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Joseph J. Honick is
president of GMA International in Bainbridge Island, Wash.
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Aug. 25, 2011 |
CAN THE U.S. AFFORD PEACE? |
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By Joseph J. Honick
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.”
-- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, farewell address, Jan. 17, 1961
While we listen to all the chatter about troop withdrawals, deficits and all kind of political back and forth accusations about our economy, no one is asking if we can afford to have peace anytime soon.
Tough question, right? Appropriate also!
We are still in a war mode in Afghanistan and lurching toward more in the Middle East, which t requires sustained defense industry production and employment. We nevertheless are awash in unemployment, debt and unpaid bills. So, can we really afford the economic impact of something that looks like peace?
No one wants to deal with what will happen if almost the whole war-based industrial and military complex comes to a screeching halt.
The subject is not even quietly asked in the Halls of Congress and in the campaign offices of those almost clownishly demanding attention for their candidates at all levels,
But think about it because not many responsible people are: Tens of thousands of men and women, including their highly paid bosses, are operating in the defense industries whose daily contracts from the Department of Defense are at least in the hundreds of millions. Not quite as conspicuous are the tens of thousands of civilian contractors operating in the various war zones and who actually outnumber our military personnel at least in Afghanistan!
Though we and others have raised the issue of the one trillion and counting cost of these ever increasingly expensive wars we cannot win or even end, only recently did the New York Times suddenly make that “investment” a front page story. Even then, their reporter omitted the more than one billion and counting the governments of Messrs Bush and Obama have “invested” in paying private PR and advertising firms to keep “selling” Americans and the world that we not only were doing something necessary but actually winning.
Imagine: having to sell wars supposedly intended to keep the nation free of bad people and their assaults!
Think again for a moment:
1. Despite the president’s declared intention to “draw down” thousands of troops in 2012, the Department of Defense has major contracts on the books for billions of dollars to do work projected for the next several years just inside Afghanistan.
2. A recent 36-page report by the Congressional Research Service not only shows the number of defense contractor personnel right in Afghanistan substantially exceeds our military forces, but includes admissions by Secretary of Defense Gates of not all that long ago that we have not had very efficient management of those contractors and their contracts.
3. There has yet to be much of any media attention to those defense contractor personnel living in Afghanistan, what facilities they have residentially, recreationally etc and who is paying for all that. You can be sure they do not live the same tough lives of our military personnel.
4. No one has yet even tried to answer questions I raised some months ago as to why the most powerful forces in the world cannot defeat something called “insurgents”, but we cannot even find and destroy their channels of supply, financing, training and recruitment.
Are there answers to these points? Well there are certainly places to begin.
First, there needs to be a Congressional probe of why we have failed to negotiate any kind of payback from the Iraqi government we helped top install in return for our sacrifice of men, women, money and a lot more. Why has not one Congressional unit even raised the question of our helping the Iraqis merely auction off the oil fields we helped put back in action without getting a dime participation in the profits that will roll in?
Second, it has already been adduced that some major defense industry contractors have hugely overcharged for products and services. It would be a measure of public confidence building if our government would make a larger issue of this fact and demonstrate what actions are being taken to recover those taxpayer investments.
Third, if the Congress cannot handle researching these and other concerns, it would be useful if citizen groups organize to raise these important questions.
It should not have been lost on the American voters that even the Republican contenders for the presidency who chatted amiably with each other in New Hampshire and Iowa were virtually in agreement regarding the terrible and questionable state of affairs in Afghanistan where even that nation’s head of state has said we Americans are “occupiers.”
Solution: citizens should demand that our communications media ask these questions and insist on answers.
After all this done, if any is, we will still be saddled with the reality that a return to any kind of peace will result not only in withdrawal of troops and their equipment, but the removal of all those civilian contractors whose corporations have been doing well on the American taxpayer. Apparently no strategies have been put in place to figure out how to handle such major job displacement.
