Military spending, peace and personal freedom - comparing US foreign aid and the NSA

As strides toward peace are ostensibly being made between Israel and Palestine I am put in mind of Ocean Colour Scene’s terrific song “Profit in Peace”:

All the people under broken homes

Don't wanna fight no more

All the people nursing shattered bones

Don't wanna fight no more

But there's no profit in peace

So we've gotta fight some more

 

In Shock Doctrine (2007) Naomi Klein posits that a previous iteration (c. early 2000’s) of the peace process was derailed not because of Palestinian bellicosity but due to Israel seeking to salvage a tanking economy (p. 435).  Indeed, ex-military and ex-military-business execs were finding their way into high places in government.  The largest recipients of US foreign military aid (2011): Afghanistan, Israel and Egypt.  And keep in mind that those aid dollars take a pit stop in those other gov’t’s hands until being spent.  Upon being spent it becomes profit for US defense contractors.

 

So too the NSA, only the money does not have to make the requisite overseas journey.  Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and in-the-news Eric Snowden’s old employers Booz Allen Hamilton all provide services for the NSA.  99% of Booz Allen Hamilton’s revenue comes from the US gov’t. 

 

Companies can then spend a fraction of their revenues engaging in free speech: lobbying politicians to approve military spending – the NSA operates under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense.  A recent wired.com article interestingly found that House members who voted to continue NSA funding received double the defense industry cash.  Here in Idaho, our Republican Reps. represented this trend.  Mike Simpson voted to continue funding and received $34,000.  He said, “We don’t need a thoughtless, visceral reaction that hurts our national security without protecting civil liberties.”  Raul Labrador said, “This wholesale snooping on innocent Americans is an unacceptable violation of one of our most basic freedoms: the right to privacy and the right to be free from government surveillance.”  He received a paltry $5,000 from defense contractors.

 

At least the money doesn’t have to take a circuitous route whilst supporting our economy.  And I guess I’ll take being snooped on instead of living in a war zone any day.