If there’s one thing we’ve learned (or re-learned, again and again) from the Pentagon it’s that all governments lie and that the first casualty of war is truth. From the Pentagon Papers in the Vietnam War to the Afghan War Papers and the lies about WMD in Iraq, the American people have been deliberately and maliciously lied to about America’s wars and their true causes and purposes. And you can go back further to the infamous “Remember the Maine!” cry that touched off the Spanish-American War of 1898. When it comes to war, America’s leaders have always been economical with the truth.
But wait, today’s Pentagon is about to outdo that! As usual with nefarious government decisions, it was announced on Friday when people are most distracted. A short summary from NBC News:
Journalists who cover the Defense Department at the Pentagon can no longer gather or report information, even if it is unclassified, unless it’s been authorized for release by the government, defense officials announced Friday. Reporters who don’t sign a statement agreeing to the new rules will have their press credentials revoked, officials said.
Multiple press associations quickly condemned the new rules and said they will fundamentally change journalists’ ability to cover the Pentagon and the U.S. military. They called for the Trump administration to rescind the new requirements, arguing they inhibit transparency to the American people.
The National Press Club denounced the requirement as “a direct assault on independent journalism at the very place where independent scrutiny matters most: the U.S. military.”
Remember that old saw that, “If you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide” from your friendly government surveillance program? Looks like the Pentagon has decided it’s got plenty to hide, meaning it’s done and is planning to do a lot of wrong, and thus only government-approved information will be allowed to be released.
Any journalist worth her or his salt will never agree to this. Journalists who do agree, who sign the Pentagon statement, should just become paid spokespeople for the U.S. military (as indeed many of them already essentially are).
We’ve created a monstrous military, America, one that believes it should be completely unaccountable to us even as we feed it over a trillion dollars a year.
America, there’s only one way to rein in the military: cut the Pentagon budget in half. Show them who’s boss. Of course, Congress controls the purse strings, and Congress, as Ike noted, is intimately intertwined with the military-industrial complex, so it’s not going to be easy to do it.
But no one ever said it’ll be easy: it’s just necessary for the survival of our country as a quasi-democracy.
Bracing Views 
[From my entry to the Substack version]
Indulge me a long windup… when I was a kid, back in the late ‘50s-early ‘60s, my slightly older cousin and I would watch “Victory at Sea” on NBC, Friday nights. Twenty-six half-hour episodes of a landmark series, yes, touches of jingoism and racism and supremacy, but also remarkable footage, narration by Leonard Graves that could be quite literary, and of course that stirring score by Richard Rodgers.
The closing episode, “Design for Peace,” I thought was quite well done, although opening with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima; then rather elaborate, triumphalist filmed coverage of the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay – but alas not having the audio MacArthur’s rather pompously delivered but nonetheless hopeful speech upon that occasion – then moving to the European theater with the liberation of the death and concentration camps, soberly described.
Then about the last half of the episode showed the soldiers and sailor on their way back home, meeting their loved ones dockside, the troops of several nations marching in parades, all with that stirring, hopeful Rodgers’ score playing, in celebration, in relief, that “the dirty job of war,” as Leonard Graves described it, was over. Peace was resumed, throughout the world, after six years of horrific war. Watching the film clips, listening to the score, could easily, literally bring a tear to the eye. Potent stuff.
Now here’s the pitch… The uplift, the hope, the aspiration for a better world, the artistic expression of that final episode was given real-world, cold- and clear-eyed assessment by Kennan, to whom I hark back.
The fascists have been defeated, we think mostly because of us, but in reality not possible without the Soviets.
The United States is atop the heap, militarily, economically, has escaped the ravages of war.
Europe has not, utterly devastated.
The United States has both the self-interest and the moral obligation to rebuild the world.
Countries are emerging from decades, centuries of colonialism, seeking freedom, exercise of sovereignty.
Both the destruction of Europe and the emerging states stand to be breeding grounds for the spread of communism, distinctions between the Soviet variety and others not appreciated.
Kennan advocated diplomacy, economic assistance, liberal institutions, example of U.S. society and economy – paramount example being Marshall Plan – to address world situation and challenges, Soviet communist expansion to be countered with these measures plus covert subversive means to opposed Soviet influence, not overt military moves.
Overall Kennan rejected military might makes right, looked for another path.
The Wall St. capitalist-Washington, DC establishment wouldn’t invest in this, figuratively, literally, intellectually, instead “coup-ed” Kennan, reinterpreting his views as justification for massive arms buildup, support of right-wing forces in emerging countries, justification to warp American economy and society through the military-industrial-congressional complex.
We have been unable to get off the treadmill since NSC-68.
Thus spake Zarathustra.
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My U.S. military history knowledge is not deep—I had to look up “NSC-68”—but I enjoyed reading this, being just about your age. I’m happy that “Victory at Sea” remains in memory; part of what “nobody told us” in the 1950s-60s was how little music Richard Rodgers composed for it–just twelve one-minute piano tunes. Robert Russell Bennett got about two hours of masterful “arranging” out of those tunes, but more than nine hours of the series’ orchestra scoring is entirely Bennett’s composing. (On average, 20+ minutes of every episode is wholly his creation, we could say.) My book about the making of VAS came out a couple years ago—E-book not too expensive—and if you’ve every wondered about the series’ backstory, the Navy’s involvement, etc., it’s all quite interesting.///Thanks again for your essay—worthy of serious thought today!
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Hegseth is exactly the wrong person to be put in charge of any armed force. He exhibits the teenage boy fascination with the power of the military and glories in his pumped up body. He is obviously eager to put his authority to use, bad use as in the case of the two boats blown out of the water when both could have easily been stopped and boarded to determine what they were carrying, where they were going and who the people were onboard. As with too many men placed in positions of power, he cares nothing about individual human lives.
It made sense for Lincoln to put Grant in charge as it was necessary that vast numbers of lives be lost to win the war. We are as far from that situation as we can be with overwhelming power and technology that needs to be used with extreme restraint. We are not at war but from the atmosphere in the Trump administration, it wouldn’t know it. He seems barely able to keep from declaring war on Americans he doesn’t like.
The US is aping Israel, thumbing the nose at any and all with a particular contempt for international law.
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