Military-Industrial Complex

I've always thought it was pretty obvious that a lot of the pressure aimed at pushing the US and China into a cycle of mutual hostility was driven by the narrow interests of defense contractors rather than anything to do with national security, but it's the kind of thing where you rarely get a clear demonstration of a quid pro quo. Kevin Drum, though, finds a really clear-cut example lurking in Thomas Barnett's Esquire profile of William Fallon.

Needless to say, anyone whose substantive thinking about international relations implies the need to build vast quantities of new weapons systems to fight China with is going to find his think tank has plenty of willing funders.

Comments

What is Senator McCain's position on missile defense? Moreover, I haven't heard much from him on this topic but is he one of these China alarmists in the mold of the Bush administration pre 9/11.

Posted by jj | March 7, 2008 12:44 PM

McCain has already stated he wants to spend as many billions as possible on unreliable missile defense systems that have little chance of actually being useful in warding off the kinds of attacks we are likely to see. But then again, lots of people are jonesing for a new cold war with china, so maybe they'll justify it that way

Posted by tim | March 7, 2008 1:09 PM

Re: I've always thought it was pretty obvious that a lot of the pressure aimed at pushing the US and China into a cycle of mutual hostility ...

What pressure? If someone really wanted to whomp up hostility to Chian in this country we'd be hearing a lot more of the line "Your job was shipped to China". And maybe even some carping about how much of our federal debt the Chinese hold. Instead there's pretty much radio silence from both parties on these issues.

Posted by JonF | March 8, 2008 8:56 AM