Andrew Cockburn, The Spoils of War: Power, Profit and the American War Machine. Verso, 2021

In this book Cockburn lays bare the inner workings of the military-industrial complex (MIC). The expression ‘war machine’ in the subtitle is misleading, as the main activity to which the MIC is geared is not warfare but money-making. Even the generals and admirals are not interested in waging war except as a means of enhancing their budgets. So critics who accuse the Pentagon of having no strategy are being unfair. It may have no military strategy, but it has a financial one, namely: Don’t interrupt the money flow; add to it. 

And this means that the concept of an arms race, with each side responding to threats with measures that pose new threats in a never-ending cycle, is also misleading. There is no arms race, because the threats are imaginary and the measures do not work. 

The MIC comprises three types of actors: military bureaucrats (high-ranking officers), arms-manufacturing corporations, and congresspeople.

The military bureaucrats are divided into factions that compete for prestige and budgetary allocations. The most important factions are those corresponding to the armed services – the army, the navy, the air force, and now the space force. The more money in the budget, the more high-level posts and the better the prospects of promotion.

Cost-plus

The arms corporations face no real market competition. They get contracts by cultivating good relations with military bureaucrats, who in exchange obtain highly paid employment with the corporations after they retire. Payment of corporations on a ‘cost-plus’ basis encourages them to maximize profits by maximizing costs, which always vastly exceed initial estimates. This is an incentive to develop systems of great complexity. Huge sums are spent on projects known to be infeasible in principle, such as ‘hypersonic’ missiles. 

The corporations induce congresspeople to vote for astronomical military budgets – this year’s is over $768 billion – by ensuring that each congressional district gets a share of military production and employment. All congresspeople take part in such ‘pork-barrel politics’ — and that includes Bernie Sanders. They even insist on continuing to fund the production of weapons for which the armed forces no longer have any use. 

Cockburn exposes the economic interests underlying decisions that appear to be about ‘national security’ or geopolitics. Thus, the driving force behind the eastward expansion of NATO was ‘the urgent necessity [after the end of the Cold War] to open new markets for US arms companies.’ 

Bombing the right targets

An interesting case study concerns the choice of bomber for air support of ground operations. Lower-level officers, who care more about warfighting efficacy than their superiors do, favor the A-10 Warthog, a relatively cheap plane that flies low and slowly enough for its crew to identify targets visually, ensuring that it bombs enemy troops rather than civilians or friendly forces. However, the ‘institutional prosperity’ of the US Air Force is based on much more expensive long-range bombers that fly high and fast and – despite fancy electronics – often bomb the wrong targets. The top commanders of the air force have long striven to get rid of the Warthog, although thanks to counter-lobbying by its defenders their efforts have not been wholly successful.   

Another example of useless high tech is the $100 million spent by Lockheed on EC-130H aircraft with ground-penetrating radar. A study by military intelligence found that this program had ‘no detectable effect’ on attempts to locate bombs buried underground by insurgents in Iraq. At the same time, provision of basic equipment to US troops on the ground was neglected: ‘American families went into debt to buy armored vests, socks, boots, and night-vision goggles’ for their sons and daughters fighting in Iraq. And the army insisted on furnishing soldiers with helmets from a favored contractor that actually exacerbate the effects of bomb blast.  

Stealing the enemy’s boots

I was astonished to learn that half of all American casualties during the first winter of the Korean War were due to frostbite. Without decent cold-weather footwear of their own, US troops resorted to raiding enemy trenches to steal the enemy’s warm padded boots. 

Producers of boots and socks just don’t have the clout of arms manufacturers!  

We are socialists. We don’t want to fight wars. Nevertheless, it is hard to derive consolation from the inefficiency of the armed forces as a warfighting machine. After all, they still have more than enough overkill capacity to destroy the world anyway. Who will be around to complain that they didn’t do it as efficiently as they could have? And the enormous waste of human effort and material resources is the same in either case, not to mention the hefty contribution they make to pollution and global heating. 

How the military-industrial complex works | World Socialist Party of the US (wspus.org)

 Police in Haiti fired tear gas on factory workers for a second day in a row, who are on strike demanding pay increases at an industrial park in the capital Port-au-Prince.

The workers employed at factories that produce textiles and other goods said they make 500 gourdes ($5) a day for nine hours of work and are seeking a minimum of 1,500 gourdes ($15) a day. 

Their demands come as Haiti has seen a sharp rise in inflation.

“Poor people can’t do anything with this miserable salary,” said Similien Luckgelson, one of the workers who joined the protest.

Telemark Pierre, a factory worker, said salaries have not been adjusted in three years. He said that workers spend 200 gourdes ($2) a day on transportation alone and said their salary does not cover basic needs.

Factory workers in Haiti go on strike to demand higher wages | Protests News | Al Jazeera

 The following report of developments in western Kazakhstan is based on information from the Russian trade union website infoprof.ru.

