The military industrial complex

A few weeks ago, a man came into our office and brought up a name that both saddened me and gave me joy.

The man was talking about Steve “Chief” Kuryla, a person I considered one of my closest friends before he died of cancer a couple of years ago. It was devastating in all aspects.

The details of what the person wanted are irrelevant but the fact he brought up Chief’s name really had my mind racing.

And then a couple of weeks ago, I was just about to turn in for the evening but picked up my phone one more time to look at the news feed. We were at war with Iran.

I was shocked and immediately turned on the television and stayed up for another hour getting the details.

This again brought a flood of thoughts about Chief.

For some background, Chief was an operative for the U.S. military, working in places I can’t even imagine. He did work behind the Berlin Wall before it fell; in fact, he watched it fall.

But he also spent a lot of time in the Middle East, including seeing atrocities that are nearly unspeakable.

During my many conservations with Chief we talked a lot about war and the Middle East and just about everything else. Many people knew Chief for the books he wrote and his effort to get a movie made based on those books.

But I knew him as a conversationalist who had so many insights into how the U.S. government operates, especially the military. As I was watching this new war unfold, it brought back many memories of some of his observations.

And it made me wonder what he might think of this new war launched by the U.S. and Israel.

I can tell you one thing, he would have not liked what was unfolding. Not because Iran is some upstanding nation, far from it. I’m sure he would agree they have been a terrible player for decades in the Middle East.

But I’m sure he would have also talked about how, before the extremists took over the country, the U.S. wasn’t much better, propping up the Shah of Iran, who was no saint himself. I remember all of that well when the government was overthrown in Iran and the Shah was allowed to escape the country.

But maybe a bigger issue, as far as Chief would have thought, is what is known as the military industrial complex. This is a real thing and he talked about it all of the time.

Since the end of World War II, the United States has gone to war in many places, but the difference is those wars, like Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, were the product of politicians. He told me that over and over.

World War II, he said, was the last war where the military actually had complete control and the result was obvious. The subsequent wars have had mixed results, the most obvious being Vietnam.

Chief also argued the politicians directed these wars for a simple reason — money.

That’s where the military industrial complex comes into play. That term was first said by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his 1961 farewell address. It describes a “vast web” involving legislators, the military and private defense contractors.

The system functions by linking defense production to national security interests, creating immense economic, political and bureaucratic pressure to sustain high military expenditures.

And that was Chief’s argument. This is all about the money and enriching contractors as well as many in the government. Just last week, there were many news stories about if the U.S. had enough weapons to sustain the effort in Iran.

The consensus was that more and more weapons have to be built quickly, which means ramping up production in America and elsewhere. In other words, the complex grows richer.

This, Chief always argued, was the real reason for the wars. He acknowledged there are bad actors and there was justification to take them out, but at what cost? The cost, he said, was making sure that military industrial complex kept feeding the beast.

That has been going on since the Vietnam era and will likely continue well into the future. This situation does not know political boundaries. Elected members of Congress all continue to feed the beast and many of them target arms manufacturers in their own districts.

This, too, has been going on ever since the politicians began directing the wars instead of the military. Elected officials are always looking out for their districts, which is understandable, but, again, at what cost?

I keep trying to imagine what Chief would have thought of what is happening now in the Middle East. Many of the stories he told me were about tribal enclaves located throughout that area. He always felt that if the circumstances were right, factions could at least cope with each other in close proximity.

I have no idea about the inner workings of the government, or dictatorship, in Iran but I do know that as of this writing, they are still in power. Maybe that will change, which is what those in charge are saying is the goal. I hope they are right but I have my doubts because of that military industrial complex.

Over the years, like when the Berlin Wall fell, diplomacy has been key in trying to change governments and the thinking of entire nations. It is a major uphill task, but we saw it work in Germany and other places around the world.

It didn’t, however, work in Vietnam. Nor Afghanistan. Those places, to this day, remain hotbeds of bad actors who will do anything to cause harm on others.

But how can we stop that?

This is a question for the ages and one that has not been answered for decades. We try with force but, in the end, it doesn’t seem to work out the way we had hoped.

Maybe this will be different. Maybe what we are doing will come out right in the long run. Those issues are yet to be resolved.

What has not been resolved in the driving force of money that fuels so much of what is happening. Money, it seems for these actions is unlimited. I’m not sure where it’s all coming from, but I do know our national debt continues to soar out of control.

What are we going to do about that?

If history is any indication, very little. The debt and deficit have risen under leaders of both parties and there doesn’t seem to be any slowing of that right now. This latest military action in the Middle East will continue to pile it up and there’s little we, as citizens, can do about it.

That is the military industrial complex at its finest — or worse, you be the judge.

I miss my conversations with Chief. A lot. His insights were so keen — and right.

Greg Little is editor of the Mariposa Gazette and can be reached at greg@mariposagazette.com