"Rose Covered Glasses" is a serious essay, satire and photo-poetry commentary from a group of US Military Veterans in Minnesota.
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CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE By Tony and Friends On Rose Colored Glasses
We recommend, due to the age of this 17 year old piece, that you click on the image to enlarge. Let Tony, a winner of the “Thinking Blogger Award”, know what you think about “How war can be made FINANCIALLY profitable for the taxpayer.
There is a prevalence of warfare in the current era. The U.S. tax payer finances military equipment/technology for our country and many others. The tax payer also donates soldiers to go in harms-way.
Tony and his friends revisited our archives from 2007 on this subject.
Not much has changed, other than the national debt has grown several orders of magnitude and the faces and places are different.
With the above in mind we hereby propose, for the second time in the last 17 years, a discussion with your congressional representative a proposal to make war financially profitable for the taxpayer.
THE ‘WEE
1 TACTICAL’ ‘JR
15’ A FULLY FUNCTIONAL ASSAULT WEAPON, marketed for use by children
and identical to the AR 15, but reduced in size and caliber.
At 2 pounds it is chambered for
Long Rifle 22 Caliber Ammunition and functions in all other respects
identical to the AR 15 Assault Firearm. 22 Caliber Long Rifle
Ammunition can kill a human being up to a mile away.
OUR
VIEW:As
former military men and security specialists who have taken
lives in combat, we assure you of the following:
If you or your child are
considering a weapon of this nature or its full sized brother, and
you are NOT one of the following:
1. A soldier on active
duty 2. A policeman or a duly authorized security officer on
duty 3. A licensed hunter of wild animals in the woods Then
consider you may become part of the problem of guns in our society
today – and not part of the solution.
FURTHER:
If your child has an interest
in this style of weaponry and warfare, we suggest you educate he or
she on the history of this country and wars in general, as well as
the role of weapons in the destruction of others lives as we are now
seeing in Ukraine
If the child’s interest
continues to age 18, we recommend you guide the young person to a
military recruiter, where the role of a soldier is fully available
through a lifestyle that includes the skilled use of weaponry in the
defense of our country.
Acclimating a child to assault weapons designed for mass killing is not entertainment, recreation or sport - it is a dangerous element of real life with potential permanent consequences.
We
remember clearly the friends, innocence, physical and mental health
lost in battle. We see the continuing implications of similar
conflicts in which our country has since been involved.
Our
conclusion is that war has become a racket and the capitalistic gains
motive within the massive Military Industrial Complex (MIC) that
Eisenhower warned us about as he left office has materialized.
As
the STRAFOR article below conveys, similar geopolitical conditions to
today existed 50 years ago.
Yet
we have continued to approve this catastrophic money burner and debt
creator https://www.usdebtclock.org/in
the interest of National Security making defense companies rich. It
cannot continue.
“STRATFOR
WORLDVIEW – Weighing
the
Geopolitics of the Vietnam” War
SUMMARY
“South
Vietnam’s capital city, Saigon, fell to invading North Vietnamese
troops on April 30, 1975. The image of an overloaded Huey
helicopter on top of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, frantically loading
refugees, was forever seared into the American mind. It was the
ignominious end of more than a decade of involvement by the United
States in Vietnam.
Ultimately,
Washington’s failure to win the war in Vietnam resulted from
factors beyond the conflict zone. The United States was heavily
constrained by its global commitments — principally its need to
secure Western Europe against Warsaw Pact invasion. Washington could
not align military capabilities with realistic political goals
to justify bringing the full might of U.S. armed forces to bear
to defend its peripheral interests in Vietnam. Unable to comprehend
North Vietnamese resolve and incapable of bringing about a swift
victory, the United States’ will to continue the war crumbled
as the human cost mounted. Today, the dominant narrative among
the American public is that Vietnam was a crushing American defeat.
Forty years after the fall of Saigon, however, it is apparent that
Vietnam had only a limited impact on the overall U.S. position
within the broader context of the Cold War.
The
United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War resulted from the
evolution of U.S. grand strategy in the wake of World War II. As part
of the overall containment structure that Washington hoped to set in
place around the Soviet Union — and eventually China as well — a
network of allied countries became necessary to block the spread of
communism. Many allies found themselves in direct proximity to the
communist states America wanted to contain. This meant that any
future war between the West and the Soviet Bloc would not be fought
in the NATO heartland, but on the far-flung fringes of the two
camps’ spheres of influence.
