Public Comment

America’s misguided priorities are rapidly driving more Americans into a downward spiral of poverty and despair fighting the COVID pandemic, systemic racism and economic inequality. We continue to pour obscene amounts of money into the Pentagon’s bottomless pit, with weapons systems they don’t need (example Space Force) and pay raises for failed military adventures. While our lawmakers obsess on the rights of the unborn child little concern is given for soldiers sent on failed missions or the millions of foreign civilians slaughtered, dismissed as necessary collateral damage for “the greater good”. Returning soldiers are often haunted by the horrors of war, many unable to return to civilian life, others ending their lives. Our leaders never admit their political blunders but send more of our men and women into battle convinced that our military firepower will eventually prevail. Remember President Nixon “we see light at the end of tunnel” and decades of deceit by General Westmorland. Daniel Ellsberg, who stole the Pentagon Papers at great personal peril, was the unsung hero. 

The US has such a long history of military blunders from Vietnam to Afghanistan. We demonetize the “enemy” as terrorists while engaging in brutal acts of terrorism carpet bombing, defoliating the country with Agent Orange, cluster bombs (Vietnam), or “precision guided missiles” which rarely hit their intended targets but kill thousands of civilians. The CIA, with an undisclosed budget, engages in criminal activities overthrowing governments or stealing their precious resources. For example, in 1953 Britain’s MI6 were willing partners with the CIA in a blatant theft of Iranian oil, overthrowing Iran’s burgeoning democracy. MI6 were shielded for their crimes by the British “official Secrets Act.” In the small island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, the local Chagossians were forced off the island at gunpoint by the US and British military and their beloved dogs drowned. 

The U.S. war machine has become a raging bull in the global china shop obsessed with “regime change” to service political agendas. George Bush’s brain, Karl Rove once boasted “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.” The destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan is their tragic legacy. 

From its birth, the US has a very dark history - genocide of Native Americans, the enslavement of Africans to the Louisiana Purchase and the annexation of northern Mexico in the Mexican-American War. 

President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana raised serious concerns of America’s overarching colonial ambitions but his courageous voice was silenced by a 1966 coup (later confirmed by former CIA intelligence officer John Stockwell). 

Congress is often compared to a red light district where members sell their souls to armies of lobbyists (pimps) who demand political favors in exchange for political donations. 

Even in the game of their global ‘queen’s gambit,’ efforts to open up new markets, the US has been a failure. Eighteen years following the U.S. invasion, Iraq’s largest trading partner is China, while Afghanistan’s is Pakistan, Somalia’s is the UAE (United Arab Emirates), and Libya’s is the European Union (EU). 

President Eisenhower warned against the “unwarranted influence” of America’s military-industrial complex but little has changed. Consider this alarming statistic, America’ a war machine costs more than the next ten militaries in the world combined but cannot win a war or vanquish a virus. Fearful of being accused of being weak on foreign threats our leaders insist on siphoning off 66% of U.S. federal discretionary spending to preserve and expand the US military machine. Meanwhile the Russians have breached our cybersecurity with relative ease and devastating consequences. 

China and the EU have become the winners the in world trade, without compromising the upkeep of their basic infrastructure. By comparison, America’s infrastructure resembles a third world country. China completed the largest high-speed rail network in the world in just 10 years and Europe has been building and expanding its high-speed network since the 1990s. By comparison, America high-speed rail remains a pipe dream. 

China has lifted 800 million people out of poverty, while America’s poverty rate has remained the same and child poverty has increased. America has the weakest social safety net of any developed country and no universal healthcare system. Fifty percent of Americans have little or no retirement income and are two paychecks from bankruptcy. 

Decades ago Martin Luther King Jr. warned us that “a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” 

Mercifully, the proverbial raging bull, Donald Trump has been dispatched to Mar-a-Lago. Full of anger he continues to use his clout to intimidate critics like Liz Cheney who supported his impeachment. Meanwhile, House minority leader, Kevin McCartney made a hasty trip to kiss the ring of the don and pledge his fealty. Even under President Biden there is little hope the war machine will lose its appetite for more and more federal dollars.