The Pivot
"We Can't Afford the Pivot"
by Bruce Gagnon
I'm at the Washington
airport waiting to fly home. The three days of meetings on Obama's "pivot"
of 60% of US military forces into the Asia-Pacific went very well. I'll
write more about the meetings later on. For now it's evident that we are
building a good national/international working group around the US military
strategy to surround and provoke China. We came up with some good plans to
help the peace movement and the broader public get engaged in thinking and
talking about this expensive, provocative and dangerous strategy.
I was up early this
morning and left the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House where I stayed the last
three nights. As I was waiting at the metro stop for it to open at 7:00 am
I saw a big rat scurry by. Then finally on the subway we passed over the
river and I was struck by the rusting bridge. Even the towering Washington
monument is framed with supports as a recent earthquake tremor cracked the
nation's leading phallic symbol. The signs of internal decay and collapse
are all around us if we just open our eyes and see.
As the metro headed
toward the airport we came to the Pentagon subway stop. I noticed a series
of propaganda signs there - all colorful and bright - lit up just for the
thousands of Pentagon personnel who daily pass through this metro stop heading
to work. One of the signs really stuck with me - it pictured a phalanx of
US Navy warships steaming ahead with the words "Securing Our Shores".
(Other weapons industry sponsored mind washing signs had similar messages like
"Security Through Strength").
The "Securing Our
Shores" one though really grabbed me. It represents the pivot - or
"re-balancing" as the Pentagon is now calling it. An aircraft carrier led
battle group "forward deploying" to the Asia-Pacific to encircle China's
coastline. The Zumwalt "stealth" destroyer with the capability to sneak up
on China and blast them with the new "electro-magnetic rail gun". What's
this got to do with "securing our shores"? Absolutely nothing.
It's all about
offense. That is what the Pentagon and their legion of weapons corporation
allies do these days. They encircle China and Russia and when those
nations respond the Pentagon uses that response as fuel on the fire. I've
heard our Maine congressional delegation say many times, "OMG, look at
China! They are building up their military. We need more $$$ to build more destroyers at BIW!"
That's how the game works.
For along time the
American people could afford to ignore this kind of talk and go on with their
lives. But the rats are running around in broad daylight these days and
our physical and human infrastructure across the nation is crumbling and
collapsing. So now folks are starting to pay attention. The details
matter - we can't afford the pivot.
What is really out of
balance these days is the ratio between Pentagon spending and domestic
spending. It might just be time to consider redefining the word
"security". How secure are we at home if there is no money to repair water
and sewer systems, to fix our roads, to fund our schools, to pay for health care
and to feed our families?
The Pentagon and
their corporate leeches are bleeding us dry. It's more than time that we
not fall for the propaganda that has been fed to us for so long.
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