At
the root of Washington’s alliance structure was the promise of
U.S. support, hardened by what was supposed to be seen as a clear
guarantee of assistance should the worst happen. In a divided Europe,
for example, an attack on West Germany would be treated as an attack
on the United States. Washington had given its word to assist, but by
doing so, it put its credibility on the line. Despite written
obligations, it was a constant struggle to fully convince the NATO
allies that the United States, an ocean away, would truly risk
nuclear war to defend West German soil in the event of a Warsaw Pact
invasio
Awave
of helicopters from the 1st Air Cavalry Division fly over an isolated
landing zone during Operation Pershing, in the region of the Bong Son
Plain and An Lao Valley of South Vietnam, Jan. 3, 1967.
This
ambiguity was not lost on Moscow, and Russia continued to probe and
pick at the perceived fault-lines in the American grand plan. By
manufacturing crises, the Soviets hoped to generate a crippling
uncertainty in America’s allies while emboldening their own
clients. The Soviet insinuation was that, at a critical moment, the
United States would not make good on its promises. So, when
the United States found itself more and more involved in
Vietnam, Washington was less interested in what Saigon was
thinking or doing, or its virtues as a government, and more concerned
with how its other allies, especially those in Europe, perceived the
seriousness of the U.S. commitment to check the spread of communism
within an allied country. When it came due for the United States to
live up to its word, it was the international community and not
Saigon that Washington looked toward.
A
Small Part of a Big Standoff
Vietnam
was one small piece of a much bigger security challenge for
Washington, with little intrinsic geopolitical value of its own. The
real battles of the period — political and otherwise — were in
Central Europe. Europe had to be prioritized, for if its resources
and industrial capacity fell to the Warsaw Pact, the United States
and its remaining allies would be unable to compete on either an
economic or a military basis. For North Vietnam, however, the
commitment to national unification was absolute. It pursued its
own fundamental geopolitical interests and would give everything to
achieve a victory — a single-minded devotion reflected in the
horrendous casualties it suffered and the decades of conflict it
endured. In the spectrum of conflict, the North Vietnamese were
willing to embrace totality. This resolve was backed up with the
support of powerful benefactors, namely the Soviets and the Chinese.
From the United States’ perspective, committing the resources of
the entire country against the North Vietnamese flew in the face
of rational wisdom. Washington just had too many other interests. The
conflict was ultimately decided by this imbalance of resolve.
U.S.
Air Force F-100 bombs a military target near Saigon on Feb. 8, 1965.
The
argument remains that the United States could have beaten North
Vietnam by committing more forces. While this may be accurate, the
United States, burdened by its greater contest with the Soviet Union,
could not afford to trade the security of its global commitments for
a localized victory in Vietnam. The fact of the matter remains that
the defense of Indochina was only worth a certain amount of blood and
treasure. The U.S. military was saddled with self-imposed constraints
and only allocated limited resources to the campaign that,
ultimately, proved insufficient for an extended nation-building
effort. The United States had to think about strategic balance
elsewhere and was limited in what it could realistically commit.
Securing the resources required to defeat a massive foreign-sponsored
insurgency in the dense Vietnamese jungle had little chance of
finding political backing. The fact that the American public deeply
opposed the war — a direct result of Vietnam’s murky strategic
significance — further eroded the tenuous support for U.S.
operations in Vietnam.
Provisional
Revolutionary Government fighters seize control of the presidential
palace in Saigon after the fall of the city. May 3, 1975.
Once troops were
committed, the rationale of Washington’s grand strategy maneuvered
the United States into a damning position. U.S. leaders believed that
by circumventing the conflict, and showing that the United States was
willing to welch on its promises, irreparable fissures could have
weakened the alliance structure Washington had fought so hard to
construct. Conversely, being unable and unwilling to fully commit to
a conflict over a peripheral interest, a clear victory could not
be assured, especially against a dedicated and well-supported enemy.
Limited Geopolitical Impact
The United States
did not retreat from the world in the wake of Vietnam. Still
determined to contest Soviet influence but eager to avoid
overcommitting itself again in the developing world, Washington
became more judicious in its use of military force. Instead of
relying on direct interventions, Washington shifted the burden of
fighting to its clients across the world, providing less direct
assistance when necessary. These shadowy operations were well suited
for areas of peripheral importance. When they failed, their costs
were relatively small; when they succeeded, they often had an outsize
impact. This was demonstrated during the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan, when the Soviet Union found that it was not prepared to
pay the costs of a long counterinsurgency against U.S.-backed
mujahideen.
A
line of captured South Vietnamese soldiers walk through the streets
of Saigon on April 30, 1975, escorted by communist troops.
