Where Does Milllons in Pentagon Contracts Go?
NICK TURSE – Mother Jones
While American children are going to bed hungry, and their schools all too often are falling apart, we have squandered untold billions on the infrastructure and schools of the countries where we have created wars, producing astonishing profits for war contractors, and little else. It is such an upside down policy that it is amazing to me that American voters have so quietly sat still for it. This last election, for the first time, sug! gests they are now fed up. This report gives good reasons why that is a reasonable position.
A billion dollars from the federal government: that kind of money could go a long way toward revitalizing a country's aging infrastructure. It could provide housing or better water and sewer systems. It could enhance a transportation network or develop an urban waterfront. It could provide local jobs. It could do any or all of these things. And, in fact, it did. It just happened to be in the Middle East, not the United States.
Phi Beta Iota: The fundamental decision that the next Secretary ofd Defense needs to make is whether we want a strong effective military based at home, or a paper-tiger military posturing at great expense all over the world. You can have a 450-ship Navy, long-haul Air Force, and air-liftable Army; or you can have a great deal of foreign construction with attendant ongoing expenses. You cannot have both.
See Also:
David Swanson: Colin Powell’s Treason – Lest We Forget
Robert Steele: John Kerry, Global Engagement, and National Integrity PLUS Michele Flournoy
