War or Peace? What to do?
“Some men worship rank, some worship heroes, some worship power, some worship God, & over these ideals they dispute & cannot unite — but they all worship money.” Mark Twain
The economic progress in the 21st century is sufficiently rapid that we barely have time to comprehend its laws. But these laws must be understood deeply in order to resolve the contradictions generated by the progress, to put it at the public service. A complex dialectic of forces and processes which remains hidden for most intellectuals controls the world development. One would think, what is common between war and peace? I am going to try to justify that these are two sides of a coin no matter how paradoxical it may sound.
Due to a drastic acceleration in scientific and technological development the world has entered to a surplus era opening the way for unimaginable previously creative projects. The infrastructure: engineering, roads, ports, power plants, bridges, train stations, etc. should be the most important point to apply all this colossal potential. Namely the infrastructure serves as the basis for everything else: manufacture, the social sphere, a comfortable and high-quality living environment. Only this area absorbs an incredible amount of money, due to its scale, inclusiveness and rapid obsolescence.
There is always a shortage of money for infrastructure projects and the infrastructure is largely outdated even in the most developed countries. According to the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, the deterioration degree of the communal material and technical base is 60% in Russia. More than 5 trillion rubles are required for its modernization. It is difficult to imagine how this task can be solved within an acceptable time frame. However, all countries in the world are facing this task: infrastructure modernization is required everywhere, moreover, many places require to create it from scratch.
I can submit that this problem is fundamentally solvable: the technological opportunities of the surplus era allow everything! The only question is the readiness of the economic elites of the world leading countries to reorient their activities from obsolete, familiar goals to new ones, dictated by the 21st century opportunities. The conservatism of thinking not only hinders the creative super projects implementation, but also threatens the very existence of mankind. But who can become an actor of this great creation? Ironically, those who today act as destroyers.
In my program, I am talking about the need for a systematic, integrated approach for solving the most important challenges of our time. Contrary to most journalists and politicians’ statements, there are no crisis phenomena in politics that could be considered apart from the global economy and, above all, the balance of power in the economic elite of the United States of America.
The dramatic events of recent days related to Ukraine and the conflict of interests between Russia and the West around it demonstrate this truth. Diplomatic demarches and media campaigns are only ripples on the water surface while a powerful stream flows in the depths being hidden from the general public and many states leaders.
I'm talking about the colossal cash flow connected with the American military industry: the US military budget is almost $800 billion in 2022. There are powerful oligarchy interests whose appetites can only grow behind it. To imagine the enormity of this amount, we can compare it, for example, with the Coca-Cola Corporation revenue for 2021, which amounted less than $40 billion. Even Apple - the largest corporation in the world received 3 times less revenue last year than the US military budget! If the US military industry were listed on the stock exchange, its shares would be 10 times more expensive than Apple shares.
Those who use the colossal amount of money allocated by the US government for military needs are interested in directing the world's only superpower policy to the confrontation path. Invasions into Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya were carried out according to their interests. They also own all the influential media that are capable to ignite a global conflict from any pretext.
The elites' power can be evaluated by the fact that they have managed to keep the US President D. Trump away from the information. The world most powerful politician was gagged! He did not understand the full depth of elites' interest in military expansion. D. Trump was "out of touch" trying to reduce spending on NATO.
The owners of the American military-industrial complex appoint "enemies" based on their own economic interests. So, Russia has become a convenient target for a number of reasons: the United States is not ready for a direct conflict with China due to economic dependency, other countries are not appropriate for this role. Russia is one of all the US potential competitors who has the largest territory and military power. It is convenient to threaten with Russia an average person in the West authorizing more and more military spending.
At the same time, the Russian military budget which is not inferior in development to the US army is more than 10 times smaller than the US one! According to Vladimir Putin, he offered his colleagues Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to accept Russia entering NATO. Their reaction showed Putin that the United States considers this option impossible. After all, the NATO existence would not make sense: against whom will they build up military budgets?
The escalation of the Ukrainian crisis is caused by the need of the US military-industrial lobby to increase funding constantly. I do not think that the US authorities are interested in a real military conflict with Russia: they are well aware that there will be no winners in it.
