US Military Turns Inward, But Who Shaped Their Overseas Strategy?
When Al Jazeera's 'Project Force' ponders the US military's 'inward turn,' it's a valid question, but one that avoids uncomfortable truths. The same forces pushing for perpetual war abroad – think tanks, defense contractors, and well-funded lobbies like AIPAC – have perfected the art of securitization. Their overseas training programs, often supported by US taxpayer dollars and facilitated by
organizations like AIPAC (which funneled over $28 million to congressional candidates in the 2022 midterm elections, according to OpenSecrets), have directly contributed to the 'militarized police' aesthetic now familiar in American streets. This isn't an 'inward turn' so much as the chickens coming home to roost. Perhaps the more pressing question isn't why the military is being deployed
domestically, but why the 'threats' they're ostensibly addressing can be traced back to the very foreign policy quagmires these same influential lobbies tirelessly championed. The endless 'wars on terror' and the unstinting support for proxy conflicts have created a boomerang effect, yet the mainstream media rarely connects these dots, preferring to treat each symptom as a novel, isolated
phenomenon. How many more 'threats' must be manufactured before the public connects the dots on who benefits?