The Washington Post reports that in November the U.S. Government signed a $63 million contract with Conti Federal Services, an Edison, NJ contractor, to build a blast-proof radiation-proof super-secret 5-level underground, 6-level above-ground complex near Tel Aviv—called Site 911—for the Israeli military; on December 28 another RFP was issued—$100 million to construct Site 81 Phase II—refinish six underground facilities and some currently occupied surface buildings—also for the Israeli military in Israel. Wednesday, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, in his final report to Congress, concluded that most of the $60+ billion+ spent for reconstruction in Iraq was wasted (http://www.sigir.mil/files/learningfromiraq/Report_-_March_2013.pdf#view=fit). (My favorite story of the waste in Iraq, however, is the $2.2 million chicken processing plant in the middle of nowhere that sits abandoned—Iraqi farmers have sold their chickens locally for 2,000 years, no one understood how to use the complex machinery, there is no reliable electricity and no grocery stores to ship to: http://www.nationofchange.org/mission-unaccomplished-1362841865). A CBS News report says this could be a forecast of the $90+ billion spent so far for reconstruction in Afghanistan. (Can there be any doubt given the history of graft and corruption there?) And then there’s an article by Jeremiah Goulka on Lockheed’s successful lobbying of Congress to keep buying unwanted, unneeded C-130 Hercules at $94 million apiece: http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175659/tomgram%3A_jeremiah_goulka%2C_c-130_math_and_a_cargo_of_pork. These are only a few drops in the river of money gushing from the U.S. Treasury for war. But what do we hear from Washington? Fiscal Cliff! Austerity! Sequestration! and “Let’s face it, we’re broke!” A $700 billion bailout of Banksters? OK. Mortgage relief for homeowners? No Way! We have to cut Medicare and Social Security to save it, cut Medicaid, cut education, cut school lunches, cut the mail, but don’t touch my drones, don’t touch my Hellfires, don’t touch my guns! National security and national defense has become national insecurity and a national offense. The war is coming home. Not only in flag-draped coffins and traumatized veterans, but in crumbling roads and bridges, a crumbling economy and a crumbling society. Money for war, money to kill, money to terrorize, but not a dime’s worth of peace, not a nickel’s worth of prosperity.
Photo credit: Reuters
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Billions for War, Not a Dime's Worth of Peace
Dear Mr. President,
The Washington Post reports that in November the U.S. Government signed a $63 million contract with Conti Federal Services, an Edison, NJ contractor, to build a blast-proof radiation-proof super-secret 5-level underground, 6-level above-ground complex near Tel Aviv—called Site 911—for the Israeli military; on December 28 another RFP was issued—$100 million to construct Site 81 Phase II—refinish six underground facilities and some currently occupied surface buildings—also for the Israeli military in Israel. Wednesday, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, in his final report to Congress, concluded that most of the $60+ billion+ spent for reconstruction in Iraq was wasted (http://www.sigir.mil/files/learningfromiraq/Report_-_March_2013.pdf#view=fit). (My favorite story of the waste in Iraq, however, is the $2.2 million chicken processing plant in the middle of nowhere that sits abandoned—Iraqi farmers have sold their chickens locally for 2,000 years, no one understood how to use the complex machinery, there is no reliable electricity and no grocery stores to ship to: http://www.nationofchange.org/mission-unaccomplished-1362841865). A CBS News report says this could be a forecast of the $90+ billion spent so far for reconstruction in Afghanistan. (Can there be any doubt given the history of graft and corruption there?) And then there’s an article by Jeremiah Goulka on Lockheed’s successful lobbying of Congress to keep buying unwanted, unneeded C-130 Hercules at $94 million apiece: http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175659/tomgram%3A_jeremiah_goulka%2C_c-130_math_and_a_cargo_of_pork. These are only a few drops in the river of money gushing from the U.S. Treasury for war. But what do we hear from Washington? Fiscal Cliff! Austerity! Sequestration! and “Let’s face it, we’re broke!” A $700 billion bailout of Banksters? OK. Mortgage relief for homeowners? No Way! We have to cut Medicare and Social Security to save it, cut Medicaid, cut education, cut school lunches, cut the mail, but don’t touch my drones, don’t touch my Hellfires, don’t touch my guns! National security and national defense has become national insecurity and a national offense. The war is coming home. Not only in flag-draped coffins and traumatized veterans, but in crumbling roads and bridges, a crumbling economy and a crumbling society. Money for war, money to kill, money to terrorize, but not a dime’s worth of peace, not a nickel’s worth of prosperity.
The Washington Post reports that in November the U.S. Government signed a $63 million contract with Conti Federal Services, an Edison, NJ contractor, to build a blast-proof radiation-proof super-secret 5-level underground, 6-level above-ground complex near Tel Aviv—called Site 911—for the Israeli military; on December 28 another RFP was issued—$100 million to construct Site 81 Phase II—refinish six underground facilities and some currently occupied surface buildings—also for the Israeli military in Israel. Wednesday, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, in his final report to Congress, concluded that most of the $60+ billion+ spent for reconstruction in Iraq was wasted (http://www.sigir.mil/files/learningfromiraq/Report_-_March_2013.pdf#view=fit). (My favorite story of the waste in Iraq, however, is the $2.2 million chicken processing plant in the middle of nowhere that sits abandoned—Iraqi farmers have sold their chickens locally for 2,000 years, no one understood how to use the complex machinery, there is no reliable electricity and no grocery stores to ship to: http://www.nationofchange.org/mission-unaccomplished-1362841865). A CBS News report says this could be a forecast of the $90+ billion spent so far for reconstruction in Afghanistan. (Can there be any doubt given the history of graft and corruption there?) And then there’s an article by Jeremiah Goulka on Lockheed’s successful lobbying of Congress to keep buying unwanted, unneeded C-130 Hercules at $94 million apiece: http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175659/tomgram%3A_jeremiah_goulka%2C_c-130_math_and_a_cargo_of_pork. These are only a few drops in the river of money gushing from the U.S. Treasury for war. But what do we hear from Washington? Fiscal Cliff! Austerity! Sequestration! and “Let’s face it, we’re broke!” A $700 billion bailout of Banksters? OK. Mortgage relief for homeowners? No Way! We have to cut Medicare and Social Security to save it, cut Medicaid, cut education, cut school lunches, cut the mail, but don’t touch my drones, don’t touch my Hellfires, don’t touch my guns! National security and national defense has become national insecurity and a national offense. The war is coming home. Not only in flag-draped coffins and traumatized veterans, but in crumbling roads and bridges, a crumbling economy and a crumbling society. Money for war, money to kill, money to terrorize, but not a dime’s worth of peace, not a nickel’s worth of prosperity.
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