[THS] Michael Moore: Dwight Was Right

[The Harder Stuff in news and commentary]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26487.htm


Dwight Was Right

By Michael Moore

September 30 , 2010 "Information Clearing House" --So...it turns out President
Eisenhower wasn't making up all that stuff about the military-industrial complex.

That's what you'll conclude if you read Bob Woodward's new book, Obama's War.
(You can read excerpts of it here, here and here.) You thought you voted for change
when you cast a ballot for Barack Obama? Um, not when it comes to America
occupying countries that don't begin with a "U" and an "S."

In fact, after you read Woodward's book, you'll split a gut every time you hear a
politician or a government teacher talk about "civilian control over the military." The
only people really making the decisions about America's wars are across the river
from Washington in the Pentagon. They wear uniforms. They have lots of weapons
they bought from the corporations they will work for when they retire.

For everyone who supported Obama in 2008, it's reassuring to find out he
understands we have to get out of Afghanistan. But for everyone who's worried
about Obama in 2010, it's scary to find out that what he thinks should be done may
not actually matter. And that's because he's not willing to stand up to the people who
actually run this country.

And here's the part I don't even want to write -- and none of you really want to
consider:

It matters not whom we elect. The Pentagon and the military contractors call the
shots. The title "Commander in Chief" is ceremonial, like "Employee of the Month" at
your local Burger King.

Everything you need to know can be found in just two paragraphs from Obama's
War. Here's the scene: Obama is meeting with his National Security Council staff on
the Saturday after Thanksgiving last year. He's getting ready to give a big speech
announcing his new strategy for Afghanistan. Except...the strategy isn't set yet. The
military has presented him with just one option: escalation. But at the last minute,
Obama tells everyone, hold up -- the door to a plan for withdrawal isn't closed.

The brass isn't having it:

    "Mr. President," [Army Col. John Tien] said, "I don't see how you can defy your
military chain here. We kind of are where we are. Because if you tell General
McChrystal, 'I got your assessment, got your resource constructs, but I've chosen to
do something else,' you're going to probably have to replace him. You can't tell him,
'Just do it my way, thanks for your hard work.' And then where does that stop?"

    The colonel did not have to elaborate. His implication was that not only McChrystal
but the entire military high command might go in an unprecedented toppling --
Gates; Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Gen. David
H. Petraeus, then head of U.S. Central Command. Perhaps no president could
weather that, especially a 48-year-old with four years in the U.S. Senate and 10
months as commander in chief.

And, well, the rest is history. Three days later Obama announced the escalation at
West Point. And he became our newest war president.

But here's the question Woodward doesn't answer: Why, exactly, can't a president
weather ending a war, even if he has to fire all his generals to do it? It's right there
in Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution: The President's in charge of the military.
And so is Congress: the army can't just march over to the Treasury Department and
steal the money for wars. Article I, Section 9 says Congress has to appropriate it.

In the real world, though, the Constitution's just a piece of paper. In the real world, a
President who fired his top military in order to stop a war would be ruined before you
could say "bloodless coup." The Washington Post (filled with ads from Boeing and
Northrop Grumman) would scream about how he was the reincarnation of Neville
Chamberlain. Fox and CNN (filled with "experts" who work for think tanks funded by
Raytheon and General Dynamics) would say he was a girly-man who had to be
impeached. And Congress (which experienced its own escalation in lobbying from
defense contractors just as the Afghanistan escalation was being decided) might well
do it. (By the way, if you want to listen to Lyndon Johnson talk in 1964 about how he
might be impeached if he didn't follow the military-industrial complex's orders and
escalate the war in Vietnam, just go here.)

So here's your assignment for tonight: Watch Eisenhower's famous farewell speech.
And then start thinking about how we can tame this beast. The Soviet Union had its
own military-industrial complex, which is one reason they got into
Afghanistan...which is one reason there's no more Soviet Union. It happened to
them.

Don't think it can happen to us?

This item was first posted at http://www.michaelmoore.com/