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Bush Military Spending Recalls Stalin and Hitler
By Sherwood Ross
Created Apr 6 2008 - 10:54am
The relentless increases in Pentagon spending President Bush has pushed
through since taking office recall the actions of Hitler and Stalin prior to
the outbreak of World War Two.
Both European dictators escalated their war machines and both dictators
showed little concern when their domestic economies and workers' incomes
suffered as a result. In 1933, his first year in power, Hitler pushed up
German arms spending from less than a billion to four billion Reichsmarks.
He jumped that figure to 10 billion in 1936; 17 billion in 1938 and 38
billion in 1939, the year he invaded Poland. Similarly, Stalin steadily
boosted military spending in the Thirties from two billion rubles to 41
billion rubles.
As historian Richard Overy put it in "The Dictators" (W.W. Norton & Co.):
"The share of defence spending in the state budget in Germany reached 54% in
1938/39; in the Soviet Union it reached one-third of the budget by 1940."
The commitment to military spending, he says, "was historically exceptional"
and created by the late 1930s "something approaching a war economy in
peacetime."
Today, President Bush is right up there with the European dictators. His
military spending has soared from $291 billion to a lavish $515 billion and
he's proposed a stunning $651 billion next year. The Friends Committee on
National Legislation, of Washington, D.C. says that 44 cents out of every
dollar in his proposed record 2009 budget will go for war, compared with 2.2
cents for social programs. Typically, he calls for cutting 47 education
programs while handing the generals 8% more.
Under Bush, U.S. military spending is now roughly equal to the combined
total of all other nations. What's more, Uncle Sam is the world's Number One
arms peddler, selling about half of all weapons bought by the developing
nations, and showing few scruples about sales to dictators. The Center for
Defense Information reported last year that U.S. arms sales to 25 countries
it studied increased 400 percent over 9/11.
Of course, the two criminal 20th Century dictators didn't build their war
machines for sport, and neither has Mr. Bush. By mutual agreement in 1939,
the "CommuNazis," as they were known, carved up Poland, Hitler invading from
the West and Stalin from the East. In the summer of 1941, Overy writes,
Hitler remarked "what one needs and does not have, one must conquer." That's
not much different from Bush's view of Middle East oil. Having made war on
Iraq based on lies and having subjugated that small country by force, Bush
is pushing its cabinet to put through a giveaway law to profit the oil
companies. And he's threatening oil-rich Iran with an attack.
As for the quality of life on their home fronts, Stalin and Hitler didn't
mind sacrificing their people one bit to a war economy. Neither of them
tolerated labor unions. In the Kremlin-controlled economy, real hourly wage
rates in 1937 were 40% lower than in 1928 and by 1940 they were down another
five to ten percent, Overy writes. There was food on the table for Hitler's
workers but few consumer goods to buy. In 1932, consumer industries
accounted for 40 percent of Germany's investment. By 1938, this had shrunk
to only 17 percent, a trend similar to that in Russia under Stalin. Under
Bush, the real wages of Americans have stagnated as well. Despite their
fantastic productivity, U.S. workers are earning less today in real dollars
than five years ago. And restrictive laws make union organizing tougher than
ever.
As ever more Americans lose their jobs and homes, favored Pentagon
contractors reap record profits, not necessarily from operating on free
market principles. As the Center for Public Integrity noted, only one of the
top 10 defense contractors "won a majority of its contracts through full and
open competition. All the rest collected most of their contract dollars
through sole source contracts or other no-bid procedures." CPI identified
Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman,
United Technologies, General Electric, Carlyle Group, and Newport News.
One might think in these hard times -- when the price of a gallon of gas has
doubled in good part because of the Iraq war -- the White House might ask
this supine Congress for a windfall profits tax on the oil majors. With two
former oil executives holding the two top jobs, though, that's not likely to
happen, any more than the Iraqi people will ever see the profits from their
oil resource as long as George Bush is president.
The bottom line is that the people both of Iraq and America are suffering
from a needless war to profit USA's military-industrial complex. Recall that
Thomas Jefferson opposed a standing navy because he had observed the way the
Royal Navy pushed Great Britain to wage wars. If you don't remember that bit
of history, it's safe to say President Bush doesn't, either.
