The Article on the Guardian
With 4.2 billion dollars in total spent upon military weapons for programs such as SWAT or other Special Force Units, one starts to wonder whether such a maneuver could have possibly been smoother? Once again the funds of this great nation turn towards the military, with massive funding to programs such as CIA, FBI, and NSA that may just add a bit of crippling debt to our already expired debt ceiling. Why do we need this much money to be put into our defense systems? I don't think we are under attack on U.S. soil, and of course one can justify the spending for events such as the Boston Marathon Bombing, but as the article stated this is not only for large cities such as Los Angeles or Boston, but rather small towns as well. In what possible situation may they need high grade military weapons such as a tank within their personnel? I doubt these armored vehicles will come into use any time soon, or the massive amounts of assault weapons that are "lost" or "lent" in the mix. And yes, lost is apparently the case for a district in Indiana that lost a majority of their supplies. But wait, there's more! Once again, the big shocker reappears: our taxes are being spent upon this program! I guess what I meant by "smooth" in the beginning of this paragraph is how the government as usual kept this one on the down low.
But what I'm really trying to get to is this whole idea of militarization. As I look with disappointment upon the millions of Americans who have traded in their security for privacy and not done anything about it, I start to ask myself: is there more?
Yes. Of course there is. I don't want to be labelled a traitor to this country, for there is some good left, but the United States has never entirely been "the good guy". With a disgruntled population, an exceeding debt ceiling, and even the collapse of our government, one may ask, "will the population ever rebel?" Well no, because things such as the government collapse make us forget about issues such as the NSA, military activity outside of the United States, and this type of funding. If there was an uprising, the government is prepared, and we may enter into a whole new world where our rights and liberties could be just be words written on paper. Sure, it probably wont happen, and I may be insane for assuming so, but could it be so that the United States is just preparing for something? We would be trapped and threatened, and the police force would have the ability to shut us down.
I cannot comprehend why our police forces need such militias. As our founding fathers decided, our military shall stay separate from the police, but for some reason this line has been crossed. Who will the police serve in the end if say something were to occur? The people, or the military?
I agree. American tax money is being spent on areas we have no need for. And it does seem that now with the government shut-down, the interest is diverted from the release of the government spying on everything it's citizens do to the government unable to decide together on a economy plan for the fiscal year. It just appears to be showing more and more corruption that Americans have not seen before.
ReplyDeleteAs for the arming of small cities, is it really necessary? America hasn't had recent wars on it's own shores. It's all been somewhere else. What are the goals behind this?
Thank you for an interesting post, Stephan.