战争从来不能终结战争 就在巴特勒将军发表他的讲话之后没过多久，整个世界就卷入了第二场“终结所有战争的战争”。尽管历史学家们教导我们说，要把这场冲突看作抗击邪恶的纳粹主义的战争；然而不合时宜的真相却表明，美国参战最主要的目的是保护美洲帝国在太平洋的利益。 从一开始，同样是这个美洲帝国也曾为纳粹的上位做出过贡献。德国的战争机器正是由美国的工业加注燃料的，其资金则部分地来自美国银行家们，其中就包括埃夫里尔·哈里曼和普雷斯科特·布什，也就是美国总统乔治·H ·W ·布什的父亲，美国总统乔治·W ·布什的祖父。 在第二次世界大战结束时，美国变成了这个世界上占据主导地位的超级势力。与欧洲国家和远东国家不同的是，美国本土没有遭到轰炸或者入侵，基础设施没有遭到破坏。但是人们感受到的和平与安宁是短命的，因为1949 年7 月14 日，苏联试爆了它的第一颗原子弹。美国对这个事件的反应是发起了冷战，并且把美国推上了一条导致它今天的状况的命运之路——武装到了牙齿，身负十万亿美元的债务，并且比以往任何时候都更加感到不安全。 那一次原子弹试爆，再加上美国在二战期间真的曾经用两颗原子弹在广岛和长崎杀掉了22 万日本平民这一事实，产生了这个世界上前所未有的张力。士兵与士兵之间用棍棒、长矛和刺刀战斗是一回事，而一个愚蠢的领导人或者心怀不满的将军，按下一个按钮就发动一场全球核浩劫，就完全是另外一回事了。或许正如爱因斯坦简洁地表述的，“我不知道他们会用什么样的武器来打第三次世界大战，但第四次世界大战肯定会用石头和木棒来打。” 所以，让我们来看看二战后的总统哈里·S ·杜鲁门在决策时所面临的因素吧。战争结束后不久，飞机制造商们就写信给他们在国务院的同事，表达他们在战后经济中对自己的经济命运的担心。然后国务院官员们就说服杜鲁门，给军事工业注入资金将会防止另一次大萧条。这次说服工作并没有费多少口舌。根据诺姆·乔姆斯基的说法，“这其实并不是一场辩论，因为在辩论开始前结果就已成定局，但至少这个问题曾经提出来过——政府究竟应该推动军事开支还是社会开支？” 与此同时，在开始起草政策时，杜鲁门从国务卿迪安·艾奇逊的两位主要顾问那里收到了相互矛盾的建议。其中的一位，乔治·凯南，曾经以派驻苏联的反共产主义外交官著称，但他并没有将该国看做对美国的军事威胁。凯南的结论是在约瑟夫·斯大林统治下的苏联正在为战后的重建而挣扎，并没有扩张主义目标，中情局的国家情报评估证实了这一事实。 另一位顾问，保罗·尼采，曾经是华尔街投资银行家，他相信美国的经济和政治安全的关键在于创建一个军事工业国家。1949 年10 月11 日，在苏联试爆其炸弹的不到3 个月后，凯南提出了他的观点，认为美国应该与苏联达成一项协议，约定任何一个国家都将永不使用该武器。而在同一天，尼采提出了他自己的观点。他说，“为了生产武器，有必要降低而不是提高国民的生活水准。” 在1950 年代早期，杜鲁门指令保罗·尼采策划了一份详尽的冷战经济蓝图。这份文件的标题是“NSC-68 ：美国的国家安全目标与计划。”剩下的就已经是历史了，这个悲哀的历史维持了一个由一份文件导演出来的先例。尼采后来说，该文件“适合1950 年代的头脑。” 根据大学教授乔尔·安德烈亚斯那本命名巧妙、富于插图的著作《 战争成瘾 》所述，自1948 年以来，美国已经为军事工业联合体投入了十五万亿美元，该金额的数目已经超过了全美国所有的工厂，机械，道路，桥梁，供水和排污系统，机场，铁路，电厂，办公楼，商场，学校，医院，酒店和房屋价值的总和。 如果你想弄清楚这15 万亿美元在会计师眼里是个什么样子的，好吧，它是一个带有好多个0 和逗号的数字——$15,000,000,000,000 。这笔钱能买很多的子弹！ 难怪事情似乎有一点点失去平衡。 The War to End All Wars . . . Does Nothingof the Kind Not longafter General Butler gave his speech, the world engaged in the second “war toend all wars.” While historians instruct us to view this conflict as a battleagainst the evils of Nazism, the inconvenient truth indicates that it was asmuch about protecting America’s empire in the Pacific Ocean as anything else. The sameAmerican empire also contributed to the Nazis’ rise to power in the firstplace. The German war machine was fueled by American industry and financed, inpart, by American bankers including Averell Harriman and Prescott Bush, thefather of U.S. President George H. W. Bush and grandfather of U.S. PresidentGeorge W. Bush. 25 At theend of World War II, the United States emerged as the world’s predominant superpower. Unlike European states and the nations of the Far East, the Americanmainland had suffered no bombing, no invasion, and no damage to itsinfrastructure. But perceived peace and tranquility was short lived because onJuly 14, 1949, the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb. America’sresponse to that event launched the Cold War, and set the U.S. on a karmiccourse that has led us to where America is today—armed to the teeth, tentrillion dollars in debt, and feeling less safe than ever. Thatatomic test, plus the fact that the U.S. had actually used two atomic bombs tokill 220,000 Japanese civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII, createda tension unlike any that the world had ever borne. It was one