Strikes and protests of working people continue in Kazakhstan despite harsh suppression of the January protests.

Workers at the MAEK-Kazatomprom (Kazakh Atomic Industry) and at the Glass and Plastic Pipes Factory in Mangistau Province, who downed tools on Monday, are on strike for a third day. On Tuesday they were joined by rescue workers, guards, and firefighters of KMG Security.

The strikers have put up tents and stoves and are staying on the grounds of their enterprises. Local residents and workers at neighboring enterprises are giving them active support and collecting food and water for them. New work collectives may join the strike this week.

The strikers at MAEK-Kazatomprom in Aktau are demanding a 100% increase in wages. They all rejected the employers’ offer to raise wages by 30%. The workers at the pipe factory are demanding the release of arrested colleagues, a wage increase, and the return of their factory to KazMunaiGaz (Kazakh Municipal Gas), from which it was separated when it was privatized and rationalized several years ago.

The staff of KMG Security went on strike last summer, but many of their demands concerning compliance with labor legislation, payment of bonuses, and improvement in working conditions were not met. The promised wage increase was implemented only in part.

In Janaozen a new mass meeting has already been in progress for a week. Its participants are the unemployed and also workers from various enterprises whose employers refuse to take them on as regular staff and use them only on the basis of outsourcing. A whole series of work collectives are taking a stand against outsourcing.

Unemployed young people are demanding that they be given work without delay, that new jobs be created and new enterprises built in the region, where many deposits of natural resources are already nearing depletion. This demand was raised at the mass meetings in January and is now prominent in the current protests. The mass meeting is now continuing night and day.

On February 8 protests began in Aktau by mothers demanding the building of schools and kindergartens and also an end to illegal commercial construction. Their protests were joined by unemployed people and outsourced workers.

Together they decided to support the participants in the mass meeting in Janaozen, organized their own protest outside the building of the provincial administration, and then the following night blocked the carriageways of the city’s central streets. The police dispersed the crowd, but the protest is likely to resume.

Clearly, the protests are not dying out but are again growing in scale. The strikers at the three enterprises and the unemployed are now protesting day and night and refusing to disperse. Last month’s mass strikes and protests may recur, especially in view of the fact that not a single social demand has been met apart from a temporary cut in the price of gas for 180 days. 

Source:  https://aitrus.info/node/5908. Translated by Stephen Shenfield

Strikes and protests continue in Kazakhstan | World Socialist Party of the US (wspus.org)

 Kick Off? Kick Out!

Lined up, pliable as troops in trenches,

M.P.s are primed, like supporters who dream

Of their being asked to play for the first team,

To rise as a riot from their benches,

Braying and pointing at their opponents,

Howling in mock anger and screeching dire

Insults – although not liar, never liar:

Pantomime of partisan malcontents.

For all that brash hullabaloo, the aim

Is to leave the illusion unresolved

That spectators are actually involved,

Which suits the very few who own the game.

Such foul play surely deserves dismissal,

Time to seize the game, blow the final whistle.

D. A.

 The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has forecast that fewer births and lower-than-expected life expectancy will end “natural” population growth. 

By 2025 there will be more deaths than births in the UK, the statistics agency said. 

The ONS estimated in 2014 that the population would reach almost 75m by 2040. But statisticians now say it will reach just 71m by 2045.

 This means immigration will be the only driver of population growth from 2030 onwards:

This year, for the first time in recent history, India’s fertility rate has fallen below replacement levels, which means its population is set to start shrinking much earlier than thought. 

As a result, UN projections about population growth will probably have to be revised, and we will reach the point at which the world’s population is shrinking sooner than we all thought. 

 Just 15.5% of the world’s coastal regions remain ecologically intact, according to a study, led by researchers at the University of Queensland, that used satellite data to examine the extent to which human activities have encroached on coastlines around the globe.

It found that up to 2013 – the latest year for which the data was available – few intact coastlines remained.  The situation certainly would not have improved since 2013.

The small areas of the coast that remain undamaged by pressures such as fishing, agriculture, urban development, mining and roads were mostly in Canada, followed by Russia, Greenland, Chile, Australia and the United States.

Very few intact areas and often high levels of degradation were found in island nations, much of Europe, and countries including Vietnam, India and Singapore.

Coastal regions containing seagrasses, savannah and coral reefs had the highest levels of human pressure.

James Watson, of the University of Queensland, said remoteness didn’t guarantee coastlines would remain intact, pointing to mining and particularly fishing as industries causing environmental decline in those places.

He said he had expected Madagascar, Namibia and northern Australia would all retain large areas of intact coastline, but it had not proved to be consistently the case.

“It shocks me how pervasive fishing is. It’s just everywhere. You can’t avoid it,” he said. “These remote places around the world, you’re seeing fishing impacts.”