The
Vietnam War is popularly remembered as a U.S. defeat at the hands of
an enemy a fraction of its size but, from a broader geopolitical
perspective, it is hard to say what the United States really lost.
The human cost of the war was certainly tremendous. Some 58,000 U.S.
soldiers gave their lives in the conflict, and the war exacerbated
huge social rifts in American society. Millions of Vietnamese
perished on both sides — along with hundreds of thousands of
people in Laos and Cambodia. Both victor and vanquished inherited a
country broken by decades of war.
For
the United States, the war was over in 1975. For the people of former
Indochina, war would continue until 1979, consuming untold millions
of lives. Yet, Washington’s worst fears did not
materialize with the fall of Saigon. The United States retained its
overall combat power and U.S. allies did not break from
NATO en masse. The Soviets did not cross the Fulda Gap into West
Germany, emboldened by a supposedly conspicuous collapse of U.S.
resolve. Perhaps the U.S. refusal to empty its garrisons in
Western Europe was far more meaningful a sign for America’s allies
and adversaries than an iron commitment to Vietnam. Ultimately, for
the United States, the geopolitical cost of the war was greatly
overestimated.”
Although
by far the most powerful country in the world, the U.S. is suffering
from a lack of long term vision. The individual citizen is as much at
fault for this condition as the politician or the military industrial
complex.
From
our relationships with each other and with
other countries, from corporate board rooms to Wall Street stock run
ups, we must use long term strategic vision in lieu of pursuing
short term gains.
Polarization, ignoring
environmental and geopolitical realities, engaging in costly
war intrusions, neglecting education/infrastructure and accumulating
a $34 Trillion National Debt, heavily mortgaging future generations,
are all symptoms of our lack of long term strategic vision.
Geopolitical Realities and the
US Role
George Friedman accurately
addressed the historical geopoliticalstate in
a recent article:
“To
put it simply, a vast swath of the Eurasian landmass (understood to
be Europe and Asia together) is in political, military and economic
disarray.
Drawing on the recollection of
Desert Storm it was assumed that American power could reshape
the Islamic world at will after the US was attacked September 11th,
2001. All power has limits, but the limits of American power were not
visible until later in the 2000’s.
At that point two other events
intervened.
The first was the re-emergence of
Russia as at least a regional power when it invaded Georgia in 2008.
[The invasion tactic continued with the Ukraine War]
The other was, of course, the
financial crisis. Both combined to define the current situation.
[COVID continued the strain on the world economy]
The United States is, by far, the
worlds most powerful nation, That does not mean that the United
States can — or has an interest to — solve the problems of the
world, contain the forces that are at work or stand in front of those
forces and compel them to stop. Even the toughest guy in the bar
can’t take on the entire bar and win.”
China the Peace Maker
David
Grammig enlightens
us in an article in “Geopolitical
Monitor “to
an alternative
to war and debtladen
international finance being
practiced by the Chinese:
“Geopolitical
calculations are as much a reason for this 2-trillion-dollar project
as economic ones.
The OBOR project represents one of
China’s new overarching foreign policy goals, and it demonstrates a
willingness and ability to challenge old power structures, especially
in Central Asia and the Middle East.
The Silk Road, or OBOR project,
aims at creating an enormous economic bloc and fostering trade,
cultural exchange, political collaboration, and military cooperation
among its members – under Chinese domination. [ The recent military
competition against U.S. interests and associated weapons buildup by
China with threats to Taiwan serve as a diversion from China’s
overarching foreign policy goals through the Silk Road Project]
An obvious competitor against
Russia’s Eurasian Union and India’s Act East and Connect Central
Asia initiatives, the OBOR project has many Central Asian and Middle
Eastern states justifiably worried of being caught up in a race for
dominance in the region, producing somewhat cautious reactions to
China’s big plans. Yet, some countries in the region – even those
torn by sectarian conflict – may still be inclined to step into a
new age due to China’s vast investments and its associated desire
to protect its economic engagements.
The United States and its military
interventions on the other hand, which aimed at securing political
influence and protecting economic interests, bore no sustainable
fruits and have led to growing instability in the region.
Furthermore, US policy in the Middle East yielded anti-American
resentment in the public and political spheres.
China’s approach, however, will
most likely not lead to demonstrations, burning flags, and attacks
against its embassies, because it will not be seen as a war-mongering
imperialistic force, giving itself a chance to establish itself as a
partner whose outstretched hand is worth taking.”
