Examining The Largest Military Industrial Complex In History

 

"Odyssey of Armaments ” By Ken Larson

“I hope this FREE account of my 36-years in warfare and weapons programs is useful to those concerned about the posture of the United States in the world today. I have learned that the only thing wars decide is how many have died, who is left and who must pay the bills. Academia EDU - Odyssey Of Armaments

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"I am a two tour Vietnam combat veteran and a retired aerospace and defense contracts manager. Vietnam was not a declared war. It was an "Intervention", developed by the U.S. Military Industrial Complex (MIC) and the "Best and the Brightest" in the Pentagon. It became the defacto model for military actions, not only by the U.S. but also other major world powers. Intervention has a long history.

A similar intervention occurred in Iraq, driven by the same MIC forces.

Lockheed Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

The Vietnam "Intervention" legacy continued after 911 in Afganistan, with mammoth costs in money, treasure and lives; then on to the Middle East and to Ukraine and now to the Gaza support program, while making billions for defense industries and delivering death and destruction to civilians. What must be learned and what price are we willing to pay to learn it?

Our near term future as a country involves weighty decisions regarding our fiscal and national security.  There will be trade offs during the next federal government incremental funding authorization this Fall. 

We are approaching a National Debt of $38 Trillion with a downgraded fiscal credit rating while carrying the financial burden of ongoing support for NATO and the Ukraine war, the Middle East Gaza conflict, as well as domestic program needs.  

A look over our shoulder at two driving factors of our recent warfare is useful as we consider history when viewing our future while making prudent decisions on the principal contributors to our national debt and security. 

I was in Vietnam for two tours as a combatant; working in US Army Base Development. I observed  Philco Ford CAGV, Pacific Architects and Engineers, Leo Daley and other huge corporations working throughout the country supplying American occupation and making billions.

"David Halberstam's book offers a great deal of detail on how the decisions were made in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations that led to the war, focusing on a period from 1960 to 1965 but also covering earlier and later years up to the publication year of the book. Many influential factors are examined in the book:

The Best And The Brightest

THE PAST

A quote many years ago from Major-General Smedley D. Butler: Common Sense (November 1935)

" I spent thirty-three years and four months in active service as a member of our country's most agile military force---the Marine Corps. I have served in all commissioned ranks from a second lieutenant to major-general. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street, and for the bankers, In short I was a racketeer for capitalism

Thus, I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place to live for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in…. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking   house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican   Republic for American Sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras "right" for American fruit companies in 1903. In China in1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested. During those years I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. I was rewarded honors, medals, promotion. Looking back on it, I feel I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was operate his racket in three city districts. We Marines operated on three continents. War Is A Racket"

THE VIETNAM WAR - THE COSTLIEST TO DATE

View and Search The Vietnam Conflict "Wall of Faces" The Wall of Faces

It's been 5 decades since the U.S. ended its involvement in the Vietnam War, and yet payments for the conflict are still rising.

Now above $22 billion annually, Vietnam compensation costs are roughly twice the size of the FBI's annual budget. And while many disabled  Vietnam vets have been compensated for post-traumatic stress disorder, hearing loss or general wounds, other ailments are positioning the war to have large costs even after veterans die.

Based on an  uncertain  link to the defoliant Agent Orange that was used in Vietnam,  federal officials approved diabetes a decade ago as an ailment that  qualifies  for cash compensation — and it is now the most compensated  ailment for Vietnam vets.

The VA also recently included heart disease among the Vietnam medical problems that qualify, and the agency  is seeing  thousands of new claims for that condition.

THE RECENTLY CONCLUDED MAJOR CONFLICTS

If history is any judge, the U.S. government will be paying for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars for the next century as service members and  their families grapple with the sacrifices of combat.

An Associated  Press analysis of federal payment records found that the  government is  still making monthly payments to relatives of Civil War  veterans — 148  years after the conflict ended.

At the anniversary of  the start of the Iraq War, more than $40 billion a  year was going to  compensate veterans and survivors from the  Spanish-American War from 1898, World War I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the two Iraq campaigns and the Afghanistan conflict. And  those costs are rising rapidly.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray said such expenses should remind the nation about war's long-lasting financial toll.

"When we decide to go to war, we have to consciously be also thinking about the cost," said Murray, D-Wash., adding that her WWII veteran father's disability benefits helped feed their family.

