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The Pentagon permeates everyday life in America. Its influence, along with that of the 15 U.S. intelligence agencies, is almost everywhere. From movies like Iron Man and G.I. Joe to video games like Halo 2 and America’s Army, from Home Depot to Google, from MIT to Harvard, the list of Pentagon-sponsored corporations, institutions and products is miles long.
Of course, with two wars going strong and more than 800 military bases in 40 different countries and overseas territories, our global military presence is massive and requires maintenance. As a result, the U.S. accounts for nearly half of all military spending across the globe.
All in all, this presence has meant 60 years of near-constant warfare for America. Between the end of World War II and the end of the Kosovo conflict, the U.S. engaged in more than 200 non-covert military operations, according to a tally by the Federation of American Scientists.
But what does this have to do with you? Penn is part of the “military-industrial complex” (to borrow a term from President Eisenhower) that keeps America’s war machine running. In fact, academia in general is a key pillar in the apparatus that produces weapons, technology, information and innovation for America’s military bureaucracy and its private corporate partners.
According to a 2002 report by the Association of American Universities, nearly 350 colleges and universities do Pentagon-funded research. The Department of Defense (DoD) is, in fact, the third-largest provider of funding for university research, after the National Institute of Health and the National Science Foundation.
Penn is a microcosm of this reality. It has a long history with the DoD, as well as the CIA and the FBI, including a decade-long stint in the 1950s and ‘60s as one of the premier institutions for secret chemical and biological weapons research in the country. Penn does not engage in classified research today, but non-classified research continues apace. For example, in the 2009 fiscal year Penn received approximately $34.3 million in funding from the DoD, according to Penn’s Vice Provost for Research Dr. Steven Fluharty. This money represents only 4.8 percent of total government-sponsored research at the university, but since Pentagon money is often concentrated in very specific departments and laboratories, it has a large impact on a number of disciplines, especially engineering, computer science and math.
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Times change, buddy. If you asked most Penn students today how they felt about Penn's involvement in America's national security, they'd probably see it as a positive thing and be proud that Penn is doing its part. I know I am.
Pretty absorbing article. I think your blog is extremely riveting. Kudos once again - I will drop by again.
Based on my personal experience interacting with Penn students over the years, I would agree that most Penn students hold pro-US militarism positions.
But, hey, why not? This is completely logical because most Penn kids are part of the upper-class (you know, people who are obscenely rich), if not actual ruling class, and those are the people who benefit the most economically from US aggression around the world.
I'm sure also that these pro-war folks are happy that these hundreds of billions of tax dollars spent on US militarism are spent there, than instead on New Deal-style programs like providing jobs for the poor and working classes.
As a former Penn grad student, I question whether the school has any real interest in "national security" so much as getting even more money, regardless of where it comes from and for what. Additionally, isn't this deficit spending to the current $1.42 trillion the real threat to national security?
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