The United States currently deploys nine Freedom Class Littoral Combat Ships and another is completed. It turns out there is a problem with ball bearings in the ship that will require a $10 million to $20 million dollar fix, per ship.

Who is going to pay for this fix? Taxpayers of course. Forcing Marinette Marine to pay the cost of the repairs will likely bankrupt the company and thus make it unavailable to build more ships. This is Weaponfare and it’s one of the many manifestations of outgoing President Eisenhower’s warning about a Military Industrial complex.

Weaponfare

I spoke about welfarm a few years back where farmers across the country are wholly dependent on the government and tax dollars to survive. It’s the same thing with the war industry, I refuse to call it the defense industry and if you don’t like it, I’m not sorry.

Without the enormous amounts of money spent on war industry many companies will go out of business. We have war factories in every state. We employ a huge number of people in the making of war equipment not the least of which are my friends and relatives who work at Boeing and Lockheed. They might have cross words for me after reading this, so be it.

The problem is the survival of all these companies, the employment of all these people is spread out across so many states. It becomes very difficult, impossible even, to stop the flow of money without causing economic damage.

Therefore, those in Congress continue to appropriate money for weapon systems that are unnecessary while our troops suffer with contaminated water and substandard housing.

Eisenhower’s Warning

It is interesting reading Eisenhower’s Farewell Address where the term Military Industrial Complex originated. He wasn’t advocating for a smaller military but addressing the need for a powerful military in a global age. He understood the danger of a foreign enemy but also the risk of internal power held by people with monied interests in war. Weaponfare.

The Libertarian Mantra and Weaponfare

My understanding of Libertarian philosophy is largely based on limited government. It is a problem when any industry relies on government for survival. That industry is necessarily going to interfere with political decisions. They want politicians favorable to their cause. That’s the problem.

The war industry is enormous in the United States. Over thirty percent of the world’s spending on military goods is done right here in this country. Weaponfare is a massive juggernaut whose tentacles spread to every state and every representative; federal, state, and often local.
We are exactly where President Eisenhower warned us we might arrive.

Solutions

I’ll leave it up to Eisenhower himself to tell us how to get out of a state of Weaponfare. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Sadly, I have no confidence we are, or ever will be again, an alert and knowledgeable citizenry.

Tom Liberman