Korean Job Discussion Forums

bucheon bum · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

This thread is awesome. Thank you Fox and Kuros for reminding me that one great thing about Dave's is nothing ever goes away (except when mods intervene).

I wonder what Joo thinks about Obama, who has been pretty aggressive against al qaeda.

On the other hand · Joined: 19 Apr 2003 Location: I walk along the avenue

I think Joo was generally positive toward Obama, in an offhand sort of way. From the "How's Obama doing?" thread in 2009...

Dave Chance · Joined: 30 May 2011

Origins of Al-qaeda

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cyclone

Operation Cyclone was the code name for the United States Central Intelligence Agency program to arm and finance the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, 1979 to 1989. The program leaned heavily towards supporting militant Islamic groups that were favored by neighboring Pakistan, rather than other, less ideological Afghan resistance groups that had also been fighting the Marxist-oriented Democratic Republic of Afghanistan regime since before the Soviet intervention. Operation Cyclone was one of the longest and most expensive covert CIA operations ever undertaken;[1] funding began with $20�30 million per year in 1980 and rose to $630 million per year in 1987.[2]

http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/9-11/military_complex.htm

Muscle of the US Economy
The military industry is a dominant player in the US economy. Military orders drive America's manufacturing sector. More than one-third of all engineers and scientists in the US are engaged in military-related jobs. Several sections of the country and a number of industrial sectors, particularly shipbuilding and aerospace, are greatly dependent upon military spending or foreign arms sales.

The Department of Defense (DoD), together with the top defense corporations - or what is known as the "military-industrial complex" - controls the largest coordinated bloc of industry in the US.

Running out of enemies
Without the rivalry from Russia, where is the threat that justifies spending hundreds of billion dollars every year on war and preparations for war? The Pentagon's answer is simple: there is no longer one powerful adversary to contend with, but US forces still need to be equipped to fight two major regional conflicts simultaneously against "rogue states" like Iraq and North Korea.

According to Michael Klare, author of Rogue States and Nuclear Outlaws, Colin Powell devised the "two war strategy" once he realized that the United States was "running out of enemies" large enough to justify spending hundreds of billions on the Pentagon every year.

The United States currently spends 19 times more on its military forces than all of the Pentagon's so-called rogue states - Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Syria, Cuba, and North Korea - combined. In fact, the United States and its key allies (NATO, Japan, and South Korea) now account for 62% of total global military spending, up from about 50% in the mid-1980s. In short, despite repeated calls for higher military spending to remedy the alleged "readiness crisis" facing US forces, the United States and its allies currently account for a much higher share of global military spending than they did at the height of the Reagan military buildup in the mid-1980s.