“If you cannot annoy somebody with what you write, I think there’s little point in writing.”
Kingsley Amis
When I read this one, it kind of got my blood to boiling to a certain extent. It seems the top Air Force brass have been lobbying to spend $16.2 million in anti-terror funds to install luxurious “comfort capsules” on military planes as reported in the Washington Post this week.
The capsules are two sealed rooms that can fit in the fuselage of a military aircraft, they are furnished with leather seats, color coordinated carpeting, couches, and 37 inch flat panel televisions. They are intended for use by air force VIP’s and are “furnished to reflect the rank of the senior leaders” using the facilities. At least four generals have been closely involved in selecting the capsules’ accoutrements. How bad do you want it? How bad do you need it? And most importantly, how are you going to pay for it?
Using $16 million in anti-terror funds, of course. So the next logical question should be:
What terror?
Islamic terrorism, we’re often told, is the gravest threat facing America and the world today. Most everything Bush and the so-called terrorism experts have told us are a delusion. Osama Been Forgotten and his hearty band of raggedy followers are a small group of men, who we fear, because their shadows have been made larger by Washington and the media, and our own collective fears.
Every now and then, they do detonate a convention type of weapon, and a couple of hundred people die, but this can hardly be construed as a “worldwide threat.” It is absolute nonsense to base our entire foreign policy on a sporadic, sometimes occasional, regional threats.
This outfit is mostly broke, depleted to the point of having any ability to strike out at anyone, or to mount complex terrorist attacks on the United States. Let’s face it; if you need a stolen crop duster to pull off your plan, you are what we call in this part of the country, out of pocket.
This latest Air Force gambit loosely tied to terrorism or using terrorism for funding, is nothing but pork, plain and simple, we do not need this.
We’ve all heard stories about how much waste and inefficiency there is in our military spending, this is always portrayed as either “corruption” or simple inefficiency, and not what it really is — a profound expression of our national priorities, a means of taking money from ordinary, struggling people and redistributing it not downward but upward, to connected insiders, who turn your tax money into pure profit.
According to a recent report by the GAO, the Department of Defense has already “marked for disposal” hundreds of millions of dollars worth of spare parts — and not old spare parts, but new ones that are still on order! In fact, the GAO report claims that over half of the spare parts currently on order for the Air Force — some $235 million worth, are already marked for disposal.
Our government is buying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Defense Department crap just to throw it away. The amounts are staggering, it is almost outright unbelievable, but unfortunately, it is true.
According to the report, we’re spending over $30 million a year, and employing over 1,400 people, just to warehouse all the defense equipment we don’t need. For instance — we already have thousands of unneeded aircraft blades, but 7,460 on the way, at a cost of $2 million, which will join those already earmarked for the waste pile.
This is why you need to pay careful attention when you hear about John McCain claiming that he’s going to “look at entitlement program” waste as a means of solving the budget crisis, or when you tune into the debate about the “death tax.” We are in the midst of a political movement to concentrate private wealth into fewer and fewer hands while at the same time placing more and more of the burden for public expenditures on working people.
As for these High Flying Air Force Generals, it is the same old story … “Out there riding or flying around in a Cadillac trying to do the work of a Chevy.”
And who do you suppose they want to pay for it?
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