.  But we can buy ads for peace:

A bunch of former U.S. military officials, including Matt Hoh, Anne Wright, Lawrence Wilkerson, William Astore et al., ran a full page ad  in The New York Times calling for Peace with/for Russia/Ukraine.

Full text of ad from their website:

https://eisenhowermedianetwork.org/russia-ukraine-war-peace/   (Sent by Abel)

 

June 2023 (Volume 75, Number 2)

The Editors .  “The United States of War.”  Monthly Review (June 4, 2023).

As the Pentagon gains approval for yet another record-breaking budget, the editors examine a perennial question: Why does the United States oligarchy need such an outsized military machine in the modern era? The answer is found in the current era of naked imperialism, accompanied, as always with deadly militarism. | more…