With greater numbers of troops surviving combat injuries because of   improvements in battlefield medicine and technology, the costs of disability payments are set to rise much higher.

So far, the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the first Persian Gulf conflict in the early 1990's have cost about $12 billion a year to compensate those who have left military service or family members of those who  have died.

Those post-service compensation costs have totaled  more than $50 billion since 2003, not including expenses of medical  care and  other benefits provided to veterans, and are poised to grow  for many years to come.

The new veterans are filing for  disabilities at  historic rates, with about 45 percent of those from  Iraq and Afghanistan  seeking compensation for injuries. Many are seeking compensation for a  variety of ailments at once.

Experts see a variety of factors  driving that surge, including a bad economy that's led more jobless  veterans to seek the financial benefits they've  earned, troops who  survive wounds of war, and more awareness about  head trauma and mental  health.

THE FUTURE

Recent events involving US war "Interventions" in Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine and the Gaza Conflict demonstrate the incredibly out of control nature of the Military Industrial Complexes in the major advanced countries. We are receiving daily demonstrations of their danger, their folly and their contribution to the largest national debt ever to grace the face of the earth.

A Soldier's View On Interventions For Profit

Alternatives to war in terms of negotiation, scientific advancement and cooperation among world governments not only are required but are the only feasible solution to the present state of our global affairs. The war makers are going broke, subjecting the planet to tremendous risk and operating on world credit subject to world approval."

What Can We Learn From People Who Are Different From Us To Avoid Future 'Walls Of Faces'?

New Law Helps Thousands Of Veterans With Delinquent Mortgages Avoid Foreclosure

 

Image: Crosscountrymortgage.com

“STARS AND STRIPES” By Linda F. Hersey

“Under the program, the VA buys a portion of the veteran’s debt and secures a lien on the property, according to the bill. The veteran does not have to pay off the claim until the home is sold or refinanced.”

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“Thousands of financially distressed veterans at risk of foreclosure will become eligible for federal assistance under a new program signed into law Wednesday that allows them to defer monthly mortgage payments temporarily without losing their homes. The VA Home Loan Program Reform Act authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs to create a “permanent partial claims program” that gives veterans a second chance to stay in their homes, according to the bill’s supporters.

Under the program, the VA buys a portion of the veteran’s debt and secures a lien on the property, according to the bill. The veteran does not have to pay off the claim until the home is sold or refinanced. President Donald Trump signed the bill into law at a ceremony attended by Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., who is chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., the bill’s sponsor. “This bill provides desperately needed relief to veterans and their families who have fallen behind on their mortgages,” Trump said.

The legislation, which passed unanimously in the House and Senate, is expected to help up to 70,000 homeowners with VA-backed loans who are more than three months behind on their mortgage payments, the lawmakers said. The legislation is intended for homeowners struggling to rebound from financial setbacks, such as a job loss or high medical bills.

More than 3.5 million veterans, active-duty service members and surviving spouses hold VA home loans, according to the VA. Van Orden described the legislation as providing “a path to maintain home ownership.” “Our veterans and their families should have every tool at their disposal to keep their homes and reduce the risk of foreclosure if they fall into financial hardship or endure a national disaster,” Bost said.

The bill helps veterans struggling with higher interest rates that make refinancing difficult, he said. It also protects the taxpayers’ investment in the VA home loan program, Bost said. The legislation also enables the VA to continue funding not-for-profit community agencies that run homeless prevention programs through the Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem Program.

The VA Home Loan Program Reform Act was established to replace a home loan bailout program created under the administration of former President Joe Biden that authorized the VA to purchase a veteran’s entire home loan and restructure it at a lower interest rate. Van Orden and other Republican lawmakers had criticized the bill for its costs, which they said could reach $17 billion if the VA were to purchase 60,000 home loans.

The VA Home Loan Program Reform Act enacted Wednesday has the backing of the banking industry, including the Mortgage Bankers Association and the National Association of Mortgage Brokers. The Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion and other veterans advocacy groups also supported the bill.

“This critical legislation represents a profound commitment to safeguarding the financial security and dignity of veteran homeowners, especially during times of hardship,” said James LaCoursiere, national commander of the American Legion.”

New law helps thousands of veterans with delinquent mortgages avoid foreclosure 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Linda F. Hersey is a veterans reporter based in Washington, D.C. She previously covered the Navy and Marine Corps at Inside Washington Publishers. She also was a government reporter at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska, where she reported on the military, economy and congressional delegation.

