15 December 2016
By Jacob G. Hornberger
It is impossible to overstate the stakes involved in the latest controversy
over Russia. They involve trillions of dollars in warfare largess to the tens
of thousands of bureaucratic warfare-state parasites who are sucking the
lifeblood out of the American people.
Ever since the advent of the U.S. national-security state after World War II,
America has needed official enemies, especially ones that induce fear, terror,
and panic within the American citizenry. When people are fearful, terrified,
and panicked, they are much more willing, even eager, to have government
officials do whatever is necessary to keep them safe and secure. It is during
such times that liberty is at greatest risk because of the propensity of
government to assume emergency powers and the proclivity of the citizenry to
let them have them.
That's what the Cold War was all about. The official enemies were communism
and the Soviet Union, which was an alliance of nations that had Russia at its
center. U.S. officials convinced Americans that there was a worldwide
communist conspiracy to take over the world, with its principal base in
Moscow.
A correlative threat was Red China, whose communist hordes were supposedly
threatening to flood the United States.
There were also the communist outposts, which were considered spearheads
pointed at America. North Korea. North Vietnam. Cuba, which, Americans were
told, was a communist dagger pointed out America's neck from only 90 miles
away.
And then there was communism the philosophy, along with the communists who
promoted it. It was clear, U.S. officials gravely maintained, that communism
was spreading all across the world, including inside the U.S. Army, the State
Department, and Hollywood, and that communists were everyone, including
leftist organizations and even sometimes under people's beds.
Needless to say, all this fear, terror, and panic induced people to support
the ever-growing budgets, influence, and power of the Pentagon, the CIA, and
the NSA, which had become the national-security branch of the federal
government — and the most powerful branch at that. Few cared that their
hard-earned monies were being taken from them by the IRS in ever-increasing
amounts. All that mattered was being kept safe from the communists.
Hardly anyone questioned or challenged this warfare-state racket. President
Eisenhower alluded to it in his Farewell Address in 1961, when he pointed out
that this new-fangled governmental structure, which he called ''the military
industrial complex,'' now posed a grave threat to the freedoms and democratic
processes of the American people.
One of those who did challenge this official-enemy syndrome was President John
F. Kennedy. At war with his national-security establishment in 1963, Kennedy
threw the gauntlet down at his famous Peace Speech at American University in
June of that year. There was no reason, Kennedy said, that the Soviet Union
(i.e., Russia) and the rest of the communist world couldn't live in peace
co-existence and even friendship, even if the nations were guided by different
ideologies and philosophies. Kennedy announced that it was time to end the
Cold War against Russia and the rest of the communist world.
What Kennedy was proposing was anathema to the national-security state and its
ever-growing army of voracious contractors and subcontractors who were feeding
at the public trough. How dare he remove the Soviet Union (i.e., Russia) as
America's official enemy? How could the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA justify
their ever-growing budgets and their ever-growing emergency powers? Indeed,
how could they justify the very existence of their Cold War totalitarian-type
apparatus known as a ''national security state'' without a giant official
enemy to strike fear, terror, and panic with the American people?
Kennedy was considered a neophyte and an incompetent by the national-security
establishment, not to mention an immoral adulterous philanderer who was even
sleeping with the girlfriend of a Mafia don. What Kennedy didn't realize, the
Pentagon and the CIA believed, was that it was impossible for the United
States and the communist world to live in peaceful coexistence. This was a
fight to the finish. Kennedy was being lulled, perhaps even blackmailed, into
surrendering America to the Reds. He was considered a traitor, a betrayer, and
the epitome of naïve. (See: JFK's War with the National Security
Establishment: Why Kennedy Was Assassinated by Douglas Horne; The Kennedy
Autopsy by Jacob Hornberger; Regime Change: The Kennedy Assassination by Jacob
Hornberger; The CIA, Terrorism, and the Cold War: The Evil of the National
Security State by Jacob Hornberger; and CIA & JFK: The Secret Assassination
Files by Jefferson Morley.)
Once Kennedy was removed from the scene, everything returned to ''normal.''
The Cold War continued. The Vietnam War against the commies in Asia to prevent
more dominoes from falling got ramped up. The Soviet Union, Red China, and the
worldwide communist conspiracy continued to be America's big official enemies.
The military and intelligence budgets continued to rise. The number of warfare
state parasites continued soaring.
Seemingly, there was never going to be an end to the process. Until one day,
the unexpected suddenly happened. The Berlin Wall came crashing down, East and
West Germany were reunited, and the Soviet Union was dismantled, all of which
struck unmitigated fear within the bowels of the American deep state.
Oh sure, there was still Cuba, Red China, North Korea, and Vietnam but those
communist nations, for some reason, just didn't strike fear, terror, and panic
within Americans as Russia did.
U.S. officials needed a new official enemy. Enter Saddam Hussein, the dictator
of Iraq, who had served as a partner and ally of the U.S. government during
the 1980s when he was waging war against Iran, which, by that time, had become
converted from official friend to official enemy of the U.S. Empire.
Throughout the 1990s, Saddam was made into the new official enemy. Like the
Soviets and the communists, Saddam was coming to get us and unleash mushroom
clouds all over America. The American people bought it and, not surprisingly,
budgets for the national-security establishment continued their upward soar.
Then came the 9/11 attacks in retaliation for what the Pentagon and the CIA
were doing in the Middle East, followed by with the retaliatory invasions
Afghanistan and Iraq. Suddenly the new official enemies were ''terrorism'' and
then later Islam. Like the communists of yesteryear, the terrorists and the
Muslims were coming to get us, take over the federal government, run the IRS
and HUD, and force everyone to study the Koran. The American people bought it
and, not surprisingly, budgets for the national-security establishment
continued their upward soar.
The problem is that Americans, including U.S. soldiers and their families, are
now growing weary of the forever wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan. But
U.S. national-security state officials know that if they bring the troops
home, the official enemies of terrorism and Islam disappear at the same time.
That's why they have decided to return to their old, tried and true official
enemy — Russia and, implicitly, communism. It's why the U.S. broke its promise
to Russia to dismantle NATO. It's why the U.S. supported regime change in the
coup in Ukraine. It's why the U.S. wants Ukraine into NATO — to enable the
U.S. to install missiles on Russia's border. It's why the national-security
state is ''pivoting'' toward Asia — to provoke crises with Red China. It's why
they are accusing Russia of interfering with the U.S. presidential election
and campaigning for Donald Trump. The aim of it all is to bring back the old
Cold War official enemies of Russia, China, and communism, in order to keep
Americans afraid, terrified, and panicked, which then means the continuation
of ever-growing budgets to all those warfare state parasites who are sucking
the lifeblood out of the American people.
With his fight against the CIA over Russian hacking and his desire to
establish normal relations with Russia, Donald Trump is clearly not buying
into this old, tried-and-true Russia-as-official enemy narrative. In the
process, he is posing a grave threat to the national-security establishment
and its ever-growing budgets, influence, and power.
Jacob G. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom
Foundation. He was born and raised in Laredo, Texas, and received his B.A. in
economics from Virginia Military Institute and his law degree from the
University of Texas. He was a trial attorney for twelve years in Texas. He
also was an adjunct professor at the University of Dallas, where he taught
law and economics. In 1987, Mr. Hornberger left the practice of law to become
director of programs at the Foundation for Economic Education. He has
advanced freedom and free markets on talk-radio stations all across the
country as well as on Fox News' Neil Cavuto and Greta van Susteren shows and
he appeared as a regular commentator on Judge Andrew Napolitano's show
Freedom Watch. View these interviews at LewRockwell.com and from Full
Context.
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