Written by Dr. Roger Kotila   

A psychologist views the national security complex using the latest diagnostic manual released by the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-5, 2013).

Has national defense, driven by grandiose delusions, greed, paranoia, and deceitfulness gone over the psychiatric edge, endangering the citizenry rather than bringing safety and security?

The early signs of mental disorder surrounding national security are numerous, but few Americans seem aware of it, a condition that the DSM-5 defines as anosognosia.

At the end of WWII the American military dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was a savage and sadistic blow aimed at civilian populations. The "cute" names given the two horrific bombs, "Little Boy" and "Fat Man," could not take away from the moral calamity that this depraved act represented.

As if the WWII fire bombings of German cities and Tokyo were not bad enough, the generals and the President had chosen to go even further by using the A-bomb. For the Pentagon, this marked the time when there would be no more limits as to the weaponry allowed in the name of national defense --even if that weaponry could destroy the world.

By the 1960's it was obvious that the United States had far more nuclear weapons than would ever be needed, but the real number was so huge as to stagger even the irrational imagination. Foreign Policy magazine (Oct., 2013) reveals that in 1967 the US nuclear arsenal reached 31,255.

The Pentagon's insatiable attraction to weapons that could destroy the world was an early symptom of impaired judgment due to mental disorder. Sociopaths and psychopaths had gained full control of America's national security apparatus.

"Sociopathy" and "psychopathy" are forms of mental disorder in the DSM-5 under the category of "Antisocial Personality Disorder" (APD). It is one part of the diagnostic picture that helps explain how the military/industrial complex, about which President Eisenhower warned us, went wrong.

According to the DSM-5 "deceit and manipulation are central features" of the Antisocial Personality Disorder.

The public's notion of a mental disorder usually does not include sociopath's or psychopath's because they often appear to be normal, seemingly no different from you or me. Indeed, they may be quite intelligent and articulate, not unlike a Pentagon general or a member of Congress.

Symptoms may include lacking conscience and remorse, breaking the law, manipulating others, lying, sadism, and greed. Such indicators are seen in the past and current history of many in the national security establishment.

Sociopaths and psychopaths are often found in prison populations, but many never see jail, and some have gained high positions in business, government, the military, and elsewhere. Psychopaths represent the extreme -- mass killings, serial murder, and sadistic acts such as use of napalm, white phosphorous, and torture.

The U.S. military poisoned vast portions of Viet Nam with Agent Orange. In Iraq and Afghanistan the Pentagon routinely used depleted uranium munitions -- causing perpetual radioactive exposure to the civilian population such as the deformed babies now being born in Fallujah, Iraq, and disability and early deaths for American soldiers exposed to it.

Sociopaths often fail to conform to the law. It is well established that the U.S. invades or uses secret operations to overthrow governments it doesn't like, even those with democratically elected leaders.

Other sociopathic signs include enduring patterns of lying (getting the U.S. into wars in Viet Nam and Iraq), greed (an astronomical defense budget), and manipulation (war on terror to justify a military empire).

Some behaviors like the CIA’s use of torture and false flag operations have an evil, psychopathic quality. Torture may include a sadistic satisfaction, the torturer seeking a certain type of response from the helpless victims. False flag operations kill our own -- covert operatives use explosives to kill innocent people, and the act is falsely blamed on an outside “enemy.”

Bamford's "Body of Secrets" exposes the fact that the Joint Chiefs of Staff approved a plot (Operation Northwoods) to blow up an American passenger plane and blame it on Cuba as a pretext to invade Cuba. The 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident leading to the war in Viet Nam was likely false flag.

Independent investigators have posited that 9/11 was false flag, an inside job used to justify invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and to launch the perpetual war on terror. Despite convincing evidence that the 9/11 Commission Report was rigged to present a false picture, the US government has refused a new, independent investigation.

American "exceptionalism" is psychologically a grandiose delusional disorder, a symptom that has allowed Americans and most media to refuse to believe that 9/11 could have been planned and carried out by an inner circle of Americans. After all, exceptionalism means that we are the "good guy" and would not murder our own.

A delusion, according to the DSM-5, is a false belief that is not amenable to change even in light of contradictory evidence. A grandiose delusion manifests an inflated sense of worth, power, and identity.

Neo conservatives boast that the U.S. is the "lone superpower" and declare that America is "exceptional" -- morally superior to other countries, and better than everyone else.

This "exceptionalism" justifies all sorts of behaviors from overthrowing governments to ignoring international law, to a justification for the Pentagon's plan for Full Spectrum Dominance.

Full Spectrum Dominance is not a peace plan. It is a grandiose military plot to control the world over land, on the seas, in the air, and up in space. With over 800 military installations worldwide and a large assortment of secret operations, the U.S. is widely seen not as "exceptional" or morally superior, but as a dangerous bully who is feared, resented, and often hated.

