Headline Sums Up The Mess We're In: Tax Breaks For BIW, World War III For Us

Is it alarmist to suggest that corporate welfare for the 5th largest weapons corporation in the world will lead to WWIII, as did Portland's the bollard in its February issue? I don't think so.

The giant warships known as destroyers that are built by General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works (BIW) in Maine are indeed sent to menace China.

Destruction of a UN World Heritage Site coral reef over the last several years to create a deep water port for those destroyers on Jeju Island, South Korea was resisted vigorously by the people who live and fish there. They did not want their coastline used as a staging area for a showdown between their powerful neighbor and the U.S. -- of which South Korea is a client state since it was partitioned during the Cold War.

One of the best quotes I've ever seen from the many articulate protesters who have gathered at BIW warship christenings[sic] was from Peter Morgan, a Veteran for Peace. He reportedly told the Portland Press Herald of a warship that cost $4.1 billion to build,

"I’m not sure how the destroyer addresses terrorism, exactly."

Hmm...

Yesterday I noticed news that the U.S. government is set to borrow $955 billion in 2018, a huge increase over previous years. This is likely in response to revenue lost because of the tax "reform" that slashed taxes for corporations and wealthy individuals. Much of what is borrowed will funnel back to those same corporations in the form of lucrative contracts to build massive weapon systems. And those same corporations will give campaign contributions to the legislators who voted for their big tax break.

When I protested at BIW with a sign that said WAR = DEBT I meant this literally. 

Today faux news is reporting that ISIS is "defeated" and that the U.S. will be redeploying troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. (What could go wrong?)

ISIS, a direct result of the U.S. invading and occupying Iraq, has largely been funded by U.S. ally Saudi Arabia. If it is "defeated" I'm guessing this means its funding streams are drying up.

With China and Russia as enemies to justify mad borrowing that funds "defense" spending, who really needs Islamic militants?

If the U.S. is indeed pulling troops out of Iraq (as they've promised many times to do) I'm guessing it may have something to do with the fact that "our" moderate rebels shot down a Russian warplane over Syria a couple of days ago.

As we hold our breath in fear of nuclear war, this is an alarming development.

Chris Busby of the bollard has the sense to connect the dots of LD1781, which is a bill before the Maine Legislature to provide a $60 million tax break for GD/BIW, and the threat of global war.

I was arrested while holding the WAR = DEBT sign in front of BIW's gate. Justice Dan Billings just ruled that the shipyard was wrong to exclude me from a public event just because they didn't like my message. Also that the Bath Police Department was really wrong to be taking its orders from BIW.

It's the karmic debt of our warmongering for profit that worries me most. Sixteen plus years in Afghanistan and no end in sight. U.S. bases proliferate around the globe. Africa is crawling with Pentagon outposts established during the Obama administration. People want foreign military bases out of their countries: Okinawa, Italy, Germany, Australia, and so on. 

Politicians in the U.S. will go on claiming that Pentagon contracts are a good jobs program. They are not.

The Ottoman Empire, the British Empire and the French monarchy found what happens when a nation keeps borrowing to fund wars it cannot afford.

The German and Japanese people found where the road led from committng their national manufacturing might to weapons and death dealing.


The U.S. is on that same road right now, and more corporate welfare for weapons manufacturers will only hasten our demise.

War Index (With Apologies To Harper's, Syrians, Iraqis, Afghans, Yemenis, et al.)