A Citizen's Guide to Critique The Pentagon

PLEASE CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Ask yourself if there are not other alternatives for the future of our country, to include statesmanship, and international economic cooperation to cease warfare and weaponizing efforts among great nations. 

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We offer not only our opinion on the massive Military Industrial Complex, but also the opinions of three experts who have lived war fighting - on the recent fields of battle, and in weapons systems development.

The quotations are extracts from larger articles. We suggest the reader follow the links after each to become further informed. 

It is our hope that the facts offered here will contribute to the knowledge of US citizenry regarding hard decisions forthcoming on the nature of war fighting and its role in the future of our country.

OUR VIEW

Our view is expressed in the below article, an extract of which reads:

“Presidents, Congressmen, Cabinet Members and Appointees project a knowledgeable demeanor but they are spouting what they are told by career people who never go away and who train their replacements carefully. These are military and civil servants with enormous collective power, armed with the Federal Acquisition Regulation, Defense Industrial Security Manuals, compartmentalized classification structures and "Rice Bowls" which are never mixed.

Our society has slowly given this power structure its momentum which is constant and extraordinarily tough to bend. The cost to the average American is exorbitant in terms of real dollars and bad decisions. Every major power structure member in the Pentagon's many Washington Offices and Field locations in the US and Overseas has a counterpart in Defense Industry Corporate America. That collective body has undergone major consolidation in the last 20 years. What used to be a broad base of competitive firms is now a few huge monoliths, such as Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Boeing, with neat stacks of exclusive, dedicated subcontractors under each. The stacked pricing load of these arrangements is enormously expensive.

Government oversight committees are carefully stroked. Men like Sam Nunn and others who were around for years in military and policy oversight roles have been cajoled, given into on occasion but kept in the dark about the real status of things until it is too late to do anything but what the establishment wants. This still continues - with increasing high technology and potential for abuse.”

What The American Public Must Know About The Pentagon

A FELLOW VETERAN’S VIEW

Paul Riedner

Paul Riedner is a graduate of the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. and personally, sacrificed four years in support of war effort -- one deployed as an army engineer diver.

“There remain countless inner struggles that lurk in dark corners of my psyche. They are difficult to measure or even explain.

What does it mean to have been a part of this war?

To have been a part of: 4,500 American deaths; 33,000 Americans wounded; estimates as high as 600,000 Iraqi deaths; more than $1 trillion in taxpayer money spent; $9 billion lost or unaccounted for; huge corporate profiteering; a prisoner-abuse scandal; a torture record worthy of the Hague; a hand in the financial crisis, and runaway unemployment when we get home.

I've learned that we are easily duped and that we quickly forget. Saddam has WMDs. No, we are exporting democracy. No, we are protecting human rights, and by the way, their oil will pay for it all.

I've learned that 9/11 was used against us. We gladly handed over our civil liberties in the name of security. And recently our Congress quietly reapproved the unconstitutional Patriot Act.”

Among Iraq war's many losses: Trust

AN OFFICER’S VIEW

Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel L. Davis

Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel L. Davis was on active duty in the United States Army, serving as a Regular Army officer in the Armor Branch when he wrote this article. He had just completed his fourth combat deployment. (Desert Storm, Afghanistan in 2005-06, Iraq in 2008-09, and Afghanistan again in 2010-11). In the middle of his career he served eight years in the US Army Reserve and held a number of civilian jobs, one of which was an aide for US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (Legislative Correspondent for Defense and Foreign Affairs).

From “Dereliction of Duty II

Senior Military Leaders’ Loss of Integrity Wounds Afghan War Effort 27 January 2012”

“We have lavished praise a few of our senior military leaders for being “warrior-scholars” whose intellectualism exceeds those of most wearing the uniform. But what organization in the world today – whether an international terrorist organization or virtually every major company on the globe – needs physical territory on which to plan “future 9/11 attacks”? Most are well acquainted with the on-line and interconnected nature of numerous global movements. We here in the United States know video conferencing, skyping, emailing, texting, twittering, Facebooking, and virtually an almost limitless number of similar technologies.

