Pentagon bloat, etc. thread

[neoplacebo]

This war on terror shit is what's led to a perpetual state of conflict. There's just no goddam end to it as well as no way to know if you're winning or not. It's like being in line at some venue you don't even want to be at. No bird in the hand or even one in the bush.

[Vrede too]

This war on terror shit is what's led to a perpetual state of conflict. There's just no goddam end to it as well as no way to know if you're winning or not. It's like being in line at some venue you don't even want to be at. No bird in the hand or even one in the bush.

Chicken-egg? Not going to take a stand, but I think I could argue that US militarism intentionally created the War on Terror. Not saying that we create the terrorism, but the response to it is our choice.

I've long thought that the core struggle is not Muslim-Christian, East-West or commie-capitalist, but rather the violent bastards vs. the rest of us. One team's assholes justifies the others'.

[neoplacebo]

This war on terror shit is what's led to a perpetual state of conflict. There's just no goddam end to it as well as no way to know if you're winning or not. It's like being in line at some venue you don't even want to be at. No bird in the hand or even one in the bush.

Chicken-egg? Not going to take a stand, but I think I could argue that US militarism intentionally created the War on Terror. Not saying that we create the terrorism, but the response to it is our choice.

I've long thought that the core struggle is not Muslim-Christian, East-West or commie-capitalist, but rather the violent bastards vs. the rest of us. One team's assholes justifies the others'.

Well, I think we actually do "create the terrorism" to some extent by our blind support for Israel (moving our embassy there from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is a good example) and how a lot of the right wing nutjobs screech about anything they consider in any way critical of Israel, as if their interests are identical with ours. And there's also our military footprint in Saudi Arabia, which a lot of younger more devout Saudis consider to be outright blasphemous. So I see that if our goal were to actually create terrorists, we couldn't do much better if we tried. Hell, our monumental misadventure in Iraq did, in effect, create ISIS.

[Vrede too]

I agree.

[Vrede too]

The U.S. Is Spending $1.25 Trillion Annually on War

In its latest budget request, the Trump administration is asking for a near-record $750 billion for the Pentagon and related defense activities, an astonishing figure by any measure. If passed by Congress, it will, in fact, be one of the largest military budgets in American history, topping peak levels reached during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. And keep one thing in mind: that $750 billion represents only part of the actual annual cost of our national security state.

There are at least 10 separate pots of money dedicated to fighting wars, preparing for yet more wars, and dealing with the consequences of wars already fought. So the next time a president, a general, a secretary of defense, or a hawkish member of Congress insists that the U.S. military is woefully underfunded, think twice. A careful look at U.S. defense expenditures offers a healthy corrective to such wildly inaccurate claims....

[Vrede too]

Tell Democrats: Cut military spending

[Vrede too]

Tell Congress to Clean Up the Contamination from Military Bases

[neoplacebo]

I noticed this tonight; there must be something on that plane that the Navy wants to have pretty bad. Typically, those sort of flights just carry mail and repair parts; nothing of significance. I consider this to be intrigue; the expensive kind.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/navy-recover ... 00046.html

[Vrede too]

Perpetual war

"That was before the war, of course."
"Which war was that?" said Winston.
"It's all wars," said the old man vaguely.

The primary aim of modern warfare (in accordance with the principles of doublethink, this aim is simultaneously recognized and not recognized by the directing brains of the Inner Party) is to use up the products of the machine without raising the general standard of living.

-- 1984

17 Years, 41 Military Operations, 19 Countries. It's Time to Repeal the 2001 AUMF

...

Chairman Eliot Engel
Committee on Foreign Affairs
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Ranking Member Michael McCaul
Committee on Foreign Affairs
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Re: H.R. 1274 “Repeal of the Authorization for Use of Military Force”

Dear Chairman Engel and Ranking Member McCaul:

We, the undersigned, are a diverse group of organizations with a range of missions and perspectives from across the ideological spectrum. We share a common view that the Executive Branch has expanded its interpretation of the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) (PL 107-40) far beyond Congress’s original intent, in order to justify an ever-increasing number of military operations around the world. We therefore write to express our support for H.R.1274, which would repeal the 2001 AUMF eight months after enactment, and to ask that the
Foreign Affairs Committee bring the bill up for prompt consideration....

Three days after the 9/11 attacks, Congress passed the 2001 AUMF to authorize military force against the groups responsible for those attacks and those who harbored them. Now, after more than 17 years, three successive administrations have cited the 2001 AUMF as authority for the United States to use lethal force around the world against a growing number of groups, including some that did not exist in 2001. According to a 2018 Congressional Research Service report, the 2001 AUMF has been used by the Executive Branch as authority for 41 operations in 19 countries. This expansive and legally dubious use of the 2001 AUMF has come at the expense of a thorough examination of a security challenge that does not have a solely military solution.

This sustained use of military force is the longest in U.S. history, having lasted longer that the Civil War, World War I, and World War II combined. The U.S. military is now conducting operations in 80 countries around the world. The post/9-11 wars have cost more than $5.9 trillion and resulted in the deaths of approximately 500,000 people, including nearly 15,000 U.S. military personnel and contractors, and 250,000 civilians.

Yet Congress has never debated and voted on the uses of force, outside of Afghanistan, that the Executive Branch claims are authorized by the 2001 AUMF. The vast majority of members of Congress were not in office when this authorization was passed. Of the 435 current members of the House, only 67 of them (15.4%) voted for the 2001 AUMF, and only 35 sitting Senators voted for it. Indeed, more than 80% of current members of Congress have never voted on this authority.

