Just now I visited forbes.com and was assaulted once again by two banner ads for the United States Air Force. The headline of one ad reads "Deterrence comes in many engine sizes" and allows you to roll over and see footage of our latest multi-million or even multi-billion dollar war planes. The second ad shows a picture of the Pentagon. The headline reads "This building will be attacked 3,000,000 times today. Who's going to protect it."
Before the full-assumption of power by the US military-industrial complex, there was only one reason for any branch of the armed forces to advertise: recruitment. Today, however, it appears there is another reason. I, for one, cannot believe that the US Air Force is netting recruits from forbes.com. Not sure of the precise demographics of Forbes, but my guess is their average reader is in his 40s and makes upwards of $100K. So why is the Air Force advertising on forbes.com?
They're advertising on forbes.com because they are bedfellows of the major offense contractors who ask them to to drive up their stock prices. This cohabitation is dangerous. There is a headline in the NYTimes today that says NASA claims nearly 9000 jobs will be lost when the space shuttle program ceases in the next few months. It's been said if the multi-billion dollar F-22 program is canceled, 50,000 jobs will be lost. In other words our economy is being sustained by building weapons. And when you build weapons, you must use them.
It's well-known that Hermann Goering and his Luftwaffe tested their Amerikan-design-adapted Stuka dive-bombers over Guernica, Spain 72-years ago. We are doing the same today. And making select investors rich while doing so.
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