There is a risk that the weapon concentration in a narrow direction, coupled with a sharp rhetoric, may cause to a loss of control over the armed forces. In this case, contrary to the real intentions of the global players, the world will turn to a state of war that can escalate into a nuclear war in few days.
Another slightly less dangerous threat is a turbulence in the financial markets which is destroying the world economy. There is only one way to eliminate these risks by offering the military lobby an alternative more profitable business. One would think, what can be compared with the military machine in terms of its ability to consume colossal funds? Since the military spending of all countries of the world exceeds the enormous $2 trillion a year and still grows.
However, there is a sphere which monetary capacity can exceed all the conceivable needs of the military industry. This is, obviously, the infrastructure construction on a global scale. The US is already turning to this issue with the President Biden submitting a $2 trillion infrastructure investment plan to Congress for approval.
But there is no clear understanding yet that the infrastructure construction can be an alternative way to use the military-industrial lobby capacity. The amount of $2 trillion will cover just a small part of the real needs of the US in infrastructure (roads, bridges, airports, transport, etc.). Also, it requires regular updates. What prevents this project to be extended for the whole world?
The demand of the world economic development requires modern infrastructure to be created and updated every day. The latest technologies make it possible to do this 24 hours a day providing hundreds of millions of jobs and a high level of all world countries' economies. This might become the greatest project of our time. But only the most powerful, highly organized and extensive structures, such as the armies and military-industrial complexes of the United States, Russia and other world countries can implement it.
The US has an entire military empire with 800 bases around the world, but other countries have same voracious military lobbies. All defense departments are well-organized structures with a high degree of centralization and the best specialists.
They are able to quickly and efficiently solve any infrastructure issues, and this activity is correlated with the defense: unless a deadly war is replaced by a “war” against the weak points of material civilization.
Not all world leaders forced to respond to US actions understand that they are dealing with controlled chaos designed to artificially increase the war demand. They are able to go to the aggravation which is not planned by the rules of the "game". The United States and its allies, in they turn, will be forced to continue escalating in order to save face. The situation will get out of hand at some point.
As soon as the military-industrial complex lobby understands the real opportunities of creation, not destruction, they will leave the dangerous business which is fraught with clash within the West and with a world war in the end. The point is not their philanthropy, but the opportunity to earn incomparably more money with less risk. At the same time, “both the wolves are eaten much” and the world economy will receive a colossal push to grow using the military capacity for social purposes.
This is an elegant and simple solution to global problems, but it requires overcoming the elites' conservatism familiar with a certain business for a hundred years and not favorable to radical change. They can be persuaded only by amounts that should exceed the current $800 billion two to three times.
The United States has a source of these funds which is the money printing press. There is no inflation threat since this money will be absorbed by the real sector of all world countries and create the rapid growth of the world economy. It will be possible to pursue a soft monetary policy and abandon neoliberal ways which are leading to social stratification and destabilization of the society.
Building infrastructure with the help of the reoriented army and military-industrial complex might become the first truly global project in history. We are talking primarily about the United States as the main interested party. But it is obvious that the military departments of all the leading countries including Russia should follow the same scenario.
In this way, we will eliminate the root of military tension by wresting the military-industrial complex' sting and directing all its capacity to another, much larger and peaceful front. Military spending enriches powerful capitalists, but all these missiles and tanks are useless for the society because they do not move social progress.
Both society and capitalists are interested in a compromise of interests. There is no other way except for the reorientation of the military sector towards the infrastructure construction. Only money decides everything in the relations between the elites. We may like it or not. I suppose that Russia's special mission is just to offer this project to the world. It used to be a utopia, but it has become a real opportunity in the today's surplus era.
Let me remind you one more time that the problems of global politics can be solved only by the economic tools. While we observe the dramatic situation with Ukraine, we should see the pure monetary interests of global players behind it. Otherwise, we will never find a way to stable peace and prosperity.
Written by
Asserting human rights Georgy Tsurtsumiya (Smelin)