US/Department/Defense
The United States Department of Defense was formerly referred to as the US War Department.
Concerns
The department is less interested in defending US citizens than in maximising the control of the deep state forces that sustain it, and has spent a steadly larger and larger fraction of the US government's income on weapons, irrespective of the lack of real threat to the USA. It cannot be understood in isolation from the Military-industrial-congressional complex spoken about by President Eisenhower.
History
The United States Congress created the War Department in 1789 and the Navy Department in 1798. The secretaries of each of these departments reported directly to the President as cabinet-level advisors.
In a special message to Congress on December 19, 1945, President Harry Truman proposed creation of a unified department of state defense, citing both wasteful military spending and inter-departmental conflicts. Deliberations in Congress went on for months focusing heavily on the role of the military in society and the threat of granting too much military power to the executive.[1]
9/11
On June 1, 2001, the DoD changed the rules for military assistance relating to aircraft hijackings, the first time since 1997, to state that for all non-immediate responses, assistance from the DoD must get personal approval from the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.[2]
Criticism
In 2009, the DoD faced criticism after referring to "protest" as "low-level terrorism".[3]
The DoD has faced criticism about its program of distributing surplus military equipment to US police forces. In 2014, Los Angeles Unified school police officials returned three grenade launchers to the military, although they kept the M-16 rifles and the armored vehicle.[4]
An event carried out
| Event | Location | Description |
|---|---|---|
| REX-84 | US | Scenario and drill developed by the United States federal government to detain large numbers of United States residents deemed to be "national security threats" in the event that the president declared a National Emergency (martial law). |
An example
| Page name | Description |
|---|---|
| DARPA |
References
- ↑ Hogan, Michael J. (2000). A cross of iron: Harry S. Truman and the origins of the national security state, 1945-1954. Cambridge University Press. pp. 37–38. ISBN 978-0-521-79537-1.
- ↑ http://killtown.911review.org/oddities/2001.html
- ↑ http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,526972,00.html
- ↑ http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-schools-weapons-20140917-story.html