And a few men have convinced virtually the entire Western world that we must stay on the ground in one relatively postage-stamp sized country – even beyond a decade and a half – to prevent “another 9/11” from being planned, as though the rest of the world’s geography somehow doesn’t matter, and more critically, that while the rest of the world does its planning on computers and other electronic means, al-Qaeda must be capable only of making such plans on the ground, and only on the ground in Afghanistan.

When one considers what these few leaders have asked us to believe in light of the facts pointed out above, the paucity of logic in their argument becomes evident. What has been present in most of those arguments, however, has been emotionally evocative words designed to play strongly on American patriotism: “…this is where 9/11 was born!” “these young men did not die in vain” “this is a tough fight” etc. It is time – beyond time – for the evidence and facts to be considered in their comprehensive whole in a candid and honest public forum before we spend another man or woman’s life or limbs in Afghanistan."

Dereliction of Duty Report

A PENTAGON DEFENSE ANALYST’S VIEW

Franklin C. "Chuck  " Spinney

Franklin C. "Chuck  " Spinney Pentagon’s Office of Program Analysis and Evaluation (better-known by its former name, Systems Analysis, set up to make independent evaluations of Pentagon Policy)

Author - "Defense Facts of Life: The Plans-Reality Mismatch", which sharply criticized defense budgeting, arguing that the defense bureaucracy uses unrealistic assumptions to buy in to unsustainable programs, and explaining how the pursuit of complex technology produced expensive, scarce and inefficient weapons. Spinney spent his career refining and expanding this analysis. The report was largely ignored despite a growing reform movement, whose goal was to reduce military budget increases from 7% to 5% after inflation. Two years later, he expounded on his first report, including an analysis on the miscalculation of the burden costs of a majority of the weapon systems and re-titled it "Defense facts of life: The Plans/Reality Mismatch", which later became simply known as the "Spinney Report":

“And that's why we ought to treat the defense industry as a public sector; and if we did that then you wouldn't see these gross disparities in salaries creeping in. But essentially if you try to understand what's going on in the Pentagon and this is the most important aspect, and it gets at the heart of our democracy. Is that we have an accounting system that is unauditable. Even by the generous auditing requirements of the federal government.

Now what you have to understand is the kind of audits I'm talking about these are not what a private corporation would do with a rigorous accounting system. Essentially the audits we are required to do are mandated under the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, and a few amendments thereafter. But it's the CFO Act of 1990 that's the driver.

And it basically was passed by Congress that required the inspector generals of each government department, not just the Pentagon, but NASA, health, education, welfare, all the other departments, interior department where the inspector general has to produce an audit each year. Saying, basically verifying that the money was spent on what Congress appropriated it for. Now that's not a management accounting audit. It's basically a checks and balances audit.

Well, the Pentagon has never passed an audit. They have 13 or 15, I forget the exact number, of major accounting categories. That each one has it's own audit. The only one of those categories that's ever been passed is the retirement account.

Now under the CFO Act of 1990 they have to do this audit annually. Well, every year they do an audit and the inspector general would issue a report saying we have to waive the audit requirements, because we can't balance the books. We can't tell you how the money got spent.

Now what they do is try to track transactions. And in one of the last audits that was done the transactions were like… there were like $7 trillion in transactions. And they couldn't account for about four trillion of those transactions. Two trillion were unaccountable and two trillion they didn't do, and they accounted for two trillion.”

Bill Moyer's Journal

CONCLUSION:

The material here is submitted on its own merits. Consider it carefully as the Pentagon consumes enormous amounts of US disposable tax revenue and our national debt exceeds $37 Trillion.  National Debt Clock

Ask yourself if there are other alternatives for the future of our country, to include statesmanship, international economic cooperation and de-weaponizing efforts among great nations. 

VA Loses 7,500 Employees In Veteran-Facing Roles Amid Shrinking Workforce

 

"FEDERAL NEWS NEWORK" By Jory Heckman

"Includes a net loss of 1,720 registered nurses, nearly 1,150 medical support assistants, more than 600 physicians, nearly 200 police officers, nearly 80 psychologists and nearly 1,100 veteran claim examiners."

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"The Department of Veterans Affairs is reining in its use of pay incentives to recruit and retain employees in veteran-facing health care jobs.

But the VA is also seeing lower staffing levels for some of these mission-critical positions.

The latest VA data shows that about 7,500 employees in veteran-facing jobs have left the department so far this fiscal year.

