H.R. 6523 -- the Greatest Little Defense Authorization Act you never heard of

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was right, "numbers almost are distracting."

Perhaps that's why the few press reports that bothered to cover the passage of H.R.6523 Ike Skelton National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 largely omitted just how much this bill is for -- $725 Billion. This is reported to be the largest single request for military funds ever, and yet the overwhelming majority of American tax payers not only do not know about this, they aren't asking and, perhaps, they don't care.

We've become so conditioned to hearing references to such unfathomably large sums of money for war spending that most of us hardly pay any attention. Five hundred billion, a trillion, five trillion -- what does it matter? Even the miserly sum of one million dollars sounds like peanuts. Today, "a million" is the new "thousand" it seems, and when it is reported that it costs one million dollars per soldier per year in our ongoing war in Afghanistan, nobody seems to bat an eye.

So is it blatant omission that reporting by CNN, the New York Times, McClatchy and others, like the White House website itself, don't even mention the amount of money Congress and Obama have committed for war spending in FY2011? (At least NPR alludes to the sum total in the second paragraph of their short blog entry).

In this instance it appears that "don't ask, don't tell" is alive and well. Americans are not asking and the government and press aren't telling. 

But if you can pry yourself away from the sensational coverage of the gun tragedy in Arizona, you might find that a quick look at the actual text of H.R. 6523 sheds some light on a much more horrific spectacle of American violence and how it is being funded:

-- $37.1 million for 71 units of family housing at Guantanamo Bay ("kids, guess what-- we're moving!")

-- $101.5 million for military construction at Bagram, Afghanistan

-- $277. 4 million for military construction at five military bases in Germany

-- $20 million (and change) for military construction in Honduras

-- $19.5 million for military construction at Camp Walker in South Korea

 -- $45 million for Air Force construction in Bahrain

-- $50.3 million for Air Force construction in Guam

-- $29.2 million for Air Force construction in Italy

-- $62.3 million for Air Force construction in Qatar

-- $15 million for Air Force construction in the United Kingdom

-- $99.1 million for military construction in Brussels, Belgium

-- $213.1 million for Naval facility construction in Bahrain

-- $11.1 million for Naval facility construction in Djibouti

-- $6.9 million for Naval facility construction in Japan

-- $23.1 million for Naval facility construction in Spain

-- $66.7 million for Naval facility construction in Guam (including some rather unpopular coral reef dredging to make way for a couple of large aircraft carriers -- sorry plankton!!)

...And so on and so forth. I didn't even mention the military building projects in the fifty states, but there are plenty.

Then there is my favorite (page 313) simply labeled "Worldwide Unspecified Range Facility" which requests $68.5 million. When trying to maintain a global military empire, it is always a good idea to set aside an extra $68 million or so for those unforeseen moments when you need to do a little unexpected construction somewhere around the world (good foresight Pentagon!!).

The text of H.R. 6523 goes on for 383 pages. It's hard to imagine when members of Congress or a busy fellow like President Obama had time to read, digest and analyze all of this. They probably get up really early and do it over donuts and coffee.

There are plenty of other requests for things like maintaining airborne signals for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, lightweight body armor solutions, imaging satellite capacities, aircraft, missiles, combat vehicles, ammunition, torpedoes and plenty of "other procurements." The list is very long and very exhaustive, but you get the point: 

"numbers almost are distracting."

The message to the public, I suppose, is "just don't ask. We have everything under control so just fork over the $725 Billion and let us take care of it."

Now, if you don't mind, get back to your under-heated, under-maintained, unpaid for homes, go back to your low-paying jobs, send your children off to their under-funded schools (if there are teachers available today) and keep yourselves busy thinking about Liberty, Democracy and all the good things we are bringing to the world and, by extension, ourselves.

Don't worry about the economy (we're pulling out of it), don't worry about the gun violence (that's just part of living in the Freest Nation on Earth) and for heaven's sake, do not worry about that corporate myth climate change-- if the earth is really heating up, why are we having such intense blizzards all around the world?

Everything will be just fine. God bless the troops, God bless H.R. 6523, and most of all, God Bless the American people...  We couldn't do it with out you!