America's role is 'security export'

In the early years of the illegal George W. Bush 'shock and awe' attack and occupation of Iraq I was watching C-SPAN TV one evening.

They showed a three-hour presentation of then Naval War College instructor Thomas Barnett who had written a new book called the Pentagon's New Map.  Barnett was introduced to the military & CIA audience as then Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld's 'strategy guy'.

Barnett proposed in his plan that America's role in the world under corporate globalization was 'security export'.  He said that the US would not make things anymore - shoes, cars, TV, cell phones, washing machines and other consumer products.  It's cheaper for the leading corporations to move overseas where labor is cheaper.

America's job Barnett said was to go around the world and control the 'non-integrating gap' - those nations who are not presently under the full control of western bankers.  Iran, Iraq, Syria, Venezuela, the African continent, etc. 

Barnett declared that the Pentagon would go into one of these nations with overwhelming force - what he called 'Leviathon'.  But the problem he said, is who will run these countries after we take them over?  What we need he said is a force to run these nations after the initial take down.  He called this team 'Systems Administration'.  Not too soon after I noticed that Lockheed Martin had received a huge contract to train 'Sys Ad' forces. Barnett said our 'Sys Ad' troops would never come home.

Barnett also claimed that the US will need legions of young people to go into the 'Leviathon' force and that they should be easy to find because there are essentially no jobs in this country anymore.  He said that we need to recruit these 'angry young men' who while away their time playing violent video games.  There are an endless supply of them across America.

But increasingly, likely due to endless war and stories about PTSD, young people are figuring out that the Army is not such a great job.  So the Army has a plan.  Lower the enlistment age to 16 years old. They are now floating trial balloons to see how the public and Congress respond.

The Washington Times reports:

The best way to fix the U.S. armed forces’ recruiting challenges may involve dipping further into the nation’s high schools.

As the Army, Navy and other services contend with a thriving economy and a directive to expand their ranks, there is a growing debate over whether the military should consider lowering the minimum enlistment age from 17 to 16. More than a dozen countries, including the United Kingdom, already have adopted the policy.

“For one, many of the factors that disqualify older youths from joining — like criminal records — are not as present in younger teens,” said Shane McCarthy, chief marketing officer of Sandboxx, a leading technology platform that connects military members stationed abroad with families and friends at home. Mr. McCarthy also has advised military commands on how to better target recruits.

Since first hearing Barnett's presentation it has become clear to me that his 'strategy' has increasingly been adopted by the US military and related civilian contractors.

In the end Barnett himself, and his neo-colonial program, are filled with arrogance and American exceptionalism.  It's all about global domination on behalf of corporate capitalism.  Barnett likes to claim that 'The world is my playground'.

Now it appears in order to pull this whole plan off they need to have more of our younger kids.  It's a sign of failure and imperial decline.  Don't let them get away with it.

Bruce