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Stimulate Peace, Not War
As the $787 billion stimulus bill snaked its way through the House and the Senate and finally landed under the pen of President Obama, my predominant thought has been holy cow -- that's a lot of money!
Sen. John Thune was even kind enough to explain to CSPAN viewers last week how a stack of hundred dollar bills totaling $787 billion, wrapped side by side, would encircle the Earth nearly 39 times. As unsettling as this new financial commitment may be, it is at least an attempt to help more Americans achieve some semblance of economic security.
The stimulus package was aggressively attacked by fiscal conservatives who have been outspoken about the "pet projects" in the bill, and the wasteful programs that will weigh down future generations with massive debt. Point taken.
But I'd like to ask the fiscal conservatives: What about your support, year after year, of a monstrously bloated Pentagon budget?
The Iraq war and subsequent occupation, a "pet project" of the Bush administration and consistently financed by most members of Congress, will very likely cost the American taxpayer more than $3 trillion dollars by 2010, when interest on the debt and much-needed veterans benefits are factored in to the costs of the war. Even former President Bush, as reported in the Wall Street Journal in December 2008, acknowledges that increased military spending during his tenure in the White House has contributed to the federal budget crisis.
And just how much has the increase been? In the past eight years, U.S. military spending has nearly doubled; when nuclear weapons spending and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are factored in, the U.S. taxpayer will be footing a Pentagon bill of an estimated $711 billion in 2009 -- approximately $2,300 for every person living in the United States. $711 billion is roughly equivalent to what the rest of the world spends combined on military spending. There is no indication that President Obama plans to cut the military budget any time soon; in fact, he may be requesting some increase.
So what about wasteful Pentagon spending? The moral implications of spending half of every discretionary U.S. tax dollar on "defense" aside, it would seem prudent for the fiscally minded to scour the Pentagon budget to clean up and dispose of wasteful and unnecessary programs. Rep. Barney Frank, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, has spoken out repeatedly about the possibility of shearing 25 percent from the military budget, and has outlined some programs cuts to get there. Where is the support of fiscal conservatives for this proposal?
For those who believe our defense budget makes us safer: An ever-increasing military budget does little but provide security to Congressional incumbents and military contractors. According to the Center for American Progress and its recently published Unified Security Budget, 87 percent of security resources in the 2009 federal budget are being spent on the military. Only 8 percent are dedicated to homeland security, and a paltry 5 percent to non-military engagement. As the old saying goes, "When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."
National security cannot and should not be defined in terms of our capacity to wage war abroad. National security is when the most vulnerable among us have access to adequate education, health care and housing; when we address the very real and growing threat of climate change; and when those Americans who want to work can support their families with a living wage. It will be achieved when we invest abroad in programs that address the root causes of terrorism including poverty, access to food and clean water, and education. It will be achieved when we make nuclear nonproliferation a priority, and lead the world in helping secure loose nukes and fissile materials, and begin serious negotiation of the abolition of nuclear weapons.
The stimulus' $787 billion is a great deal of money. However skeptical I am about the prospects of the package succeeding in any measurable way, I'd rather have my tax dollars go to "pet projects" that may staunch the bloodletting of American jobs than wasteful Pentagon programs whose primary purpose is to find effective and creative ways to kill human beings.
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19 Comments so far
Show AllWe need to target Repug military spending supporters in the next election.
A detailed comprehensive report proving that ( I would guess 10%) a fraction of the present spending would meet all legitimate security needs.
Sioux Rose
DAVE B: When a nation is under thrall to Mars, every military item is construed as a sacred cow, thus it goes unquestioned. Right now I am sitting at an airport in Houston (awaiting a flight to SF) and finally getting to read "The Shock Doctrine." I had no idea she'd make a case analogizing the ruin of a nation with the ruin of the individual, and setting up a parallel involving torture and destruction. It's beyond the pale to read about the experiments in torture done through noted psychology departments, particularly McGill. I would debate Naomi on the premise that persons so disposed towards this strategy have at heart the desire to reform a nation/person, or render of it a blank slate for an entire reformation process. I would argue that their allegiance is to Mars, their actions a form of satanic challenge to the life-bestowing (concept of) Deity/Creator by undoing all that's been done in the name and acts of Love. Until the depth of the mythology at play is fully understood, so as to be discredited, it's like a national psyche forced to lunge at windmills.
Yes Rose, it often seems to be destruction for the sake of destruction.
"An ever-increasing military budget does little but provide security to Congressional incumbents and military contractors."