That includes a net loss of 1,720 registered nurses, nearly 1,150 medical support assistants, more than 600 physicians, nearly 200 police officers, nearly 80 psychologists and nearly 1,100 veteran claim examiners.

VA Press Secretary Peter Kasperowicz said the net loss of 7,500 employees in veteran-facing jobs so far this fiscal year is the result of attrition, and that the department expects to rehire for these roles. 

The VA is also bringing fewer employees on board. The latest VA data shows the department is seeing a 45% decrease in job applications submitted between fiscal 2025 and 2024, and a 56% reduction in new employees starting jobs.

The department, more broadly, is on track to shed nearly 30,000 employees through attrition by the end of the fiscal year. The department says these positions are mostly administrative roles, and does not intend to fill them once employees leave.

The VA says it is no longer considering a “department-wide” reduction-in-force to cut more than 80,000 positions. VA Secretary Doug Collins says the staff reductions will not impact veteran care or benefits.

Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), ranking member of the House VA Committee’s oversight subcommittee, said in a hearing Tuesday that “there’s just no possible way” the VA could lose this many employees in critical roles without it having an impact on veteran-facing services.

“How can Secretary Collins look at us and at veterans with a straight face and say that veterans care has not been affected by staffing changes, when he’s lost at least 7,500 veteran-facing employees?” Ramirez said.

The VA exempted many veteran-facing health care jobs from the deferred resignation and early retirement offers. But Sheila Elliot, a pharmacist at the Hampton, Virginia VA Medical Center and president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 2328, said the VA is still losing mission-critical employees.

“When you rely on random reductions, there can be danger there. You don’t know which critical and which noncritical position is going to be reduced,” Elliot said.

Subcommittee Chairwoman Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) said she’s pleased the VA isn’t pursuing a large-scale reduction of force, and has been reassured by VA leadership that “any early retirements will come from redundant positions and non-essential personnel.”

The VA, so far this fiscal year, has sharply rolled back its use of recruitment, retention and relocation (3R) incentives.

The department awarded 14,585 critical skills incentives in fiscal 2024, but has only granted a single CSI so far this fiscal year.

The department issued 19,484 retention incentives last year, but approved 7,485 this year — a more than 60% decrease.

The VA awarded more than 6,000 recruitment incentives last year, but issued just over 1,000 this fiscal year — more than an 80% decrease.

VA Chief Human Capital Officer Tracey Therit told lawmakers that the department can fill most vacant direct-care positions without using these incentives.

“There has to be a justification for using a recruitment or a retention incentive. In many situations… we are able to post these job announcements, get qualified candidates and bring them on without using an incentive,” Therit said.

More than 350,000 VA positions are exempt from a government-wide hiring freeze that President Donald Trump recently extended to Oct. 15. Therit said the VA is hiring several thousand VA employees each two-week pay period.

VA’s inspector general office, in a report last year, found the department improperly awarded $10.8 million in critical skills incentives (CSIs) to more than 180 executives in September 2023.

VA said more than 90% of those critical skills incentives went to eligible recipients — including police officers, housekeepers and food service workers. The department has recouped about 90% of the improperly awarded bonuses.

The watchdog office, however, continues to flag improperly awarded incentives.

A VA inspector general office report last month found that the Veterans Health Administration awarded $30,000 in relocation incentives to a VHA employee who never relocated.

Kiggans said the latest IG’s report shows that these incentives have been “paid out with very little oversight.”

“For far too long, they have been carelessly handled,” Kiggans said.

Shawn Steel, director of the human capital and operations division at the VA IG’s office, said the department “continues to experience staffing shortages for positions fundamental to the safe and effective delivery of care to veterans.”

Therit told lawmakers that while VA employees can receive recruitment and relocation incentives for up to four years, retention incentives only last for about a year, and allow the department to come up with contingency plans.

“We’re looking at somebody who’s likely to leave federal service and has a unique skill that we can’t afford to walk out the door, and we need a short period of time to put that succession plan in place, to either develop someone with those skills to step in when they depart, or to be able to recruit somebody before they leave,” Therit said.

Therit said these incentives can help the VA make more competitive job offers to candidates in certain specialty areas. Pay caps for health care professionals at VA, she added, “have not kept pace” with rising salaries for health care professionals and specialists in the private sector.

“While the 3R incentive program is an important tool for the department in attracting and retaining talent, it is not enough for the VA to remain competitive with industry,” she said.

