The Spoils of War

Power, Profit and the American War Machine

Abstract

Neil postman (1993:2) wrote that technology is both a friend and an enemy: it is a friend not just because it makes life easier but because of its lengthy, intimate and inevitable relationship with culture, “… technology does not invite a close examination of its own consequences; it is an enemy because “It undermines certain mental processes and social relations that make human life worth living.” This tension or contradiction is at the heart of Andrew Cockburn’s collection of reportage, The Spoils of War. His focus is the US military-industrial complex and the way in which it constantly pursues new forms of technologically advanced weapons and logistics systems which invariably fail to materialize on time and on budget (see also NASA), with the result that insufficient numbers of new systems are put into operation and so older or obsolete items must be kept in use to make up the shortfall.