tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88519746713133815702024-03-13T08:43:54.997-04:00Woodstock Peace EconomyTaking up the struggle for a weapons-free, peaceful world.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger66125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-19056388285615851482021-07-14T08:20:00.002-04:002021-07-14T08:20:51.846-04:00Cancel the failed F-35 fighter plane<p>The F-35 Lightning II fighter jet program is a failure. Billions have
been spent over a generation and still this aircraft isn’t fit for
purpose. Meanwhile education, healthcare, and climate action are
woefully underfunded. <a href="https://act.winwithoutwar.org/sign/cancel_F-35/" target="_blank">Click here to urge Congress</a> to cancel the failed F-35 fighter jet
program and invest our resources in programs that actually help our
communities recover and rebuild from the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-82681031016844634692021-01-28T09:59:00.000-05:002021-01-28T09:59:28.321-05:00One Third of Biden's Pentagon Transition Team Hails From Organizations Financed by the Weapons Industry<p><i> By Sarah Lazare, <a href="https://inthesetimes.com/article/joe-biden-department-of-defense-pentagon-transition-team-weapons-industry-military" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">In These Times</a></i></p><p>In July <span class="numbers">2019</span>, while campaigning for the Democratic nomination for president, Joe Biden <a href="https://www.democracyinaction.us/2020/biden/bidenpolicy071119foreignpolicy.html" target="_blank">declared</a> in a foreign policy speech, <span class="push-double"></span><span class="pull-double">“</span>It’s
past time to end the Forever Wars, which have cost us untold blood and
treasure.” But the president-elect — who as vice president oversaw wars
in Yemen, Libya, Afghanistan and more — is already embracing personnel
with strong ties to the military apparatus driving this endless combat.<br /></p><p>On November <span class="numbers">10</span>, Biden <a href="https://buildbackbetter.com/the-transition/agency-review-teams/" target="_blank">announced</a> his agency review teams, which he says <span class="push-double"></span><span class="pull-double">“</span>are
responsible for understanding the operations of each agency, ensuring
a smooth transfer of power, and preparing for President-elect Biden and
Vice President-elect Harris and their cabinet to hit the ground running
on Day One.”</p><p>Of the <span class="numbers">23</span> people who comprise the Department of Defense agency review team, eight of them — or just over a third — list their <span class="push-double"></span><span class="pull-double">“</span>most
recent employment” as organizations, think tanks or companies that
either directly receive money from the weapons industry, or are part of
this industry. These figures may be an undercount, as <em>In These Times</em> was not immediately able to exhaustively source the funding of every employer.</p><p>The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is listed as the <span class="push-double"></span><span class="pull-double">“</span>most
recent employment” of three individuals on Biden’s Department of
Defense agency review team: Kathleen Hicks (a former defense official
under President Obama), Melissa Dalton and Andrew Hunter. CSIS is
a hawkish and influential foreign policy think tank that <a href="https://www.csis.org/corporation-and-trade-association-donors" target="_blank">receives funding</a>
from General Dynamics Corporation, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman
Corporation, Lockheed Martin Corporation and other weapons manufacturers
and defense contractors, as well as oil companies. </p><p>Raytheon is a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/16/us/arms-deals-raytheon-yemen.html" target="_blank">key supplier</a>
of bombs to the U.S.-Saudi war in Yemen, and has aggressively lobbied
to prevent any curbs on arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition. Among the
weapons that Northrop Grumman manufactures is drones, which have been
used by the U.S. military in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia, among other
locations. Notably, a <em>New York Time</em>s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/08/us/politics/think-tanks-research-and-corporate-lobbying.html?_r=0" target="_blank">investigation</a> in <span class="numbers">2016</span>
found that, based on a cache of email leaks, CSIS was effectively
doubling as a weapons industry lobbying firm, pushing for expanded drone
sales. Lockheed Martin is a key contractor for the THAAD missile system
in South Korea — a system that CSIS has also <a href="https://fair.org/home/lockheed-martin-funded-experts-agree-south-korea-needs-more-lockheed-martin-missiles/" target="_blank">advocated for</a> without disclosing their conflict of interest. The company also <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/09/02/yemen-coalition-bus-bombing-apparent-war-crime#" target="_blank">manufactured</a> the bomb that struck a school bus in Northern Yemen in August <span class="numbers">2018</span>, killing at least <span class="numbers">26</span> children.</p><p>CSIS also receives money from a <a href="https://www.csis.org/government-donors" target="_blank">host</a>
of governments, including the United States, as well as the United Arab
Emirates, which has joined with the United States and Saudi Arabia to
wage war on Yemen. CSIS, in addition, receives money from the state-run
oil company Saudi Aramco, which effectively amounts to a donation from
the Saudi government.</p><p>Two of the individuals named for Biden’s
Department of Defense agency review team — Ely Ratner and Susanna
Blume — list the think tank Center for a New American Security (CNAS) as
their most recent employer. CNAS <a href="https://www.cnas.org/support-cnas/cnas-supporters" target="_blank">takes</a> a significant chunk of its money from Northrop Grumman Corporation, as well as the U.S. State Department ($<span class="numbers">500</span>,<span class="numbers">000</span> or more per year on both counts), and from Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and a host of corporations, including oil companies. </p><p>Vice President-elect Kamala Harris <a href="https://inthesetimes.com/article/center-new-american-security-cnas-kamala-harris-foreign-policy-2020">drew heavily</a>
