No mail on Saturday, maybe, but small-town police get armored personnel carriers?
Let's take a moment -- in the context of these bitter times, and President Obama's recent austerity budget proposal -- to celebrate the questions the residents of Keene, N.H., are asking their city council about the kind of world we're creating.
First of all, the grotesque insult of "austerity" in the shadow of limitless military spending is destroying our national sanity. And the proposed cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, mental health services, environmental cleanup, National Parks programs and even, yeah, Saturday mail delivery are miniscule compared to the unmet social needs we haven't yet begun to address in this country, in education, renewable energy and so much more. But we're spending with reckless abandon to arm ourselves and our allies and provoke our enemies, and sometimes arm them as well, creating the sort of world no one (almost no one) wants: a world of endless war.
The official 2012 Defense budget of $530 billion, and just a shade under that for 2013, leaves out an enormous amount of defense-related government spending. According to a recent piece in The Atlantic, when you add in, oh, the cost of our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, our spending on nuclear weapons development (relegated to the Department of Energy budget), Homeland Security, veterans' medical care (inadequate as it is, but rising), military aid to allies ($3 billion to Israel, for instance), and interest on the military's portion of the debt (projected to be $63.7 billion in 2013), our defense spending almost doubles, to $986.1 billion in 2012 and $994.3 billion in 2013.
In the last 13 years, according to Business Insider, U.S. military spending has increased 114 percent. We spend more on the military than the next 15 biggest military spenders combined -- and more than all 50 states spend, in total, on health, education, welfare and safety. In 2007, some $11 billion was simply written off as "lost" in Iraq, the Business Insider story notes.
And the military is, in effect, our 51st state, albeit one surrounded by barbed wire. "The total known land area occupied by U.S. bases and facilities is 15,654 square miles -- bigger than D.C., Massachusetts, and New Jersey combined," according to the article.
And beyond anything that appears on a ledger sheet, the unregulated military has carte blanche to spend the earth's resources and contaminate the planet. "The U.S. Department of Defense is the largest polluter in the world," Lucinda Marshall wrote at Common Dreams several years ago, "producing more hazardous waste than the five largest U.S. chemical companies combined."
This waste includes pesticides and defoliants (e.g., Agent Orange), solvents, petroleum, lead, mercury and, horrifically, depleted uranium and nuclear fallout. The military's legacy -- in Iraq, Afghanistan and Bosnia, where we have fought recent wars; on the tiny island of Vieques, off the coast of Puerto Rico, where the U.S. Navy tested weapons for more than 60 years; and in the Nevada desert and the Marshall Islands, where we tested our nuclear weapons above ground -- is cancer, birth defects and a devastated environment.
All to what end? "National defense" is perhaps the most cynical -- and effective -- lie in human history, commanding the quaking allegiance of the populace over and over again, justifying virtually any activity, devouring the planet's resources, and ever failing to deliver the promised peace, indeed, delivering only the conditions for the next war. Few things in today's world are more unsettling than the fact that "national defense" still owns the country's politics, its budget -- and the minds of far too many of its citizens.
Welcome, then, to Keene, N.H., a town of 23,000 people that, despite its low crime rate and general friendliness, was set at the end of last year to score a "tank" -- actually, an eight-ton Bearcat armored personnel vehicle -- for its police department, thanks to a nearly $300,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security.
When the news began circulating, the townspeople, instead of going along with the deal, actually stood up to the mayor and city council, not simply questioning the need for this military vehicle (even though it was "free"), but expressing concern that the militarization of the police department could harm their community.
An anti-tank petition garnered 500 signatures, and earlier this month more than 100 people, mostly opposing the tank, showed up at a city council meeting to speak their minds, according to the Keene Sentinel.
"This vehicle is continuing to fund the culture of war in this country, and Congress will continue to fuel the culture of war unless we do something," said Terry Clark, the lone city councilor to oppose the deal, as quoted in the Sentinel. "Do we want a militarized police force in Keene? We can take the lead and ask the council to rescind its decision, and have the courage to do what Congress does not."
In contrast, the Bearcat was defended by the government sales manager for Lenco, the vehicle's manufacturer, as quoted in Huffington Post: "I don't think there's any place in the country where you can say, 'That isn't a likely terrorist target.' ... If a group of terrorists decide to shoot up a shopping mall in a town like Keene, wouldn't you rather be prepared?"
