Prior to Muhammad, Arabia in the sixth century were dominated by tribes held together by either blood bonds, or a strong tribal leader. Islamic monotheism was the technology which enabled the higher level of social organisation amongst the Arabs necessary to conquer and control the Arabian Gulf. After Mumammad's death, Abu Bakr put down any insurrections to his caliphate but faced a problem. He had a military-agrarian complex. For socio-economic stability he chose to keep his army intact; expanding the Islamic Empire into Syria and Iraq by conquest.

Seventh century Arabia was tumultuous with tribes constantly warring against each other. The desert trade routes were far away from the order of the Byzantine or Persian empires and were in constant danger from brigandry. The region developed multiple monotheistic religions at the time, of which Islam was the most successful. Muhammad emigrated to Medina where he was able to build a supra-Arabian identity through Islam's egalitarian umma that ultimately defeated the Meccans and all the other tribes in the Arabian peninsula.

Islam had served as a tool for social organisation which had military benefits. By the time of Muhammad's death in 632, the Muslims had the most powerful army in Arabia. With Abu Bakr taking over as caliph he put down numerous insurrections and rebound the tribes to himself and Islam. He succeeded in restoring order, but at the cost of the society containing a form of agrarian-militarism. His army was many thousands, and if disbanded, many would end up in brigandry, causing disruption and social disorder. As a consequence the armies remained. They marched on the Byzantine and Persian empires, in Syria and Iraq - defeating those empires despite smaller numbers of troops.

This self-reinforcing imperial feedback loop is not unusual. During the second world war the industrial might of the United States bent its back to the task of beating Germany and Japan. The US started the war with four aircraft carriers; by the end of the war they were producing one a month. With the surrender of the axis powers in 1945, nations such as Australia quickly demobilised their forces. In 1945 Australia had the world's fourth largest air force, and nearly half a million troops deployed in the Pacific. By 1946 Australia was a military non-entity.

The United States however, found itself facing an increasingly hostile Soviet Union who rivalled the US for military power, and opposed the west in ideology. Where Australia demobilised, the US continued to mobilise, developing its military with greater and greater spending, technology, systems, capability and projection. This inter-dependency is known today as the military-industrial complex. Dwight Eisenhower warned of its influence in 1961 ;

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

This was the same political, economic and social influence that Abu Bakr faced from his regionally dominant Arab military in the seventh century.

In the 1980s the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War was over. Russia was bankrupt; fiscally, economically, socially, politically and militarily. It could not feed its people and its client-states, such as Poland, were in open rebellion. The United States was left as the world's dominant economic and military power. Without the military strength of the Soviet Union to push against, and justify the large budgets the Pentagon was used to, many in the US looked for new reasons to continue the funding of American military power.

Al Gore argued in 1997 that the global reach of the US military was the insurer of order between nation-states. He told American troops in Tokyo ;

The peace and security of the Pacific region rest on your backs.

The American people were not convinced. They saw US troops all round the world in bases and nations which were intended for the Cold-war that had ended close to a generation prior. Not only was it an extravagent taxpayer expense - it was time to bring the troops home.

But how does a government stop the military-industrial complex?

Whole regions were dependant upon the hundreds of billions the US pumped into its military. Whereas Washington DC and many of its satellite cities which contain defence industry companies would suffer measurably if the military budget was cut; many smaller cities like Portsmouth New Hampshire or Fort Campbell Kentucky would suffer immeasurably. Not just regions in the US, but globally as well. Nations such as Germany, Japan and any of the forty-seven other countries the US is deployed in were all dependant on US military dollars. The 650 billion the US spent on defence in 2005 is part of a global industry, not just a domestic one.

Abu Bakr was a neo-con. His domestic and social stability were far safer if the soldiers were off doing military things. He kept his army occupied by sending them into Iraq to conquer the Persians. America in the late 1990s faced the same conundrum. Congressional representatives were elected on platforms of keeping the military pork in their districts. There was also the problem of this massively effective and dominant military. No-one really wanted to give it up, or even decrease this enormous power. Well known American neo-con Irving Kristol wrote in 2003 ;

Behind all this is a fact: the incredible military superiority of the United States vis-a-vis the nations of the rest of the world, in any imaginable combination. ... And it is a fact that if you have the kind of power we now have, either you will find opportunities to use it, or the world will discover them for you.

Ronald Reagan's kalipha , George W. Bush came to the same conclusion as Abu Bakr - and sent his Army off to Iraq too.

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