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America Going, (Going, Gone!) To The Dogs (Of War)
© 2015 by Sherwood Ross
"States Confront Cavernous Holes In Their Budgets" The New York Times headlined in a front page report June 8, 2015.
Reporter
Julie Bosman described the exasperation of governors unable to provide
traditional public services: Wisconsin, short by $280 million; Kansas,
short by $400 million; Alabama, short by $702 million; Louisiana, short
by $1.6 billion; Illinois, short by $3 billion; and Alaska, short by $4
billion.
Governor
Scott Walker, Wisconsin Republican, Bosman writes, "has proposed
closing the gap by decreasing funding to the public schools, the state's
university system, public workers' health benefits and state parks."
(Sure, Gov., just cut education, health, and recreation!)
While
state budgets may be busted, and American taxpayers sink ever deeper
into credit card debt, "defense" contractors are dining lavishly at the
public trough.
"Defense"
is in quotes because the U.S., with 900 overseas bases (so says Ron
Paul, former Texas congressman) and a history of making wars may now be
indisputably labeled an aggressor nation. In his "Rogue State,"
Washington journalist Bill Bloom documents how the U.S. has overthrown
scores of countries by force and violence around the world from Chile to
Iran. The stance of America today---that it is being threatened
everywhere by nations large and small--reminds very much of what
economist Joseph Schumpeter wrote about ancient Rome:
"There was no corner of the known world where some
interest was not alleged to be in danger or under actual attack. If the
interests were not Roman, they were those of Rome's allies; and if Rome
had no allies, the allies would be invented…The fight was always
invested with an aura of legality. …The whole world was pervaded by a
host of enemies."
The eminent international
legal authority Francis Boyle of the University of Illinois, Champaign,
agrees. Boyle says that it is Obama who is beating the war drums. Boyle
notes Obama funded the violent overthrow of a democratically elected
government in Ukraine, and is now working "with neo-Nazis (there) and
literally threatening Russia."
(Look for
yourself: Are Russian troops taking up positions along America's borders
in Mexico and Canada or are American troops and their NATO allies
taking up positions along Russia's frontiers?)
According
to Business Insider, Pentagon's outlay of $682 billion for arms last
year, was greater than the next 10 countries combined---China, Russia,
UK, Japan, France, Saudi Arabia, India, Germany, Italy, and Brazil. That
may sound like "defense," but it smells like aggression. Prior to WWII,
dictators Hitler and Stalin also built huge war machines.
Christian
Davenport reported in The Washington Post (April 30, 2014) that "The
costs of the Pentagon’s major weapons systems have ballooned nearly half
a trillion dollars over their initial price tags…"
He
pointed to a report by the Government Accountability Office published
during a congressional hearing "in which senators from both parties
vented about continued cost overruns, billions of dollars wasted when
contracts are canceled and a system that is plagued by a high level of
turnover that prevents anyone from being held accountable."
Sen.
John McCain (R-Ariz.) listed a series of failed programs, The Post
said, including an attempt to replace the White House helicopters'
fleet. McCain called them examples of “really unacceptable cost overruns
we’ve seen in the past, and apparently a failure to get a lot of it
still under control.” Wild spending is what you get when you exempt the
Pentagon from close audits. Abroad, it is running amok.
24/7
Wall Street's Samuel Weigley wrote that, in recent year 2011, the 100
largest contractors sold $410 billion in arms and military services to
the Pentagon. Of that sum, the top 10 "defense" contractors sold $208
billion. Much of that sum was paid to the contractors without
competitive bidding, inflating costs.
The
Big Ten, and their sales figures, are: (1) Lockheed-Martin, $36
billion; (2) Boeing, $32 billion; (3) BAE Systems, $29 billion; (4)
General Dynamics, $24 billion; (5) Raytheon, $23 billion; (6) Northrop
Grumman, $21 billion; (7) EADS, $16 billion; (8) Finmeccanica, $15
billion; (9) L-3 Communications, $13 billion; and (10) United
Technologies, $12 billion.
