Opinions of Peter Belmont
Speaking Truth to Power
 
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The CIA, NSA, PDQ, and ABC all missed Tunisia and Egypt—can we get our money back?

by Peter A. Belmont / 2011-02-01
© 2011 Peter Belmont

  The USA spends more on its military/intelligence apparatus, both government employees and contractors (i.e., mercenaries, war-profiteers, privatizeers) each year than all other countries combined. Everyone says so. I believe it.

And yet we are losing two wars (Iraq and Afghanistan) and lost another (Vietnam) not long ago. Just considering the military side of this colossus, are we getting our money’s worth?

And then, in January of 2011, within no time at all, first Tunisia and then Egypt have had pro-democracy revolutions. And by all that anyone can see, the US Department of State had no warning. Our president was caught flat-footed.

Just considering the intelligence (or, as I prefer, the “intelligence”) side of this colossus, are we getting our money’s worth?

Maybe we in the good ole US of A should have a small democratic revolution in which we dismiss the
Military-Intelligence-Mercenary-Industrial-Congressional-University-Think-Tank-Privatizeer Complex

into outer darkness, and use the money we’ve been spending each year (you know, sometimes for wars, but more often to defeat democracy) for something worthwhile, like paying down the federal debt or bailing out the bankrupt city and state governments.

It’d be like finding a box of money on the street in bad times.
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