The Blessing of Mars

When I was a young intelligence analyst with the US Army in the 1980s, there was something we called “Kremlinology.” Basically, this was what we cold warriors called our analysis of the old men in the Kremlin in order to determine what they were going to do next.  In this way, we could pull information from the open Soviet or the open East European press to come up with original classified analyses up to the NATO Secret level.  For higher analyses, we had to have a Top Secret clearance.  At the highest levels, such intelligence included for example cell phone conversations between Soviet octogenarians that showed that then party Secretary Yuri Andropov was on kidney dialysis and would not remain in this life for long.

To sum up, I don’t have access to Top Secret information now.  However, I can look at the US as an empire, analyze it as such and to a certain extent I think I can predict for you what the apparatchiks are going to do.  This is not fake news or conspiracy theory.  It is intelligence analysis.  Conspiracy theory differs from analysis in its connection of a bunch of close but possibly unrelated set of data points.  Proper analysis will weed out fake connections and provide for something approaching an accurate picture of a country’s leadership and results in reliable intelligence products about what their real intentions and capabilities are.

The rise of the what Dwight D. Eisenhower called the military industrial complex is well known.  However, let’s consider his prediction again.

As you can see, National Archives historian Michael Beschloss documents that this speech was not just  a parting shot from Eisenhower.  Indeed, it was the product of two years work in collaboration with his speechwriter Michael Moos and his personal confidant and brother Milton.  Eisenhower was truly troubled by the rise in power of a for profit military apparatus and its implications for the American republic.

In the time since then, the impressive political rise of the “complex” is beyond denial.  There is not enough time to go into budget amounts for the military and for the civilian discretionary items in the US budget.  However, the main take away here is that the vast majority of discretionary spending is with the military and this spending brings with it vast power, including the ability to influence the civilian government and its functioning.  Like heroin addiction takes over the person hooked on the narcotic, the empire is slowly taking over the republic.

This is why I think we should consider this panel discussion at the Reagan Defense Forum, an annual event hosted at the Reagan Library where major political, military and other speakers assemble in a panel discussion on defense.  My favorite to predict as Joe Biden’s running mate Tammy Duckworth appeared in Panel 1 on December 6. 2019.  In other words, she had first billing.

I am sorry to burst your bubble folks, but the United States of America has one party with two branches-the military industrial complex. The illusion of a two party system always mystified the Soviets.  The purpose of it is also to mystify the American public into not seeing their manufactured reality.  I may be wrong about my prediction, but I think Tammy has the blessing of Mars in the coming theatrical battle of 2020.