Pentagon

Military Spending In 2019 Hits Highest Increase In A Decade

May 3, 2020 Marlee Kokotovic, Nation of Change. Educate! Military Budget, Pentagon, Weapons Sales

Earlier this week a new analysis was reported showing the world’s military spent a combined $1.9 trillion last year with the U.S. being the top spenders. According to the most current annual report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the top military spenders after the U.S. were China, India, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. Total spending in 2019 was 3.6% higher than in the previous year and accounted for 2.2% of global gross domestic product (GDP). “This is the highest level of spending since the 2008 global financial crisis and probably represents a peak in expenditure,” says Nan Tian, a researcher at SIPRI.

US To Mobilize Military Reservists In ‘Anti-Drug’ Operation Against Venezuela

May 2, 2020 By Ricardo Vaz and Lucas Koerner, Venezuelanalysis. Educate! Oil, Pentagon, US military, US Regime Change, Venezuela

Mérida - US President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Thursday activating armed forces reservists for an “anti-narcotics” mission in the Caribbean. “The Secretary of Defense is directed to order to active duty for not more than 365 consecutive days, any units, and any individual members not assigned to a unit organized to serve as a unit, of the Selected Reserve under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Defense, not to exceed 200 Selected Reservists at any one time, as he considers necessary,” the decree reads. A Pentagon spokesperson told the Daily Caller that the defense secretary will use the order to mobilize a unit of the Air National Guard to aid in Washington’s “Enhanced Department of Defense Counternarcotic Operation in the Western Hemisphere.”

Multibillion-Dollar Bailout For Arms Industry Amid Rising COVID-19 Toll

April 25, 2020 Bill Van Auken, WSWS. Educate! Iran, Military Budget, Pandemic, Pentagon

“I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea,” US President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday in a startling threat that could trigger a catastrophic war throughout the Middle East and beyond. The threat to launch a war 7,000 miles from US shores in the midst of coronavirus pandemic, whose death toll in the US is rapidly approaching 50,000, comes on the heels of Trump’s Monday night tweet announcing a suspension of all immigration into the United States, a transparent attempt to scapegoat immigrants for the ravages of the pandemic and the layoffs of tens of millions of workers. There is in both of these actions an expression of desperation and a flailing about in the face of a national and global crisis for which the US ruling class has no viable solution.

Creating The Enemies They Need: Militarism’s Strange Bedfellows

April 25, 2020 Danny Sjursen, Responsible Statecraft. Educate! Foreign Policy, Pentagon, Trump, Wars and Militarism

Listen to America’s imperial proconsuls long enough and they often let slip something approaching truth — perhaps exceptionalist confession is more accurate. Take Admiral Craig S. Faller, commander of U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), with responsibility for all of Latin America. Just before the COVID-19 crisis shifted into full gear, on March 11 he testified before the House Armed Services Committee and admitted, “There will be an increase in the U.S. military presence in the hemisphere later this year.” Naturally, admiral, but why? Well, if one can push past the standard, mindless military dialectics — i.e. “bad guys” — the admiral posits a ready justification: Russia and (most especially) China. With his early career molded in the last, triumphalist Reagan-era Cold War, Faller may be a true believer in new dichotomies that must feel like coming home for the 1983 Naval Academy graduate.

Now Isn’t The Time To Push For Nuclear Modernization

April 25, 2020 William D. Hartung, Defense News. Create! Health Care, Nuclear Weapons, Pentagon, Trump

If the new coronavirus pandemic has taught us one thing, it is that we need to rethink what we need to do to keep America safe. That’s why Secretary of Defense Mark Esper’s recent tweet calling modernization of U.S. nuclear forces a “top priority ... to protect the American people and our allies” seemed so tone deaf. COVID-19 has already killed more Americans than died in the 9/11 attacks and the Iraq and Afghan wars combined, with projections of many more to come. The pandemic underscores the need for a systematic, sustainable, long-term investment in public health resources, from protective equipment, to ventilators and hospital beds, to research and planning resources needed to deal with future outbreaks of disease. As Kori Schake, the director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, has noted: “We’re going to see enormous downward pressure on defense spending because of other urgent American national needs like health care.”

