[Marxism] From "War" to "Defense" ( was Barry Sheppard: Change or continuity? Which way is Obamagoing?)

[Shane Mage <shmage@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Dec 13, 2008, at 9:27 AM, Lüko Willms wrote:

> On Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:31:41 -0500, Fred Feldman wrote:
>
>> (The Department of Defense was
>> more accurately called the Department of War until the Cold War
>
This is incorrect.  The "Department of War" was, in fact, the  
Department of the Army.  There was a separate Department of the Navy.   
The Marine Corps was part of the Navy Department.  Both War and Navy  
Departments had their own Air Forces.  The original reason for the  
separation and the names was that the Army was considered exclusively  
a *War*-fighting force, whereas the Navy/Marine Corps was the  
instrument for all "lesser" imperialist ventures not requiring a  
formal Declaration of War.  This bureaucratic maze became obsolete  
after the Second Imperialist War both because coordination of all  
military forces was imperative in the "Cold War" context and because  
the Air Generals wanted a bureaucratic fortress of their own in which  
to house Wernher Von Braun and the whole space-warfare apparatus.  The  
*name* "Department of Defense" was just the euphemism routinely used  
by imperialist states with unified military commands.



Shane Mage

> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos

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