Kiggans added that “these bonuses, when used correctly, enable the VA to pay attractive salaries to valuable clinical staff and other VA employees who serve our veterans.”

“These incentive payments should go to staff dedicated to providing world-class care for our veterans. When the VA cannot retain its good employees or recruit talented staff, patient care is the first to suffer,” she said.

Elliot said incentives are needed to staff up the North Battlefield Outpatient Clinic in Chesapeake, Virginia, which opened in April.

Elliot said the facility opened with about 27% of its staffing goal this spring, and is struggling to compete with the private sector for health care candidates.

“We urge the VA to use these bonuses and other tools to increase capacity at the clinic,”  she said.

The clinic opened in April with 150 staff in core services, including primary care, mental health and pharmacy. This month, the clinic added dental and additional mental health services.

By January 2026, the facility is scheduled to be fully operational with radiology, optometry, telehealth and other services.

Elliot said a VA psychologist at the North Battlefield Outpatient Clinic left after receiving a better offer in the private sector.

“With no relocation bonus offered, that psychologist was able to get a relocation bonus from someplace else, and that’s where that psychologist is going,” Elliot said."

VA loses 7,500 employees in veteran-facing roles amid shrinking workforce

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jory Heckman is a reporter with Federal News Network and the host of All About Data, a biweekly radio show and podcast that features the work of chief data officers and the people who are making data work better in government. He graduated from Hofstra University in 2013 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and political science. He also studied political science at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

THE LIES THAT KILL

 

(Please click on image to enlarge)

“THE PROJECT ON GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT”

“The public must become more skeptical of government claims about the use of military force, Congress must reassert its authority over war making, liars must be held accountable, and whistle blowers must be celebrated as patriotic truth tellers. These changes are key to ending the cycle of war lies and death.“

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“The government lies. Anyone who paid attention to the last 20 years of war knows something about that. Deadly lies aren’t new, of course. “Remember the Maine!” — the rallying cry that led to the Spanish-American War — was based on a military claim that a Spanish mine had sunk the U.S.S. Maine, when a coal bunker fire was later shown to be the most likely cause.

Then there was President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who sounded sincere when he claimed the North Vietnamese launched unprovoked attacks on the U.S.S. Maddox and other U.S. Navy ships. Congress raced to pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution in response, giving the president nearly unfettered discretion to wage war in Vietnam. LBJ loved that resolution, reportedly saying that, “like Grandma’s nightshirt, it covered everything.”

But LBJ deceived us about the attacks. The Navy provoked the first one by conducting surveillance near the coastline as South Vietnamese troops carried out sabotage missions. Then, LBJ positioned the Navy’s ships near land in a deliberate attempt to provoke a second attack. Conflicting information from the Navy’s ships left doubt about whether a second attack occurred, but the White House doubled down on the claim that it had. The war escalated after that, leaving nearly 60,000 Americans dead and hundreds of thousands wounded.

POGO tackles the lies that kill in the second episode of its new podcast, The Continuous Action, which Virginia Heffernan and I host. If you haven’t yet, I’d encourage you to take a listen. We discuss how the government manipulated intelligence information to justify the war in Iraq, and how the government misled the nation about the success (or lack thereof) of the war in Afghanistan.

In the podcast, we hear a recording of Ron Ridenhour, the whistleblower who exposed the My Lai massacre. Ridenhour talked about how mass killings in Vietnam were a result of policy choices the government hid from the public. He also discussed how this attitude extended beyond Vietnam. While speaking on the U.S. involvement in Latin America in the 1980s, Ridenhour said that the only thing “that was not American provided, planned for, were the bodies of the people who were pulling the triggers — everything else was ours; it was our strategy; it was our money; it was our training; it was our supplies; it was our guns, our bullets.” The use of proxies (other military forces) provided cover for the United States.

Our government trained some of those proxies in Georgia at the secretive School of the Americas, also known as “School of the Dictators” — more recently renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. The school notoriously taught dictators and military personnel how to wage counter-insurgency efforts that included torture and other brutal tactics. (The renamed school continues to operate and has added U.S. Border Patrol personnel to its roster of students.) The school claims it has cleaned up its act, and that’s the story the government is sticking to.

