The US military has long pursued the goal of “wiping out” civilians around the world and seizing other country’s resources, while damaging the economy and environment inside the US, an American anti-war activist and journalist in Maine says.

“The Pentagon has become nothing more than the military arm of corporate globalization; their job is to secure the oil fields and other precious resources around the world and the killing of thousands and thousands of innocent civilians by the military doesn’t matter,” said Bruce Gagnon, the coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.

“One of the goals of the military is to completely wipe out people; make it easier for the oil corporations and other resource extraction corporations to go in and take the resources without having the people in the way,” Gagnon told Press TV on Sunday.

“The US taxpayers are funding these operations but they get nothing in return except a collapsing economy and a neglected infrastructure that’s falling apart,” he added.

“These wars only waste our money and they make climate change even worse because the military is the largest polluter on the planet,” the activist stated.

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The US Defense Department, under President Donald Trump, is gaining more freedom to run wars without seeking approval from the White House, the AFP reported this week.

Critics say the Pentagon’s increased autonomy could increase the rate of civilian deaths, put the lives of American soldiers at greater risk and lead to a lack of oversight of US wars, according to the report.

The shift has been more visible in the Pentagon’s purported fight against the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group in Syria and Iraq, where under former President Barack Obama, even minor changes to US military plans underwent exhaustive scrutiny by the White House.

Since Trump entered office, the Marine Corps has deployed an artillery battery into Syria, and the US Army has moved in hundreds of Rangers, nearly doubling the total number of US forces there from 503 to about 1,000.