Obama: Friend of the ruling class, lover of the military

Thought Obama was your last hope for a fresh new face in Washington? Not many anarchists will fall for that one, but lots of other people will this election season. But, just in case, think again:

This includes, Barack Obama says, the current plan to expand the overall size of the U.S. military by nearly 100,000 (65,000 soldiers and 27,000 Marines), and "recruiting the best and brightest to service, ... keeping them in service by providing them with the first-rate equipment, armor, training, and incentives they deserve."

America's military, Obama says, should be "the strongest, best-equipped military in the world in order to defeat and deter conventional threats." He specifically supports "sustaining our technological edge."

"I say that if the need arises when I'm President, the Army we have will be the Army we need," Obama says, taking a poke at Donald Rumsfeld.

Obama's words are codewords intended for the ears of America's elite class: if he is elected, he assures them, he will continue to press America's imperialist goals abroad, through force of arms if necessary. His criticisms of the current organization and state of the military are only attempts to make the military more efficient at accomplishing the goals of this tiny but extremely wealthy and powerful class of people. These are the only people who really benefit from an improved military apparatus. The people of the world are served by exactly the opposite.

So, if we need anything, it is a steady (or sudden, how about?) move towards the total dismantlement of the US war machine. Ideally, this would be accomplished by the soldiers themselves, but the point is that there are only two ways the calamitous and disastrous war in Iraq can have a positive outcome, and both involve the destruction of the US military. Whether this happens through a military defeat and mutinous unraveling abroad or through the planned and rapid elimination of all branches of the military is not all that important. Each has advantages.

The point is, the military must go. The size of the US military is truly enormous, as many will be aware. When it's all counted, it's current budget totals more than all military spending by all other countries in the world. If we can thank the Bush administration for anything, it's for highlighting for the whole world that, if they ever could before (dubious), it's absolutely certain now that the planet and its people can no longer afford the US military machine.

Destruction or dismantlement. These must be the choices we offer the ruling class. We must say: Bring them home and muster them out; there will be no more military from now on.