Military

SPREADING WEAPONS IN THE NAME OF PEACE

Jim Hightower — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Hey, Bucko – stop whining about this sour economy, and start thinking about the plight of others.

For example: arms dealers. You've probably paid no attention to the hard fact that the global recession caused worldwide arms sales to plummet by 8.5 percent last year, pinching the profits of U.S. weapons pushers. The only saving grace in this down beat news is that America's glorious arms industry did retain its position as the number one supplier of weapons to the world. We still control nearly 40 percent of the global market, with Russia a distant second. But before you set off a mess of fireworks in celebration, note that U.S. sales in 2009 were down by more than $15 billion from the previous year.

On the up side, the developing world is still in a buying mood! Last year, such emerging nations as Brazil, Venezuela, Iraq, India, and Vietnam poured billions into purchases of military playthings that go "Boom!" Again, U.S. dealers were the big winners, controlling a third of the arms trade in this robust market.

The greatest news for American purveyors of killing machines, however, is Iran. This rising Mid-east power has spooked the U.S. and Israel, so, in the vague hope of countering Iran's growing punch, the White House and Congress are about to okay a blockbuster sale to the monarchial rulers of Saudi Arabia. Some $90-billion-worth of top-line fighter jets, helicopters, naval armaments, and other sophisticated war machinery would go to the Saudis – the largest single sale of U.S. arms ever. The theory is that (somehow or other, maybe, possibly, sometime in the future) this escalation of military testosterone in the explosive Mid-east might produce harmony.

Good luck with that. But, hey – if it jacks up profits for our arms dealers, what's not to like about it?

PROTECTING AMERICA BY PULPING BOOKS

Jim Hightower — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

One especially-ugly word an author never wants to hear is: "pulp."

To pulp a book is not merely to remove it from sale, but literally to destroy it, reducing the paper itself – and all of your words and thoughts – to a goopy chemical mash. I've had one of my books threatened with pulping even before it went on sale, so I can empathize with Anthony Shaffer, who has just had the first printing of his book gooped by a gang goofy censors in the Pentagon.

Shaffer, a lieutenant colonel who served as an Army intelligence officer in Afghanistan, had written "Operation Dark Heart," an unflattering assessment of America's military intelligence bureaucracy. Playing by the rules, Col. Schaffer had dutifully submitted his manuscript to the Army prior to publication, getting its official approval in January to publish.

So, 10,000 copies were printed and placed in a distribution warehouse, about 100 advance copies were sent to book reviewers, and Shaffer even received the endorsement of a former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, who hailed the memoir as "one terrific book."

But in July, the goofiness hit the fan. Someone in DIA began objecting to Shaffer's critique, and suddenly some 250 passages were deemed to contain military secrets. These so-called "secrets" were mostly well-known facts already published in news articles, wikipedia, and elsewhere. But Shaffer's permission to publish was abruptly retracted. The Pentagon brass then bought the 10,000 warehoused copies – and, in the overbearing name of national security, had them pulped.

The pulping merely proves Shaffer's point about the heavy-handed stupidity of the military "intelligence" establishment, while also showing once again that the Pentagon brass has way too many of our tax dollars to play with.

A GENTLER NAME FOR PSYCHIC WARFARE

Jim Hightower — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

When running from the law, one common maneuver that criminals make is to change their names.

Adopting an alias has also been tried as a public relations strategy by corporations that find themselves struck with an image problem. Most recently, this deception has been employed by Blackwater, the infamous government contractor involved in so many nefarious deeds that it now disguises itself with an inscrutable new moniker: Xe. Fittingly, Xe is the abbreviation for xenon, a chemical defined as a colorless gaseous element!

Seeing name changes work for criminals and corporations, the pentagon has decided to give it a try. Since Vietnam days, the military's covert program of psychic warfare and espionage has had the ominous name of "psy ops," short for psychological operations.

However, the brass now sees this term as a PR negative that spooks and even terrorizes people around the world. Stating the obvious, a former head of psy ops says; "Somehow it gives a nefarious connotation." Today's modern Army has decided that the name complicates its mission of getting into the heads of soldiers and civilians behind enemy lines, so, psy ops is no more.

Oh, the program continues, with soldiers trained by the 4th Psychological Operations Group at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, "to influence the behavior of foreign target audiences." But, by a June Pentagon decree, it has been rebranded with the gentler, even-boring name of Military Information Support Operations – or, MISO.

Hmmmm, MISO. Isn't that a salty, soy-based seasoning used in Japanese cooking? Worse, "miso" is a common prefix taken from the Greek word for hatred, giving us such negative terms as misogyny (hatred of women) and misology (hatred of reasoning).

Maybe it's the mission that needs fixing, not the name.

Look Out for the Blimp That Doesn't Blink

Jim Hightower — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

I've always wondered: What was the guy who invented bagpipes really trying to make?

Well, at least that wheezing, whining invention turned out to be merely irritating, not actually dangerous. Leave it to the Dr. Strangelovian schemers at the Pentagon, however, to come up with an invention that is both irritating and truly dangerous, as well as being a galloping rip-off of us taxpayers.

ONE MOTHER MAKES A DIFFERENCE

Jim Hightower — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Ordinary Americans can make a big difference, even against great odds, when they dare to stand up and challenge The Powers That Be.

Cheryl Harris dared to confront two of the biggest powers: the Pentagon and its favorite corporation, Halliburton. “I’m not going to sit around quietly,” she said determinedly early this year. What prompted her defiance was the death of one of her sons in Iraq. Ryan wasn’t killed by the enemy he’d been sent to fight – but by the shower in his own barracks. He was electrocuted, apparently suffering a long and painful death.

