Our Imperial Entitlement

So, the Rt. Rev. Timothy Geithner is out preaching the Doctrine of Frugality. His message is simple, “The country must live within its means.” “Deficits must be brought down.” This, of course, will “require hard choices.”

Now, logic and common sense would dictate that the most obvious place to start is our bloated military empire. We are mired in two wars that aren’t going anywhere. We are being dragged down by a military-industrial complex that is little more than a dinosaur. The Pentagon has morphed into a gargantuan leech that is sucking our economy dry even as it injects its toxin into our civil liberties in the name of peace and security.

But I forget: logic and common sense are anathema to the Beltway.

The truth is that our military-foreign policy is not ruled by a reasoned assessment of our goals and objectives; it is ruled by a small gaggle of key buzzwords. Our policymakers have made security© a fetish. We need a national defense© that is robust©. All options must “remain on the table”.© To withdraw from Afghanistan or Iraq would damage our credibility© The last thing any politician can afford is to be perceived as weak© on national defense©

So it is that we wantonly destroy countries and kill children all in the name of our sacred buzzwords. And this is why, when the time comes to “live within our means” our military empire will remain untouched.

Rev. Geithner’s acolyte, Barack Obama, has spelled out where the cuts will come. He has promised to shape a new Social Security and Medicare bargain with America because “we” must get control over our entitlements, and there is only one entitlement that counts—maintaining the health of America's defense contractors.