The residents of Keene have so far said no to the fear peddlers. May their stand give all of us the courage to do the same.
- - -
Robert Koehler is an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist and nationally syndicated writer. His new book, Courage Grows Strong at the Wound (Xenos Press) is now available. Contact him at koehlercw@gmail.com or visit his website at commonwonders.com.
© 2012 TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
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Same goes for Pakistan, all of Pursia, Sudan, West Africa, North Africa, and all of Asia.
Yes, that's isolationalism .... tough cookies.
When the rest of the world decides they no longer want to "blow-themselves-up-real-good," then, we can invest $$$ for humanity purposes.
Until such time, lets take our bats and our balls and go home.
Men who are insecure about their masculinity cloak it in militarism.
The imbalance between the military that we need and the giant one that we have is killing us.
Other countries have only a department of defense, we actually have a War Department, which at one time it was called, pre-euphemism.
We need to take back our country from the lobbyists and contractors who march in and out of the treasury with pallet loads of money!
Militarization of police forces and NDAA which Obama insisted includes the right to detain American citizens. What do you honestly think the plan is? Because there is a plan being laid out. Don't accept it blindly through fear. Afghanistan bankrupted Russia and that's why they fell, we keep on this course and we too will fall.
The rest I totally agree with. Sad to say but it appears it's going to have to get a lot worse before anyone will do anything.
So while many decry the militarization of our city police, the ace that will ensure the armored car stays is the two school incidents. When a community's children as perceived to be at risk, this will trump the more theoretical fear of the federal government's continuing encroachment on our civil liberties.
Steven W Lindsey
state rep
Ches-3
Keene, NH
(One of two elected officials who opposed the acquisition of the armored car---the other being city councilor Terry Clark who was the city council's lone dissenter, not an easy road for one living in a small city.)
Councilor Terry M. Clark
Keene, NH
the Obama administration has been sending 5,000-pound "bunker buster" bombs to Israel. Since bombs were designed to penetrate Iran's underground nuclear facilities, the Bush administration had refrained from sending them for fear U.S. would be seen as endorsing an Israeli attack. Pentagon refused to comment on that possibility but said, "Make no mistake about it; United States is committed to security of Israel The problem is that could tempt Israel into launching another war.
Such dangers are inherent in U.S.-Israel alliance, but thanks to powerful lobby composed of major Jewish organizations, an arms industry that profits from U.S. military aid to Israel, , it is an alliance that no one who aspires to public office dares challenge. Republican candidates for president outdo one another in declaring their support for Israel.
Because of Wall Streets fiasco, Real Estate boondoggle our Govt. is now looking to cut the Public's Social Security and Medicare. the Feds QE 1,2 has increased all consumer goods 68%...like WE NEED MORE WAR?
more: http://www.wrmea.com/component/content/article/374-2011-december/10903-obamas-speech-to-the-un-in-distorting-the-facts-he-revealed-the-truth.html
Wars INVOLVING the US caused by Israel: none
In fact, your first invasion of Iraq led to bombs falling on us in retaliation, essentially YOU brought US into a war. And America has never intervened in a war between Arabs and Israelis, though the British and French did.
When the dollar reserve system collapses soon our standards of livings will drop, but at least we'll have our liberty back.
We have seen SWAT teams and police killing and treating often completely innocent families with utter brutality, shooting and killing family pets for no justifiable reason, all for non-violent "drug" offenses with many more than a few shot to death. This abusive treatment of American citizens CANNOT be justified for ANY reason! This is fascist treatment and mindset, NOT American!
“There are more than 50,000 police paramilitary raids in the US each year – more than 130 every day. Virtually all are for prosecution of drug warrants.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/swat-team-gunned-marine-find-drugs/story?id=13702756 Ex Marine shot 60 times – NO drugs found!
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/153048/swat_teams,_flash-bang_grenades,_shooting_the_family_pet%3A_the_shocking_outcomes_of_police_militarization_in_the_war_on_drugs/
I have a strong suspicion that the influx of more genuine military personnel into a lot of police forces would decrease assaults on civilians rather than the reverse. And maybe some of the thugs and bullies who are attracted to police work would have to pull in their horns a bit in the presence of real warriors.