Source: National Priorities Project Costs of War counter 4/9/17 at 6am EDT

12,192 number of bombs the U.S. dropped on Syria in the final year of the Obama administration

7 number of Muslim majority countries bombed by Obama

59 number of Tomahawk missiles dropped on Syrian government airfield April 6, 2017

$1,590,000 cost of one Tomahawk cruise missile

$93,810,000 total cost of Tomahawk missiles used in April 6 airstrike

2.35% increase in the value of Tomahawk missile manufacturer Raytheon's shares on April 7, 2016

14.03% increase in the value of Dow Jones Aerospace and Defense [sic] index shares since Trump's election

18 number of opinion pieces in favor of the April 6 airstrike on Syria
in the NYT, Wall St. Journal, Washington Post, USA Today and NY Daily News 

0 number of opinion pieces against the April 6 airstrike on Syria
in the NYT, Wall St. Journal, Washington Post, USA Today and NY Daily News 

good thing we don't have govt-controlled media in this country pic.twitter.com/fLkt9lQZa6

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) April 7, 2017

465,000+ number of Syrians killed by civil war since 2010

1,000,000+ number of Syrians injured by civil war since 2010

12,000,000+ number of Syrians driven from home by civil war since 2010

13,210 number of Syrian refugees accepted into the U.S. in 2016

50% share of Syrian population driven from their homes by civil war since 2010

1,000 estimated number of civilians killed by U.S. airstrikes in March, 2017

9 number of children shot and left to bleed out by U.S. Special Forces in Yemen January 29, 2017

$20,400,000 compensation package for Raytheon CEO Thomas Kennedy in 2015

$19,000,000 compensation package for General Dynamics CEO Phebe Novakovic in 2015

$22,500,000,000 total cost of three Zumwalt destroyer battleships
built by General Dynamics at Bath Iron Work in Maine
$30,510,000 net worth of Maine's congressional delegation in 2014
#1 rank of General Dynamics among campaign donors for Maine's senators in their last election year

28% share of children in Maine whose families receive public assistance

12 number of civil disobedients arrested at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in 2016

9 number of civil disobedients arrested at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works to date in 2017

#Aegis9 about to be arrested on April 1, 2017 at christening [sic] of destroyer ship

REFERENCES

http://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/defense-stocks-rise-after-syria-strike-raytheon-lockheed-martin-boeing-april-7-2017-4-1001906661-1001906661

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-firing-59-tomahawk-missiles-035600272.html

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/05/syria-civil-war-explained-160505084119966.html

https://theintercept.com/2017/04/07/the-spoils-of-war-trump-lavished-with-media-and-bipartisan-praise-for-bombing-syria

http://fair.org/home/five-top-papers-run-18-opinion-pieces-praising-syria-strikes-zero-are-critical

https://news.vice.com/story/trumps-first-terror-raid-killed-one-american-soldier-and-10-women-and-children-in-yemen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zumwalt-class_destroyer

http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/8857-children-in-families-that-receive-public-assistance

https://www.opensecrets.org

Adding Up the Carbon Footprint of Shock And Awe #PentagonClimateCrime

IMAGE: Ecoterror Baghdad by Abby Shahn. Used with permission.

Pentagon secrecy makes it difficult to monitor greenhouse gas emissions produced by bombs or other explosive weapons. Sometimes researchers interested in this aspect of climate change focus their calculations on one particular war. Guess which one?

Not coincidentally, it is the war most blatantly waged for control of oil: Operation Iraqi "Freedom" (OIF). Beginning with the Shock & Awe shelling of Baghdad in March, 2003 and ending...well, the bombing of Iraq hasn't actually ended. Still, in order to quantify emissions, you've got to start and stop somewhere. 

Noting that "any assessment of the climate footprint of war must take into account emissions from the millions of tons of explosives used by the military" a 2008 Oil Change International report on OIF, "Climate of War: Behind the Numbers," found:

Untold quantities of emissions have been released due to the use of chemicals with high global warming potential (GWP) in the war. For example, compounds like halon-1301 used for extinguishing fires and found in the safety systems of many military combat vehicles, have a GWP of 5400 (where CO2 has a GWP of 1).... many of the vehicles in use in Iraq contain halon or halon-variants, and it is likely that many of the fire extinguishing agents used to put out blazes caused by explosions or oil fires contain compounds with extremely high GWPs. ™

Heavy reliance on air strikes in the Iraq War has contributed to GHG emissions from the manufacturing and detonation of explosives....In the first days of 2008 alone, US forces dropped over 100,000 pounds of bombs.