from CNAS to advise her presidential primary campaign. The think tank
is known for embracing conventional, pro-war foreign policy, as well as
escalation toward Russia and China.</p><p>Three people from the
team — Stacie Pettyjohn, Terri Tanielian and Christine Wormuth (also
a former defense official under Obama) — hail from the RAND Corporation,
a hawkish think tank that <a href="https://www.rand.org/about/clients_grantors.html#industry-" target="_blank">receives</a>
significant funding from the U.S. Army and the Department of Homeland
Security. (These individuals are not being included in the tally of
people who work for organizations funded by the arms industry, but
nonetheless their involvement shows the political bent of Biden’s
Department of Defense transition team.)</p><p><span class="dquo">“</span>It’s
telling the think tanks represented here — RAND, CSIS and CNAS — are
among the top recipients of Department of Defense and Department of
Defense contractor funding,” says Ben Freeman of the Foreign Influence
Transparency Initiative, which recently authored a <a href="https://3ba8a190-62da-4c98-86d2-893079d87083.usrfiles.com/ugd/3ba8a1_318530ca605142e68e653d93b5ad698f.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> on think tank funding. <span class="push-double"></span><span class="pull-double">“</span>CNAS
and CSIS are literally number one and number two in terms of donations
received from U.S. defense contractors in the last six years. RAND is,
by far, the top recipient of Department of Defense funding of any
think tank.”</p><p>Sharon Burke, on Biden’s team, works for New America, which calls itself a <span class="push-double"></span><span class="pull-double">“</span>national network of innovative problem-solvers.” The organization <a href="https://www.newamerica.org/our-funding/" target="_blank">receives funding</a> from Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and U.S. Army War College.</p><p>Shawn
Skelly’s most recent employer is listed by the Biden team as CACI
International, which provides information technology for U.S. military
weapons systems. (Because Skelly’s LinkedIn page says she worked at CACI
until <span class="push-double"></span><span class="pull-double">“</span>November <span class="numbers">2020</span>,” <em>In These Times</em>
is including her in the tally of people who receive money from or are
employed by the weapons industry, given the relevance to her present
finances.) Before Skelly started working there, CACI was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/abu-ghraib-contractor-treatment-deplorable-but-not-torture/2017/09/22/4efc16f4-9e3b-11e7-9083-fbfddf6804c2_story.html" target="_blank">sued</a>
by Iraqis formerly detained in the notorious U.S. military prison Abu
Ghraib, on the grounds that contractor played a direct role in their
torture. (The lawsuit is still ongoing.)</p><p>Victor Garcia lists <span class="push-double"></span><span class="pull-double">“</span>Rebellion Defense” as his most recent employer. This software company <a href="https://rebelliondefense.com/" target="_blank">says</a> it helps <span class="push-double"></span><span class="pull-double">“</span>our
defense and national security agencies unlock the power of data across
all domains.” It was founded by former defense officials and <span class="push-double"></span><span class="pull-double">“</span>analyzes video gathered via drone,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/02/technology/eric-schmidt-pentagon-google.html" target="_blank">according to</a> the <em>New York Times</em>.</p><p>Of those remaining, one team member works for JPMorgan Chase <span class="amp">&</span> Co.,
another is retired from the State Department, a few work for
universities and other organizations, and one works for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative, which says it strives to <span class="push-double"></span><span class="pull-double">“</span>prevent
catastrophic attacks with weapons of mass destruction and
disruption — nuclear, biological, radiological, chemical and cyber.”
Lisa Coe, also on the team, lists as her most recent employer OtherSide
Consulting, a defense industry consultant, <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2020/11/10/biden-landing-team-for-pentagon-announced/" target="_blank">according to</a> <em>Defense News</em>. However, because <em>In These Times</em>
was unable to independently verify this, Coe is not being included in
our count of team members funded by the military or weapons industry.</p><p>Farooq Mitha, also a member of the Department of Defense team, is on the <a href="https://emgageusa.org/board-member/farooq-mitha/" target="_blank">board</a> of Emgage, which has <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2020/09/call-to-muslim-leaders-to-drop-emgage-usa/" target="_blank">garnered criticism</a> for its affiliation with anti-Palestinian organizations.</p><p>The news prompted disappointment from anti-war groups. <span class="push-double"></span><span class="pull-double">“</span>Biden
building a team of people with connections to weapons manufacturers and
the military industrial complex is a prime example of how militarism
and imperialism are bipartisan,” says Sidney Miralao, an organizer with
Dissenters, a group of young people who oppose U.S. militarism and the
war industry. <span class="push-double"></span><span class="pull-double">“</span>Democrats
and Republicans alike perpetuate and profit off of war and violence in
our communities at home and abroad. By continuing the legacy of the
revolving door with the defense industry, Biden and his team are setting
themselves up to be able to continue growing the military and
strengthening the narrative that war is necessary to safety.”</p><p>While
campaigning, Biden made some overtures to the surging left wing that
nearly catapulted Sen. Bernie Sanders (I‑Vt.) to the Democratic
nomination, forming a unity task force with Sanders backers that issued
a series of <a href="https://joebiden.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/UNITY-TASK-FORCE-RECOMMENDATIONS.pdf" target="_blank">recommendations</a>,
from climate to labor. Yet these efforts to reach out to the left
largely omitted issues of war and militarism, leaving critics of U.S.
