Well over a half billion dollars is shelled out annually by the Pentagon to propagandize and galvanize public support of its wars based nearly entirely on lies — because, after all, war crafted to prop up the military-industrial machine’s profiteering can indeed be a tough sell.
In the latest report on Public Relations Spending from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the United States’ government PR apparatus has been revealed to spend over $1 billion annually — $626 million of which the Department of Defense allots to employ a massive propaganda army constituting roughly 40 percent of the more than 5,000-strong federal public relations workforce.
In comparison, Health and Human Services — with the second highest spending of all federal agencies during the 10-year period the GAO studied — spent an average of $116 million to promote, for example, Obamacare, flu shots, and the like.
Pentagon spending accounted for over 60 percent of the federal government’s public relations hefty total budget between 2006 and 2015.
To put that figure in context, Senate Committee on the Budget Chairman Sen. Mike Enzi pointed out, the entire Department of Education had 4,081 employees in 2015.
Simply put, the Pentagon takes itself quite seriously and wants to make sure you do, too. In fact, the DoD spent more on unknown propaganda and PR efforts in the ten years of the study than all other government agencies — combined.
“With increasing pressures on limited federal resources, it is crucial to know how much is spent across the federal government on public relations activities and which federal agencies are spending the most,” Enzi said in a statement. “It is important to understand the primary purposes and reported benefits from the investments of tax dollars paid by America’s hardworking families. I look forward to GAO continuing its efforts to shine more light on these activities.”
While precisely how the Pentagon spends its massive PR budget could not be determined, the report explains, “Although there is no single, commonly-accepted definition of what constitutes advertising or public relations.” So the GAO describes Department of Defense advertising as “the placement of messages intended to inform or persuade an audience through various types of media, such as television, radio, digital media, direct mail, and others.”
In 2008, when the Department of Defense squandered $868 million on its public image, as Reason reports, “it accounted for more than two-thirds of all taxpayer-funded advertising in the federal government.”
“With the increased popularity and accessibility of expanded media platforms,” GAO Acting Director of Strategic Issues Heather Krause wrote, “the federal government’s ability to publicize information has changed rapidly, but the total scope of federal public relations activities is largely unknown.”
For the Department of Defense, at least, the nature of that spending might never be fully accounted for — although a recent report revealed the Pentagon had forked over an estimated $540 million between May 2007 and December 2011 to an outside PR firm to craft fake terrorist videos. Worse, an audit proved the Pentagon somehow has no idea where $6.5 trillion went.
Generating support from an American populace growing weary of funding dubious military actions abroad, which have included a pattern of bombing hospitals, weddings, funerals, markets, schools, ambulances, and even the militaries of governments the U.S. hasn’t declared war upon, can certainly be difficult to pull off — especially in light of a recent Wikileaks email revelation the government has been aware its human-rights-abusing allies are actively funding and aiding the Islamic State they’re all supposedly fighting.
Indeed the deception runs deep, and without transparency — or even accurate record-keeping — to rein in Big Government’s multifarious propaganda tentacles, the American public might never find out when, exactly, it’s being manipulated.
Claire Bernish writes for TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared.
“…The power to declare war is a serious responsibility. Why were the framers so vague in defining the parameters of war and the conditions under which it could be declared? Section 8, Clause 11 is the only place of significance where warfare is mentioned in the Constitution. Little wonder this power has been abused. Luther Martin [one of Maryland’s delegates to the Constitutional Convention] protested:
‘…the congress have also a power given them to raise and support armies, without any limitation as to numbers, and without any restriction in time of peace. Thus, sir, this plan of government, instead of guarding against a standing army, that engine of arbitrary power, which has so often and so successfully been used for the subversion of freedom, has in its formation given it an express and constitutional sanction….’40
“John Quincy Adams predicted the consequences of America’s international military entanglements:
‘America … has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when the conflict has been for principles to which she clings…. Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions, and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.… She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication,
in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy and ambition, which assume the colors, and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force; the frontlet on her brow would no longer beam with the ineffable splendor of freedom and independence; but in its stead would soon be substituted an imperial diadem, flashing in false and tarnished luster, the murky radiance of dominion and power. She might become the dictatress of the world: she would be no longer theruler of her own spirit.’41
“Because the framers provided no Biblical parameters, unbiblical warfare has been the rule ever since. Following is a list of the countries bombed by the United States since World War II:
China: 1945-46; 1950-53
Korea: 1950-53
Guatemala: 1954; 1967-69
Indonesia: 1958
Cuba: 1959-60
Vietnam: 1961-73
Congo: 1964
Laos: 1964-73
Peru: 1965
Cambodia: 1969-70
Granada: 1983
Libya: 1986; 2011
El Salvador: 1980s
Nicaragua: 1980s
Panama: 1989
Iraq: 1991-2001; 2003-09
Sudan: 1998
Afghanistan: 1998; 2003-09
Yugoslavia: 1999.
“Fom 1945 to the present, the United States has bombed nineteen different countries under the guise of defending America’s sovereignty and promoting democracy. But America is none the better for it, and not one of these countries has become a legitimate democracy – not that this would be anything to celebrate. Something is amiss. Wars fought for political gain or financial profit can only be classified as ungodly acts of aggression….”
For more, see online Chapter 4 “Article 1: Legislative Usurpation” of “Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.” Click on my picture, then our website. Go to our Online Books page, click on the top entry, and scroll down to Chapter 4.
Then find out how much you REALLY know about the Constitution as compared to the Bible. Take our 10-question Constitution Survey in the right-hand sidebar and receive a complimentary copy of a book that EXAMINES the Constitution by the Bible.
Kingdom Ambassador is an anti-U.S. Constitution activist and who can’t be accused of being patriotic. He runs a campaign to get the Constitution abolished so we can have one man rule. He’s definitely not very bright.
Beware!
Grundune is actually a who rejects Christ and the Word of God (see Psalm 19:7-11; John 1:1-3, 14; 1 Timothy 3:16; 2 John 1:7-11, etc.) and whose “Doctrine and Covenants” demand he defend the Constitution as divinely inspired (D&C 101:80, etc.), much the same as with the Book of Mormon. He
knows if the Constitution is exposed for the biblically seditious document it is, that the entire Mormon house of cards comes tumbling down.
Tragically, many Christians are more inclined to follow Doctrine and Covenants than the Bible when it comes to the Constitution.
Isnt it obvious!!! Everyday I scan the titles of articles with at least 3 new completely different reasons why we need war for the profiteers so they can do business and murder as usual. No we dont want more homeless refugees! Of course I dont read those articles, and I hope nobody else accepts the propaganda either. I DO NOT CONSENT TO ANY MORE WARS!!
It was made clear that the American people didnt want war in Syria, so they waited a while, sent in more mercs, money, equipment and now they are using an expensive even alt-media saturation advertising/article campaign to mold our opinions. We know what propaganda is!
It will never convince us. We said no war in Syria, and we meant it. We are not that stupid to believe your lies any more! No matter how many false flags you pull, Corp United states. Too many of us know you made it legal to lie and deceive us, and no, we will never trust you again, no matter how many people you kill, or pretend to kill, in your war on terrorism.
You, Corp US, are the terrorists!
I might say, by the looks of things, that some of us may want it to work, too!
Yet another reason for the whole thing to be dissolved. It is a corporation, and that can be done.
I sure hope they are safe in their taxpayer funded underground hotels and high speed trains.
I sure hope they come out to play, of course there is no man amongst these unholy goat worshiping cowards and enjoy pleasure of watching human sacrifices and bringing sickness, misery and death to others.
They will be shown no mercy.
SHEandHEandTHEYareDESPICABLE.