The manufacturing of explosives, such as TNT, emits various gases, including nitrous oxide (N2O), a potent greenhouse gas with a global warming potential (GWP) of 296 times that of carbon dioxide. The detonation of explosives, too, releases greenhouse gases. According to some experts, detonation releases approximately 0.32 tons of CO2 per ton of explosive.

And there are other climate costs of OIF to consider.

Remember those oil field fires that burned and burned during the previous war with Iraq, Operation Desert Storm? OIF's oil fires were not as extensive, but they were still a major source of pollution contributing to climate change.

Since 2003, emissions from gas flaring and oil well fires have amounted to an estimated 15 million metric tons (MMT) of CO2...Depending on the number, intensity and duration of fires, burning oil wells in Iraq may have released as much as 1 million metric tons of CO2 per day.

A conservative estimate based on press coverage and industry reports suggests that they have released approximately 3 million metric tons since 2003. At the same time, increased flaring of natural gas at petroleum facilities since the war began accounts for another 12 MMT CO2...

Since 2003, Iraq has flared, on average, 1.6 billion more cubic meters of gas per year than it did during peacetime, which, at a rate of 4.259 pounds CO2 per cubic meter of gas, translates to 3,099,716 metric tons of CO2 per year, or approximately a cumulative 12 MMT CO2 between 2004 and 2007.

Fuel consumption, of course, is an obvious large part of the climate cost of OIF.  It's not as hard to quantify because the Pentagon itself studies its fuel "needs" with an eye to not running out. Around 100 MMT CO2 is the estimated climate cost for fuel, fuel to transport fuel, and fuel to transport troops and equipment for OIF 2003-2008.

Less obvious is the carbon footprint of cement used to rebuild destroyed or damaged infrastructure, estimated at 33 MMT CO2 for the same period.

Add it all up and what do you get? A climate crime equivalent to putting 25 million more cars on the road in the U.S.

Between 2003 and 2007, the Iraq war was responsible for at least 141 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

You can view the sources and conversion factors used to calculate these figures here. 

Then, use this handy tool to write to your local newspaper and elected officials suggesting that no conversation on climate change can afford to ignore the contribution of the Pentagon's wars.

Violent Force Solves Few Problems, Allegedly Creates Need For More Violent Force

This is 19 month old Bounekahm Phonesavahn -- known to his family as "Bou Bou" -- in a medically induced coma. Bou Bou was badly burned when his family was attacked in the night by sheriffs who kicked down the front door looking for drugs. He's recovering from the burns and a hole in his chest, has had surgery, and is still hospitalized but out of intensive care for now. (You can donate to support him here.)

No, the Habersham County, Georgia sheriffs never found any drugs in the raid.

The baby's mother, Alecia Phonesavahn, published her account of events in "A SWAT team blew a hole in my 2 year old son" in Slate:

After the SWAT team broke down the door, they threw a flashbang grenade inside. It landed in my son’s crib. 

Flashbang grenades were created for soldiers to use during battle. When they explode, the noise is so loud and the flash is so bright that anyone close by is temporarily blinded and deafened. It’s been three weeks since the flashbang exploded next to my sleeping baby, and he’s still covered in burns.

She had this to say about the effects on Bou Bou's sibling:

A few nights ago, my 8-year-old woke up in the middle of the night screaming, “No, don’t kill him! You’re hurting my brother! Don’t kill him.” How can I ever make that go away? I used to tell my kids that if they were ever in trouble, they should go to the police for help. Now my kids don’t want to go to sleep at night because they’re afraid the cops will kill them or their family. It’s time to remind the cops that they should be serving and protecting our neighborhoods, not waging war on the people in them.

This observation by Bou Bou's grieving mom reminded me of several news stories I've seen in the past year about the transfer of military weapons to local law enforcement. For example, reporter Paulina Firozi wrote in USA Today "Police forces pick up surplus military supplies":

A growing number of law enforcement agencies are taking advantage of a program that gives them free surplus military equipment left over from U.S. military campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

It also reminded me of the show of violent force used against the various Occupy encampments around the country, and how those were shown to have been coordinated by federal authorities. 

Ali Kinani died in Blackwater's Nisoor Square massacre. Source: Common Dreams

It also reminded me of the as-yet unpunished killing of children by tax-supported mercenaries in Iraq operating as the corporation Blackwater (since re-named Xi and then further re-named Academi) during the U.S. occupation of that country. Ali Kinani, a 9 year old who was fatally shot in the head in Baghdad in 2007, was the subject of "Blackwater's Youngest Victim" by investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill writing in The Nation.

It is in this context that I receive news that my tax dollars will again be deployed to supply weapons to some of the most violent men around the planet. From USA Today:

President Obama asked Congress Thursday for $500 million to train and arm members of opposition forces in Syria, part of an effort to stem insurgent violence that has spilled over into neighboring Iraq...

"This funding request would build on the administration's longstanding efforts to empower the moderate Syrian opposition, both civilian and armed, and will enable the Department of Defense to increase our support to vetted elements of the armed opposition," said Caitlin Hayden, a spokesperson for the National Security Council.

The administration's budget request includes $1.5 billion for a "Regional Stabilization Initiative" that involves the Syrian opposition as well as neighboring countries Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq.

The official pronouncements are an effort to obscure the fact that just a few weeks ago Obama was urging aid to ISIS in Syria against Assad, but ISIS has since crossed the border and used military force to take control of large parts of an Iraq. They are one of the more violent and probably the most weaponized of the many groups currently in revolt against Al-Maliki's brutal (U.S. sponsored) regime. 

Democrats will continue to support their warmongering president and point fingers at Republicans. Both corporate parties are responsible for this sorry mess of wasted resources  and violence that begets more violence in a cycle that seems to grow more vicious with each passing day.

Bou Bou and Ali are small victims of our worship of violent force as the solution for every problem. Civil society is the larger victim of this dead end mindset. Where will the madness end?

Al-Maliki Regime "Out Of Hellfires" So Uncle Sam To The Rescue?

Nancy Lopez Mancias of CODEPINK San Francisco speaking at a march on Saturday, June 21, 2014

Sometimes the rhetoric of my government parroted by the corporate press is both terrifying and idiotic in the same breath.

Here's the ABC "News" headline running at the top of Google's "news" feed on Saturday:

Most of my fellow citizens in the heart of the empire read such nonsense without much analysis. They have been told enough times that ISIS = bad terrorists and they are largely unaware that elements in the U.S. government were eager to support ISIS in Syria where they were trying to topple Assad's regime.

Now that ISIS is trying to topple the U.S. backed Al-Maliki regime in Iraq, they are not our guys. The fact that they are only one small -- albeit well-funded and heavily armed -- faction of the popular resistance in Iraq is ignored. So is the fact that by backing Al-Maliki the U.S. is essentially siding with Iran. 'Cause they're supposed to be super bad guys too, remember? Luckily for the warmongers almost no one in the U.S. does remember or ever knew in the first place that by invading Iraq in 2003 we set the stage for Iran to achieve major influence in the Iraqi government that replaced Saddam Hussein.

Widespread ignorance and confusion result when people look for analysis to t.v. shows full of the same talking heads who lied the U.S. into attacking Iraq in 2003. 

2003, Washington DC: Desiree Fairooz confronting Condoleeza Rice, then Secretary of State who was urgin the U.S. to invade Iraq in order to topple Saddam Hussein's regime.

Some of them made a fortune on the Hellfire missile and other munitions used to destroy Iraq's infrastructure, people and towns. Others make a ton of money for pontificating on foreign policy. They appear quite eager to tell the tales that will sell more weapons to either the U.S. or Iraq or both.