aggression concerned that a Biden administration would bring
a continuation of the wars he’s supported throughout his career. Biden
played an influential role in backing the <span class="numbers">2003</span> U.S. <a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/07/joe-biden-iraq-war-hawk-presidential-candidate" target="_blank">invasion of Iraq</a>,
has been a career-long supporter of Israel’s aggression toward
Palestinians, and has defended the open-ended occupation of Afghanistan,
among other acts.</p><p>Outgoing President Donald Trump, for his part,
hoisted people with close ties to the arms industry into prominent
Department of Defense positions, appointing Mark Esper, a former
lobbyist for Raytheon, to the position of Secretary of Defense. (Trump
fired <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/09/us/politics/esper-defense-secretary.html" target="_blank">Esper</a> and a number of other <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/10/politics/pentagon-policy-official-resigns/index.html" target="_blank">senior military officials</a> in recent days, in what appears to be a sign of Trump’s effort to stay in power despite losing the presidential election.)</p><p><span class="dquo">“</span>Has
Biden already forgotten who put him in the position he’s in?” says
Ramón Mejía, anti-militarism national organizer with the Grassroots
Global Justice Alliance, an alliance of community organizations. <span class="push-double"></span><span class="pull-double">“</span>The
only reason he’s president-elect is because Black, Brown, Indigenous
youth mobilized to vote out Trump’s fascism. Biden shouldn’t make the
mistake that Democrats are commonly known to make, which is to abandon
the same people who put them there.”</p><span class="dquo">“</span>War-making and corporate profiteering is a non-starter,” Mejía adds. <span class="push-double"></span><span class="pull-double">“</span>We
must divest the bulk of our budget from a war-fueling extractive
economy, and prioritize investing in a life-sustaining
regenerative economy.”<p><i> </i></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-18266412962416940432020-12-25T12:07:00.010-05:002020-12-25T12:26:40.744-05:00Ulster County's weapons contractor expands<p>Woodstock's <a href="https://woodstockweaponswatch.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">weapons contracting business</a> is booming as the rest of the economy struggles. Should we change our priorities and support peaceful, green manufacturing instead of yet more weapons production? After all, we know that <b>peaceful, green manufacturing creates more jobs</b> (per $ invested) than military contracting.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x9mYZOeDHzo/X-Ycl4W7tXI/AAAAAAAABbE/CgJ0cgW8YR0MgkWPoS3itW293_z_iuUvwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1920/rotron%2Bexpansion.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="1920" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x9mYZOeDHzo/X-Ycl4W7tXI/AAAAAAAABbE/CgJ0cgW8YR0MgkWPoS3itW293_z_iuUvwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/rotron%2Bexpansion.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><a href="https://esd.ny.gov/esd-media-center/press-releases/esd-announces-completion-ametek-rotron-expansion-ulster-county" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">Empire State Development Announces Completion of Ametek Rotron Expansion In Ulster County</span></a><p></p><h1><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">"Ametek Rotron has completed its $2 million expansion in Woodstock,
Ulster County. As part of this project, the company has committed to
creating 15 new full-time jobs. Ametek Rotron specializes in
high-performance fans for the defense and commercial aviation
industries, working with companies like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and
Northrop Grumman, and other high-end electronic users. ... <b>The project will increase the
manufacturing capability of the current facility by 30%</b> and will allow
the company to expand into advanced and additive manufacturing arena." [sic]</span></span></h1><h1><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">So once again our tax dollars (in this case, $604,000 of our state taxes) are going to support the expansion of the military-industrial complex rather than creating peaceful, green jobs.<br /></span></span></h1>
<p>Local politicians chimed in: <br /></p><p>Assemblymember Kevin A. Cahill:<b> "</b>I am proud to have supported the funding that led to this
much-anticipated project coming to fruition.” </p>
<p>Ulster County Executive Patrick K. Ryan<b>: </b>"We
are proud to have Ametek Rotron as an important part of the Ulster
County community."</p>
<p>Woodstock Supervisor Bill McKenna:<b> </b>“I am glad
to see this addition to Ametek Rotron.”</p><p>It's a pity none of them has a word to say about <a href="https://woodstockweaponswatch.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Rotron's supplying parts</a> for<b> all major US weapons systems including nuclear missiles</b>, and to prominent human rights violators such as <a href="https://woodstockweaponswatch.blogspot.com/2019/10/another-woodstock-contribution-to.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Saudi Arabia</a> and <a href="https://woodstockweaponswatch.blogspot.com/2016/09/woodstock-continues-to-supply-armaments.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Israel</a>. Nor about Rotron's long history of <b>poisoning the wells, groundwater and soil of local homes</b> with the toxic byproducts of its weapons components manufacturing.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-80274147195258744942020-06-29T09:45:00.003-04:002020-06-29T09:47:07.083-04:00Kathy Kelly on the need for a peace economy<i>From <a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/06/29/battleground-states/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Counterpunch</a></i><br />
<br />
<i>" ... </i>The time for manufacturing of weapons of war has passed as a viable
industry for our nation, despite the way some of our political
leadership clings to economies of the past. The global pandemic
emphasizes for us all the interconnectivity of our global society and
the folly, wastefulness, and moral failure of war in all forms. We must
transform facilities like BIW [Bath Iron Works, Maine, maker of Aegis naval weapons systems] and Marinette [Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard, Wisconsin, maker of warships for the Pentagon and Saudi Arabia, visited by Trump on June 25] into hubs of manufacturing
for solutions to the climate crisis, including public transportation,
resources for the creation of renewable energy, and disaster-response
vessels.<br />
<br />
Building clean energy systems would generate up to 50% more jobs than making arms systems according to <a href="https://www.peri.umass.edu/publication/item/449-the-u-s-employment-effects-of-military-and-domestic-spending-priorities-2011-update" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">research</a>
by leading economists. The two biggest security threats to the United
States are currently the climate crisis and COVID-19. The Pentagon’s
contractors have long contributed to the climate crisis, and the time
for conversion is now. ..."<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/06/29/battleground-states/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><i>Read Kathy Kelly's full article </i></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<i> </i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-21977154439288208202020-05-02T08:12:00.000-04:002020-05-02T08:13:09.021-04:00Woodstock's Biggest Business Is War<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qTLkgW3Zl5c/Xq1iEWYAJvI/AAAAAAAABKw/x8gUFfkvJ38XeIy7deh34M59sM9LNfC-gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/rotron%2Bvigil%2B1may2020.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="702" data-original-width="1600" height="280" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qTLkgW3Zl5c/Xq1iEWYAJvI/AAAAAAAABKw/x8gUFfkvJ38XeIy7deh34M59sM9LNfC-gCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/rotron%2Bvigil%2B1may2020.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
Local residents joined the international May Day Strike by gathering at the entrance to the local military contractor (Woodstock's largest employer) with posters urging Rotron to manufacture materials for life not death.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-78269483423750865202020-04-18T09:34:00.002-04:002020-04-18T09:34:59.748-04:00Ventilators for national security?Woodstock's own weapons contractor is still open as an "Essential Business" under the category of "defense and national security-related operations". What if, instead of making yet more components for weapons of war, it turned to making something much more crucial to our national security at this moment -- ventilators? Or at least, components for ventilators? As a company whose main products are sophisticated air-moving devices and electronic equipment, it might seem they were well placed to help with this urgent need.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-6326674311721987902020-04-09T08:48:00.001-04:002020-04-09T09:05:13.186-04:00A portal into the next worldArundhati Roy in the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Financial Times</a>:
<br />
<br />
<b>"Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and
imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a
gateway between one world and the next.