War, Irony And The New Normal

April 18, 2020 Robert C. Koehler, Common Wonders. Create! COVID-19, Empire Economy, Pentagon, Wars and Militarism

The uber-irony about the deadly coronavirus is that, as it claims lives, endangers millions and interrupts the social normal, threatening unprecedented global chaos, it is also quietly informing us what we must do to create a better world — and, indeed, creating it, in certain ways, as we look on in stunned wonder. The ”what we must do” part is obvious to many: “After all,” writes Lawrence Wittner, “why not work cooperatively to save humanity from massive global death and economic collapse rather than continue to devote $1.8 trillion a year to waging wars and engaging in vast military buildups with the goal of slaughtering one another?” And Khury Petersen-Smith, pointing out how xenophobic racism at the level of national government — e.g., Donald Trump’s initial impulse to blame China for the virus — fans the flames of public stupidity, writes: “The impact will be disastrous.

Trump’s Own Military Mafia

April 9, 2020 Danny Sjursen, Tom Dispatch. Educate! Military Industrial Complex, Pentagon, Trump, West Point

Every West Point class votes on an official motto. Most are then inscribed on their class rings. Hence, the pejorative West Point label "ring knocker." (As legend has it, at military meetings a West Pointer “need only knock his large ring on the table and all Pointers present are obliged to rally to his point of view.”) Last August, the class of 2023 announced theirs: “Freedom Is Not Free.” Mine from the class of 2005 was “Keeping Freedom Alive.” Each class takes pride in its motto and, at least theoretically, aspires to live according to its sentiments, while championing the accomplishments of fellow graduates. But some cohorts do stand out. Take the class of 1986 ("Courage Never Quits"). As it happens, both Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are members of that very class, as are a surprisingly wide range of influential leaders in...

Navy Virus-Laden Carrier Scuttled In Guam – Ship Captain Sacked

April 3, 2020 Bruce Gagnon, Space for Peace. Educate! COVID-19, health, Navy, Pentagon

Having come to Guam from a 'flag waving visit' to Vietnam, the virus-stricken USS Theodore Roosevelt nuclear aircraft carrier, with 5,000 crew members on board, docked in Guam on March 27 after the number of positive cases onboard continued to grow. (Two U.S. Navy aircraft carriers reported cases of coronavirus onboard in March 2020. A pair of cases were reported aboard the USS Ronald Reagan at a naval base in Japan and dozens were reported aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt by the end of the month.) At the Pentagon on Wednesday, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly told reporters 114 of the warship’s sailors had tested positive. So far, over 600 of the sailor's nearly 5,000 crew members have tested negative, Modly said. He couldn’t yet say how long the Roosevelt might stay in Guam, or the evacuation’s effect on the fleet’s readiness.

Pentagon Asks To Keep Future Spending Secret

April 1, 2020 Steven Aftergood, Federation of American Scientists. Educate! Budget, Congress, Pentagon, Transparency

The Department of Defense is quietly asking Congress to rescind the requirement to produce an unclassified version of the Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) database. Preparation of the unclassified FYDP, which provides estimates of defense spending for the next five years, has been required by law since 1989 (10 USC 221) and has become an integral part of the defense budget process. But the Pentagon said that it should no longer have to offer such information in an unclassified format, according to a DoD legislative proposal for the pending FY 2021 national defense authorization act. “The Department is concerned that attempting publication of unclassified FYDP data might inadvertently reveal sensitive information,” the Pentagon said in its March 6, 2020 proposal.

Absurdity And The Army: The Myth Of ‘Readiness’ In The Corona-Age

March 31, 2020 By Danny Sjursen, Responsiblestatecraft.org Educate! Coronavirus, COVID-19, Pentagon, US military

Banality may mask absurd tragedy. The Pentagon specializes in such veiled bromides. If anything, this Age of Corona is thus illustrative. To wit, Americans awoke on Thursday to this report in the nation’s “paper of record” — “The Army earlier this week ordered a halt to most training, exercises and nonessential activities that require troops to be in close contact…but abruptly reversed itself. …” On a certain level, the rescinded order made sense. After all, military decisions flow downward. Atop that hierarchy sits the commander-in-chief, who, just days ago, hinted at rapidly curtailed social distancing policies, a reopened economy, and visions of “packed churches” on Easter Sunday. That’s two odd weeks from now. Still, in the wake of the Army’s volte-face, word was, a sort of befuddlement ensued — in the ranks, and among commanders.

