Perma-War

As I spend more and more time and attention on the problem of ending U.S. wars, it occurs to me that perhaps I'm missing the point. Maybe the essential feature of individual U.S. wars is that they are each part of a permanent condition of U.S. war-making.

And, once viewed in this way, the tried-and-true way of thinking about war -- "It's all the fault of the military contractors!" -- starts to seem a bit too simplistic.

If the point is to wage war for the intrinsic benefits of war ... who are the real beneficiaries?

I've begun to think that there are a whole range of beneficiaries of permawar:

• the Executive (and his cronies)
• the financial trading community
• military contractors (including the employees!)
• capitalists
• the military
• the press
• the rest of us

Notably, the bankers and the fighters don't really top the list.

* * * * *

Image: Contra el bien general (Against the common good), etching, Print made by Francisco Goya, 1812-1820, Plate 71: demon with bat's wing ears sitting on chair writing in volume, with imploring figures below to right; from a bound album of working proofs, presented by the artist to Ceán Bermúdez. 1812-20, Numbered on plate. Titled by the artist in pencil within platemark, below image, Height: 176 millimetre, Width: 216 millimetres, http://www.britishmuseum.org, retrieved from Gary Arseneau blog.