Beyond Vietnam: an excerpt

Below is in an excerpt from a speech made by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. exactly one day to the year before he was killed.

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speech "Beyond Vietnam" was delivered exactly one year to the day before he was gunned down.

"A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth with righteous indignation. It will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.

A true revolution of values will lay a hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. 

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war."

Listen to the whole speech here.

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!

Filling in the blank

Back in the final days of December while you were busy scrambling to buy presents for everyone on your list and trying to figure out how you were going to pay for it all, Congress was busy too.

On December 15^th H.R. 6523 Ike Skelton National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 was introduced to the House of Representatives. This legislation, reported to be the largest single military spending bill ever, commits $725 billion for war spending this year alone.

The bill includes $158.7 billion (declared) for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as up to $75 million for training and equipping counter-terrorism forces in Yemen, $205 million for Israel’s “Iron Dome” defense system and $11.6 billion and $1.5 billion for security force development in Afghanistan and Iraq respectively.

The bill also ensures that, despite Obama’s earlier pledge, Guantanamo Bay will not be closed any time soon.

After agonizing over this legislation for all of two days, the House overwhelmingly passed the bill (see vote roll call here) 341 to 48 with 44 Congressmen and women not casting a vote.

Then, two days before Christmas Eve, the Senate passed the bill unanimously, sending this massive war spending legislation on to the desk of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Barack Obama for his signature (pending at the time of this writing).

So as Americans were busy spending money they didn’t have on useless toys they didn’t need, Congress was doing the same. This all took place during the media orgy of faux tolerance when suddenly gay men and women were told that they could now openly serve in the military without fear of being threatened or ridiculed (until at least January 2, 2011).

"During these final days of 2010, Americans didn't ask and Congress didn't tell."

Ditto for the media. Little attention was paid to the rubber stamping of this remarkable amount of money with media outlets (like this FOX News report) emphasizing the restrictions the bill places on closing GITMO, choosing to add a reference to “nearly $160 billion for wars” in the third paragraph, with the overall $725 billion mentioned only in the eighth paragraph down.

There was however some serious discussion of this in RT News, a global multi-lingual Russia-based news outlet,  here and here, but how many Americans caught that?

When I discovered that my supposedly “far left Democrat” Congresswoman Rep. Mazie Hirono (HI- Dist. 1) voted in favor of this bill, I came to fully realize that, as it has been stated before, the left wing and right wing of our government, a perennial hawk, beat in unison, assuring an uninterrupted flight towards permanent militarism at the expense of its own citizens. I searched her website for some indication or explanation that Rep. Hirono had voted for this bill for some good reason, but I could find no reference to the bill whatsoever, not even under “recent votes.”

Then yesterday I came home and found a nice tri-color three-fold mailer from Rep. Hirono in my post box. In it, she writes about “working with you” (me??), traveling the District, creating a clean energy economy, creating education opportunities, getting Hawaii back to work and supporting “sustainable island-grown and Hawaii-made products.” Yet something —  something rather important — was missing.

You guessed it! Mazie Hirono’s lovely flier, so full of good news about “preparing our children to qualify and compete for the jobs of the future” (as a guard outside Kabul’s yet-to-be-built Camp Forever) and “creating (camouflage?) green jobs,” lacks any reference to war, military or defense spending.

What the brochure does have is lots of pictures of Mazie wearing hard hats and leis, small business owners and high school students smiling and being “sustainable,” but no absolutely zero mention of GITMO, Yemen anti-terror funding, Israeli air defense, or the hundreds of billions of dollars she voted in favor of spending on wars and militarism.

Gee, how curious…

Perhaps she was busy. Perhaps her PR people managed to squeeze “Education,” “Energy,” “Agriculture,” “Infrastructure,” and “Environment” onto the mailer, but when it came to long, space-eating words like “WAR,” they simply ran out of room.

But I’ve found that with just a few minor adjustments, the same flier can be modified to include this important topic without disturbing the flow or aesthetic charm of Mazie Hirono’s mail-out piece.

In fact, I’ve found that it can be done in a way that leaves a nice open space where she can outline and explain just what H.R. 6523 Ike Skelton National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 is.

I’m guessing that a lot of Hawaii voters have never heard of this bill or how she and her colleagues voted and how that money, which might otherwise have been spent here at home, will instead be used.

Here, I have provided a space for the good Congresswoman to fill in the blank.