thing forsoldiers to battle soldiers with clubs, spears, or bayonets, and quite anotherfor a mindless leader or reckless general to press a button and unleash aglobal nuclear holocaust. Or, as Albert Einstein succinctly stated, “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but WorldWar IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” 26 So, let’s look at the decision factorsfacing post–WWII President Harry S. Truman. Shortly after the war, aircraftmanufacturers wrote letters to colleagues in the State Department, expressingtheir concern about their own economic fate in a postwar economy. StateDepartment officials then convinced Truman that pumping money into militaryindustry would avert another Great Depression. Not that the convincing involvedmuch debate. According to Noam Chomsky, “It wasn't really a debate because itwas settled before it started, but the issue was at least raised—should thegovernment pursue military spending or social spending?” 27 Meanwhile, when it came to draftingpolicy, Truman was receiving conflicting advice from two of Secretary of StateDean Acheson’s key advisers. One, George Kennan, had developed a reputation asan anti-communist diplomat assigned to the Soviet Union, but he did not seethat nation as a military threat to the United States. Kennan concluded thatthe Soviet Union, under the rule of Joseph Stalin, was struggling to rebuildafter the war and had no expansionist aims, and these facts were confirmed byCIA National Intelligence Estimates. 28 The other adviser, Paul Nitze, had been aWall Street investment banker and believed that the key to America’s economicand political security lie in creating a military-industrial state. On October11, 1949, less than three months after the Soviets exploded their bomb, Kennanpresented his view that the United States should forge an agreement with theSoviet Union that neither state would ever use the weapons. On that very sameday, Nitze presented his own viewpoint. He said it would be “necessary to lowerrather than raise civilian standards of living in order to produce arms.” 29 In early 1950, Truman directed Paul Nitzeto fashion an elaborate blueprint for a Cold War economy. The document wastitled “NSC-68: United States Objectives and Programs for National Security.”And the rest is history, a sad history sustaining a precedent set by a documentNitze later called “appropriate for the mind of 1950.” 30 According to the aptly named illustratedexpose, Addicted to War, by college professor Joel Andreas, since 1948, theU.S. has spent $15 trillion on the military-industrial complex, an amount ofmoney greater than the value of all the factories, machinery, roads, bridges,water and sewage systems, airports, railroads, power plants, office buildings,shopping centers, schools, hospitals, hotels, and houses in the country addedtogether. 31 And forthose of you who want to zero in on what $15 trillion looks like to anaccountant, well, it’s a number with a lot of 0s andcommas—$15,000,000,000,000. That will buy a lot of bullets! No wonderthings seem a tad out of balance.
标签: 原子弹