It seems the MIC's lifeblood is fearmongering. Their MSM, pork and corporate politicians keep us trembling in our shoes at the prospect of box cutters and the enemies conservatives make that must be fought with ICBM's and the latest billion dollar weaponry.
Fearmongering has been so successful that congressional debates about the MIC budget only decide if it is high enough. A fearful public has swallowed the MSM's Kool-Aid and an unpatriotic oligarchy that doubled it's money at public expense is poised to glean much more from the bank bailouts and public assumption of its toxic debts.
One best way to get the Internet challenged public thinking about lowering the MIC budget is to re-institute the Fairness Doctrine on the MSM.
At least Obama is trying to widen the Internet's reach in opposition to the dumb 'em down Repuglican Congress.
The absurdity of a nation with upwards of thirty thousand nukes being so very very afraid all of the time. Maybe if you stopped kicking the beehive you could take the bee-proof suit off once in a while?
The overstuffed bloated war dragon gets to eat first and eat all that it wants. If there are any scraps left over it lets its slaves bicker over the remains. No one in congress or the media ever dares challenge this system. As long as a few scraps are left over, just enough to keep the servile population alive, then all is well. It's a small price to pay for the dragons protection from all the evil gnomes that he tells us he can see from his mountaintop lair.
By going outside the military industrial complex, I recently ordered some heaters for a commercial spacecraft that saved me 95%.
Thats right: the same heaters, at 1/20th the cost charged to our Dept of Defense.
The irony: many in the complex are staunch conservatives who look down on anyone on 'welfare'. Tell ya what, guys, let people charge 20 times the real cost for something and I promise they'll go off welfare.
"When you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail." That says it all.
Waaay past time to pound these "hammers" into plowshares.
rumiluv
"When you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."
True enough. When you *don't* have a hammer, you hope and pray that nothing really is a nail, neverminding what it looks like, and sometimes you engage in self deception to conclude that there are no nails.
The economic disaster that is military Keynesianism, by Chalmers Johnson:
http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=15474
The incredibly wasteful F-22 project:
http://images.military.com/Audio/FTED29.mp3
Sad as it is, there is no money in peace. Therefore, there is little pressure from those in control to make peace. It takes leadership that is truly, genuinely altruistic to put a priority on peace. The masses of people would realize the benefit of stable societies, but the business interests will see little return for their money.
JH: your statement is true with respect to the shortsighted version. However, the longsighted version is a world with a booming nurturing green economy that thrives in a peaceful world. Sadly that world is a long way away.
JH: your statement is true with respect to the shortsighted version. However, the longsighted version is a world with a booming nurturing green economy that thrives in a peaceful world. Sadly that world is a long way away.
The past 8 years have been an era/error of fiscal irresponsibility and the Iraq war and impoverished parochialism has been Bush and company's contribution to America's demise. The Republicans in Congress and in the Senate have refused admitting their complicity in their support of some of the worst domestic and international policies in the history of the United States nor do they offer repentance and desire for their own rehabilitation after demonstrable poor conduct as public servants of their diverse constituency. The dysfunction that has captured the Republicans and some obstructionist Democrats have paralyzed them from functioning and finding a solution to one of the worst economic calamities in US history. Tribalism is what has created enormous conflict in our rapidly transitioning world and Republican tribalism is pathetically self destructive. What is needed in this country is courage and President Obama is probably the epitome of courage and heroism. Republicans need to take note that their refusal to humble themselves and repent their arrogance for the good of our nation will be written in the annals of history for their shamed progeny to read one day with their heads bowed down.
I'll bet privatization costs us a pretty penny, too:
The Government Accountability Office (GAO)—says there has been a 78 percent increase in Department of Defense spending on private sector services since 2001. The money spent has exceeded by a wide margin DOD spending on supplies, equipment and weapons systems. This expanding role of the private sector has led to a diminishing government-employee workforce and less oversight of contracts, resulting in numerous examples of fraud and wasteful spending.
How about ending the monopoly the military has on advertising. Imagine a law that said: for any war commercial that glorifies every aspect of war, there must be equal time for a message of peace.
Ever since we went to a voluntary military, the recruitment commercials---run mostly on shows that appeal to the youth--- have been propagandizing our society to accept and glorify war. It's pernicious! It contributes to the unquestioning acceptance of these $600 billion military budgets.
"How about ending the monopoly the military has on advertising."
They have no "monopoly".
"Imagine a law that said: for any war commercial that glorifies every aspect of war, there must be equal time for a message of peace."
There is nothing preventing such a counter message.