The US Market Mirage
Rana Foroohar demonstrates
in Time Magazine how the folly of short term
thinking often drives poor investment in the stock market
when assessing the value of companies:
“One
of the hardest-dying ideas in economics is that stock price
accurately reflects the fundamental value of a given firm. It’s
easy to understand why this misunderstanding persists: price equals
value is a simple idea in a complex world. But the truth is that the
value of firms in the market and their value within the real economy
are, as often as not, disconnected. In fact, the Street regularly
punishes firms hardest when they are making the decisions that most
enhance their real economic value, causing their stock price to sink.
There are thousands of examples I
could cite, but here’s a particularly striking one: the price of
Apple stock fell roughly 25% the year it introduced the iPod. The
technology that would kick-start the greatest corporate turnaround in
the history of capitalism initially disappointed, selling only
400,000 units in its debut year, and the company’s stock reflected
that. Thankfully, Steve Jobs didn’t give a fig. He stuck with the
idea, and today nine Apple iDevices are sold somewhere in the world
every second.CEOs, who are paid mostly in stock and live in fear of
being punished by the markets, race to hit the numbers rather than
simply making the best decisions for their businesses long term. One
National Bureau of Economic Research study found that 80% of
executives would forgo innovation-generating spending if it meant
missing their quarterly earnings figures.
Nobody–not Economists, not CEOs
and not policymakers–thinks that’s good for real economic growth.
Yet the markets stay up because of the dysfunctional feedback loops.
Eventually, of course, interest rates will rise, money won’t be
cheap anymore, and markets will go back down. None of it will reflect
the reality on the ground, for companies or consumers, any more than
it did during the boom times.”
Achieving Strategic Vision
From the above analysis by
experts, it is apparent that the US is in dire need of strategic
vision. To achieve it we must:
Faceenvironmental,
geopolitical and economic realities, stop war interventions and
invest in relationships within and without our country by offering
mutual collaboration.
Ceasedwelling
on threat and build long
term infrastructure,
education and international development.
The threats will melt away.
Investfor
the long term at the stock holder, company and national
levels based
on a strategy dealing with present day and long
term challenges
in education, communication and society value transitions.
Electa
Congress and an Administration that knows how to strike
a balance between
long and short term actions.
We must then let them know what we think regularly by
communicating with them.
Knowthat most
cultures and societies in upheaval today are watching our national
model and choosing whether or not to support it, ignore it
or attack it.
“An axis
of aggressorshas
embarked on a new strategy to defeat the West: relentless attacks
with inexpensive weapons, produced at scale, to provoke a global
response.
Western
militaries, which cling to outdated and excessively expensive weapon
systems and platforms (that take
too longto
develop and replenish, and regularly exceed
their budgets),
are being systematically bled dry”
“In
simple financial terms, the West is on the wrong side of the cost
curve. Imagine the defense industry as a normal business. In
economics, a cost curve illustrates the relationship between
production costs and quantity. Successful businesses achieve
economies of scale, reducing costs through efficiency. But the West’s
defense enterprise is operating on the wrong side of this curve.
Production costs are high, and output is low, pushing Western nations
into diseconomies of scale.
The
recent aerial attack on Israel and the war in Ukraine expose this
vulnerability. Iran’s
300plus
airborne weapons that targeted Israel amounted to less than $200
million dollarswhereas
the Western response exceeds billions of dollars. In Ukraine,
multi-million dollar weapons platforms are destroyed by uncrewed
aircraft systems (UAS) that range from hundreds to thousands of
dollars, and Russia’s prized Black Sea Fleet has
been devastatedby
inexpensive maritime drones. Defense analysts estimate the cost ratio
is easily 100:1.
A
Call to Action
A
new revolution in military spending is underway. It is a radical
change in the way nations procure and integrate military
capabilities. The innovation and changes in Ukraine has
beendescribedby
General Mark Milley as “the most significant fundamental change in
the character of war ever recorded in history.” Consequently, this
is not a military issue alone; it is a societal one. In democracies
like the United States, we
the peopleare
responsible for our common defense. We cannot afford to ignore this
unsustainable cost mismatch. Every defense dollar matters when there
are competing demands for resources to address aging populations,
health care, migration challenges, and myriad other social services.
Traditional
procurement models in the West, to include the U.S. and NATO, are no
longer fit for purpose. They are failing. Decades-long development
cycles are obsolete in a world of rapidly evolving threats and
disruptive technological change. Let’s say an adversarial nation
has a four year cycle to produce a capability and, in the West, it
takes ten years. In this scenario, in twenty years’ time the
adversary-to-West ratio for innovation and capability development is
5:2. This all but guarantees that our adversaries will field a
greater range of innovative capabilities, potentially leading
toovermatch.
