From Philadephia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch’s newsletter (you can sign up here — it’s free):
>> The billions for a more just, less racist America are hiding in plain sight at the PentagonĀ
You couldnāt blameĀ the legions of marchersĀ whoāve taken over some of Americaās streets this past month in the name ofĀ justice for George FloydĀ for wondering which army they were fighting. Many protests have been met with weapons of warfare ā withĀ choking tear gasĀ (actually, the UNĀ doesnāt even allow thatĀ in war!), sharpshootersĀ taking out eyesĀ withĀ rubber bullets, or cops tossing grenades that go flash and bang, occasionally with an armored personnel carrier as a scenic backdrop.
To protesters, the massive response by helmeted robocops is proving their point that America spends too much on policing, and it does!Ā $115 billion a year to be exact. But what if the problem with āmilitarized policeā isnāt only the police but the āmilitarizedā part? … a sickness that manifests itself inĀ warrior cops at homeĀ but also drone strikes in an endless U.S. āforever warā overseas.
What if the money toĀ pay for all the social programsĀ that our over-policed cities really need ā to hire school nurses and buy new textbooks, and recruit a new kind of army of social workers and drug counselors ā isnāt onlyĀ supporting your local police, butĀ hiding in plain sightĀ on the left bank of the Potomac River?
No political leaders from either party ever ask how taxpayers could possibly afford the $1.5 trillionĀ for theĀ Pentagonās underwhelming F-35 stealth jet, even as your coronavirus nurse works the ICU wearing a Hefty bag.Ā ā Will Bunch
Defund the police?Ā Sure. But real leadersĀ defund the Pentagon.
āOur security investments have been in too many of the wrong places,āĀ Matt Duss, the top foreign-policy advisor toĀ former presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, told me this week, in what could arguably be called an understatement. āWeāve need to have a serious conversation about reducing the defense budget.ā
Do we ever! The current Pentagon annual budget ofĀ $736 billion is larger than military spendingĀ byĀ the next 10 biggest nationsĀ combined āĀ and weāre talking about places like China, Russia and India. (For the curious, only Chinaās military spends more than that $115 billion America spends just on cops.) Yet somehow, no political leaders from either party ever askĀ how taxpayers could possibly affordĀ the $1.5 trillion (yes, with a ātā) thatās gone down a sinkhole for theĀ Pentagonās underwhelming F-35 stealth jet, even as your coronavirus nurseĀ works the ICU wearing a Hefty bag.
The weird part of this, though, is the way thatĀ congressional DemocratsĀ ā who once could be counted on to at least pay lip service to curbing the military-industrial complex ā haveĀ thrown in the towelĀ on defense cuts in the Trump era. When Democrats re-took control of the House in 2019, their $733 billion proposal for the PentagonĀ was only a tad smallerĀ than President Trumpās bloated plan.
āMembers of Congress are very concerned about being cast asĀ āweak on defense,āā Duss told me ā a problem thatās become deeply rooted in the so-called āwar on terrorā era, post 9/11. Thereās other issues ā Americaās politically wiredĀ allies in the Middle EastĀ and elsewhere pushing for a U.S. military presence, andĀ defense jobs scatteredĀ across so many congressional districts.
Despite all these roadblocks, Congress, led by Dussā boss, Vermontās Sanders, last year turned heads with an unprecedented vote toĀ end U.S. support for Saudi Arabiaās warĀ in Yemen ā thwarted, of course, by a Trump veto. Now, in a George Floyd moment where radical change seems possible, SandersĀ is pushing an amendmentĀ to immediate cut defense spending by 10 percent to funnelĀ more than $70 billion into anti-poverty programs.
CurrentlyĀ the most ambitious dreamerĀ among the defund-the-Pentagon crowd isĀ California Rep. Barbara Lee, the only House member to cast a ānoā vote on authorizing the anti-terror war in 2001.Ā Her resolutionĀ aims to cut U.S. defense spending roughly in half ā some $350 million ā which would includeĀ canceling Trumpās Space ForceĀ (the real one, not theĀ badly reviewed TV show) and getting rid of a majority of Americaās global archipelago of military bases. Canāt afford it? With a deep economic recession and pressing social needs,Ā can we afford not to?
Taking on the military-industrial complexĀ isnāt a distraction from the demands on the street for racial justice; rather, it cuts to the core of the problem. Whether armed men areĀ firing tear gas into Lafayette SquareĀ orĀ Predator dronesĀ into weddingsĀ in Afghanistan, the amount of money that America spends on suppressing, attacking and killing human beings is obscene. And thereās a new generation,Ā with a new explanation, thatās figuring this out.