The Founders vested in Congress the authority to make the hard decision about whether, when, and where to go to war as the branch most accountable to the people of the United States. Congress should repeal the 2001 AUMF and hold a public debate as to whether endless war actually serves the American people. It should not sit idly by while the Executive Branch continues to expand the use of lethal force around the world at immense cost to U.S. national security, the lives of civilians and U.S. service members around the world, and our national treasure....

[Vrede too]

Summary: Pentagon Fuel Use, Climate Change, and the Costs of War



The U.S. Department of Defense is the largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels in the world and a key contributor to climate change.

Between 2001 and 2017, the years for which data is available since the beginning of the war on terrorism with the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S. military emitted 1.2 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases. More than 400 million metric tons of greenhouse gases are directly due to war-related fuel consumption. The largest portion of Pentagon fuel consumption is for military jets.

These estimates are based on data from the Department of Energy because the Pentagon withholds fuel consumption data from Congress. The U.S. military has begun to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, but there is room for much steeper cuts.

Read more at: www.costsofwar.org|Inquiries: costsofwar@brown.edu

Read full paper



The United States continues to spend far more on the military than any other country—almost as much as the next eight largest military spenders combined.

The Trump administration* is proposing a Pentagon spending hike from $716 billion to $750 billion, including Department of Energy military nuclear programs.

[neoplacebo]

Shanahan has declined to be considered for Secretary of Defense; trump tweeted this. He's naming the current Secretary of the Army to the post now. Winning!
As I posted this, his tweet at the top confirms it except he doesn't mention that Shanahan was being given the stink eye by the FBI over something he'd done in the past; domestic abuse I think but am not sure.

[Vrede too]

Shanahan has declined to be considered for Secretary of Defense; trump tweeted this. He's naming the current Secretary of the Army to the post now. Winning!
As I posted this, his tweet at the top confirms it except he doesn't mention that Shanahan was being given the stink eye by the FBI over something he'd done in the past; domestic abuse I think but am not sure.

Yep.

Trump says he will replace acting Defense chief Patrick Shanahan

I thought the FBI was also looking at possible corruption while at Boeing, but no mention of that in this article. Not sure which is thought to be worse - an SoD that beats women or one that gets beaten up by a woman.

[neoplacebo]

Shanahan has declined to be considered for Secretary of Defense; trump tweeted this. He's naming the current Secretary of the Army to the post now. Winning!
As I posted this, his tweet at the top confirms it except he doesn't mention that Shanahan was being given the stink eye by the FBI over something he'd done in the past; domestic abuse I think but am not sure.

Yep.

Trump says he will replace acting Defense chief Patrick Shanahan

I thought the FBI was also looking at possible corruption while at Boeing, but no mention of that in this article. Not sure which is thought to be worse - an SoD that beats women or one that gets beaten up by a woman.

That is a conundrum; being Secretary of Offense affords rationale for abuse but if you're Secretary of Defense and you're beat up by a woman, or anyone else, to me that means you're not good at defense. The only person I can think of that's good at both is O.J. Simpson.

[Vrede too]

Even I sometimes get stunned by how evil and ugly America can be.

The government of Ecuador has recently agreed to allow the U.S. military to base aircraft and naval ships at one of the Galapagos Islands in violation of the Constitution of Ecuador, which both forbids any foreign military installations and provides the natural environment with the right to be protected.

The Galapagos Islands are home to a large number of endemic species and are the source of Charles Darwin’s studies and observations which led to the Darwin theory of evolution. The islands and surrounding waters are a natural environment treasure and have been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a biosphere reserve.

The United States currently has over 1,000 military bases around the world which are a source of major environmental destruction. Recently the U.S. Navy destroyed pristine coral reefs in Jeju Island, South Korea and local residents in Okinawa are desperately trying to stop the construction of a new base in Henoko.

It would be a travesty to allow a major producer of pollution and environmental destruction to be based on an irreplaceable site precious to the world.

To the government of Ecuador from the people of the world
From: [Your Name]

We demand that the government of Ecuador keep the U.S. military out of the Galapagos Islands.

[Vrede too]

Perpetual war

17 Years, 41 Military Operations, 19 Countries. It's Time to Repeal the 2001 AUMF

Barbara Lee Wins a House Vote to Stop the Blank Checks for Endless War
Almost 18 years after Lee cast the sole vote against the open-ended AUMF, the House finally passed a bill that would sunset it.

[Vrede too]

Crack down on Pentagon corruption

Petition to the House of Representatives:

"Crack down on the revolving door between the Pentagon and major military contractors. Support amendments 208, 226, 394, 555 and 556 to the National Defense Authorization Act."

[O Really]

Hey - you want to go whale watching, buy a ticket...

https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/caug ... -1.4502725

[Vrede too]

Tell your Representative to Vote Yes on Amendment Requiring that Foreign Military Bases Be Justified

[Vrede too]

Heard on TV, paraphrased: Since 1776 the US has been engaged in armed hostilities of one sort or another 93% of its history.

Not verified by me. Could be a bit high, but maybe not. We are a demented and bloodthirsty culture.

[O Really]

Heard on TV, paraphrased: Since 1776 the US has been engaged in armed hostilities of one sort or another 93% of its history.

Not verified by me. Could be a bit high, but maybe not. We are a demented and bloodthirsty culture.

Doesn't matter if it's exactly 93% or not. If it's 75%, that's way too much. I think I posted about the memorial park Lady O and I saw in Farmington NM that had monuments from 1776 forward. https://farmingtonnm.org/listings/all-v ... orial-park It way way too graphically clear that there has been essentially no time at all that the US has not been conducting war with somebody. It is not a peaceful nation.