Ms. Harris asked questions. She got lies. Army officials blamed Ryan, saying he’d gone into the shower with “a small appliance.” She knew her son better than that, so she kept pushing for real answers. With the help of a lawyer, she eventually uncovered the fact that this shower was connected to a water pump that had been improperly wired.

KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary that has been paid $24 billion by the Pentagon to do such basic work in Iraq as electrical wiring, had known 11 months prior to Ryan’s electrocution that there were severe electrical problems in that building. KBR officials, however, scoffed at Ms. Harris, saying that their contract with the Pentagon included no responsibility to prevent such deaths.

Now, though, the corporate scoffing has subsided substantially, for Cheryl Harris’s insistent activism reached Congress, which forced the Pentagon to investigate. It turns out that Ryan is not the only victim; 18 of our soldiers have died from electrocution in Iraq. The investigation reveals a pattern of shoddy electrical work, KBR has now been found guilty of “serious contractual noncompliance” for jobs it has done in Iraq, and the Army has recently reopened its investigation into Ryan’s death.

All because one mother would not stay quiet. She dared to question authority, then she questioned their answers.

THE ARMY EXPERIENCE CENTER

Jim Hightower — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

From football to beach volleyball, competitive games can get your juices going.

But the ultimate game, the one that'll give you the greatest rush, is... what? Why, it's war, of course. Yeah, man, you literally get to kill the other team! How great is that?

Such thinking (if it can be called thinking) is behind the latest leap in marketing by the U.S. Army. In its constant effort to lure young people into the killing business, the office of military recruitment has come up with a whiz bang showcase to appeal to a generation that's been raised on computer games and that hangs out at the mall a lot. It's called the "Army Experience Center," and the first one has opened right across from the Dave & Busters food and fun outlet in a mall in northeast Philadelphia.

With more than 14,000 square feet of prime mall space, the experience center is bigger than three basketball courts and is filled with lots of dazzle. There are nearly 80 video gaming stations, all sorts of interactive exhibits, a replica command-and-control center, and – best of all – a bunch of high-tech simulators that let the kids get a feel for the military action of, say, a Black Hawk helicopter.

The simulators are way cool. For example, youngsters can sit in a model chopper with a simulator that makes it seem as though they're ripping right over a mountain village, and – get this – they get the thrill of shooting at enemies in the village! Yes, the virtural thrill of the kill coming to a mall near you. And, indeed, the army says it hopes to replicate the experience all across the country.

One enthusiastic Army general says that the center is "a learning laboratory." Yeah, but... do we really want youngsters learning that stuff? Not to worry, say the recruiters, for the Army does have rules – for example, while the "laboratory" is open to all ages, kids can't play the video games until they're 13. No toddlers allowed.

ONE MOTHER MAKES A DIFFERENCE

Jim Hightower — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Ordinary Americans can make a big difference, even against great odds, when they dare to stand up and challenge The Powers That Be.

All because one mother would not stay quiet. She dared to question authority, then she questioned their answers.

THE ARMY EXPERIENCE CENTER

Jim Hightower — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

From football to beach volleyball, competitive games can get your juices going.

But the ultimate game, the one that'll give you the greatest rush, is... what? Why, it's war, of course. Yeah, man, you literally get to kill the other team! How great is that?

BUSH’S EMPTY PROMISE TO WOUNDED VETS

Jim Hightower — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

When Bear Stearns, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae got in a financial crunch, George W was Georgie-on-the-spot, rushing out with a bailout package of more than $130 billion.

But, where is George when America’s wounded veterans – including thousands severely wounded in his misguided Iraq war – need him to act? Last year, the public was disgusted to learn of the scandalous mistreatment these vets were getting at the Army’s Walter Reed hospital and other VA medical centers.

Caught unaware by the furor, Bush hurriedly promised to do something, and in February he claimed success. His army surgeon general told Congress that “we are entirely staffed at the point we need to be,” adding with bravado that “a key element of our warrior ethos is that we never leave a soldier behind on the battlefield – or lost in a bureaucracy.”

Great line! Mission accomplished!

But wait – why aren’t veterans applauding? Because they know that claiming progress is not the same as making it. In June, congressional staffers investigated a wounded vet center in Texas that was set up for 649 patients, but is now jammed with more than 1,300. Another 350 vets are struck on a waiting list and some will languish there up to a year, even though many are at high risk of suicide. Instead of being “entirely staffed,” the center has only half the number of nurse case managers it needs.

Why is there such an outrageous gap between Bush’s promise and performance? The Bushites claim that, gosh, they simply didn’t anticipate so many wounded soldiers coming out of Iraq. Excuse me! The war has been going on for more than five years, and the awful number of casualties has been reported daily. How could they not know?

I’ll bet that if our vets had names like Freddie, Fannie, and Bear – Bush would have covered all of their needs, pronto.

BUSH’S EMPTY PROMISE TO WOUNDED VETS

Jim Hightower — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

When Bear Stearns, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae got in a financial crunch, George W was Georgie-on-the-spot, rushing out with a bailout package of more than $130 billion.

But, where is George when America’s wounded veterans – including thousands severely wounded in his misguided Iraq war –need him to act? Last year, the public was disgusted to learn of the scandalous mistreatment these vets were getting at the Army’s Walter Reed hospital and other VA medical centers.

Great line! Mission accomplished!

I’ll bet that if our vets had names like Freddie, Fannie, and Bear – Bush would have covered all of their needs, pronto.