TheAltWorld Preparing for War Is an American Institution
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.” — President Dwight D. Eisenhower
In the 1960s and 1970s when the US actually had an enemy, though possibly one of our own making, there was a peace movement. It might well have come from left-wing professors in the universities who did not think racist America was worth defending.
In the first quarter of the 21st century, a period of many American wars of choice, there is no peace movement. In her book
( https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-trillion-dollar-silencer-joan-roelofs/1141001899?ean=9781949762624 ) Joan Roelofs asks:
“Why is there so much acceptance of and so little protest against our government’s illegal and immoral wars and other military operations? Why is there mostly silence about the death and destruction that wars and even the preparation for war inflict on people, including the troops, and on the environment? Why is there so little concern about the potential for the extinction of human and other life posed by nuclear war, now seen as an ‘option’ by the US and other militaries?”
Her answer is in her title: The Trillion Dollar Silencer. You might think that the money goes for weapons, but much of it is used to purchase universities and faculties, think tanks, nonprofit organizations, state and local governments, media, contractors, and foreign governments.
The Department of Defense tentacles reach everywhere. With so many so dependent on DOD handouts, there is no one left to protest.
Roelofs’ research is exhaustive. She packs an amazing amount of detail including names and monetary amounts in 200 pages. For example, Roelofs explains how the CIA salts money around. The CIA creates dummy foundations and makes grants to them. The dummy foundations then make grants to legitimate foundations, and the foundations pass the money on to the CIA-designated groups.
President Eisenhower warned about the growing power of the military/security complex. Nothing was done about it. The power has grown so great that the Department of Defense cannot pass an audit, and several trillion dollars are unaccounted for. You might remember that whatever it was that hit the Pentagon on 9/11 managed to hit and destroy the offices housing the documents and experts who were searching for where the money had gone, thus bringing the investigation to an end.
In the final chapter Roelofs asks “what can be done?” Her suggestions lack effectiveness. Her book was written prior to the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency. My suggestion is for someone who can to get the book into DOGE hands. The Trillion Dollar Silencer traces the money flows through so many hands and places that it will save the DOGE staff much work and leave them astonished by the many non-defense uses of defense funds.
It takes character and determination to correct a bad situation. America’s predicament is that corruption is so pervasive that challenging it results in career destruction. People have mortgages, car payments, kids in school. Taking exception to corruption is a road to poverty. Perhaps Trump and Musk will be able to do something, or perhaps the Democrat judges will save the day for institutionalized grift.
Sue Ann Martinson
There is a peace movement. Small and persistent. Veterans for Peace. Code Pink. Women Against Military Madness. UNAC. And many more nationwide. A network of peace organizations PACE y
PENE. Every attempt is made to silence us. Yet we persist. And right now thousands protest against the Gazan genocide. And look especially on campuses the attempts to silence us. Excuse me. I am off to the local LAND BACK demonstration. I have not read the book but she is wrong. There is a peace movement drowned by propaganda and blocked in many ways, but it exists. .
dinha cabra
“Perhaps Trump and Musk will be able to do something”.
That’s ludicrous, these two goons are part of the problem.
Trump is directly guilty of genocide and ethnic cleansing. He openly called for ethnically cleansing Palestinians from their land. To make sure it happens he gave another round of weapons and heavy bombs to the israelis and he is bombing (mostly civilians) in Yemen to make sure the zionists can carry on the genocide unhindered by Yemeni missiles.
The only thing scumbags like Trump and Musk would do is to help the military industrial complex by creating more wars.
Like the one zionist first prostitute Trump is preparing against Iran or Venezuela.
The professional liar who was elected on his ‘peace’ promises, which by the way happened nowhere, even in Ukraine as his little European lackeys and the Kiev regime make sure to sabotage whatever ‘ceasefire’ Trump’s regime tried to enforce.
We know what ‘ceasefires’ mean for the US as seen in Lebanon and Gaza.
True, the corruption has reached such a level that nothing will come from the people whose salaries depend on the status quo but rather from the bottom up and as Sue Ann Martinson explains above, there are peace movements and people, despite the repression of the Trump’s regime and the former Biden’s regime keep fighting against apathy and the current genocide.
By the way, According to a tracker developed by Just Security, there have been at least 146 legal challenges to Trump administration actions since he took office.
Some of them:
Taal v. Trump- District Court, N.D. New York
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and are seeking an injunction against Trump’s Executive Orders Numbers 14161 and 14188, which authorize deportation over protected speec
American Association of University Professors v. Rubio – District Court, D. Massachusetts
over the administration’s “ideological-deportation policy.” The suit alleges that Trump’s strategy violates the First Amendment by targeting protected speech.
American Association of University Professors v. United States Department of Justice – District Court, S.D. New York
Two unions representing professors and educators are suing the Trump administration over its decision to revoke $400 million in authorized grants and contracts to Columbia University.
Chung v. Trump – District Court, S.D. New York
J On March 24, Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old legal permanent resident and student at Columbia University, sued the Trump administration for trying to deport her., ust days after Chung attended a pro-Palestine sit-in on campus, ICE agents showed up at the home of Chung’s parents and then searched her dorm. The government also revoked her green card.
Khalil v. Trump- District Court, S.D. New York
Mahmoud Khalil’s lawyers are challenging ICE’s unlawful detention of their client. The recent Columbia graduate who was detained by agents in New York on March 8 and is currently in a Louisiana detention facility.
The Southern District Court of New York has ruled that this challenge be transferred to New Jersey, despite Trump’s efforts to move it to Louisiana. It’s one of two pending motions aimed at getting Khalil released. His attorneys are also calling on the court to issue a preliminary injunction that would immediately release him and prohibit the Trump administration from invoking the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act provision that they’re citing in this case.
UCLA lawsuit
On March 20, Palestine activists sued UCLA for allegedly allowing pro-Israel counter-protesters to attack and terrorize a campus Gaza encampment last spring.
Columbia records lawsuit
Mahmoud Khalil and seven current students at the school are suing to prevent the university from handing over private disciplinary records to a congressional committee.
Judge Aruba Subramanian temporarily blocked the school from disclosing the private records and began hearing arguments in the case this week.
So-called ‘democrat’ judges are not the ones destroying the first amendment and perpetrating genocides in Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen and Syria. It’s Trump and president Musk who do that.