Obama's Dumb War

Dear Mr. President,

I didn’t mention in Wednesday’s letter (because of that 2,500 character limit on electronic messages to the White House), the $275 million fleet of 15 refurbished Italian-built C-27A transports, grounded since last December because of a lack of spare parts and adequate maintenance. Curious, I googled and found that these planes, built in the 1970s and 80s and “not known for easy maintenance,” were refurbished and upgraded at a facility near Naples, Italy by Alenia Aermacchi North America, a unit of Italian defense conglomerate Finmeccanica SpA. Since Alenia Aermacchi is based in Washington D.C., there is the illusion of “American taxpayer dollars going to Americans.” Alenia did, however, hire L-3 Holdings, an American contractor, to perform maintenance (a separate $107 million contract). But L-3 apparently failed to perform (grounded for “safety issues”) and a contract dispute followed. Then I checked out the rest of the U.S.-funded Afghan Air Force: $648 million to buy and refurbish 31 Russian built Mi-17 transport helicopters; in 2009, $44 million for 4 more of them; in 2010; a sole source $900 million contract for 21 more (this includes spare parts and maintenance); and last week the Pentagon signed another sole-sourced $171.4 million contract with Russia for 10 more. Sole source contracts with Russia! I didn’t find the cost of the 11 Russian built Mi-35 heavy attack helicopters or the 12 light Cessna transports or the 6 Cessna trainers and 6 MD 530F training helicopters built in Mesa, Arizona, but with the $300 million spent on Shindand Air Base and the $355 million contract for the Brazilian Super Tucano fighters, the total is already over $2.8 billion, almost three-fourths the entire GDP of Afghanistan. And for what? For more death and destruction. No benefit to the average Afghani, tremendous benefit to the Russian, Italian, Brazilian and American merchants of death; the arms merchants, middle-men and contractors (DynCorp, I noticed, is hiring Mi-17 Crew Chief Flight Instructors to train American and Afghan crew members) who build and sell and maintain the killing machines, the tools of war. War is good for business and, as Calvin Coolidge said, the business of America is business. But $3 billion for an Air Force with almost no operable airplanes? This is your war, Mr. President, and it is not a “smart” war. This is just another dumb war in a long line of dumb wars. It is your responsibility, your Albatross, your shameful legacy.