This reproduction of Rep. Hirono's recent mailer includes popular priorities like "education, energy, agriculture, infrastructure and environment, yet it neglects to mention the $725 Billion military authorization bill she recently voted in favor of.

Certainly nobody likes bad news.

Who wants to be constantly reminded that our nation is entrenched in at least two wars and carrying out untold other military adventures around the globe, spending Trillions of dollars we don’t have, makings god knows how many new enemies who will grow up with their sole wish to exact revenge on the United States?

Who wants to read about America's new vast security culture which is so widespread and so interwoven that no one really knows how big it is or what all it entails? Who wants to hear that our own government is collecting data on us with every email, every phone call, every credit card transaction and every punch of a keyboard?

How depressing would it be to learn that the U.S. government’s terrorist watch list includes 440,000 people, none of whom can get information as to why they are on the list or how they can be removed from the list?

Most Americans, it seems, don't want to consider that our national debt, currently approaching $14 Trillion, even as we shred social programs, education, and anything that benefits our own people Congress silently slides another $725 Billion for more war spending in fiscal year 2011.

People who were unhappy with the direction the U.S. was going under Bush can now see that the man people clamored to looking for HOPE and CHANGE is ultimately about business as usual. They now realize that it doesn't matter if you have a farmer, an actor, a lawyer, a hayseed baseball team owner or a suave, charismatic, worldly community organizer in the White House, the policies change very little and, in some cases, may actually go in the opposite direction expected.

It just seems like too much to consider. People feel helpless, impotent, scared or just disinterested and so most people choose not to talk about it, speak out against it, challenge it or even acknowledge it.

It's so much easier to zone out on a "reality" show, follow a celebrity's demise (and inevitable come back), play games on the computer or "socialize" on Facebook.

For all those who'd just rather not even think about all this, here you go-- something special to ring in the New Year. Enjoy!

Habits of a perennial hawk

Still shot from a 2007 U.S. Apache helicopter attack on civilians in Baghdad made public by Wikileaks.

On December 17 with almost no public or media attention, the House of Representatives passed legislation that commits an additional $725 Billion in FY2011 to military and war spending. According to the National Priorities Project, Hawaii’s tax payers have already spent more than $3.6 Billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan alone since 2001.

Now, with virtually no debate, dissent or discussion, this additional sum was approved overwhelmingly by both Democrats and Republicans including Kauai's Congresswoman Rep. Mazie Hirono (Rep. Djou did not vote). Then, three days before Christmas, the Senate approved the bill unanimously. This vote makes it clear that the U.S. Government, together with an under-ambitious and under-funded media, unable or unwilling to report matters of grave importance, and a citizenry too distracted, dislocated, and disinterested to voice its concern, have successfully made funding America’s endless war programs and policies a non-issue.

In spite of the ongoing economic woes of our nation, this state and its local communities, Americans seem unable to make the connection between our government's insatiable appetite for war and military spending and the self-evisceration of our own society. Even as we continue to neglect our nation’s physical infrastructure, forfeit opportunities to advance and lead in innovative technologies that can face the challenges of climate change, energy and food crises, and poverty here in the U.S., our government shows itself to be a perennial hawk with both its left wing and right wing flapping in unison to ensure the country’s largest corporations, defense contractors, lobbyists and wealthiest minority are continuously grossly over-funded while we, working class tax payers, are left to fight over scraps, expected to accept less and less each year while even our so-called “progressive” representatives in Washington support unspeakable amounts of money for war without so much as a word of explanation to the people who voted for them.

NORAD forces down low-flying craft after entering U.S. airspace

BREAKING  (Updated 2 min ago)

NEWS ALERT 

NORAD forces down low-flying craft after entering U.S. airspace

New York law enforcement is questioning an unlicensed pilot in Buffalo.

HONOLULU (Press Wire) – President Obama, vacationing in Hawaii, was awoken his first night away from Washington by a call from NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) headquarters in Colorado after F-15 fighter jets were scrambled along the U.S.- Canadian border in response to a lone individual attempting to enter U.S. airspace over upstate New York.

A NORAD spokesman said tracking satellites detected a small low-flying single passenger aircraft flying less than 500 feet over residential areas in Ontario, Canada. The craft appeared to be dropping objects in and around houses and apartment buildings and had crossed to the U.S. side of the border when it was intercepted shortly after 3 a.m. local time.

The pilot and nine reindeer were forced to land north of Buffalo when the craft, described as a “large sleigh,” failed to respond to warning transmissions.

