Connecting The Dots Between Warfare And The Future Of Our Globe

When A Soldier Cries

By Ken Larson

The U.S. has spent $Trillions on warfare, incursion and weapons development at many times the rate of any other country. We have sacrificed young soldiers lives reacting globally to perceived security threats while fostering mammoth Military Industrial Complex (MIC) profiteering.

The globe has become too small and too environmentally imperiled to continue operating the MIC without redirecting much of the resources that have fueled it. There simply is no other way. _____________________________________________________________________________

 The 5 largest weapons production and services companies are experiencing the best years in their respective histories. 

Many Americans do not know the number of locations in which we have a military presence today, since in many instances we are not informed when we invade a new country. 
For well over two decades, the US has reacted to the 911 tragedy by creating a behemoth machine that:

• Knows Only Killing
• Has Little Understanding of Foreign Cultural Factors in Nation Building
• Spawns New Versions of Our Old Enemies 
• Creates a Dangerous Outgrowth of Technology in the Military Industrial Complex and Then Exports It for Profit
• Defies Financial Control With Dire Consequences for the Nation’s Economic Future 

Warfare Realities Today

Economic competitors like China on the world stage have invested enormous amounts in networks involving prudent infrastructure, financial investment and relationship building while avoiding warfare. 

• China is quickly growing into the world’s most extensive commercial empire. The scale and scope of the "Belt and Road" initiative is staggering.
• Estimates vary, but over $300 billion have already been spent, and China plans to spend $1 trillion more in the next decade or so.
• Unlike the United States and Europe, China uses aid, trade, and foreign direct investment strategically to build goodwill, expand its political sway, and secure the natural resources it needs to grow.

China is Quietly Reshaping the World

A Change Must be Brought About in the Following Manner:

Facing geopolitical and economic realities, stopping war interventions and investing in relationships within and without our country by offering mutual collaboration.

Ceasing to dwell on threat by building long term infrastructure, education and international development.  The threats will melt away. 

Investing for the long term at the stock holder, company and national levels based on a strategy dealing with both present day and long term challenges in education, communication and society value transitions from threat scenarios to cooperative, peaceful ventures. 

Electing a Congress and an Administration that knows how to strike a balance between long and short term actions and letting them know what we think regularly by communicating with them.

 
Knowing that most cultures and societies in upheaval today are watching our national model and choosing whether to support it, ignore it or attack it

The Cost in Dollars and Human Suffering to Our Volunteer Military and Its Veterans Involves Profiteering Among Federal Contractors

The massive backlog in veteran's services recently highlighted in the press and in Congress  reveals a dire necessity for simplification, communication and efficiency in processes, systems and government service contracting in DOD and the Veterans Administration as well as better management of federal government contractors. 

The news media, the auditors and the average American are pointing the finger at the President and the Head of the VA.  One cannot ignore the accountability aspects of these individuals.  

However, the real root causes lie in the massive volume of war veterans returning from our pointless incursions in the Middle East over the last decade, coupled with the historical  lack of integration in process and systems work conducted between the Department of Defense and the VA with poorly managed contractors taking home millions on systems specifications that change like the wind blows.  

A Veteran Connects the Dots in the Military and Veterans Healthcare Systems Maze

The present state of the economy and the needs of our servicemen will not allow the aforementioned to  continue. Government agencies are now hard pressed to insure the most  "Bang for the Buck". It is in the long term interests of the politician, the DOD, the VA and astute contractors to assist in that endeavor. 

The only way to achieve such an objective is through sound technical, cost and schedule contract definition via an iterative process of baseline management and control.

Contract Baseline Management

Government civil servants must be trained to report systemic poor service up the line in lieu of hiding bad news from superiors or developing workarounds.  This must be an expectation built into their job description and they must be rewarded and promoted for meeting that requirement just as they are for the other requirements of their jobs. 

The first whistle to be blown must be to the boss when the service issue occurs, not to the press a year from the occurrence.  

Military Health Care Systems Maze

Strategic and Economic Trends in U.S. Warfare Cannot and Will Not Continue

The debt is too great a burden for generations of tax payers.

It is too risky in terms of technology that falls into enemy hands, either through the "Internet of Things" or by blunders in export management and battlefield events.  

It will be replaced by domestic and foreign relations programs that emphasize global human progress and economic development in lieu of threats.  The result will rely on uplifting, cooperative efforts among nations in lieu of killing. Our competition on the world stage has recognized this fact and is proceeding accordingly. 

The globe has become too small to operate the Military Industrial Machine and the resources that have fueled it will be redirected.   There simply is no other way.

 Our returning soldiers and those who have served before, as well as future generations will rely on our leadership in bringing about the necessary transition from a world at war to a world at peace. The time is now - not later.

What Can We Learn From People Who Are Different From Us?

https://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2020/01/what-can-we-learn-from-people-who-are.html

How Does A Military Veteran Feel About Recent Events?

File photo (Bumble Dee/shutterstock.com)

The civilian must accept his or her role in world events and decisions. Elected representatives appropriate money and approve U.S. activities in other countries and in our own.

Solders go where they are ordered by their commander.

Asking warriors to do everything poses great dangers for our country — and the military. Our armed services have become the one-stop shop for America’s policymakers.

"FOREIGN POLICY" 

"Here’s the vicious circle in which we’ve trapped ourselves: 

As we face novel security threats from novel quarters, emanating from civil unrest, pandemics non-state terrorist networks from cyberspace, and from the impact of poverty, genocide, or political repression, for instance — we’ve gotten into the habit of viewing every new threat through the lens of “war,” thus asking our military to take on an ever-expanding range of nontraditional tasks.

But viewing more and more threats as “war” brings more and more spheres of human activity into the ambit of the law of war, with its greater tolerance of secrecy, violence, and coercion — and its reduced protections for basic rights.

Meanwhile, asking the military to take on more and more new tasks requires higher military budgets, forcing us to look for savings elsewhere, so we freeze or cut spending on civilian diplomacy and development programs. As budget cuts cripple civilian agencies, their capabilities dwindle, and we look to the military to pick up the slack, further expanding its role.

“If your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” The old adage applies here as well. If your only functioning government institution is the military, everything looks like a war, and “war rules” appear to apply everywhere, displacing peacetime laws and norms. When everything looks like war, everything looks like a military mission, displacing civilian institutions and undermining their credibility while overloading the military."

How The Pentagon Became Walmart

If the civilian wishes change, then change can be at hand if the elected official is contacted and a strong input from the citizenry makes the demand heard. Violence is deafening and self-defeating. "