Trump tells the truth
The writer is a senior political economist based in Islamabad. He can be reached at perveztahir@yahoo.com
Believe it or not, Trump is telling the truth for a change. While addressing a presser at the White House on Labour Day, he observed: “I’m not saying the military’s in love with me — the soldiers are, the top people in the Pentagon probably aren’t because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy.” The CNN described it as an “unprecedented public attack” against the military-business nexus. Not quite. Trump put it rather crudely. In his valedictory speech in 1961, a suave president Eisenhower, himself a highly respected general, warned about the “grave implications” of the emerging “conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry”. He went on in the same vein: “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.”
Persisted it has. From the cruelties of the war in Vietnam, to the mad pursuit of the non-existent weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East and the longest and the bloodiest war in Afghanistan, there has been no end to the lust for profits cultivated by the military-industrial complex. According to The Military Balance , published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in 2020, the United States is the largest spender on defence globally, contributing 38% of the total. Among the 12 top spenders, it alone spends on defence more than the next 11 countries combined. Peace, however, has not broken out even less than proportionately.
This is not to suggest that Trump is going to deal decisively with the military-industrial complex anytime soon. In this post-truth era, reality is perceived to have alternatives. Which alternative is chosen eventually by Trump will be determined by the changing dynamic of the race to the re-election as president.
His latest antic flows from what is becoming the main plank of his elections platform. He is championing the maintenance of law and order as opposed to Democrats, whose sympathetic understanding of the Black Lives Matter movement is becoming a major challenge. As police in the states, especially those run by the Democrats, is seen by Trump as aiding and abetting the riots, he wants to send in troops for law enforcement. He burst out against the military-industrial complex because the military has so far resisted the attempt. The military has also stayed away from Trump’s plans to involve it in the conduct of polls.
For a long time in American history, weak law enforcement has been cited as the justification for the right to bear arms. The National Rifles Association, the racist gun lobby, has stood firmly behind Trump to preserve white supremacy. A document drafted by the Department of Homeland Security warns that white supremacists will remain the most “persistent and lethal threat” in the US through 2021.
Trump’s claims of “getting out of the endless wars” is a ploy to win elections. While Eisenhower made his statement at the end of his two terms as parting advice, Trump is making the statement to reclaim presidency. Need we also remind that Eisenhower had also come to seeing the military-industrial complex as a necessary evil. For Trump the dealmaker, the posture of a dove can only be transient.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 11th, 2020.
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