No Guns, No Bullets, No Bombs, No Wars

Dear Mr. President,
This is a continuation of yesterday’s letter. I wasn’t advocating replacing an all-volunteer army with a return to the draft and a status quo global military empire. Rather, I’m thinking forget the American Empire, forget Pax Americana. I’m thinking a tiny core military that in a real national emergency can be supplemented by a National Guard or, if necessary, a draft. I’m thinking shut down the military juggernaut and the arms merchants like Lockheed, Raytheon and General Dynamics. Let’s put people to work on roads and bridges, on renewable energy and infrastructure. Let’s use the peace dividend for education—free for everyone through college—and healthcare—single-payer for everyone, free, and with better outcomes—and let’s train people in the art of democracy and peace, not the art of war. From outside the bubble it’s pretty obvious where the money comes from. First off, cut Lockheed’s F-35 program, the fighter that couldn’t fly; that’s $400 billion. Then there’s the Littoral Combat Ship—Navy insiders call it the Little Crappy Ship—nothing on it works and it can’t survive a direct hit in combat. (Another Lockheed boondoggle along with an Australian company, Austal.) Cut it. Save another $37 billion. And the C-130? (Lockheed yet again!) Stop buying those suckers at $96 million apiece. Not needed, not wanted and the Air Force is running out of places to park them. Then there’s Afghanistan. That war’s been over for a long time; we just haven’t admitted it yet. We don’t want to be there, they don’t want us there and every day we create new enemies. Pull out, leave them alone. Savings: about $7 billion a month. Next, ground the drones; they’re weapons of terror and crimes against humanity. They create enemies and instability. Forget Mali, forget Syria (you used the old “humanitarian intervention” ploy in Libya and that illegal war didn’t turn out so hot and Syria and Mali are Libya redux). Let’s stop arming the world; top of my list is Israel: $3 billion a year. Shrink the military by 250,000 a year for the next 5 years, shut down all 1,000 foreign bases—and most of the U.S. ones as well—cut Homeland Security and the NSA, eliminate the CIA assassins and Special Forces. Let’s make peace, not war. We’re cutting the wrong things, Mr. President. Focus on the military-industrial complex, not social programs. Invest in diplomacy. No guns, no bullets, no bombs, no wars. And after you’ve done all this, dust off your Nobel Peace Prize and admire it.