</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our
prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our
dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly,
with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight
for it."
</b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-53212505769710825322020-03-22T09:55:00.002-04:002020-03-22T09:56:24.788-04:00Delgado takes time to call for more F-35s in the midst of the coronavirus crisisIn this moment of unprecedented social and fiscal crisis, Rep. Antonio Delgado is <a href="https://larson.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/larson-leads-letter-record-support-f-35" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">among the members of Congress</a> who have taken the time to sign a <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/20/do-f-35s-fight-pandemics-amid-covid-19-outbreak-lawmakers-pushing-even-more-useless" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">letter</a> calling on the Federal government to fund even more F-35s than the Pentagon had requested. These boondoggle planes won't fight the coronavirus -- indeed they will be useless in any actual war situation too -- and will take badly needed funding away from providing help for the overwhelming needs of individuals and institutions as we try to face and recover from this crisis and the economic crash that it's bringing.<br />
<br />
We urge you to <a href="https://delgado.house.gov/contact" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">contact Rep. Delgado</a> and tell him to reconsider his position and put pressing human and social needs first.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-37511877405672931962019-02-02T10:05:00.000-05:002019-02-02T10:35:07.216-05:00The Best We Can Do?<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>A letter to the Woodstock Times, 1/31/2019:</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #373739;">Thanks to DeeDee Halleck for her letter about Rotron’s expansion. Here’s a bit more on that from <a href="http://woodstockpeaceeconomy.org/"><span style="color: blue;">woodstockpeaceeconomy.org</span></a>,
"The Rotron facility has the distinction of being Woodstock's only
Superfund site, after Rotron poured TCE in the groundwater for decades
-- the byproduct of earlier generations of Rotron ballistic missile,
tank, fighter jet, rocket launcher and warship components. . . The TCE
is still there."</span><span style="color: #373739;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #373739;">Sure,
jobs are important. Bills have to be paid, kids have to go to school,
play ball, rents have to be paid etc. Essentials and more. Rotron does a
good job of supporting all that in our community. It’s just a shame
that in order to survive and thrive families here in Woodstock are
dependent on jobs that contribute to the horrific and inexcusable deaths
of other children and families in places like Yemen, Syria, Iraq,
Afghanistan, Niger, Somalia, and Palestine – Rotron also sells essential
parts for weapons to Israel. Rotron also sells warplane parts to Saudi
Arabia, even as
it bombs Yemen.</span><span style="color: #373739;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #373739;">Is this the best we can do? </span><span style="color: #373739;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #373739;">It
all comes down to dollars, huge profits for weapons manufacturers,
doesn’t it? Do those executives making millions from war give a damn
about the workers, or about the thousands of innocent children being
injured and dying from our global war-making? Are these wars about
democracy and freedom or about profits and power? </span><span style="color: #373739;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 12pt;"><span style="color: #373739;">OK,
what about jobs? Yes, Woodstock needs all the jobs it can get. How
about jobs that don’t indirectly contribute to death and injuries? Green
economy, funding human needs creates more jobs (per dollar spent) than
funding military technology. Rotron has the technology, with a little
effort, to lead the effort for conversion to a “Green Economy.” If we
want that, it</span><span style="color: #373739;">’</span><span style="color: #373739;">s we, the people, that must demand it. </span></span><span style="text-align: justify;">See</span><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><a href="http://saisjournal.org/posts/the-transition-to-a-green-economy" rel="nofollow" style="text-align: justify;" target="_blank">saisjournal.org/posts/the-transition-to-a-green-economy</a><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify;">for more on that.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> </span><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div>
<div dir="auto" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space; word-wrap: break-word;">
<div dir="auto" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space; word-wrap: break-word;">
Tarak Kauff<br />
Woodstock, NY</div>
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-35792301730357687252019-01-28T10:59:00.001-05:002019-01-28T10:59:56.427-05:00Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace, Love and Music -- 72 Years of Weapons Contracting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FOID9OrmR0k/XE8jiZBCASI/AAAAAAAAAc4/LHL_cEFeIbY-2Q9KY0ViKcbw6waZqNgAACLcBGAs/s1600/ametek%2Baerospace%2Bdefense%2Bad%2Bjanes%2B2007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1198" data-original-width="903" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FOID9OrmR0k/XE8jiZBCASI/AAAAAAAAAc4/LHL_cEFeIbY-2Q9KY0ViKcbw6waZqNgAACLcBGAs/s640/ametek%2Baerospace%2Bdefense%2Bad%2Bjanes%2B2007.jpg" width="481" /></a></div>
This ad for Ametek Rotron's parent division, Ametek Aerospace and Defense, appeared in Jane's Defence Weekly in 2007. As Woodstock gears up for the 50th anniversary of the festival that didn't happen here, perhaps this graphic can remind us how our town's largest employer has been making critical contributions to the hatching of tanks, warplanes, helicopters, multiple rocket launchers, etc., year in year out since 1947 ... <a href="http://woodpec.blogspot.com/2011/06/action-alert-dont-greenwash-woodstocks.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">polluting their neighbors' groundwater</a> as they did so.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-24419208948110743232019-01-21T09:51:00.001-05:002019-02-02T10:24:12.614-05:00Local arms parts factory expanding<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<i>A letter to the Woodstock Times, 1/17/2019:</i></div>
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In the last Woodstock Times there was a casual mention in the report from the town council that our local arms parts factory was expanding . I hope that this newspaper (the only source for local information in our community) can do due diligence and give us more substance on this development. Has Rotron received more Department of "Defense" orders? Where do their parts (and the weapons they complete) go? Are they making essential ingredients for new cluster bombs for Yemen or Israel or Saudi Arabia? </div>
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Our local weapons contractor is similar to the thousands across this country (one in every Congressional district) that perpetuate our war economy. We tax-paying citizens deserve to know what our money is doing across the world and especially next door.</div>