The government hasn’t lifted its veil of secrecy or stopped lying in the two decades since Ridenhour passed away. As recently as this past December, the New York Times published a shocking report on a secret U.S. strike force that, in its zeal to kill ISIS fighters, stopped caring how many civilians it killed. The victims included “people who had no role in the conflict: farmers trying to harvest, children in the street, families fleeing fighting, and villagers sheltering in buildings.” And the military concealed these dire consequences from the public.

Much the same can be said about the U.S. support for Saudi atrocities in Yemen. Our government quietly facilitated the Saudi effort by selling weapons and planes, refueling planes, and delivering logistical and intelligence support.

Something must be done to stop the deadly lies. For one thing, POGO had been pushing lawmakers to strengthen the laws that protect federal whistleblowers. More broadly, change is possible if the public becomes more skeptical of government claims about the use of military force, Congress reasserts its authority over war making, liars are held accountable, and whistleblowers are celebrated as patriotic truth tellers. These changes are key to ending the cycle of lies and death.”

https://pod.link/1616746820?emci=bda6d3a9-4bc6-ec11-997e-281878b83d8a&emdi=ab510c56-0cc7-ec11-997e-281878b83d8a&ceid=81

The Pentagon Set To Spend Nearly $1 Billion At ‘Grok For Government’ And Other AI Companies

 

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

"TASK AND PURPOSE" By Matt White

"The Pentagon announced it is going to spend almost $1 billion on “agentic AI workflows” from four “frontier AI” companies, including Elon Musk’s xAI, whose flagship Grok appeared to be declaring itself “MechaHitler”.

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"In a press release, the Defense Department’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office — or CDAO — said it will cut checks of up to $200 million each to tech giants Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and Musk’s xAI to work on:

• “critical national security challenges;”
• “joint mission essential tasks in our warfighting domain;”
• “DoD use cases.”

The release did not expand on what any of that means or how AI might help. Task & Purpose reached out to the Pentagon for details on what these AI agents may soon be doing and asked specifically if the contracts would include control of live weapons systems or classified information.

A Defense official responded, saying that “Awards to Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and xAI will enable the Department to leverage the technology and talent of U.S. frontier AI companies to develop agentic AI workflows across a variety of mission areas, including warfighting, intelligence, business, and enterprise information systems.” 

That term, “Frontier AI,” the official said, referred to “companies [that] lead development of the most advanced AI models and technologies, conduct insightful research into the use of frontier AI, and pioneer efforts to address both the potential benefits and risks of frontier AI technologies.”

Unanswered was whether any of the “agentic AI” will be tasked with “warfighting” directly — flying planes, shooting missiles, etc. — or if its all gonna be other stuff, like payroll or checking IDs at the gate or similiar mundane tasks that could not possibly screw up your life if an AI did it wrong.

But there are some hints. The release noted that the CDAO will also be “providing access” in the project to several existing AI systems inside the Pentagon.

Those include:

• Maven Smart System, an AI-powered targeting system the Pentagon has been building to comb through satellite and drone imagery, and other information like geolocation data, to find targets for artillery and other weapons.

• The Army Enterprise LLM Workspace, which appears to handle routine office tasks “from drafting press releases to reclassifying personnel descriptions, and everything in between,” according to an Army description of the system.
• ADVANA, the Pentagon’s massive computerized data hub, which collects data from logistics agencies, space organizations, special ops, and other areas for analysis.

The near-billion-dollar announcement is just the latest of Silicon Valley’s successful AI-powered inroads at the Pentagon. Last month, the Army direct-commissioned four senior Silicon Valley business leaders into the Reserve as lieutenant colonels. At least two of those new officers hold, or recently held, full-time, highly lucrative positions at OpenAI.

xAI belongs to Elon Musk, who famously spent the spring shutting down government computer systems across many agencies via the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and now, by coincidence, is selling an AI that just so happens to specialize in government agencies that for some reason no longer have working computers. He literally calls it “Grok for Government.”

The Pentagon is throwing $1 billion at ‘Grok for Government’ and other AI companies

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Matt White is a senior editor at Task & Purpose. He was a pararescueman in the Air Force and the Alaska Air National Guard for eight years and has more than a decade of experience in daily and magazine journalism. He also teaches news writing at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media where he is frequently referred to as a “very tough grader” on Rate My Professor. You can reach Matt at matthew.white@taskandpurpo

VA Needs To Overcome ‘History Of Failed IT Modernization,’ Federal Watchdog Says

 

VA Health Records System Yet To Deliver Quality Care for Veterans After Continuing Long Term Development Spanning Years And Over $16 Billion

"STARS AND STRIPES" By Linda F. Hersey

 The GAO in March issued a report that examined VA’s “three unsuccessful attempts” to modernize its online health records system, which it uses to manage the medical needs of 9 million veterans. The agency is now on its fourth attempt.

