War is Peace

By John Dennehy

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has been showing up in the nation’s news headlines over the past several weeks for an unusual reason; he wants to cut military spending.  He wants to trim spending by cutting a few archaic and failed programs and by reducing bureaucratic costs in the top heavy military he commands.  That may not seem like such a bold move until you consider this; Robert Gates was appointed Defense Secretary by George W. Bush, a president who had declared himself a “war president”. 

In the year-long debate over healthcare reform the question that came up again and again was; how can we afford it?  Even though about half of our federal taxes go into military spending*, diverting some of that money to help defray health costs was barely even mentioned.  During the current recession local school districts around Smithtown, Kings Park, and just about everywhere else have had to lay off teachers and cut programs because of cuts in education funding – and the notion that money would be better spent on books rather than bombs is still little more than a catchy bumper sticker.  ** And, now even the Defense Secretary is talking about trimming the fat – what more will it take? 

Data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies shows that, the US military spending in 2010 will roughly equal the rest of the world combined.  Still, according to an article in the Washington Post here congress may override reason and the Defense Secretary and pour even more money into the war machine.  Why? Well, for one it’s about jobs.  High tech fighter planes don’t build themselves.  It’s also about money and public perception.  The mostly faceless corporations that get the lion’s share of those hundreds of billions of tax dollars have a lot of spare change to throw around and money wins elections.  Plus, it’s political suicide to look weak on Defense.  So even at the cost of the nation’s health and education and now perhaps even over the protest of the Defense Secretary, our tax dollars continue to be spent on blowing things up.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children...
This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

* This figure combines the Dept. of Defense, military spending in other departments and military costs in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

** The U.S. Department of Defense employees around two million people, combined civilian and military.  The U.S. department of Education employees around five thousand people.