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I recall the terrible environmental problems that Rotron created some years ago--with highly toxic chemicals leaching into the water table. Has that been totally remedied? Will this expansion exacerbate that sort of problem? </div>
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DeeDee Halleck</div>
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Willow</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-61949046843920854022019-01-20T13:55:00.000-05:002019-02-02T10:30:54.292-05:00Woodstock's military contractor expands<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #373739; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "verdana" font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">In December 2018, Woodstock's Ametek Rotron was awarded $604,000 of New York State regional economic development funding for an expansion of its facilities off Route 375. Now they'll need some zoning changes to go through with the expansion project, which will bring them the latest digital technology in their quest for the ever-more-perfect weapons component.</span><br />
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IPZ4h7vqKC0/XETDFAq4fAI/AAAAAAAAAcc/v7iIrAk0Znc40-PMF4TX2YeVKp-ec04lgCLcBGAs/s1600/DSCN0109.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IPZ4h7vqKC0/XETDFAq4fAI/AAAAAAAAAcc/v7iIrAk0Znc40-PMF4TX2YeVKp-ec04lgCLcBGAs/s640/DSCN0109.jpg" width="480" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #373739; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "verdana" font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #373739; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "verdana" font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">The Rotron facility has the distinction of being Woodstock's only Superfund site, after Rotron poured TCE in the groundwater for decades -- the byproduct of earlier generations of Rotron ballistic missile, tank, fighter jet, rocket launcher and warship components. This Woodstock Times front page from 1995 reminds us of that era. The TCE is still there.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #373739; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "verdana" font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">The local economy needs all the jobs it can get, including the ten that this expansion will allegedly provide. State development grants are a great idea and to be encouraged. But even as we support militarism with over half our Federal taxes, we find that some of our State taxes are also feeding the military-industrial complex. We should demand our taxes fund human needs instead. Studies indicate that funding human needs creates more jobs (per dollar spent) than funding military technology.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #373739; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "verdana" font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #373739; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "verdana" font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">State policy could be nudging companies like Rotron to devote their know-how to peaceful ends and a green economy, rather than driving them even further into the arms [pun intended] of the military.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-23637393635950800972018-08-04T15:18:00.000-04:002018-08-04T15:31:40.627-04:00A glimpse of some of our neighboring military contractors<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-igbxguxFUu4/W2XpCDe9aSI/AAAAAAAAAbU/nhMHmSPkfH4aDFgTQYZjZ0wjGZWO9zyOwCEwYBhgL/s1600/New-NSM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="968" height="130" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-igbxguxFUu4/W2XpCDe9aSI/AAAAAAAAAbU/nhMHmSPkfH4aDFgTQYZjZ0wjGZWO9zyOwCEwYBhgL/s200/New-NSM.jpg" width="200" /></a>
Recently Congressman Faso, whose spidery district includes Woodstock, NY, emulated the President who on arrival home from bullying NATO to hike its military spending boasted of the business he had thus drummed up for Lockheed Martin and other buddies. Being sure, like his mentor, to name-drop his beneficiaries, Faso celebrated the passage of the $700-billion military spending bill by <a href="https://faso.house.gov/news/email/show.aspx?ID=RGSPJKZ4VJACZP7KMD2KV33BTY#headline5" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">touting</a> some of our local military contractors: "Upstate businesses such as Ducommun AeroStructures in Coxsackie (Greene County) and Amphenol Aerospace in Sidney (Delaware County) produce components for equipment authorized in this bill that is used by our troops."<br />
<br />
What is the nature of this equipment made with the help of our neighbors being used by our troops and how is it used? Well, for one example, the Naval Strike Missile (NSM), pictured here. The Coxsackie facility is part of the manufacturing matrix of the California-based Ducommun corporation, whose website is currently boasting of their partnership with Raytheon to build crucial components for the NSM. Much like Woodstock's Ametek Rotron, Ducommun make components and subassemblies for many big-ticket military weapons systems, for example Apache, Chinook and Blackhawk helicopters. Ducommun <a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-igbxguxFUu4/W2XpCDe9aSI/AAAAAAAAAbQ/YSOyHUHdfe02wVL-oQSauvIiVB4q_uxoQCLcBGAs/s1600/New-NSM.jpg"></a>state in their 2017 <a href="https://www.ducommun.com/pdf/annuals/2017AnnualReport.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">annual report</a> that "Our largest end-use markets are the aerospace and defense markets and our revenues from these markets represented 90% of our total net revenues in 2017", enthusing about the "uptick in defense spending that includes major platforms we serve."<br />
<br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AC9vUaX-yTk/W2Xu3-QAfLI/AAAAAAAAAbg/jf8GEoUVe6cRzsANDZYLOW4N1nUpk8AugCEwYBhgL/s1600/military%2Bvehicle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; clear: right; color: #0066cc; float: right; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="480" height="133" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AC9vUaX-yTk/W2Xu3-QAfLI/AAAAAAAAAbg/jf8GEoUVe6cRzsANDZYLOW4N1nUpk8AugCEwYBhgL/s200/military%2Bvehicle.jpg" width="200" /></a>As for the Amphenol facility in Sidney, which employs about 1,000 people, they also boast of making components for a whole gamut of weapons systems: tanks and ground vehicles (their website <a href="http://www.amphenol-aerospace.com/Markets/military-ground-vehicle" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">features</a> this picture of the Stryker Command Vehicle), helicopters, aircraft, AWACS, surveillance systems and more. When we see all these weapons systems at work we should perhaps think of all the bits and pieces that are made-in-Ulster County, made-in-Greene County, made-in-Delaware County, made-all-over-the-place. Then we might wonder about all the good uses to which our society might choose to put all this ingenuity, skill, hard work and resources, and reflect on how many more jobs (per dollar invested) these other uses provide compared to the military options.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-45191454115668512752016-12-29T10:31:00.000-05:002017-02-12T11:19:49.524-05:00The US is responsible for half of all global arms trade<i><b>Excerpted from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/26/global-weapons-trade-sales-exports-united-states" target="_blank">a report in The Guardian</a>, Dec. 26 (with emphases added): </b></i><br />
