Once again, our government is irrationally manipulating the fear of the American public. This time, it’s for sequestration.

As is always true in cases of fear mongering, the deception is part of a much bigger issue.

Sequestration, or automatic federal budget cuts, will take effect March 1 if a deal to reduce spending is not reached before then.

While these cuts are relatively miniscule, much of the furor is due to half of these cuts coming from defense spending.

While President Barack Obama and Congress agreed on this measure in 2011, the president is now calling the proposed defense cuts “deeply devastating,” and politicians from both parties are following suit.

Perhaps the most outspoken on the issue have been U.S. Department of Defense officials. Earlier this month, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta went as far as to say that as a result of sequestration, the United States would become a “second-rate power.”

To understand the irrationality of such remarks is to understand the deliberate fear mongering taking place.

If the sequester does happen, defense spending would still grow by 2.4 percent annually for the next decade, despite the fact the United States already spends more on defense than the next 17 nations combined, the vast majority of which are allies.

As for the troops, there are provisions in the sequester that protect their pay and benefits.

We are a nation heavily burdened by debt, with politicians who acknowledge a spending problem and pay lip service to fixing it. So what can possibly justify their refusal to slow down the growth rate in an area that has already grown to levels unattainable to the rest of the world?

One must only follow the dollars.

It is common practice for defense contractors to strategically maintain relationships with members of Congress who can best lobby for the company’s interests.

For example, Lockheed Martin, the biggest recipient of lucrative contracts from the Pentagon, is also the biggest campaign contributor to Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), chair of the House Armed Services Committee.

One may find institutions, called think tanks, funded by the same defense contractors and Fortune 500 companies that fund many campaigns, advocating policies that lead to giant profits for the contractors and companies.

One of the bigger think tanks, The Brookings Institution, submitted a policy report in 2009 called, “Which Path to Persia?,” a blueprint for initiating conflict with Iran. U.S. actions toward Iran have closely mirrored many aspects of this policy.

Of course, one may discover various members of Congress, as well as other politicians, who profit from wars through their connections with companies that receive contracts.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who sat on the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee during the Iraq War, helped land two contracts, together worth more than a billion dollars, for her husband’s companies.

This fusion between the armed forces, corporations and Congress was identified as a threat to democracy by President Dwight Eisenhower, who warned of this “military-industrial complex” during the Cold War.

Today, after adjusting for inflation, we spend more on defense than we did on average during the Cold War, when the enemy spent just as much as we did and was an existential threat. It has been the task of the perpetrators of this “military industrial complex” to justify such spending – and war – by convincing Americans the modest threats we face are existential ones.

While the country’s elite get richer from war and giant defense budgets, what about the rest of us? The struggling taxpayers who fund the operation, as well as America’s sons and daughters who fight the wars, see neither peace nor prosperity.

As Eisenhower said, “security and liberty may prosper together,” only with an “alert and knowledgeable citizenry.”

It’s about time we start paying attention, and stop giving in to fear.

Nick Smith is a junior broadcast and digital journalism major. His column appears weekly. He can been reached at nxsmith@syr.edu and followed on Twitter at @Nick_X_Smith.

Published on February 27, 2013 at 1:33 am