Rapid
technological advancements are outpacing the military’s long-term
development programs, rendering them obsolete as cheaper, more
effective alternatives emerge. Program
managers,
those with the responsibility, authority, and personnel to deliver
programs (e.g., ships, planes, software), lack both the incentive and
the means to adapt to this fast-changing landscape. The ingrained
culture of preserving existing programs stifles innovation and
adaptability. It is unlikely a program manager will kill their
program for the greater good.
Likewise,
the political representatives of states where
these programssit
will lobby heavily to keep these programs (i.e., jobs) alive
irrespective of any negative strategic impact.
To
overcome this, the military and the broader defense enterprise must
urgently rethink their approach. Early and aggressive testing,
integration, andprototyping
of innovative warfare conceptsare
essential to gain an edge in modern conflicts. SpaceX’s rapid
trial and errorprototyping
to develop rockets and OpenAI’s
early releaseand
testing of ChatGPT are examples of this approach to develop
capability faster. Waiting for “perfect” solutions, or
clinging to lengthy development cycles, leads to unpreparedness on
the ever-evolving battlefield. Keeping this approach is akin to
relying on horse cavalry in the era of mechanized warfare.
A
Glimmer of Hope
There
is movement in the right direction. Nations like Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Poland, Norway, and Finland are leading the way.
Their “drone
wall“initiative
leverages affordable, networked sensors to safeguard their
sovereignty. They will do this by keeping costs down to achieve
economies of scale.
The
U.S. Department of Defense is also taking steps in the right
direction with its Replicatorinitiative.
Thousands of drones have been delivered, demonstrating
a shift toward rapid, warfighter-centric innovation. This could be
the necessary spark to ignite essential change.
Other
promising initiatives in NATO are the Defence
Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic(DIANA)
and the NATO
Innovation Fund(NIF).
Both complementary initiatives provide access to deep tech start-up
communities, but the challenge for these programs will be transition.
How do they transition capability into warfighters’ hands to be
relevant going forward? As expressed above, it cannot take decades.
The
Path Forward
To
survive, the West must revolutionize its military procurement and
production processes. We need a laser focus on swift
prototypingand
deployment of cutting-edge technologies. These systems must be
affordable, easily updated, interoperable, and adaptable to new
threats. The era of billion-dollar projects that risk obsolescence
must end. A more diverse approach is not just needed, it is
compulsory if we want to win wars and preserve peace.
The
conflict in Ukraine serves as a stark warning. Clinging to expensive,
slow-moving defense systems will leave the West vulnerable. We must
out-innovate, not outspend, our adversaries. Our Alliance, made up of
free and democratic nations, must unleash the creative capital
present within our societies to find cost
wise off-setsthat
can be immediately integrated into our collective defense system.
The
future of warfare demands a fusion of accessible technology, rapid
innovation, and scalable production. The West must adapt or face the
consequences of falling behind an axis of aggressors who are united
in their pursuit of strategic advantage and wish to see the West
decline.”
“The indictmentof
four-star Navy Admiral Robert Burke on bribery charges late last
month raised eyebrows about the extent of corruption in the Navy and
beyond.
But
this is just part of a pernicious system of corrupt dealings and
profiteering in Pentagon procurement practices, and much of it is
completely legal.”
“Theindictment of
four-star Navy Admiral Robert Burke on bribery charges late last
month raised eyebrows about the extent of corruption in the Navy and
beyond. The scheme was simple. Burke allegedly steered a $355,000
Pentagon contract to a small workforce training firm — described
unhelpfully in the Justice Department’s description as “Company
A.” Less than a year later he took a job at Company A in exchange
for a $500,000 annual salary and 100,000 stock options.
The
Burke indictment comes on the heels of Washington Post writer Craig
Whitlock’s illuminating book on
the Fat Leonard Scandal, the biggest, most embarrassing corruption
scheme in the history of the U.S. Navy. In the words of his
publisher, Simon Schuster, Whitlock’s book reveals “how a
charismatic Malaysian defense contractor bribed scores of
high-ranking military officers, defrauded the US Navy of tens of
millions of dollars, and jeopardized our nation’s security.”
Obviously,
the Navy needs to clean up its act, and, if found guilty, Burke
should face consequences for his participation in a blatant case of
old school corruption.