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
By Sherwood Ross
Created Apr 6 2008 - 10:54am
The relentless increases in Pentagon spending President Bush has pushed
through since taking office recall the actions of Hitler and Stalin prior to
the outbreak of World War Two.
Both European dictators escalated their war machines and both dictators
showed little concern when their domestic economies and workers' incomes
suffered as a result. In 1933, his first year in power, Hitler pushed up
German arms spending from less than a billion to four billion Reichsmarks.
He jumped that figure to 10 billion in 1936; 17 billion in 1938 and 38
billion in 1939, the year he invaded Poland. Similarly, Stalin steadily
boosted military spending in the Thirties from two billion rubles to 41
billion rubles.
As historian Richard Overy put it in "The Dictators" (W.W. Norton & Co.):
"The share of defence spending in the state budget in Germany reached 54% in
1938/39; in the Soviet Union it reached one-third of the budget by 1940."
The commitment to military spending, he says, "was historically exceptional"
and created by the late 1930s "something approaching a war economy in
peacetime."
Today, President Bush is right up there with the European dictators. His
military spending has soared from $291 billion to a lavish $515 billion and
he's proposed a stunning $651 billion next year. The Friends Committee on
National Legislation, of Washington, D.C. says that 44 cents out of every
dollar in his proposed record 2009 budget will go for war, compared with 2.2
cents for social programs. Typically, he calls for cutting 47 education
programs while handing the generals 8% more.
Under Bush, U.S. military spending is now roughly equal to the combined
total of all other nations. What's more, Uncle Sam is the world's Number One
arms peddler, selling about half of all weapons bought by the developing
nations, and showing few scruples about sales to dictators. The Center for
Defense Information reported last year that U.S. arms sales to 25 countries
it studied increased 400 percent over 9/11.
Of course, the two criminal 20th Century dictators didn't build their war
machines for sport, and neither has Mr. Bush. By mutual agreement in 1939,
the "CommuNazis," as they were known, carved up Poland, Hitler invading from
the West and Stalin from the East. In the summer of 1941, Overy writes,
Hitler remarked "what one needs and does not have, one must conquer." That's
not much different from Bush's view of Middle East oil. Having made war on
Iraq based on lies and having subjugated that small country by force, Bush
is pushing its cabinet to put through a giveaway law to profit the oil
companies. And he's threatening oil-rich Iran with an attack.
As for the quality of life on their home fronts, Stalin and Hitler didn't
mind sacrificing their people one bit to a war economy. Neither of them
tolerated labor unions. In the Kremlin-controlled economy, real hourly wage
rates in 1937 were 40% lower than in 1928 and by 1940 they were down another
five to ten percent, Overy writes. There was food on the table for Hitler's
workers but few consumer goods to buy. In 1932, consumer industries
accounted for 40 percent of Germany's investment. By 1938, this had shrunk
to only 17 percent, a trend similar to that in Russia under Stalin. Under
Bush, the real wages of Americans have stagnated as well. Despite their
fantastic productivity, U.S. workers are earning less today in real dollars
than five years ago. And restrictive laws make union organizing tougher than
ever.
As ever more Americans lose their jobs and homes, favored Pentagon
contractors reap record profits, not necessarily from operating on free
market principles. As the Center for Public Integrity noted, only one of the
top 10 defense contractors "won a majority of its contracts through full and
open competition. All the rest collected most of their contract dollars
through sole source contracts or other no-bid procedures." CPI identified
Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman,
United Technologies, General Electric, Carlyle Group, and Newport News.
One might think in these hard times -- when the price of a gallon of gas has
doubled in good part because of the Iraq war -- the White House might ask
this supine Congress for a windfall profits tax on the oil majors. With two
former oil executives holding the two top jobs, though, that's not likely to
happen, any more than the Iraqi people will ever see the profits from their
oil resource as long as George Bush is president.
The bottom line is that the people both of Iraq and America are suffering
from a needless war to profit USA's military-industrial complex. Recall that
Thomas Jefferson opposed a standing navy because he had observed the way the
Royal Navy pushed Great Britain to wage wars. If you don't remember that bit
of history, it's safe to say President Bush doesn't, either.
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson