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

Getting It Wrong In Afghanistan: Bagram Air Base And Prison Complex

After 16 years of bloody occupation, the kleptocracy is poised to make even more money in Afghanistan. The demagogue with bad hair is listening to an inner circle that includes Erik Prince of the notorious Blackwater mercenary firm that helped occupy Iraq. Privatize even more of the war, they whisper. Endless war means endless profits!

The fact that Afghanistan's sovereignty is vigorously defended by freedom fighters posing as religious fanatics is super convenient.

During the Soviet occupation a fierce young man in Kabul told me, "As long as there is one Afghan left alive, the Soviets will never rule our country!" 

Fast forward to 2017.

Bagram Air Base and Prison Complex, constructed on the ruins of a Soviet base, is the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan. A suicide bomber inside the gates killed numerous troops gathered to observe Veterans Day there (formerly Armistice Day) last November. It was again targeted this month by a motorcyle-riding suicide bomber who detonated at a security gate. In June, eight Afghan guards headed for the night shift at Bagram were killed when their car was attacked in a driveby shooting.



Back in 2002, prisoners were tortured and beaten to death in the "detention" facility there; a few soldiers were court martialed for their role in the abuse. In 2010 the Pentagon released the names of 645 souls being held prisoner at Bagram. For seven years the detainees included Pakistani neuroscientist Dr. Aafia Siddiqui and her three children.

Building big, expensive compounds where military personnel can enjoy air conditioning, fast food burgers and wifi is what the U.S. is good at. Winning hearts and minds, not so much.

The latest suicide bombing was said to be connected with a public relations faux pas on the part of the occupation. As reported by the Associated Press:

Earlier Wednesday, a U.S. commander had apologized for dropping leaflets in Afghanistan that were deemed offensive to Islam. 

The leaflets dropped Monday night, which encouraged Afghans to cooperate with security forces, included an image of a dog carrying the Taliban flag, said Shah Wali Shahid, the deputy governor of Parwan province, north of Kabul. The flag has Islamic verses inscribed on it, and dogs are seen as unclean in much of the Muslim world.

There have even been allegations that dogs were used to rape prisoners held at Bagram.

An Afghan interpreter interviewed by Emran Feroz for Alternet stated: "Guantanamo is a paradise if you compare it with Bagram."

How much has it cost U.S. taxpayers to create and maintain the cruelest military installation on Earth?

By Staff Sgt. Craig Seals - http://www.bagram.afcent.af.mil/photos

Due to the lack of accountability in Pentagon budgets and contracting practices, the price tag is impossible to determine with any certainty. Chronicles of waste and corruption abound, but accurately quantifying this mammoth corporate welfare scheme will probably not be possible.

Of the 800+ military bases that U.S. taxpayers support abroad, Bagram is at the top of my list to just close already. The U.S. and or NATO will never "win" the war in Afghanistan. Bagram has been called a "factory for terrorism" and even without the torture its mere presence is enough to help Taleban recruiters find the next generation of suicide bombers. 


Just bring the homesick troops back already, and close the base. Erik Prince is already rich enough.

Real News From Afghanistan, For Those With Ears To Hear It

Girls salvage spilled aid flour in Kabul last winter. Source: Andrea Bruce, NYT

Kathy Kelly came to Portland Maine and gave a talk August 20. She conveyed real news, anecdotal reporting from recent visits to Kabul where she and other members of Voices for Creative Nonviolence work with the Afghan Peace Volunteers.

Source: Andrea Bruce, NYT

Since we heard Kathy speak, my husband and I agree; we can't stop picturing a refugee camp in a cold climate, one with 10,000 people freezing in winter, and starving the year round, many of them ill. 

Source: Andrea Bruce, NYT

Most of these internally displaced people used to be agriculturalists but were driven off their land by by war or, in some cases, by drought because former irrigation systems were ruined by war. So, war. Many are dependent on international aid for their calories.

Fun times in the mess hall at Bagram Air Base. Source: probamablog.com

Across the street we picture the gigantic military base/embassy under construction; when completed, it will be even bigger than the behemoth base we indebted taxpayers built in Baghdad. It is a fortress with gates controlled by heavily armed men who allow only designated people and vehicles to enter. A steady stream of trucks passes through the gates carrying fuel, water, food, and just about everything else people would need to do the work of invading another country. Kathy says when she flies into Kabul her plane is full of private contractors, beefy ex-military men going to work for $120k a year, $80k of it tax exempt.

Source: "US contractors face murder charges" Al-Jazeera

All of this adds up to $2 billion per week. Kathy pays no taxes to the I.R.S. and hasn't for years.

In the camp across from Bagram, children starve to death. Their mothers tell Kathy they feel like they are going insane because of the constant worry that they can't feed their families. Female life expectancy has declined to 42 years since NATO came to town and stayed on.

Source: "Children killed by drone strikes"

A family invited Kathy to witness the injuries of their young daughter, lifting off the covers to show her damaged body, explained with one sinister word: "Drone." Kathy asked people, where do the drones comes from? "Nevada."

Now Kathy tells Afghan women that she knows, seamstresses in Kabul, that people in the U.S. think that NATO presence has improved women's rights. At this they have a hearty laugh. Their view is that Karzai's regime, backed by the military might of the U.S., has been able to get restrictive laws passed that even the Taleban was not able to push through. Laws making a woman subject to her husband pander to conservative elements whose support is needed to keep Karzai and cronies propped up.

Source: Russiablog.com

Kathy told us there is only one road in and out of the country at the eastern end of Afghanistan when Pakistan shuts down border crossings over incursions by Afghan troops hunting militants in Pakistan's territory. Or drone strikes, of which there are about two a week these days under Obomber. This one road's decrepit tunnel through the mountain allows 12 hours of traffic eastbound, followed by 12 hours westbound. It can take up to 17 days for an farmer to get a truckload of produce from field to market. Sometimes the cargo molds or rots before the truck gets through.

Kathy theorizes that if people in the U.S. can believe that U.S. wars are humanitarian wars, then they will go along without resisting.

Under the influence of Fox News, her own mother insisted that people in Iraq ought to be grateful to Americans for liberating them from Saddam Hussein, whom they could have gotten rid of on their own, but didn't. Kathy had been many times to Baghdad, bringing back the truth of life choked by sanctions, bombarded by Shock and Awe. But her mother insisted, "They should thank us."

I suppose Kathy's explanation is as good as any for why 2/3 of us are against the war in Afghanistan, but very few of us raise our voices to protest -- I was going to say the U.S.'s longest war but Kathy says it's wrong to call it that. The first Gulf War + 13 years of sanctions + a "withdrawal" that left tens of thousands of troops and contractors behind in Iraq is really the longest.

War is not even an issue this election season. It's the economy, stupid. And by the way,

Kathy is a faith-based activist who cries out against the war on the poor everywhere, from the prison-industrial system of this country, to the oppression of Palestinians, to the starving, freezing and mangling of children in the way of our access to the oil and gas reserves of the Caspian Sea.

Source: "Who runs the Madhouse?" by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

Her theory about our citizens' confusion and indifference reminds me of the phrase attributed to Jesus of Nazareth before giving instruction to groups: "For those who have ears to hear..."

Source: "Pump down the volume? Re people who watch movies in restaurants, cafes"

Truth Is Behind the Lies People Tell Themselves About Their Empire

Source: Al Jazeera Witness "Four Days in Guantanamo"

A lot of angry responses to the satirical video my husband and I made about the rationalizations people tell themselves in order to continue to support their naked emperor, and some of them mistook us for actual Obama supporters. Stuff Obama Supporters Say has 13,000+ views after a couple of days on YouTube, and 100+ comments in a lively debate where it was posted to Common Dreams (thanks, Abby Zimet).

As one critic of the video put it, "But some of those things are true." In celebration of the success of stop SOPA/PIPA blackout day yesterday, I have used the Internet and yes, Wikipedia, to unearth some nuggets of truth alluded to in the video. It was our intention to lampoon those in denial; the ugly facts of detention in Guantanamo or Bagram, where our tax dollars support the torture of kids as young as 15, are out there just waiting to be discovered. But the mainstream media feed in the U.S. will, as a matter of policy, not help people discover many facts. Instead, it will enable the skewed priorities of valuing organic gardening over drone attacks on civilians.

Inverted priorities have been typical of affluent imperial citizens throughout history. What did "good Germans" mainly do to support the Nazi's genocidal plans? They looked the other way.

Quite possibly they were afraid -- and rightly so -- of becoming the victims of indefinite detention.

Feeble thinkers, they believed that the rule of law was not important to them, because they were not criminals (or Communists, or trade unionists, or terrorists, etc.). A basic failure to understand why the writ of habeas corpus is the cornerstone of equal access to justice goes hand in hand with the failure to understand why the rights outlined in the first ten amendments to the Constitution are worth struggling to uphold.

Source: Mother Jones article on Iranian government's plan to send Obama a pink toy model of the U.S. drone that landed in that country last month.

If I don't see any drones patrolling my skies (yet) then they must not be a problem for me -- right?

Source: http://revolutionaryfrontlines.wordpress.com reprint of Al Jazeera article UK: Campaigners Seek Arrest of Former CIA Legal Chief over Pakistan Drone Attacks

(Obama thinks he is such a good father, he can joke around with his pals about ordering Predator drone strikes against boys that might be interested in his daughters.)

And who is Bradley Manning anyway?

Logan Price, a 27-year-old activist, said he went up to the president and asked why he hadn’t addressed the concerns of the protesters. “I thought that Bradley Manning was the most important whistleblower of my generation..."

Source: Politico

( Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images / March 14, 2011 ) via CODEPINK blog PINKTank

Guantanamo And Bagram Are Torture Prisons Funded By U.S. Taxpayers

Sign Close Guantanamo With Justice here, and learn more. Source: Center for Constitutional Rights.

It has now been ten years since the indefinite detention center at Guantanamo was established, ostensibly to conduct the "war on terror." Failing to close the notorious torture prison (see guard Chris Arendt's testimony above for details) is a broken promise made by candidate Obama, at the rotten center of denial employed by the complicit, who cover their eyes and ears in order to keep supporting him.

Last month our corrupted Congress passed and our corrupted president signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act, re-funding the military machine for another year AND making it illegal to release detainees who cannot be convicted of acts of terror due to lack of evidence. Your taxes will continue to feed them -- except that right now they are on hunger strike to mark the 10th anniversary of this particular island in the gulag archipelago -- as they will not be returning to their families, or to residence in a host country. Ever, apparently. It is gruesomely fitting that the legislation refusing to allow these men to be released was packaged with a law enabling the U.S. government to indefinitely detain anyone, anywhere, if deemed a threat by whichever warlord happens to be in the White House at the time. RIP, habeas corpus.

When the purpose is justice, wrongfully imprisoning a children's humanitarian relief worker is a tragedy. When the purpose is intimidation and the display of brute force, locking up Lakhdar Boumediene works as well as does keeping alleged whistleblower Bradley Manning in solitary confinement for months before a day in court. The message your government is sending you: Be frightened, be very frightened -- you could be next.

Obama may have inherited Guantanamo, but Manning and the torture prison at Bagram Air Force base in Afghanistan are all his. In recent days U.S. mainstream media have largely ignored an investigative report of torture and indefinite detention at Bagram -- funded by you and by me, unless you've figured out how to resist paying war taxes.

Source BBC: "Afghan investigators have accused the US Army of abusing detainees at its main prison in the country, saying inmates had reported being tortured and held without evidence.

Today I wish I were in Washington DC to join my CODEPINK sisters, Amnesty International and others who are paying attention, to form a human chain around the White House, dressed in the iconic orange jumpsuits of Guantanamo.

A decade of torture in the beautiful setting of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, thus commemorated. Since I cannot be there, I will instead offer this beautiful rendering of the Cuban song Guantanamera, meaning "woman of Guantanamo," superbly performed by Celia Cruz. My mother used to sing this song when I was a child. To the lost innocence of a girl who once believed in the words of the U.S. Constitution -- and to my fellow citizens who still hold to their belief that all human beings are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, innocent until proven guilty -- I offer an additional verse?

You broke my heart when you tortured
The beautiful ones, and the bad ones.
You broke my heart when the young soldiers
Had to watch all this being done.
How could our Constitution
ever stand for something like this?
If there is such a thing as a court,
I hope all you torturers stand before it.

Guantanamera...oh women of Guantánamo
And may the indigenous
grandmothers save us.

Bring our war $$ home from Bagram, and Guantanamo, and the rest of the torture archipelago.

A Time When Silence Is Betrayal

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "There comes a time when silence is betrayal.

I think that time has come for U.S. citizens. They must now face up to the fact that their super expensive, superior force military does not intend to withdraw from either Iraq or Afghanistan, no matter what lies to the contrary are offered to by President Obama to appease the public.

Speaking of the public, what ever happened to the referendum the people of Iraq were promised by the Constitution imposed after the U.S. invaded their country in 2003? This week the U.S. Secretary of "Defense" announced -- and Iraqi officials denied -- a behind the scenes deal to stay on in Iraq that could be characterized as "puppet government asks puppeteers to stay."

Of course if the public knew that the U.S. built an embassy compound in Baghdad as large as Vatican City, they probably would not be surprised to find that there was no real intention to abandon that investment. The U.S. occupation of Iraq stands at approximately 45,000 troops and 60,000 private contractors today.
Then came news from the war Obama had promised to continue waging, the decade long occupation of Afghanistan. That country still refuses to be subdued, and this month has seen spectacular attacks by insurgents in many key areas of the country. Very recently the British Council was attacked in Kabul,  on a date chosen to mark a special anniversary of imperial decline much older than a decade. From the Daily Telegraph:

A Taliban statement said the attack was timed to mark the 92nd anniversary of full independence from the British. In 1919, Afghanistan regained control of its foreign policy from Britain after the brief Third Anglo-Afghan War. The day is now a national holiday.
The insurgents said: “Today is our independence day from Britain. They recognised our independence 92 years ago. Today’s attack was marking that day. Now the British have invaded our country again and they will recognise our independence day again.”

So why is the U.S. indicating it may stay in Afghanistan until 2024? Again, who would believe the plan was anything different in light of the construction of Bagram air base and numerous other permanent, highly expensive military outposts.

My fellow U.S.ians, your silence will not protect you. Wake up and add your voice to the growing chorus: bring our troops, and our war dollars, home.

Bring Our War $$ Home from Bagram, too

Following a nation-wide conference call to ground the drones, Codepink's Nancy Mancias shared notes. A peace delegation that has just returned from visiting Afghanistan, and meeting with the wonderful Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, had this report from their survey of the giant U.S. base that houses Guantanamo East: The delegation held a silent vigil outside the gates of Bagram. They looked at the machines and said that's our money, that's our education money raining destruction on Afghanistan and the people. 

Malalai Joya is touring the U.S. right now and the Guardian published her must-read piece responding to the horrific photos in Rolling Stone of grotesque mutilation of people in Afghanistan, attacked by some un-brave troops. To whom shall I apologize on behalf on my nation? May their souls rest in peace.

A student shared this song by the performer Pink, "Dear Mr. President." The artist is talking to Bush Jr., but she could just as well be talking to the warmonger Obama. Substitute photos of people ill from the BP oil spill for the floating corpses of Katrina, and you'd be all set to rack up big profits at the expense of the health, wealth and welfare of we, the people.