In one small area of such concerns, even if we create something called peace in the Afghan and Iraqi theaters of questionable wars, we have already inserted ourselves in what has come to be known as the “Arab Spring” where major PR firms are finding wonderfully new and suddenly well financed clients among so called “rebel” operations whose leadership may or may not be to our liking or benefit.
So I repeat the question: Can America really afford peace or was President Eisenhower a prophet?
* * *
Joseph J. Honick is an international consultant
to business and government and writes for many publications,
including huntingtonnews.net. Honick can be reached
at [email protected]. |
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Responses: |
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Reader (8/25):
Senator Richard Lugar, Republican, had this to say this week: "We cannot afford any more wars."
[email protected] (8/25):
Yes, Joe. The U.S. can afford peace if the U.S. would take all that money going to the war industry and redirect it to rebuilding America. It's a shame that our bridges are crumbling, millions live in housing that should be demolished and replaced,our energy grid is third world-like, our rail system is out of date, our highways are in disrepair, outmoded and cannot handle the traffic without constant delays. But if we did rebuild America, you can be certain that the military-industrial complex would come up with new reasons why we have to prepare and fight needless wars. Eisenhower was right and is still right.
Joe Honick, GMA International Ltd (8/26):
Both "Reader" and Arthur truly got the message, and it is appreciated. The question that has not been addressed by any of those Republican debating clowns or the President either in this running political circus is how to end wars we cannot win. The answer, and it bears repititiion ovr and over again, is the greedy damage done by what President Eisenhower warned of so prophetically 50 years ago. But so long as the lobbying fees are huge, there will be willing recipients.
Thinkman2 (8/26):
As Messrs Solomon and "Reader" have so clearly noted, we have permitted government of both Democrats and Republicans to desert the human and structural needs of Americans to feed the pocket of oil field people in Iraq, the corruption of Afghans and to finance new costly and dangerous wars in Libya et al that were never authorized in any open chamber anywhere.
The real question is why have the media said so little?
Wes Pedersen (8/26):
We cannot afford peace, but we cannot live much longer without it.
Joe, a question the Post, the Times, the FT should be asking. Send this to all of them. Perhaps someone at one of them will wake up and and ask it. Get the media herd started on what each of them will claim is an original (with them) thought.
Brian M (8/26):
War is a great economic stimulus, that's true. But the huge debt problem we now face was fostered by the previous administration's insistence (and Congress' spineless agreement) to pay for the Iraq and Afghan wars by borrowing money, rather than putting the costs in the annual budget. It was/is fiscal responsibility at its height and an accounting trick that has harmed our grandchildren.
Yes, I know its passe to blame the Bush administration. But I'm saying let's blame Congress just as much. I can't stand the Tea Party nonsense, but they're calls to throw everyone out resonates with me.
[email protected] (8/26):
Hey, all-- Perhaps if we re-instituted the draft, and your children, your family members and friend's children were selected to fight in what has become endless wars, and those members of Congress, and those war hawks pundits and editorial writer's children had to face combat situations, the U.S. wouldn't be so fast to pull the trigger. No, pacifist, I. There are wars that have to be fought, but not just because unknown elements begin civil wars and as Sen. McCain and others have said, "We have to be on the right side of history." These were the same beliefs of people who originally thought "the right side of history" was when Castro took over Cuba, Mao began his long march and Uncle Ho said enough is enough to colonialism in Vietnam.
Those didn't work out so great for the U.S., did they?
But they sure worked out great for our war industry and our generals, who are treated as Gods by Congress and the media. Re the current situations in Iraq, Afghanistan: Lincoln fired generals, Eisenhower fired generals, Truman fired generals, but the current crop of generals get promoted, despite their lack of victories on the battlefield. Add intelligence that doesn't work (Bush's "weapons of mass destruction" and Obama saying the Libya situation would be over in two weeks), and it's easy to understand why the U.S. is in so much of a mess.
Joe Honick, GMA International Ltd (9/02):
Arthur: a statement that should be directed to the National Defense Industreial Association and some K Street Lobbyists since few others are apparently listening. Political campaigns going on seem not to care, and some of those dolts will actually be elected next year.
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