Local law enforcement officials, the Air Force 101^st Intelligence Squadron and Homeland Security were immediately dispatched after a single male was taken into custody for questioning.

Homeland Security spokeswoman Kathryn Killmore said, “a suspect in his 80s lacking personal identification, a pilot’s license or registration documents, carrying a large bag of wrapped packages that included an ‘unusually large amount’ of items not associated with a single man is currently being detained.”

The suspect, described as a “heavy-set bearded male,” initially waved the fighter jets away and refused to land. The sleigh’s pilot, identifying himself only as “Father Nick,” wore heavy black boots, gloves, a red cape with what law enforcement officials said appeared to be a thick belt similar to those favored by suicide bombers.

White House spokesman Michael Aaronson said, “at this time there is no reason to believe this individual posed an imminent threat to U.S. citizens or property, but he will remain in custody for further questioning. During the holiday season, all Americans are asked to remain extra vigilant and report suspicious activities to local law enforcement and DHS.”

In response to the incident, Department of Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano said DHS would be re-examining all “terror chatter” and beefing up efforts to track suspicious activities.

“We’re making more lists. We’ll be checking them closely, in fact, checking them twice,” Napolitano said. “This Christmas we’re not taking anything at face value.”

NORAD tracking satellites can be viewed here:

Time to take exception

Indicative of American Exceptionalists, Mitt Romney's book is entitled No Apologies: The Case for American Greatness

On any day of the year, but especially Veteran’s Day, we should be asking ourselves, “why is it that we have so many military veterans?” What is it that we do that produces so many men and women who have served in the military, so often fighting wars far from home?

The reasons are many, but today let’s just focus on one. This huge number — according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, there were 21.9 million military veterans in the United States in 2009 — is, in part, the result of the notion of “American Exceptionalism” — that is, the idea that the United States is somehow special among all nations, past and present. This doctrine assumes that the United States is not just “exceptional,” but that it is superior to all other nations.

And this, dear reader, I would argue plays a huge role in why we as a nation are so frequently involved in both peace time and war time military adventures, occupations and outright bullets-flying-wars which, of course, results in lots of war veterans.

Here is one simple, very recent example of what I am talking about. Last week, following his victory in the campaign to become Florida’s new GOP senator, Marco Rubio said, “Americans believe with all their heart, the vast majority of them, and the vast majority of Floridians, that the United States of America is simply the single greatest nation in all of human history. A place without equal in the history of all mankind.”

Wow. Got that? “…simply the single greatest nation in all of human history…a place without equal in the history of all mankind.” Not bad for a country founded 234 years ago. 

America is simply the greatest nation there has ever been, just ask Marco Rubio

Clearly Marco Rubio believes, or at least wants people to believe, that he thinks not only exceptionally high of the United States, but that this country outshines any other nation that preceded it in thousands of years of human history — Egypt, Rome, Greece, Babylonia, Mesopotamia, China, India, France, England, Russia, Holland, Spain — all of you, step back, if you please. This first spot up front is reserved for us, The United States of America (hold your applause please).

As for you other obscure little poor countries — Angola, Nepal, Comoros, Gabon, Tonga, Belize, Kiribati, Djibouti, Vanuatu, Canada and New Zealand — two steps back please, and would you mind not standing in our shadow? We do so admire the way our form darkens the earth.

Mind-boggling, I know. Certainly the other 6,570,000,000 who were not lucky enough to be born in God’s gift to the world, must be drooling with envy.

If you have ever spent five minutes in the company of someone who happened not to have been born in the greatest nation in human history, you maybe have been impressed, and certainly surprised, at how similar they seemed to yourself, at least in appearance. All the human flaws and charms randomly scattered amongst Americans, it would seem, can be found in all those not from the greatest nation in human history. And yet somehow they are different. They are, after all, not American.

This notion of American Exceptionalism, which Mr. Rubio encapsulated so well, is a widely held notion, one we can hear repeated again and again by politicians like Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, former Massachusetts Governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and mama grizzly, half-term Governor and Drill-Baby-Drill squad leader Sarah Palin, to name a few.

Of course, when our African Muslim Socialist radical left wing President Barack Obama said of American Exceptionalism: “I believe in American Exceptionalism just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British Exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exptionalism,” he was roundly critized for not lining up in the “America is better that everyone else” camp.

