ABSTRACT
The US military-industrial-complex and historically unprecedented US levels of military spending are expressions of an empire built over more than two centuries of US expansion.
Beginning in the 1890s, the US navy was built to compete with the colonial powers of the era. The architecture and vested interests of the US military industry were greatly expanded and consolidated in weapons production for the First and Second World Wars. With US military spending now comprising 4% of the country’s GDP and 61% of the government’s discretionary spending, the United States is in many ways a military government, with the military industrial complex integrated with and sharing power with plutocrats.
The post-Second World War era witnessed the corporate consolidation of the US weapons industry. Four companies receive $100 billion in Pentagon contracts. Their power and influence are largely exercised via the practice of separately producing major weapons system’s components in hundreds of Congressional districts, thus winning the votes of members of Congress eager to secure jobs and profits for their districts.
Expectations of major reductions in US military spending in the near-term must be limited. However, a broad range of grassroots peace, justice and social needs organizations are campaigning to cut the Pentagon budget by between $100 and $300 billion dollars annually.
