by Uley Basil Tjon
Emperor Palpatine has announced this week that he plans to construct even more warships in the wake of the Yavin debacle. He has also announced an increase in galaxy-wide military clampdowns on insurrectionist forces wherever they may be found. Policies like this show that Coruscant is gripped by a military establishment that “treats compromise as treason and negotiation as appeasement,” in the words of noted political columnist Zeraad Frekaria [Editor's note: Zeraad Frekaria was found dead in his home two days ago. Police investigators identified the cause of death as asphyxiation, and are treating it as a suicide].
For all the hue and cry about economic problems and deteriorating social programs in the Galactic Core systems, military spending is surprisingly off limits to the cost-cutting measures which are sweeping through Coruscant. The Emperor's top advisers continue to recommend lavish spending on military contracts whose suppliers reside in key systems: systems which these advisers coincidentally represent.
The Imperial military-industrial complex is now so vast, rich, and integrated into the Coruscant power structure that it has become impossible to uproot. Decades of near-constant growth through the Clone Wars have been sustained into what should have been an era of peace, by a manufactured civil war against a nebulous insurgent movement whose ways and means are impossible to determine. The Empire's vast network of arms suppliers and military contractors now employ countless billions of people on dozens of politically influential Core worlds.
Even civilian industry is intricately intertwined into this network. Some observers have estimated that for each person working directly for a military contractor, there are at least ten people employed in civilian support industries, ranging from cargo shipping to parts supply, fuel, and other forms of logistical support. Worse yet, large portions of spending are completely undocumented. No one in the media was even aware of the construction of the Death Star until after it had already been completed and used to destroy Alderaan. Even now, rumours circulate that the enormous construction work force employed to construct the Death Star has been put to work manufacturing a second Death Star, even larger and more expensive than the first, which was already an extraordinary waste of manpower and resources to begin with.
While conspiracy theorists are often misguided, this particular conspiracy theory is not without its merits. Imperial estimates of the work force used to build the Death Star were far below all independent observers' estimates of the work force required to construct such a large and powerful vessel. This led to suspicion that most of the work force remains undocumented, and is still working on secret projects. Administration officials point out that none of the registered cargo shipping companies have reported the kind of anomalous shipments which would account for such construction, but there are thousands of unregistered shippers working in the galaxy at any given time: more than enough to move this kind of material.
The unfortunate reality is that once such a large and complex network of military contractors is created, it is literally too big to dismantle without widespread upheaval. Many regional economies are so intimately tied to military contracts that a cessation of such contracts would plunge entire star systems into chaos. Kuat Drive Yards alone has large sub-contractors in over two dozen Core worlds, over and above its home star system. This economic importance grants these contractors extraordinary immunity from cost-cutting measures. For example, the Star Destroyer project went trillions of credits over budget and was reportedly plagued with hundreds of committee-driven design revisions, so that its cost had ballooned to three times early estimates by the time the first ship came out of KDY's shipyards. The new Defender-class TIE fighter is more than three years behind schedule and production remains far below promised levels. And yet, there is no sign of disapproval from Coruscant, which announced yet another production run of Star Destroyers and TIE interceptors this week.
It's not just the equipment: military personnel themselves are also an enormous economic boondoggle. The cost of maintaining billions of combat soldiers, pilots, and other personnel is staggering, yet they too are often viewed as an economic benefit. Millions of military bases scattered throughout the galaxy provide incalculable economic stimulus to their regions, all of which exert all of the political influence at their disposal to keep the bases open. Soldiers contribute considerable monies to local industries such as housing, food and restaurants, entertainment, and prostitution, and while we are all reminded to “support the troops” as a patriotic duty, we must keep in mind that the troops themselves are heavily indoctrinated to support Emperor Palpatine and all of his decisions.
However, there are encouraging signs. Emperor Palpatine may not be subject to elections but he remains mindful of the importance of public popularity, and his popularity numbers experienced a sharp decline after the Yavin debacle. Public cynicism about official statements has grown to the point that there is a "Yavin Truther" movement which claims that the Death Star was deliberately destroyed by the Administration because it didn't work, and the Administration wanted to exaggerate the threat posed by the Rebellion. They point to mysterious "bands of brightness" in the official footage of Alderaan's explosion in order to claim that it was actually a natural event based on an undiscovered chain reaction, and that the entire Death Star project was actually a failure. Nojes Phentes, a professor of astronomy at Grambiy Honug University, is the most prominent advocate for the so-called "natural demolition" theory. Administration officials have pointed to the Yavin Commission report which debunks these claims, but members of the Truther movement decry it as biased.
In short, with public cynicism running so high and the costs of unending war so obvious, there may never be a better time to take on the military-industrial complex. Here are six ways to begin.
A 6-Point Plan
- Consistently hammer home the point that prosperity is simply not compatible with an unending state of war. While the Emperor himself may be above elections, his advisers are not. Many star systems do employ democratic principles to appoint their representatives, and this can give activists the leverage they need.
- Understand and inform the public about the incredible cost of new weapons and an unsustainable vast army. The Empire's minimalist estimates of the cost of the military-industrial complex have never had lower public credibility than they do now.
- Rebuild and modernize the Public Information Bureau. It was gutted while trillions were lavished on military production.
- Follow the money! Track and publicize money going to foundations, think tanks, and journalists. Journalists who call for ever more stringent crackdowns and military buildups generally receive key funding from military contractors. So-called “galactic security” consultants with impressive credentials are often mere corporate shills in disguise.
- Explain to Core world populations that they need not fear the Outer Rim. The Clone Wars ended a long time ago, and it is time to get over old divisions. As long as these deep divides in the galactic population persist, it will always be politically expedient to parlay one side's fear of the other into yet more trillions of credits of funding.
- Recognize that war is entertainment for much of the population. Sitting comfortably in front of a flatvid, watching ships fly about and fill atmospheres with brilliant explosions, or seeing the thunderous advance of mammoth armoured land vehicles makes war seem like a game, where one side “wins” and the other side goes home. In reality, it is a devastating, brutal, bloody affair and the flatvids never show the mangled bodies, the ruined cities, the weeping families of victims. To strip away this veneer of entertainment, we must recognize that this constant state of war has not made us any safer, and that it is actually pushing the Empire toward economic ruin.
[Editor's note: Uley Basil Tjon is a professor of Peace & Conflict Studies in the History Department at the University of Corellia. This article was written three days before his mysterious disappearance.]
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