The Game of War

Whack a mole is a weird game where a person has to be ready to bop a mole on the head whenever it pops up out of a hole. Amazingly, this is the concept behind our military-industrial complex driven war machine.

Only, it's not really a game. There are no prizes. And people die.

Right wing politicians tell us we must have adequate funds for the Pentagon/Defense budget or we will get attacked and not be ready. Really? The Pentagon has even tried to get Congress NOT to fund certain projects. http://www.businessinsider.com/pentagon-defense-budget-congress-2014-6

That was two years ago. Today, we are still looking at funding war machine equipment at increasingly higher levels than ever before. The Air Force is building stealth bombers that cost $2.2 BILLION each and have to be stored in special hangers in Missouri so they don't get wet!
http://washpost.bloomberg.com/Story?docId=1376-NL4KPA6KLVRF01-0J6N1PK32S9PRNC8PAGJHGI68L

We toss around the term - military industrial complex, but, what does it really mean?  According to Wikipedia:

1. The military–industrial complex, or military–industrial–congressional complex, comprises the policy and monetary relationships which exist between legislators, national armed forces, and the arms industry that supports them.
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93industrial_complex

It's complex so it's hard to comprehend. "The term is sometimes used more broadly to include the entire network of contracts and flows of money and resources among individuals as well as corporations and institutions of the defense contractors, The Pentagon, the Congress and executive branch." 

Unfortunately, the game of war has become a game of profit. And many American citizens owe their livelihood to this game.  This website:  http://www.militaryindustrialcomplex.com/  tells the story of our war machine. You can track all the contracts being awarded to the MI complex contractors from the site. 

How do we curtail the war machine when so many Americans are employed to produce their products?
What effect would it have on our economy? These are important questions for our future. Will we continue on this path of permanent war in order to justify these expenditures? 

I ran across this article by Bill Quigley in Huffington Post last Monday, "Praying For Peace While Waging Permanent War":  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-quigley/memorial-day-praying-for_b_7433438.html?utm_hp_ref=politics&ir=Politics 

Quigley suggests five things he thinks we must do as a nation to turn this around: (My paraphrasing)
1. Learn the facts and face the truth that we are biggest war maker in the world.
2. Challenge all who would take us into war.
3. Admit our wrongs.
4. Withdraw our military, downsize our military, disarm our nuclear weapons, stick to just defense.
5. Work for peaceful solutions to conflict. 
Maybe you don't agree. That's okay. But, a good place to start thinking about solutions is to visit the National Priorities Project website and at least start a conversation.  https://www.nationalpriorities.org/