But
this is just part of a pernicious system of corrupt dealings and
profiteering in Pentagon procurement practices, and much of it is
completely legal. It involves campaign
contributions from
major weapons contractors to key members of Congress with the most
power to determine the size and shape of the Pentagon budget, and job
blackmail,
in which companies place facilities in as many congressional
districts as possible and then stand ready to accuse members of
cutting local jobs if they vote against a weapons program, no matter
how misguided or dysfunctional it may be.
It
also involves the revolving
door,
in which arms industry executives often do stints in top national
security posts, even serving as secretary
of defense,
or, on the other side of the revolving door, when high ranking
Pentagon and military officials go to work for weapons makers when
they leave government service.In fact, this is, by far, the most
common path for retired senior military officers. As a Quincy
Institute analysis found,
over 80% of four-star generals and admirals that have retired in the
last five years (26 of 32) went on to work in the arms sector. In
short, most retiring four-stars, like Burke, go on to lucrative
positions in the arms industry. Unlike Burke, they follow the rules,
so this is all perfectly legal corruption.
The
revolving door from the Pentagon is also spinning feverishly to
foreign governments. A Washington Post investigation found
that more than 500 former Pentagon personnel, including many high
ranking generals and admirals, have gone on to work for foreign
governments known for political repression and human rights abuses,
like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Last,
but certainly not least, there are the lobbyists. Last year alone,
Pentagon contractors spent nearly $138 million on lobbying and had
905 lobbyists working on their behalf, according to OpenSecrets.
That’s almost two lobbyists for every member of Congress, and more
than 600 of them had gone through the revolving
door —previously
working at the Pentagon, Congress, or the Executive branch.
All
of the above is about money and jobs, not crafting an effective
defense strategy or buying weapons systems that are appropriate for
carrying out that strategy. A case in point was ahearinglast
October to review a report on America’s strategic (meaning nuclear)
posture from a Congressional commission, almost all the members of
which have financial
ties to
the arms industry.
First
off, the commission co-chair who testified at the hearing was former
Arizona Senator Jon Kyl, a lifelong opponent of nuclear arms control
who also did a stint as alobbyistfor
Northrop Grumman, which makes nuclear bombers and land-based nuclear
missiles. Surprise, surprise, Kyl recommended that Congress pony
up more for
nuclear weapons on top of the Pentagon’s current $2
trillion,
three decades long nuclear weapons “modernization” program.
But
surely the gathered members of the Senate Armed Services Committee
would ask some tough questions before accepting the commission’s
proposals for an accelerated nuclear buildup. Think again. The bulk
of the questioners essentially touted nuclear-related missiles or
facilities in their states and asked a variation on the penetrating
question, “shouldn’t we spend more on this wonderful weapon [or
facility] in my state?”
What
wasn’t mentioned at the hearing was the fact that defense
contractors — including Northrop Grumman, which makes the nuclear
weapons in question — are some of the top campaign contributors to
members of the Committee, according to OpenSecrets.
It
fell to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to bring the discussion down
to earth by asking how much the commission’s ambitious plan would
cost. With a straight face, Kyl said that the commission hadn’t
calculated a cost, since the investments proposed were so urgently
needed. This seems highly unlikely given that the United States
already deploys over
1,700nuclear
warheads that can hit targets thousands of miles away, with thousands
more in
reserve.
But
Kyl’s statement went largely unchallenged in the rush by members to
flak for their local weapons of choice.
If
skipping a serious conversation on the future nuclear policy of the
United States to engage in pork barrel politics isn’t a case of
blatant corruption and dereliction of duty, what is? If even a
conversation that touches on the future of the planet can’t rouse
money-conscious Senators to engage in an actual debate, what will?
And isn’t this dereliction of duty ultimately more dangerous than
trading cash or a cushy job for doing the bidding of a weapons
contractor?
It’s
great that our legal system is seeking to hold participants in
illegal schemes to account. But when will members of Congress who
place shilling for special interests above crafting an effective
defense policy face the music? If not soon, we can expect much of the
tens or hundreds of billions of new money likely to be thrown at the
Pentagon in the next few years to go to waste. If that’s not a
scandal of the highest order, we don’t know what is.”
William
D. Hartung is a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for
Responsible Statecraft. His work focuses on the arms industry and
U.S. military budget.
Ben
Freeman is Director of the Democratizing Foreign Policy program at
the Quincy Institute. He investigates money in politics, defense
spending, and foreign influence in America. He is the author of The
Foreign Policy Auction, which was the first book to systematically
analyze the foreign influence industry in the United States.