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lune 6, 2012
Page 20
Military Spending Doesn’t Buy Safety
Adding to the debt with unwanted weapons systems
by
E lizabeth R ose
Are you wonder
ing where your tax
dollars are going?
Then take a look at
the $642.5 billion
stuffed into the Na
tional Defense Au
thorization Act, which the House
of Representatives recently ap
proved.
House Republicans may spout
plenty o f concern about the
nation's budget deficit, but their
version of the Pentagon's bud
get tops the spending levels they
had agreed to a few months ago
by $8 billion. It's also $4 billion
above the total that President
Barack Obama and the Penta
gon requested.
These politicians are trying to
fund Cold War-era weap
ons that our m ilitary
doesn't want and that
have been dismissed as
outdated and unneces
sary by the top brass —
leaders like Gen. James
Cartwright, the retired
vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of S taff and a form er com
mander of the country's nuclear
forces.
The U.S. military budget is six
times that of China, and tops the
next 17 highest-spending coun
tries combined.
Military spending has played
a significant role in increasing
the national debt. Over the last
decade, the Pentagon's budget
has nearly doubled.
The wars in Iraq and Af
ghanistan have also contributed
to this soaring increase in de
fense spending and to record
deficits.
The drawdown of troops from
Afghanistan and Iraq should
mean the Pentagon will spend
less. But giant military contrac
tors have dumped a fortune into
campaign contributions and lob
bying, making sure that any and
all anticipated savings are going
to expensive weapons systems
— all paid for by you through
your taxes.
The 10 biggest government
contractors are all military con
tractors. These companies each
spend millions of dollars a year
on pol itical contributions and then
millions more on lobbying cam
p aig n s. A fter the S uprem e
Court's Citizens United ruling,
which allowed unlimited corpo
rate spending on political cam
paigns, these contractors are
spending even more to win over
lawmakers. And judging from
the way they voted for that
bloated Pentagon budget, the
investment is paying off.
A recent study by the Univer
sity o f M aryland found that
three-quarters of A m ericans
favored cutting military spend
ing, including two-thirds of Re
publicans as well as nine in 10
Democrats. This study also con
firmed that respondents gener
ally underestimate the magni
tude of the military budget, and
that when they receive informa
tion about its size — they're
more likely to support Pentagon
spending cuts.
Americans support our troops.
Everyone wants America to be
safe. But that doesn’t mean we
need to buy expensive weapons
systems that Pentagon hasn't
even asked for. Throwing money
at the Pentagon doesn't buy us
safety. It just means that our
grandchildren will be paying for
weapons systems we don't need
and can't use because a defense
contractor has buttered up a law
maker at taxpayer expense.
T he S enate is u n lik ely to
p a s s th e h ik e in m ilita ry
sp ending that the H ouse R e
p u b lic an s voted for, but it
show s that if the G O P seizes
co n tro l o f the S enate in N o
vem ber, U ncle Sam w ill be
buying m ore big w eapons sy s
tem s.
Elizabeth Rose is the com
munications director o f Cam
paign fo r America's Future.
Hate in the Political and Media Arena
Confronting
poisonous
language
by
M arian W right
E delman
The growth in hate
groups and the use of
their divisive and negative lan
guage in the mainstream politi
cal and media arena is cause for
national alarm.
Already this year several hor
rendous hate crimes, possible
hate crimes, and crimes com
mitted by people with ties to hate
groups have received national
attention. In the first week of
May a 15-month-old girl was
shot and killed along with her
mother, grandmother, and her
m other’s boyfriend allegedly by
Arizona white supremacist, bor
der vigilante and longtime neo-
Nazi J.T. Ready.
he murders were the appar
ent result of domestic violence
but were tragically little surprise
from a man the Southern Pov
erty Law Center’s Mark Potok
called “a violent thug who typi
fies the very worst element in
the A m erican nativist m ove
m ent.”