Top U.S. General Resists Trump Administration’s Efforts To Provoke War With Iran

March 29, 2020 James North, Mondoweiss. Resist! Iran, Iraq, Pentagon, Trump

A brave U.S. army lieutenant general may be risking his career to resist Trump administration efforts to provoke war with Iran. Robert P. White, who commands American forces in Iraq, last week wrote what the New York Times called a “blunt memo,” in which he opposed a new plan by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and others to attack Iranian-allied militias inside Iraq. Most of the world is concentrating on fighting the coronavirus pandemic. But a small group of powerful men are taking advantage of the huge distraction to try and instigate Iran into a war, apparently hoping against all logic that a conflict will prompt regime change there that will neutralize Teheran’s influence in the Mideast. This warmongering group includes Pompeo; Robert O’Brien, the U.S. national security adviser; some top Israelis, including Benjamin Netanyahu; elements of the Israel lobby inside the U.S., and Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

It’s Time To Debate Pentagon Spending

February 29, 2020 William D. Hartung, Otherwords.org Educate! Pentagon, Spending

It’s hard to overstate the cost — in dollars and security — of our many wars. What do the candidates say? Despite hopes to the contrary, the Pentagon’s new, $740 billion-plus budget will waste scarce tax dollars while making America less safe. With the presidential primaries accelerating, it’s time for the candidates to address this urgent issue.

U.S. Military Could Collapse Within 20 Years Due To Climate Change

February 16, 2020 Nafeez Ahmed, Vice.com. Educate! climate crisis, Pentagon, Wars and Militarism

According to a new U.S. Army report, Americans could face a horrifically grim future from climate change involving blackouts, disease, thirst, starvation and war. The study found that the US military itself might also collapse. This could all happen over the next two decades, the report notes. The senior US government officials who wrote the report are from several key agencies including the Army, Defense Intelligence Agency, and NASA. The study called on the Pentagon to urgently prepare for the possibility that domestic power, water, and food systems might collapse due to the impacts of climate change as we near mid-century. The report was commissioned by General Mark Milley, Trump's new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, making him the highest-ranking military officer in the country (the report also puts him at odds with Trump, who does not take climate change seriously.)

Pentagon Racks Up $35 Trillion In Accounting Changes In One Year

January 23, 2020 By Anthony Capaccio, Bloomberg.com Educate! Department of Defense, Finance and the Economy, Pentagon

The Pentagon made $35 trillion in accounting adjustments last year alone -- a total that’s larger than the entire U.S. economy and underscores the Defense Department’s continuing difficulty in balancing its books. The latest estimate is up from $30.7 trillion in 2018 and $29 trillion in 2017, the first year adjustments were tracked in a concerted way, according to Pentagon figures and a lawmaker who’s pursued the accounting morass. The figure dwarfs the $738 billion of defense-related funding in the latest U.S. budget...

Climate And War: Bill McKibben’s Deadly Miscalculation

January 19, 2020 Luke Orsborne, Wrong Kind of Green. Educate! climate crisis, Energy, Pentagon, Wars and Militarism

In late June 2019, author and founder of 350.org Bill McKibben produced an article for the New York Review of Books whose headline echoed a growing awareness of the significant role of US militarism in our current ecological crisis. The hook, unfortunately, appeared to be little more than a ruse to entice those who harbor legitimate concerns about the military’s role in the climate crisis in order to then minimize those concerns. What followed was a presentation of selective information, including a superficial critique of US military energy efficiency, that in the end only obfuscates the true cost and context of US militarism as it applies to the health of people and the planet. The result was that rather than highlighting the need for deep structural change which involves putting an end to aggressive US foreign policy, McKibben came across as a cautious cheerleader for the continued centrality of US militarism in global affairs as we enter into an increasingly chaotic, climate destabilized world.

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