<br />
The sale of global arms dropped slightly last year to $80bn
from 2014’s $89bn, according to a new congressional study, with the US
maintaining its position as the world’s dominant supplier.<br />
<br />
But at $40bn<b> the US market share of weapons sales amounted
to about half of all arms agreements</b> in 2015, and more than double the
orders recorded by France, its nearest rival with $15bn in sales. The US
and France both grew their market shares, by around $4bn and $9bn
respectively. <br />
<br />
Russia recorded a slight decline in arms orders, dropping to
$11.1bn in sales from its $11.2bn total in 2014, while China reached
$6bn, double the previous year’s estimates.<br />
<br />
The latest figures were released last week by the <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/R44716.pdf">Congressional Research Service</a>, a division of the Library of Congress, and are considered one of the most reliable measures of the global arms trade. <br />
US arms exports in 2016 looks set to remain broadly in line with the previous year’s sales. ...<br />
<br />
The report’s findings conform to a study released in
November that found that<b> the Obama administration has approved more than
$278bn in foreign arms sales in its eight years, more than double the
total of the Bush administration, which approved $128.6bn.</b><br />
<b> </b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-63568058095222915042016-10-23T12:08:00.000-04:002016-10-23T12:11:20.184-04:00That's Not Cool<a href="https://indypendent.org/2016/10/22/thats-not-cool" target="_blank"><i>from <b>The Indypendent</b></i></a><br />
<br />
<div class="field-name-field-authors clearfix">
<div class="label-inline field-label">
By<b> Jesse Rubin</b></div>
<div class="label-inline field-label">
<b> </b><br />
<div class="p1">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_6dyJp3z_dA/WAzgOEip8QI/AAAAAAAAAY0/2WqIoZuirtArKWJYMVcK9qghk7MASqZdQCLcB/s1600/Woodstockdrones_WEB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_6dyJp3z_dA/WAzgOEip8QI/AAAAAAAAAY0/2WqIoZuirtArKWJYMVcK9qghk7MASqZdQCLcB/s320/Woodstockdrones_WEB.jpg" width="320" /></a>WOODSTOCK, NY — On the 12th annual Woodstock Volunteers
Day, residents gather in the Andy Lee Field for home-cooked food, folk
songs and recognition of “what is good about [their] community.” </div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">Two volunteers tabling for the environmental group Scenic Hudson ask for signatures and email addresses at the park entrance.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s2">Tarak Kauff, a member of the antiwar group Veterans For Peace, lends his name to the environmentalist cause.</span><span class="s1"> </span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">When Kauff presents the volunteers with
his own petition, they hesitate. The petition, written by a group of
local activists known as Woodstock Peace Economy, asks aerospace and
military contractor Ametek Rotron to switch over all its production to
civilian use. The 70-year-old company is the largest employer in this
town of about 6,000 residents. </span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">The two volunteers seem to hide behind their table. “Rotron?” one asks. “I thought they only made fans.” </span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">Kauff tells them about the campaign and
about the fans’ essential role in the functioning of F-16 fighter jets,
cluster bombs and predator drones.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">They decline and continue asking for signatures, some of which likely come from Rotron employees.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<b><span class="s1"><i>Military Contracts</i></span></b></div>
<div class="p2">
In 2015 Ametek Rotron landed $2.6 million in Pentagon
contracts. Compared to Lockheed Martin — one of the largest defense
companies in the world with declared revenues of $46.1 billion the same
year— this number is negligible.</div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">But for a town that came to prominence as
a haven for artists and later became synonymous with ’60s-era idealism
and whose council declared it “drone free” in 2014 — any Pentagon
dollars are incongruous.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">So say activists affiliated with
Woodstock Peace Economy who have recently renewed a long-running
campaign against Rotron’s manufacture of weapons parts that dates back
to the 1980s.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">“Located in buildings just out of sight,
off Rte. 375, Ametek Rotron makes high-tech fans, balls bearings and
other essential parts for weapons used to terrorize and kill people the
world over,” reads the group’s latest petition. “As most of us in
Woodstock support peace and not war, the signers below request that
Ametek Rotron explore how to convert its manufacturing facilities to
support peace and not war.”</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">Route 375 is a main road into Woodstock —
but before reaching the downtown, which trades on its image of a hippie
haven — visitors must pass an inconspicuous white sign announcing the
Rotron factory. While well established, it is unknown outside of the
nearby Hudson Valley towns.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">Founded in 1946 by Dutch engineer J.
Constant van Rijn, the Rotron Manufacturing Company patented and
developed high-intensity electronics cooling fans, which soon became
critical for the burgeoning aerospace market of the 1950s.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">By 1958 Rotron had developed the industry
standard muffin fan, a powerful but quiet electronic cooling system. In
tangent with his company’s success, Rijn became known as an arts patron
in Woodstock. He is known for having contributed a heating plant to the
Hudson Valley Repertory Theater so the famous playhouse could operate
all year long.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">He even “dedicated a statue of the
buddha,” Woodstock Peace Economy activist, professor and longtime
Woodstock resident Laurie Kirby told <i>The Indypendent</i>. “It’s the largest Buddha statue in North America.”</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">In 1961, the same year U.S. air and
ground forces officially became active in Vietnam, Rotron developed and
released the Mil-B-23071 standard for AC fans — the company’s first
product strictly for military use. </span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">The U.S. military uses an updated version of this fan to this day. </span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">In the intervening years, as the United
States has consolidated its position as arms merchant to the world,
Woodstock’s largest employer has steadily increased its military
business.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
In 2015, Rotron secured 79 Pentagon contracts, its highest
number ever, and logged record profits. On the whole, the U.S.