In
2011, for example, the Pentagon with outlays of $878 billion, topped
America's spending charts, showing again that the chief business of
America is w-a-r. The Washington Post termed the U.S. "defense" budget
"staggering." And this is no idle choice of words.
Economically,
the country is staggering. America has the largest army, the largest
air force, and the largest navy in the world. In most categories it is
stronger than the next five or 10 nations combined. Meanwhile, American
states and cities are going broke and public works---from highways to
water pipes to bridges---are crumbling.
In
round numbers, the U.S. is short $1.6 trillion for unmet public
works---water mains, highways, bridges, etc.---95 million Americans have
housing problems, including 3.5 million homeless (a third of them
families with children); 46 million people are on food stamps; 30
million people are unemployed or underemployed; 44 million people lack
medical insurance; one in six Americans goes to bed hungry; etc., etc.
Yet, the Military-Industrial Complex is awash in prosperity.
When
President Obama attacked Libya in 2011, he justified his crime by
stating there are times “when our safety is not directly threatened, but
our interests and values are.” Here's an admission in his own words
that he is attacking nations that do not directly threaten America! And
doing so in flagrant violation of Article One, Section 8 of the
Constitution, which confers the right to make war only on Congress, not
the White House. Usurping that power is the act of a dictator.
As
for the cost, The Los Angeles Times on June 16, 2011, reported, "The
Obama administration is spending almost $9.5 million every single day to
blow things up in Libya because the president has determined that is in
the country's national interest, this country's national interest, not
Libya's." Might that money have been better spent in Camden, N.J. or
Vallejo, Calif, two of our many hard-pressed cities?
And
the billion devoted to blowing apart Libya in the first six months of
that war is nothing compared to what Obama is quietly spending on
nuclear weapons.
Obama,
who pledged in 2009 "to seek the peace and security of a world without
nuclear weapons," is upgrading the lethality of an atomic arsenal
already so deadly it can destroy all life on Earth! Price tag: (says one
Federal study) $1-trillion. And he perpetuated a war he inherited in
Iraq, helping build up a $3 trillion price tag.
But
Mr. Obama's secretive war-making, (all of it illegal), goes far beyond
what is reported in the press. As Kevin Gosztola wrote in Firedoglake on
May 16, 2013, "The reality is current US wars are not limited to the
one winding down in Afghanistan and the other one that recently ended in
Iraq. There are numerous wars going on unannounced, undeclared and in
secret. The world is literally a battlefield with conflicts being waged
by the US (or with the “help” of the US). And, no country is off-limits
to US military forces."
Congresswoman
Tammy Baldwin (D.-Wis.) speaking at the time of the Libya attack,
declared, “Our troops must be brought home safely and soon from
Afghanistan and Iraq; and Congress must return its focus to creating
jobs, educating our children, and ensuring access to quality, affordable
health care for all Americans.” (Somebody's got it right!)
On
July 10, 2010, reporter Bob Woodward was told by President Obama, "To
quote a famous American (Civil War General Sherman) 'War is hell.' And
once the dogs of war are unleashed, you don't know where it's going to
lead." By no stretch of the human imagination can it be said that Mr.
Obama is taking General Sherman's warning to heart. He has unleashed the
dogs of war over and again--actions that justify his impeachment.
Another
warning Mr. Obama is also disregarding comes from founder James
Madison, who in 1795 famously wrote, "Of all the enemies to public
liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and
develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from
these proceed debts and taxes … known instruments for bringing the many
under the domination of the few.… No nation could preserve its freedom
in the midst of continual warfare." And this nation hasn't---or haven't
you noticed?
(Sherwood
Ross, a Miami public relations consultant, formerly worked for the
Chicago Daily News and as a columnist for major wire services. He is an
award-winning reporter and award-winning poet. To comment or contribute
to his anti-war operation email sherwoodross@gmail.com)
