So-Called Defense Spending Is All About The Benjamins

As the Pentagon continues driving climate catastrophe by belching out carbon, some in the U.S. pause to question why we fund the destruction of our own life support system.

Follow the money.

An article that caught my eye this morning was about one of the Pentagon's many contractors, mercenaries for hire that operate in a murky zone between accountability for federal agencies and lack of accountability for the corporations they hire.

Bagram military base in Afghanistan, where the U.S. has been waging an enormously expensive operation for 18 years.

From Patricia Kime reporting in Military.com, "Families of Killed, Injured Troops Sue Contractor Over Bagram 'Fun Run' Bombing": the Fluor Corporation is being held accountable for permitting a suicide bomber to work unsupervised for months building a weaponized vest that killed three soldiers and injured eight. 

The company just concluded a $12 billion security contract for the Defense Department.

Not much security for our $12 billion, eh?

I had already been cogitating on the news that Zumwalt war ships built in my home state are not only dysfunctional as weapons (that's the good news) but represent a colossal waste of tax dollars. Three of them were built by General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works shipyard; most recently, the USS Lyndon B. Johnson was christened[sic] while 25 of us were arrested in the street protesting the environmental crime that military contracting represents. 

The theme of the LBJ protest was a call for conversion of Bath Iron Works to building sustainable energy solutions rather than carbon belching weapons systems. Such a change would generate far more jobs than does building for the U.S. Navy.
Photo credit: Peter Robbins

Now comes word from Beth Brogan reporting in the Bangor Daily News that the LBJ, which reportedly cost $7 billion to build, will never function as a war ship anyway. 

A new report by the Government Accountability Office criticizes the U.S. Navy and Bath Iron Works for more than 320 "serious deficiencies" found upon inspection when the shipyard delivered the first-in class USS Zumwalt's hull, mechanical and electrical systems in May 2016. 

Another 246 "serious deficiencies" were found after acceptance trials in January and February 2018 for the USS Michael Monsoor, the second of three "stealth" destroyers built in Maine 

... 

Also a concern is the lack of a suitable projectile for the destroyers. The Navy initially planned to use the Long-Range Land Attack Projectile (LRLAP), but determined that the high cost -- $800,000 to $1 million per round [emphasis mine] -- was prohibitive. 

After evaluating five other munition options, the Navy found no viable replacement, according to the report. "As a result, the guns will remain inoperable on the ships for the forseeable future," the report states

Remember that junker your uncle kept out back as a parts car? The LBJ will be like that, used primarily to supply parts for the first two Zumwalt lemons.

Did General Dynamics get super rich building them anyway? Yup.

Source: Providence Journal "Defense firms spend big on lucrative stock buybacks" by Alex Nunes

Did they give a lot of campaign contributions and other, stealth goodies to Maine politicians like Senator Susan Collins? Yes again.

No more Zumwalt class destroyers will be built, nor does it appear they will destroy anything more than Earth's climate. And as thinking people are aware, the unfolding climate catastrophe is our true security issue in the 21st century.

Time to switch over to building for life, not death.

design by Russell Wray