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"Technology officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs plan to tighten its budget and reduce its workforce, as it tackles modernization efforts to improve online operations for employees and veterans. VA leaders delivered that message Monday at an oversight hearing of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee’s subpanel on modernization. The purpose of the hearing was to examine priorities in fiscal 2026 for updating the agency’s IT systems.

But Carol Harris, director of information technology and cybersecurity at the Government Accountability Office, warned the agency has a “long history of failed IT modernization efforts.”

The VA has experienced problems acquiring major IT systems, tracking its software licenses, managing cybersecurity practices and standardizing cloud computing procurement, according to the federal watchdog.

Lawmakers said the challenges affect the efficiency and effectiveness of the VA in delivering services to veterans.

“I’ve heard the [VA] secretary speak about how when he walked in the door on his first day, he couldn’t even know how many people were in the department and where they were all assigned because you had different payroll systems and different human resources management systems,” said Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Mich., the subcommittee chairman.

Jack Galvin, acting principal deputy assistant secretary and deputy chief information officer at the VA Office of Information and Technology, said a major focus is on standardization and ending duplication.

Eddie Pool is acting assistant secretary for information technology and chief information officer at the VA Office of Information and Technology. Pool told lawmakers that his office is taking a “bold and forward-thinking approach” to modernizing IT infrastructure and operations.

Pool said the VA’s “digital experience” is moving onto a single modern platform. The platform supports more than 16 million unique users monthly. More than 3 million veterans have downloaded the VA mobile app, he said.

The VA’s 2026 budget for IT operations is $7.3 billion, a 4% decrease from its fiscal 2025 budget, Harris said. The agency also plans to decrease its workforce by 11.7% from 2025 levels to approximately 7,000 full-time employees, she said.

The VA’s Office of Information and Technology employs 8,205, but 1,172 workers have accepted deferred resignations and early retirements, according to the VA. The reduction aligns with a shift toward automation in which fewer staff is needed as technology matures, according to VA leaders.

“I think since the dawn of technology, we’ve used it to do things that alleviate the necessitation of manual processes and labor along the way,” Barrett said. “However, we can’t talk about smarter IT strategy without talking about the money that VA has spent on IT projects that have not delivered as were expected.”

In 2026, VA also plans to invest $3.5 billion to accelerate modernization efforts for its electronic health records system. It also plans to retire outdated legacy systems for a savings of $500 million.

The GAO in March issued a report that examined VA’s “three unsuccessful attempts” to modernize its online health records system, which it uses to manage the medical needs of 9 million veterans. The agency is now on its fourth attempt.

The GAO did not address direct costs from the first three failed attempts. But NextGov/FCW, a news website that covers technology in the federal government, reported in 2018 that the VA spent almost $2 billion in its first three tries to modernize the electronic health records system. [A far higher estimate of these costs associated with earlier unsuccessful efforts are detailed in the link beneath the lead photo to this article above]

“We have previously designated VA health care as a high-risk area for the federal government, in part due to its IT challenges and implementation” of an electronic health records management system, according to the GAO findings.

“VA needs reliable, modern technology in order to provide the high-quality benefits and services that our veterans deserve,” Barrett said.

The GAO is recommending the VA tap a “dedicated team of high-performing leaders within the agency” to oversee major IT changes.

Harris also emphasized the importance of having a well-functioning IT system that is protected and supported by a skilled cybersecurity workforce.

Pool said the IT office has adopted a “zero-trust approach” to managing online interactions.Zero trust is a security protocol that requires every access request be authenticated, authorized and validated whether the user is inside or outside the organization, he said.

Harris said it is critical for VA to get feedback from system users. “Incorporating insights from a frontline perspective facilitates buy-in — or success — and increases customer acceptance of any changes,” she said."

VA needs to overcome ‘history of failed IT modernization,’ federal watchdog says

Linda F. Hersey is a veterans reporter based in Washington, D.C. She previously covered the Navy and Marine Corps at Inside Washington Publishers. She also was a government reporter at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska, where she reported on the military, economy and congressional delegatio