armaments industry maintained its status as the largest in the world,
accounting last year for 33 percent of global military exports, or $455
billion, according to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS),
the financial branch of the Defense Department.</div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">Meanwhile, the company is reluctant to
admit its weapons industry involvement, instead insisting that it is
merely a supplier of nonlethal technology. But research conducted by The
Indypendent and activists confirms the inextricable link.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">According to public Pentagon contracts,
Rotron produces centrifugal fans for F-16s, Milstar satellite systems,
CV-22 Osprey helicopters, long-range navy radar and M1A1 tanks.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">Ametek Rotron, in addition, is the main
supplier of the fuel density probe, a critical component in the
operation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) aircraft including the
Predator Drone.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s2">A leaked contract dated October 1, 2009, confirms Rotron supplied 50 fans to the Israeli Air Force that year.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">The final destination of the fans remains
unclear, but it is likely they operate in F-16s. In addition, a
recently published Pentagon contract shows that Rotron provides a $7,365
motor to the Israeli Defense Ministry, confirming the company’s ongoing
direct business with that country’s government. </span><br />
<span class="s1"><b>...</b></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1"><a href="https://indypendent.org/2016/10/22/thats-not-cool" target="_blank"><i><b>Read the full article</b></i></a> </span></div>
<span class="s1"></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-53001588698929597992016-10-03T13:59:00.001-04:002016-10-03T13:59:34.252-04:00A Day In The Life On September 27, Woodstock’s largest employer <a href="http://woodstockweaponswatch.blogspot.com/2016/09/woodstock-continues-to-supply-armaments.html" target="_blank">signed</a> a new $7,365 weapons contract with Israel’s Defense Ministry, for delivery to its Avionic Armaments division. This happened to be the day before the death of Shimon Peres, the father of Israel’s nuclear bomb program, but otherwise it was a typical day in the life of the territories illegally occupied by Israel, so we thought it might be interesting to look at some other news items from that ordinary day.<br /><br /> On that day Israeli authorities demolished 33 residential, school and livelihood-related buildings in nine Palestinian communities, making dozens of people homeless including children, <a href="http://www.ochaopt.org/content/33-structures-demolished-past-three-days-multiple-incidents" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">according</a> to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. These incidents brought the total number of houses destroyed or confiscated by the Israeli forces in the West Bank so far this year to 878, a 60% increase over the figure for the whole of 2015.<br /><br /> The OCHA adds: “Due to discriminatory and unlawful planning processes, it is almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits in the vast majority of Area C and East Jerusalem. The systematic destruction of property in this context, along with other factors, contributes to the generation of a coercive environment pressuring residents to leave.”<br /><br /> On that same day, in another piece of this campaign, Israeli forces destroyed four water wells in a village near Hebron, three of which had been built with funds from the YMCA.<br /><br /> On that same day, the Israeli human rights group Adalah <a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/8926" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">criticized</a> Israel’s plan to expand the settlement of Gilo onto wide swaths of land belonging to the Palestinian town of Beit Jala, calling it “an infringement on the rights of the land owners in addition to being a breach of international law.”<br /><br /> On the following day, Amnesty International <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/09/israel-opt-pattern-of-unlawful-killings-reveals-shocking-disregard-for-human-life/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">reported</a> that “Israeli forces continue to display an appalling disregard for human life by using reckless and unlawful lethal force against Palestinians,” adding that the Israeli military justice system “repeatedly fails to deliver justice for Palestinian victims of unlawful killings and their families.”<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-70884114677042915272016-08-29T09:51:00.001-04:002016-08-29T09:52:21.197-04:00Protesting the Manufacture of Components for Military Drones in Woodstock<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CL1XoFE5ZQg/V8Q8_xI5SaI/AAAAAAAAAYQ/v2zrU1OxdxIpg0aGhKGaMvuQCSuPeqi-QCLcB/s1600/drone%2Bwoodstock%2Bgreen%2Bjuly%2B2016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CL1XoFE5ZQg/V8Q8_xI5SaI/AAAAAAAAAYQ/v2zrU1OxdxIpg0aGhKGaMvuQCSuPeqi-QCLcB/s640/drone%2Bwoodstock%2Bgreen%2Bjuly%2B2016.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
Local activists on Woodstock's Village Green calling for the local war economy to be converted to a peace economy. Investment for peaceful purposes creates more jobs than investment in war!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-812048251517007912016-07-06T12:39:00.001-04:002016-07-06T12:39:13.319-04:00End the Manufacture of Weapons for War in Woodstock<i><u><a href="https://diy.rootsaction.org/petitions/end-the-manufacture-of-weapons-for-war-in-woodstock" target="_blank">Sign this petition</a></u></i><br />
<br />
To: Ametek Rotron <br />
<div class="what">
Convert production in their Woodstock, NY, plant from parts for military drones, nuclear missiles, cluster bombs and other weapons of war to peaceful production</div>
<h4 class="subtitle">
Why is this important?</h4>
<div class="why">
Ametek Rotron is Woodstock’s largest employer. Located in buildings just out of sight, off Rte 375, Ametek Rotron makes high-tech fans, ball bearings and other essential parts for weapons used to terrorize and kill people the world over. Here in Woodstock Ametek Rotron is the sole supplier of such crucial parts as the fuel density probe for Predator drones. Ametek Rotron makes parts for missiles, nuclear weapons and many other weapons of death and destruction. In 2015 Ametek Rotron had $2,603,158 in Pentagon contracts. As most of us in Woodstock support peace and not war, the signers below request that Ametek Rotron explore how to convert its manufacturing facilities to support peace and not war.<br />
<a href="https://diy.rootsaction.org/petitions/end-the-manufacture-of-weapons-for-war-in-woodstock"></a><br />
<i><b><u><a href="https://diy.rootsaction.org/petitions/end-the-manufacture-of-weapons-for-war-in-woodstock">Sign this petition at RootsAction</a></u></b></i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-57959626268400845582016-06-24T09:57:00.000-04:002016-06-24T09:57:00.203-04:00Tell Senator Reed to Stop Justifying Cluster Bomb Sales to Saudi Arabia!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jc376AJQjiw/V208F33sf7I/AAAAAAAAAXk/MsN7FPQ-AyIgMJ-IszqyQMkOlhKw1gZGACLcB/s1600/cluster%2Bbomb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jc376AJQjiw/V208F33sf7I/AAAAAAAAAXk/MsN7FPQ-AyIgMJ-IszqyQMkOlhKw1gZGACLcB/s320/cluster%2Bbomb.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<i>From <a href="http://www.codepink.org/reed_clusterbomb_saudi_action?utm_campaign=reedbomba&utm_medium=email&utm_source=codepink">Code Pink</a></i><br />
