OMNI WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, #161, JANUARY
24, 2024 . Compiled by Dick
Bennett
Christian Sorensen. Understanding the War Industry.
Dennis Kucinich. West v. East.
The Pentagon Complex Pushing Us to War
CHRISTIAN SORENSEN. UNDERSTANDING THE WAR INDUSTRY. Clarity P, 2020. (Clarity is one of the best publishing
companies in the world for exposing abuse of power.)
The War Industry infests the American economy like a
cancer, sapping its strength and distorting its creativity while devouring its
treasure.
Stunning in the depth of its research, Understanding
the War Industry documents how the war industry commands the other two
sides of the military-industrial-congressional triangle. It lays bare the
multiple levers enabling the vast and proliferating war industry to wield undue
influence, exploiting financial and legal structures, while co-opting Congress,
academia and the media. Spiked with insights into how corporate boardrooms view
the troops, overseas bases, and warzones, it assiduously delineates how corporations
reap enormous profits by providing a myriad of goods and services devoted to
making war, which must be rationalized and used if the game is to go on:
advanced weaponry, drones and nukes; invasive information technology;
space-based weapons; and special operations—with contracts stuffed with ongoing
and proliferating developmental, tertiary and maintenance products for all of
it.
“To an ever-increasing extent, the business of
America is the business of war. But although Americans live in the shadow of a
war economy, few understand the full extent of its power and influence. Thanks
to Christian Sorensen’s deeply researched book into the military-industrial
complex that envelops our society, such ignorance can no longer be an
excuse.” —ANDREW COCKBURN, author of Kill Chain: The Rise of the High Tech
Assassins.
“A devastating account of American militarism,
brilliantly depicted, and exhaustively researched in an authoritative manner.
Sorensen’s book is urgent, fascinating reading for anyone who wants to save the
country and the world from political, economic, and ecological disaster. Its
message is so convincingly delivered that it will change many open minds
forever and for the better.” —RICHARD FALK, International Lawyer
“Have you ever wondered why the United States is always at war? This
meticulously researched book lays out in painstaking detail exactly how our
nation has been captured by a war industry that profits from endless conflict
and pursues profit at all costs. It will shock you, infuriate you, and hopefully
inspire you to help dismantle the grotesque killing machine that steals our
resources, wreaks havoc around the world, and leaves the merchants of death
laughing all the way to the bank.” — MEDEA BENJAMIN, codirector, CODEPINK
for Peace
“I’m adding Christian Sorensen’s new book, Understanding
the War Industry , to the list of books I think will convince you to
help abolish war and militaries… [It is] not so much analysis as an effort to
persuade through the repetition of examples, countless examples, naming names
and laid out over hundreds of pages. The author admits that he’s only
scratching the surface. But he’s scratching it in lots of different places, and
the result ought to be persuasive for most people”—DAVID SWANSON, World
Beyond War
“Christian Sorensen is the Seymour Melman of the
21st century, dissecting the military-industrial-congressional complex and
providing us a way to understand this convoluted machine which exploits and
oppresses the entire world…” —WILL GRIFFIN, founder and director of The
Peace Report.
“It has long been obvious that America’s numerous,
hugely expensive, and destructive and seemingly perpetual wars of choice have
not been intended to serve any interests of the vast majority of the American
people. In Understanding
the War Industry, Christian Sorensen presents detailed and thoroughly
documented evidence to convincingly support his conviction that the dominant
force among those seeking war for the sake of war is the pursuit of profit
maximization by the corporate “war industry”. He concludes: “There will be no
escape from interminable wars until this reality is recognized and resisted.”
This book offers a major contribution to that struggle.”—JOHN V. WHITBECK, International Lawyer.
Chris Hedges Report
Presents Dennis Kucinich on East v. West War.
As a member of the US Congress for 16 years, Dennis
Kucinich gave over 500 speeches warning about the consequences of US wars
against Afghanistan, the Balkans, Iraq, Iran, Libya and Syria. He also spoke
out for the imperative of peace in the Middle East, on behalf of Israelis and
the Palestinians. He met with leaders of many countries who were
grappling to keep their nations out of conflict and came to understand the role
some in the US government have played to intentionally catalyze war, fueling
arms sales globally, without regard for the consequences. Dennis
warns that we are, in his words, cartwheeling towards a massive East v. West
war with religious and ethnic overtones. This seemingly inexorable March
of nuclear Folly, may, he writes, pit
the United States militarily against China, Russia and their allies. Joining me
to discuss how, as he writes, the polarization of US politics, the cognitively
impaired and failing executive branch, the instability of the congressional
leadership, the purblind partisanship, the ideologically, click-bait driven
media has produced a mad blood lust for war against Iran and acceleration
toward the abyss, is Dennis Kucinich. A guest
post by Dennis Kucinich.