In Tulsa, Okla., hate crime
charges w ere filed in April
against two white men who went
on a Good Friday shoot
ing spree in a black
neighborhood randomly
targeting and killing three
black victims and injur
ing two more. In Jack-
son, Miss., three white
men pled guilty to federal hate
crime charges in March after
admitting to a pattern of harass
ing and assaulting black people
that ended with one of the men
killing James C. Anderson in
June 2011 by driving over him
with a pickup truck.
And in Sanford, Fla., federal
investigators considered whether
hate crime charges might apply
to the February killing of un
armed black teenager Trayvon
Martin who was followed and
killed by self-appointed neigh
b o rh o o d w atch m an G eorge
Zimmerman.
For 40 years the Southern
Poverty Law Center’s mission
has been to fight hate and big
otry and seek justice for the
m ost vulnerable m em bers of
society. In its most recent Intel
ligence Report, the news on hate
groups in America was frighten
ing. T here w ere 1,018 hate
groups in the United States in
2011 continuing a trend of sig
nificant growth that has lasted
more than 10 years.
The Southern Poverty Law
C en ter notes “ [tlh e radical
right grew explosively in 2011,
the third such dram atic expan
sion in as many years. The
grow th was fueled by super
heated fears generated by eco
nomic dislocation, a prolifera
tion of dem onizing conspiracy
theories, the changing racial
m akeup of A m erica, and the
prospect o f four more years
under a black president who
many on the far right view as
an enem y to their country.”
The report continues: “The
truly stunning grow th cam e in
the anti-governm ent “Patriot”
m o v e m e n t— co ns pi r a c y -
m inded groups that see the
federal governm ent as their pri
mary enem y... M any A m eri
cans, infused with populist fury
over bank and auto bailouts
and a feeling that they had lost
their country, joined Patriot
groups. The sw elling o f the
Patriot m ovem ent since that
tim e has been astounding.”
over from the fringe into m ain
stream politics: J.T. Ready, the
white suprem acist and alleged
shooter, was a vigilante border
patroller, form er A rizona Re
publican precinct com m ittee
man and candidate for local
office who w as applauded,
endorsed, and sponsored as an
elder in the M ormon church by
form er state Senate president
Russell Pearce, an architect
and lead sponsor of A rizona’s
d raco n ian an ti-im m ig ra tio n
law. Pearce was him self voted
out of office after a recall elec
tion forced by a petition drive
last N ovem ber— the first such
recall in A rizona history. Now
he is Vice C hair of A rizona’s
Republican Party.
W hat does it mean for the
country our children and grand
children are inheriting when
there is so much poisonous d i
visiveness in the political and
m edia culture and the num ber
of hate groups is on the rise?
A n o th er o f the S outhern
Poverty Law C enter’s signa
ture initiatives is the Teaching
Tolerance program w hich pro
vides resources for educators
The apparent killer in the to help create school environ
Arizona murders is a prime m ents that are w elcom ing and
example of how hate can cross nurturing— “classroom s where
equality and justice are not ju st
taught, but lived.” T eaching
T o leran c e’s goal is to help
teachers prepare the next gen
eration to live in our already
diverse w orld and nation. This
is a goal we all need to share
and pursue with urgency.
Children of color will be the
majority in 2019—just seven
years from now. W hether w e’re
prepared to celebrate our chil
dren of color or meet them with
fear and hatred will shape their
futures and America’s future.
As frightening as the rise in
hate groups is, the truth is that
there are still m illions more
A m ericans who d o n ’t condone
hatred or bigotry and never
will. Their voices need to speak
up and be heard— in our fam i
lies, schools, faith congrega
tions, communities, political and
m edia life.
We need to have candid con
versations about race, confront
racial profiling, and promote ra
cial healing right now. We must
make ugly words designed to
demean or disrespect any hu
man being unacceptable in our
presence and national life.
Marian Wright Edelman is
president o f the Children's De
fense Fund.