George Carlin, who was never known as a great American Exceptionalist warned of such talk. Carlin said:

"Be on the alert for phrases such as Old Glory; Main Street; the stars and stripes; the heartland; all across this great land of ours; from Maine to California; and, of course, on American soil. And don't forget all those freedom-loving people around the world who look to us as a beacon of hope. Those, I assume, would be the ones we haven't bombed lately.  And you'd also better be ready to be reminded, over and over, that you live in a country that somehow fancies itself leader of the free world. Got that? Leader of the free world. I don't know when we're going to retire that stupid shit, but personally, I've heard it quite long enough.

“And what exactly is the free world, anyway? I guess it would depend on what you consider the non-free world. And I can't find a clear definition of that, can you? Where is that? Russia? China? For chrissakes, Russia has a better Mafia than we do now, and China is pirating Lion King DVDs and selling dildos on the Internet. They sound pretty free to me.

“Here are some jingoistic variations you need to be on the lookout for: The greatest nation on Earth; the greatest nation in the history of the world; and the most powerful nation on the face of the Earth. That last one is usually thrown in just before we bomb a bunch of brown people. Which is every couple of years.”

Carlin saw this talk of American Exceptionalism for what it truly is: a big steaming sack of bullshit.

Sarah Palin: pining for the days of a national security policy of  "We win and they lose."

Mikhail Gorbachev, being a statesman, had a more diplomatic phrase. He called it “winner’s complex,” a disease, he said, which was worse than AIDS.

This notion that we don’t merely have an edge in some areas, or perhaps aren’t just better at some things than others, but are, in fact, flat-out, no holds-barred, simply “the single greatest nation in the history of mankind,” isn’t just ludicrous, simple-minded, juvenile and astonishingly laughable, it is dangerous. Absolutely deadly.

Because once you start spouting that your nation is superior to anything that exists or has ever existed, then you are going to start acting as though you are a type of God, or at least a Superman, Superwoman, or in America’s case, a Super Power.

This will lead to all sorts of foolish and brazen acts, not the least of which will be reckless wars to control resources, countries, and even entire regions, all in support of your self-proclaimed greatness.

Gotta stop that country from getting WMD – call in the Army!

Gotta tell that wacky dictator we aren’t putting up with any guff – call in the Navy!

Gotta get back at that country for knocking down our towers – call in the Air Force!

Gotta push those dirty, god-less (fill in the blank) out of this district, call in the Marines!

Gotta clear this square of unarmed civilians –  call in the private military contract mercenaries!

Gotta flush out the bad guys in that impenetrable rugged border region – call in the unmanned Predator Drones!

Gotta make sure that country doesn’t attempt to get the same type of weapons we have huge stockpiles of – call in the crippling sanctions!

And on and on and on, the result being, we have a lot of men and women who put on uniforms with American flags stitched just above the heart who are trained to believe that they are defending The Greatest Nation on Earth.

This is a big part of the problem. As long as we have politicians leading the charge of “American Exceptionalism” combined with a large electorate which knows virtually nothing about the world beyond its own Super Walmart and Mega Church complex, a population who couldn’t individually or collectively think its way out of a 1-ply square of toilet tissue, you end up with a country where people sit by idle and compliant while its own government, the body supposedly charged with looking out for the country’s best interests, is actually squandering its own human and financial treasure, and the well-being of the nation itself on mindless, self-defeating wars fought far from home and largely out of view and beyond scrutiny.

Echoing the bleating of Senator-elect Marco Rubio, Sen. Sam Brownback said, “this is the greatest nation in the history of mankind.” He implores Americans to “look up to see the greatness of America today.”

“That greatness is built on goodness. And if we ever lose our goodness, we will surely lose our greatness,” Brownback said, repeating quotes attributed to Eisenhower and, before him, Alexis de Tocqueville.

On this Veteran’s Day, a day meant to pay tribute to the men and women who serve this nation, often sacrificing themselves and their families, we should be asking ourselves who all this talk of being “the greatest nation on earth” is serving.

Newt Gingrich: supremely confident in America's power and ready to project it against other nations

Such chaff may garner a few cheap applause if you are standing in front of a giant American flag at a campaign rally, but it does nothing more than delude ourselves into a cult of self-aggrandizement. Worse still, it sets the stage for a nation frequently, and now seemingly, perpetually at war. It leads to the destruction of other people and places, it cheapens our own value as a society, and it invites deep scorn and hatred as it imperils us as a nation and the soldiers and veterans that we claim to honor.