Barely 15% of the world’s coastal regions remain ecologically intact, study says | Coastlines | The Guardian

 The Traveller Movement, which represents the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community, said it had been “surprised” by the government’s promises to better protect the community against hate speech following the backlash to Jimmy Carr’s joke.

It accused the government of hypocrisy after ministers condemned a Holocaust joke by Jimmy Carr while pushing through a raft of legislation hostile to their way of life.

Greg Sproston, policy and campaigns manager for the Traveller Movement, said the government was currently trying to pass three bills – on policing, nationality and borders and elections – all of which will “have disproportionately negative impacts” on the GRT community. He added that a national strategy to reduce inequality in the community announced over two years ago “still has not materialised”.

“If the government is serious about protecting and supporting these communities, they would scrap this discriminatory legislation and bring forward the strategy without delay,” he said.

The policing bill is especially controversial within the GRT community as it would give police powers to move travellers’ camps if anyone complained, regardless of whether a crime had been committed.

A recent survey by University of Birmingham researchers found that 44% of people in the UK had negative attitudes towards GRT people, making them the “least liked group”, nearly double the level for Muslims, who were the second group to receive the most prejudice.

Research by the Traveller Movement in 2017 found that 91% of GRT people had experienced discrimination, which it described as “the last acceptable form of racism”. These attitudes have a profound impact on areas such as employment and education, where GRT people underperform, and the criminal justice system, where they are over-represented.

Rosa Cisneros, a member of the GRT community who researches Romani culture at Coventry University, said she was “sad but not surprised” by Carr’s joke.

“This situation has highlighted that anti-Gypsyism and Romaphobia still exists today. For me, it isn’t about censoring Jimmy Carr or being offended or me being part of the ‘woke’ brigade that I want to just cancel a show or infringe on someone’s freedom of speech and his rights. No, I am utterly horrified that we live in a space where such harmful and hateful speech is accepted and seen as a joke.”

Roma accuse government of hypocrisy over Jimmy Carr joke | Jimmy Carr | The Guardian

 A million UK adults went an entire day without eating over the past month because they could not afford to put a meal on the table.

The Food Foundation thinktank said more than one in five households said they have already faced a ”heat or eat” dilemma, cutting back on the quality or quantity of food to pay energy or other essential bills, while 59% of households fear the cost of living squeeze will leave them with less to spend on food in the future.

 Food insecurity is defined as skipping meals, going hungry or not eating for a whole day – because they were unable to afford food.

“There is little doubt that the cost of living crisis is putting very real pressure on the ability of many to afford a healthy diet and is set to widen health inequalities,” the Foundation said.

About 2 million children were living in households that do not have access to a healthy and affordable diet, putting them at risk of diet-related diseases such as obesity, and poor physical growth, the Foundation said.

People with serious disability were five times more at risk than those without a disability. People on universal credit were five times more likely to be food insecure than those not claiming.

“The rapid escalation in disabled people experiencing food poverty is truly shocking. It is disabled people facing the biggest barriers to independence and inclusion that are in the worst situation; how can this possibly be acceptable?” asked Kamran Mallick, the chief executive of Disability Rights UK.

1m UK adults ‘go entire day without food’ in cost of living crisis | Food poverty | The Guardian

 John Allan, the chairman of Britain’s biggest supermarket chain has warned that “the worst is yet to come” on food price inflation, as he predicted it will soon hit 5%.

 He was well aware people on very tight budgets were having to choose between food and heating. He said the idea that this was happening was very troubling.

 Poverty groups have warned about the impending threat to those on the lowest incomes.

“In some ways the worst is still to come – because although food price inflation in Tesco last quarter was only 1%, we are impacted by rising energy prices. Our suppliers are impacted by rising energy prices. We’re doing all we can to offset it … but that’s the sort of number we’re talking about. Of course, 5%,” he said.

Allan said: “I think the combination of increasing energy prices, the impact of national insurance increases on people’s incomes, and to a much much lesser extent increasing food prices, is going to squeeze the hardest-up still harder.”

Tesco chairman warns of food price inflation at 5% by spring | Tesco | The Guardian

 The number claiming universal credit has more than doubled since the start of the pandemic to at least 2.3 million.

The TUC said the 1.3 million increase in working universal credit claimants had been caused by households being pushed into financial hardship during Covid.

Low-paid workers, mostly those with young children, are able to top up their incomes by applying for universal credit, and about 40% of all claimants are in work.

The TUC said 12% of workers told researchers that they expected to struggle to afford the basics in the next six months, while 22% said they would find it hard to afford “more than the basics”. The analysis found that a fifth of workers have Christmas debts to pay off this year, a number that rises to more than a quarter for workers with children of school age.

Frances O’Grady, the TUC’s general secretary, said ministers need to urgently raise universal credit payments to 80% of the living wage – which is set to rise to £9.50 in April.

Extra 1.3m workers on universal credit since pandemic began, research finds | Cost of living crisis | The Guardian