As a counterpoint to what war criminals like Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice have to say to the citizenry, I recommend this article by Iraqi American Dr. Dahlia Wafsi offering a concise overview dating back to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. According to Codepink intern Ben who sent around the link:

[Dr. Wafsi] explains how it is the US responsible for sectarianism in Iraq and discusses the evidence that the US funded sectarian death squads in the country, likening Iraq in the 21st century to the '80s Salvador Option (Wikileaks document show this to be the case).  

Most important, she discusses how ISIS is only one small actor in the country; the Islamophobic, orientalist U.S. media has ignored that there is a much larger revolutionary presence, one that opposes ISIS (and calls them "barbarians"): the General Military Council of Iraqi Revolutionaries.

This interview of journalist Dahr Jamail who recently traveled in Iraq and spoke to people there is also worth a read or a listen (it's available as a podcast). Jamail reports:

since late 2012, Sunnis in Anbar province and other parts of Iraq had been protesting every Friday right after Friday prayers because of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki—who the US has backed since his installation many years ago and has sold him now over $25 billion of arms and training and counting—But Sunnis were protesting against him because he was sending the military into Sunni towns, Sunni enclaves and killing people, detaining people and then, once they were detained, torturing them. There was all kinds of rampant reports of detaining women, them being raped while they were in prison. 

And definitely don't miss this bracing interview with scholar and veteran Andrew Bacevich.

Bill Moyers often doesn't ask the right questions, but Bacevich supplies the right answers with all the passion of a voice crying in the wilderness of a nation waging war as if it were a "frivolous" pursuit. (Or just a friendly neighbor helping out a brother who has run out of Hellfires.)

I participated in a couple of informational conference calls last week including a Codepink-organized call with three speakers who offered informed insight. 

Farah Al Mousawi, an Iraqi American, said that it’s a revolution, that Iraqis have been protesting around the country. An opposition movement with clear demands has been building for over a year,  and the Al-Maliki government has been unsuccessful in repressing protests in Anbar protests, including in Fallujah. Al-Maliki accuses revolutionaries of being “extremists" and has marginalized several minorities, arbitrarily imprisoning many. (Note that an Egyptian blogger with contacts in Iraq cited the targeting of women by the Al-Maliki regime, imprisoning and raping them while in prison, as the catalyst for Iraqi non-violent mass resistance starting in February 2012.)

Matt Howard of Iraq Veterans against the war reported that recently 30,000 Iraqi troops put down their weapons in Mosul and observed of U.S. threats,  “You can’t bomb a military into picking weapons back up.” Al-Maliki tactics to put down the Fallujah resistance six months ago included bombing the hospital among other humanitarian targets. His view is that the most appropriate role for the U.S. at this point would be the clean up of toxins such as depleted uranium still festering following the U.S. attacks on Iraq and subsequent occupation.

Inder Comar, the attorney for Iraqi mother Sundus Shaker Saleh who is suing officials of the Bush administration for war crimes, offered his perspective that the unstable situation in Iraq is the result of when a country ignores the rule of law. He noted that we are witnessing a further breakdown of a country after the U.S. used premeditated force with no plan for what to do after invasion. After 11 years of war, what’s left is chaos because this is what war does to society: destroys institutions and culture. He went on to say, "The way to stop this is to have accountability and some kind of justice for what happened in Iraq. The 800-lb gorilla in the room is the initial, illegal invasion by the U.S."

On a call earlier in the week I heard Phyllis Bennis of IPS observe that ISIS was strengthened by fighting in Syria and is terrifically well-funded, mostly by Saudi backers, but constitutes only a tiny percentage of people in Iraq actively working to accomplish the fall of Al-Maliki's regime.

Then, on Sunday, out into the street with Mainers against bombing or otherwise intervening militarily in Iraq. Our action was part of a nationwide outcry -- yet again -- against the U.S. attacking Iraq. If you agree with us, you can sign a petition to Obama here.



REVISED June 25: Apparently 50,000 is the correct number of Iraq army troops who laid down their weapons in Mosul, according to "The New Oil Wars In Iraq," an excellent overview of the central role of oil production in the uprisings against the Al-Maliki regime.