The Pentagon is locked into the distant future to an ideological paradigm of adversaries, enemies, and advanced weaponry, with no world peace in sight even 25 years from now. Huge sums of money continue to be wasted on nuclear weaponry and their delivery systems.

There are no plans to eliminate nuclear weapons or war. None. Despite all of its resources to keep us safe, there has been no reaching out by the Pentagon to the world federalists, who actually know what to do to end war and to eliminate all weapons of mass destruction.

The Pentagon's job is to make us safe. Is there a single general who knows what the World Federalist Solution is all about and that this was the answer that Einstein said could get us out of nuclear danger, and yield peace?

The notion that we could have a peaceful world is not in the imagination of our national security leaders. Rather then embrace the Earth Constitution as a plan for worldwide peace, the State Department has been obstructive, and the Pentagon has continued to obsess down a dark path seeking security through horrific weaponry and secret operations.

There is a pattern of creating enemies, real and imagined. After WWII for example, the U.S. soon found a new enemy -- the communists. The "Red Scare" was convenient to justify Pentagon ambitions, aided by terrorist attacks in Europe falsely blamed on the communists (Operation Gladio). Gladio was a murderous deception, an example of the national security state going wildly psychopathic.

Terror pays big dividends for the business of war, keeping the citizenry frightened and willing to spend any amount of money to feel safe.

Invasions and covert operations to overthrow governments have created enemies worldwide, people who do not want to be ruled by the U.S. and its allies. But by creating enemies the military/industrial complex insures it is the top budget priority even while the domestic economy crumbles.

The anosognosia-blinded public has yet to see that the Department of Defense is really a Department for War.

The use of "enemies" to manipulate the citizenry has been overplayed, the result of which has been to plunge America into a perpetual abyss of enemies, real and imagined. Because black box operations are secret, many military personnel themselves are kept in the dark.

After communism was defeated, the military/industrial complex needed a new enemy. By immediately blaming militant Muslims for the 9/11 attack, a new enemy was created even before the dust had settled and a legitimate investigation could be conducted.

It was a conspiracy theory offered by the government before the full facts were in, and made official by the 9/11 Commission Report, a report desperately defended by Establishment media despite growing amounts of evidence from independent investigators that the government’s version of events was false.

Nevertheless, the war on terror was underway supported by convenient lies such as the neo con’s who claimed that “They hate us because of our freedoms!”

The use of real and imagined enemies has plunged the public and Congress into a paranoid psychosis -- enemies everywhere, they hate us. The paranoia has produced the absurd Homeland Security Agency, and a National Security Agency that spies on everybody, everywhere.

A psychiatric assessment of the national security complex should not be taken lightly. A psychosis infers being out of touch with reality. Paranoia causes hypervigilance and suspicion aimed at anyone and everyone.

One only needs to look at the Pentagon's plans for future space weapons, hydrogen bombs, missile delivery systems, submarines, stealth fighter aircraft and more, to realize that the national security state is in a paranoid frenzy buttressed by greed.

Of the identified mental disorders, grandiose delusions are probably the easiest to treat. But the paranoid condition coupled with the Antisocial Personality Disorder traits are difficult to change, particularly since an occasional false flag attack, even a minor one, can precipitate the symptoms all over again.

Suggesting to the American people that they are in constant danger from terrorists insures a big payday for the military/industrial complex. This is the sociopathic component of the disorder. The temptation will be great to maintain the status quo, and to suppress serious efforts to replace the global war system with a peace system.

All in all, one can conclude that the citizenry is dealing with a serious combination of mental disorders that, due to impaired judgment, have reached the level of a danger to self and to others.

The search for safety and security is an obsession that has been abused and distorted. The public is easily confused because those involved in national security appear normal and sound very intelligent. They do not look or sound crazy as one might expect from say, an unkempt paranoid Schizophrenic.

Impaired judgment can be seen when one considers the nuclear weapons arsenal. Although reduced to somewhat over a thousand "launch on warning" nuclear warheads, the fact remains that sooner or later, something will go wrong.

Eric Schlosser's recent book "Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Incident and the Illusion of Safety" confirms a terrifying reality that we can no longer afford to ignore.

The world federalists have the needed concepts for a solution. Einstein concluded that it was the only solution. The world must abandon war, and turn to the formation of a federal world union with a democratically elected World Parliament.

If the world is to know peace and to get out of danger, it must accept that there is no shortcut. The national security complex with its militarization strategy is a dangerous failure.

The Earth Federation Movement with its Earth Constitution shows the proper path to end the global war system and eliminate all nuclear weapons, everywhere.

A world federal union is not only possible, it is now an absolute necessity. It is this objective that the national security state should be embracing.

Article by Roger Kotila, Ph.D.
www.earthfederation.info