[D66] Inequality and the drive to war

[Oto]

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/04/16/pers-a16.html

Inequality and the drive to war
16 April 2014

Last week, Equilar, the executive compensation research firm, reported
that the 100 top-earning corporate CEOs in the US saw their median pay
increase by 9 percent in 2013, to $13.9 million.

The report comes as the US media and political establishment are
unleashing a new torrent of war propaganda, this time against Russia. As
with the conflicts in Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria, the US
media is pumping out brazen lies concerning the crisis in Ukraine. As
always, nothing is examined objectively, no evidence is provided to
substantiate accusations against the enemy, no historical background is
provided. Instead, there is an attempt to benumb and intimidate the
population in order to overcome its opposition to military intervention.

The regularity with which the United States threatens or embarks on new
wars is a function of the unbounded and predatory geopolitical aims of
the American ruling class. It is also rooted in the immense social
tensions generated by the extraordinary growth of social inequality.

War has long served as a means to deflect social antagonisms outward and
direct them against an external enemy. As James Madison, the author of
the Bill of Rights, observed, “Among the Romans it was a standing maxim
to excite a war whenever a revolt was apprehended.”