“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?
000
1.
Man, I don’t even know where to begin.
This is in the Bottom 5 of all your posts. Ever.
“Osama Been Forgotten and his hearty band of raggedy followers are terrorising again, the democratic government of Afghanistan, still, to bring back the 11th century warlord, domination they briefly had. HAD, until America’s best and bravest went there to kick some ass, and kill some monsters. Monsters. Monsters who once, with 19 boxcutters, killed nearly 3,000 on my soil. That was my New York City, my Pentagon, my Shanksburg, Pennsylvania.
And that it has taken the lives of over 4,000 of our sons and daughters to clean up the world is obscene!!, but worth it.
You say that a stolen crop duster plane could kill a couple hundred people, and “So what?”
Maybe some of those hundreds might be your children or friends, that’s what!
Every dollar spent by our Defence is worth it, sir. I know you’d much rather have gasoline subsidized for your Sunday drives with Cup Cake, so move to Iran or to India, where the fuel you bitch about so much is government controlled. Call up Hugo Chavez this weekend, and ask for a tanker of crude oil to be sent to you.
And that GAO report you cite?! Look into it, if you dare. I did. $18 Million wasted on useless boats earmarked, for a political contribution to a Washington congressman, which were DEFECTIVE FROM THE START. I wrote about the $2 million we pissed off, buying worthless sweat shirts for the Marines, to be worn in Iraq, in December.
But we bought em. Had to. It bought politicians votes, ya know…
The Department of Defense does not go on a spending spree, buying crap willy-nilly, as you imply. The budget and the buying orders come from our worthless Congressmen and women.
But what they do spend to protect you, Cup Cake and me and Leti each night, as we give thanks for our free nation?
Priceless.
Comment by localmalcontent | July 30, 2008 | Edit
Comment by Don Smith — July 31, 2008 @ 7:05 AM
Wow! Talk about shooting the messenger. So c’mon, tell us what you really think about the piece.
I didn’t say a stolen crop duster would kill a couple of hundred people, you did. I said when “you are forced to steal a crop duster to do your dirty evil deeds, then you are basically at the end of your string economic wise” that was the point.
I said that “they detonate a small conventional weapons regionally (where they live not here) and that isn’t enough to consider them a worldwide threat to society” in MY opinion (which is shared by myself and I assume a few others).
There is no mention in the piece of “high priced gasoline” anywhere, kind of inserted that into the mix also huh? Oh well, take your best shot. It appears to me, that you missed the point of the entire article because of your mis-directed passion, but that is just my take on it.
Regardless, I allowed it to stand, every word of it.
America is rapidly turning into a lousy third world debt ridden nation because we are borrowing huge amounts of money to pay for these so-called necessary wars. This is money that could be better spent on health care for our citizens (last I heard we were 24th in the world on that) or education for our children (again, bottom rung of the ladder or scale).
Funding of defense is what killed the Soviet Union and it will be our undoing in the end. It is wasteful and it is not all Congressman, elected men and women who are doing it. This article pointed this out rather clearly or at least I thought it did. It said “four generals” were in the planning of it, hardly a majority as you imply.
I do however take exception to ordering stuff simply for the sake of ordering it and then throwing it away. Making no apologies, I do not believe Generals in the U.S. Air Force should be given the same treatment as CEO’s of major corporations.
Personally I see nothing wrong with the piece as written, if you want to pay $900 for a toilet seat to sit on then have at it, me? I am going to “bitch about it” as you put it.
Dissent is the first necessity of progress, show me a thoroughly satisfied man, and I will show you a failure. “If one person had not started bitching about the Viet Nam war, where almost 60,000 souls died, we might still be over there.” The man that stops complaining is the man who has died inside. Like it or not. There is room for improvement … It can and should be done better and perhaps in another way.
One last thing and I am outta here. I am not moving anywhere, and I have the right to bitch as you put it, I gave six years of my life to this country, I served, I pay my taxes and I support the USA. That gives me (and unfortunately millions of others who did not) the right to bitch.
Guess the first paragraph kind of sums it up ….. “If you cannot annoy somebody with what you write, I think there’s little point in writing.”
Kingsley Amis
As I have already spent too much time on this, more than it deserves and I have other fish to fry, I will leave you to your thoughts. Thanks for sharing them with us.
DS
Comment by Don Smith — July 31, 2008 @ 7:08 AM
As an army veteran I too want the military supported and provided with all their needs. However, throwing a lot of money at the military will not make us safer. Eisenhower warned us about the military industrial complex almost 5 decade ago. We didn’t listen.
After 9-11 we went to war in Afghanistan, as we should have. But, we got distracted in Iraq where most of the 4,000+ GI’s were killed. Meanwhile, Bin Laden remains free and the war in Afghanistan continues after almost seven years. Seven years! That’s longer than WWII lasted. While military commanders in Afghanistan call for reinforcements, our Commander-in-Chief cannot provide them because they are busy in Iraq, the country WITHOUT weapons of mass destruction.
Killing people and getting troops killed in an unnecessary war is not pro-life. Letting your enemy who attacked you roam free for seven years is not a deterrent to other would-be terrorists. Leadership starts at the top. We are seriously lacking there.
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James, I understand to a certain extent Afghanistan, Iraq I don’t understand at all. Nothing, absolutely nothing good, ever comes out of war.
Thanks for checking in …….
DS
Comment by James W. — August 1, 2008 @ 10:58 AM