Wars for profit

The right-wing Republicans . . . the Christian nationalists . . . have hoisted their flag: Project 2025, a.k.a., Project Hell on Earth, and it’s coming to a future near you. Or so they believe (and hope).

But the Democrats are on our side! They won’t let it happen, right? While the deep right puts forth its stalwart vision of a recreated world, the moderate center stands cautiously and awkwardly for the status quo of the moment: only some war, mixed with social spending and even a minimal awareness of the problems posed by climate change. God forbid, however, that a counter-vision of the global future – a vision of a world that transcends war and militarism – should be part of mainstream politics. That would be pushing things too far, that is to say, defying the corporate donors who keep the political process going.

So, as the presidential election looms, we have to look at what’s at stake, as outlined in Project 2025: “The nearly 900-page document,” Liz Theoharis and Shailly Gupta Barnes write at TomDispatch, “outlines a plan to ramp up US military might, slash social welfare programs, and prioritize ‘traditional marriage.’”

Military might – yeah, that’s the political key. They add: “Nor is this new. Every year, the Pentagon budget invariably passes with widespread bipartisan support, even if a few representatives vote otherwise. Since the 9/11 attacks, in fact, $21 trillion has been funneled into war, surveillance, policing, border control, and incarceration. In Fiscal Year 2023, nearly two-thirds of the federal discretionary budget funded the military-industrial complex and militarized spending.”

Militarism is more than the flow of blood. It’s also the flow of money. War is taught, historically, as simple and precise: good and evil go at each other, one side (usually the good guys, the “righteous” ones) wins, and life simply moves on. There are no further consequences. The takeaway is only this: If you want to be safe and secure, you have to be well-armed and ever-prepared for battle. War, in other words, is permanent – and ever on the horizon. At least this is the world of today, indeed, the world that “civilized humanity” has bequeathed itself.

Project 2025 simply eliminates all doubt: Peace is not the way – at least not the lefty version of it. The unquestioned worship of militarism must be our future, and will be if Trump wins, at least according to Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, the organization behind Project 2025. He called it the “second American Revolution” but assured us it will be bloodless, uh . . . “if the left allows it to be.”

What fascinating wordplay. Those who disagree with the Project had better keep their mouths shut. If they don’t, we’ll have to respond violently, but it will be their fault. That’s how the system works.

Here’s another way to look at it: “The end of World War II was not the beginning of an era dominated by a devotion to peace,” Serdar M. De irmencio lu writes at Community Psychology. “Instead, the defining mindset of the period was militarism with no moral limits. Nuclear war was now possible and more was on the way. . . .

“It is now (more) clear than ever that militarism is morally bankrupt. It can justify everything: Nuclear massacres, nuclear weapons, hundreds of military bases around the world, toppling regimes in Guatemala, Chile, Grenada or any other country for that matter. Add an undeclared war on Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.”

Excerpted: ‘Project 2025, Poison Gas, and Endless Wars for Profit’. Courtesy: Commondreams.org