Pentagon Propaganda for US?

The Pentagon already shades the truth abroad, with their information services, but that's "psy-war." Now its supporters want to give it the legal right to wage psy war against the American people (The Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 (H.R. 5736) to modify the NDAA 2013. It would lift the ban against US government propaganda targeted towards the American people.

The House added this provision to the 2013 NDAA, already obnoxious enough because like the 2012 NDAA, it permits indefinite detention, even of citizens, by Presidential fiat: the NDAA Obama signed!

Has Obama gone over to the dark side? Does the military, or the behind-the-scenes Establishment hold a gun to his ribs, or threaten his daughters' lives? Or was Obama always more hawkish than we knew: his first claim to fame was an eloquent speech against the Iraq War, before it was launched.

The indefinite detention provision has been struck down in Federal Court, a hopeful first step; let's hope the Senate doesn't pass the House bill with the Pentagon propaganda provision.

If it does, we soon won't even know that we've entirely lost what little democracy we have. We could be transformed into a warrior state. War would become a commercial venture, taxes would rise, and services vanish--isn't that the Tea Party dream? The "candidates for intervention" are legion. Even the poorest countries have wealth to extract: resources and possibly businesses, labor and customers. There's a word for this: imperialism.

Yet now, the American military are being forced to cut budgets--so, the DOD propaganda arm could swing into action--using taxpayer dollars--to persuade us the military should be as fully funded as the generals want.

Is that what the elite wants, the movers-and-shakers, the selfish class? It worked for Rome, didn't it? And for the British Empire--for awhile.

Their heydays were when they were economic colossi, when the riches flowing from imperial dominance fueled the rise of a wealthy elite: Rome's Senators built palaces all over the Empire; they became centers of stagnation and impoverization in the Fifth century.

But the US is no longer in its heyday. China, India, Russia and Brazil are growing faster; Chinese influence is rising in every region. Meanwhile the US is the most indebted nation in the world. If the US continues attempting global control, it would have to be on the Chinese dime. How long would China stand for that?

Pentagon propaganda would lead the US to bankruptcy, not world ascendancy; we can't afford more adventures abroad. I wish we could spend most of the Pentagon's billions on redeveloping the national economy; the US could lead the world out of the growing "great recession" and people would have jobs: a billion spent on Defense creates only half or fewer jobs than comparable civilian sectors.

We still have choices, but not for long. A security establishment that can indefinitely detain and spout its own poison would complete our transition to a police state.