Last week, the House of Representatives failed to pass an amendment that would have halted the sale of U.S. made cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia, which has used the munitions as part of their devastating military campaign against Yemen. Now as our hopes turn to the Senate, we’ve discovered it’s Rhode Island Democratic Senator Jack Reed who is leading the charge to keep the flow of weapons going – weapons manufactured in his own state by a company that donates to his political campaigns!<br />
<strong><a href="http://www.codepink.org/reed_clusterbomb_saudi_action?utm_campaign=reedbomba&utm_medium=email&utm_source=codepink">Tell Senator Reed to stop putting the interests of war profiteers over human rights, and end cluster bomb sales to Saudi Arabia!</a></strong><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-13257350231117710022016-06-22T10:11:00.000-04:002016-06-22T10:11:51.630-04:0012 arrested calling for peaceful production instead of $4 billion destroyers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NByiLi63Eko/V2qbv30vgbI/AAAAAAAAAXU/EN_MsFT6NLwwRz1EWpFqp777CbObapUrACLcB/s1600/biw%2Bprotest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NByiLi63Eko/V2qbv30vgbI/AAAAAAAAAXU/EN_MsFT6NLwwRz1EWpFqp777CbObapUrACLcB/s1600/biw%2Bprotest.jpg" /></a></div>
Twelve protesters were <a href="http://www.timesrecord.com/news/2016-06-20/Front_Page/Police_arrest_12.html" target="">arrested</a> last Saturday outside Bath Iron Works (Maine) before a ceremony began at the shipyard christening the Michael Monsoor, a guided missile destroyer.<br />
<br />
The Global Network <a href="http://space4peace.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">says</a>: “We continue to call for the conversion of BIW to build rail, solar, wind and tidal power systems so the future generations can have a life. We need more help projecting this demand into the public consciousness.”<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-5356968436383381022016-04-09T09:52:00.001-04:002016-04-09T09:54:05.598-04:00Pentagon Excess Has Fueled a Civil-Military Crisis <span style="font-size: small;"><strong>How Civilian Control of the Military Has Become a Fantasy</strong></span> <br />
By Gregory D. Foster<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Published by<a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176115/tomgram%3A_gregory_foster%2C_a_case_for_demilitarizing_the_military/#more" target="_blank"> TomDispatch</a></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016/01/13/10-sailors-detained-in-iran-returned-to-us-navy.html" target="_blank"><strong>Item</strong></a><strong>:</strong> Two U.S. Navy patrol boats, with 10 sailors aboard, “stray” into Iranian territorial waters, and are apprehended and held by Iranian revolutionary guards, precipitating a 24-hour international incident involving negotiations at the highest levels of government to secure their release. The Pentagon offers conflicting reports on why this happened: navigational error, mechanical breakdown, fuel depletion -- but not intelligence-gathering, intentional provocation, or hormonally induced hot-dogging.<br />
<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-gitmo-release-special-report-idUSKBN0UB1B020151228" target="_blank"><strong>Item</strong></a><strong>:</strong> The Pentagon, according to a Reuters <em>exposé</em>, has been consciously and systematically engaged in thwarting White House efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and release cleared detainees. Pentagon officials have repeatedly refused to provide basic documentation to foreign governments willing to take those detainees and have made it increasingly difficult for foreign delegations to visit Guantanamo to assess them. Ninety-one of the <a href="http://www.closeguantanamo.org/Prisoners" target="_blank">779 detainees</a> held there over the years remain, 34 of whom have been cleared for release.<br />
<a href="http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016/01/30/pentagon-tells-senate-it-wont-demote-retired-gen-petraeus.html" target="_blank"><strong>Item</strong></a><strong>:</strong> The Pentagon elects not to reduce General David Petraeus in rank, thereby ensuring that he receives full, four-star retirement pay, after previously being sentenced on misdemeanor charges to two years’ probation and a $100,000 fine for illegally passing highly classified material (a criminal offense) to his mistress (adultery, ordinarily punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice) and lying to FBI officials (a criminal offense). Meanwhile, Private Chelsea (<em>née</em><em> </em>Bradley) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Manning" target="_blank">Manning</a> continues to serve a 35-year prison sentence, having been reduced to the Army’s lowest rank and given a dishonorable discharge for providing classified documents to WikiLeaks that included incriminating on-board videos of a 2007 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/world/middleeast/06baghdad.html" target="_blank">Apache helicopter attack</a> in Baghdad that killed up to 18 civilians, including two Reuters journalists, and wounded two children, and of a 2009 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granai_airstrike" target="_blank">massacre</a> in Afghanistan in which a B-1 bomber killed as many as 147 civilians, reportedly including some 93 children.<br />
<br />
What do these episodes have in common? In their own way, they’re all symptomatic of an enduring crisis in civil-military relations that afflicts the United States.<br />
<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a> <br />
<blockquote>
Hyperbolic though it may sound, it <em>is</em> a crisis, though not like the Flint water crisis, or the international refugee crisis, or the ISIS crisis, or the Zika crisis. It’s more like the climate crisis, or a lymphoma or termite infestation that destroys from within, unrecognized and unattended. And yes, it’s an enduring crisis, a state of affairs that has been with us, unbeknownst to the public and barely acknowledged by purported experts on the subject of civil-military relations, for the past two decades or more. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
The essence of the situation begins, but doesn’t end, with civilian control of the military, where direction, oversight, and final decision-making authority reside with duly elected and appointed civil officials. That’s a minimalist precondition for democracy. A more ideal version of the relationship would be civilian supremacy, where there is civically engaged public oversight of strategically competent legislative oversight of strategically competent executive oversight of a willingly accountable, self-policing military. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
What we have today, instead, is the polar opposite: not civilian supremacy over, nor even civilian control of the military, but what could be characterized as civilian subjugation to the military, where civilian officials are largely militarily illiterate, more militaristic than the military itself, advocates for -- rather than overseers of -- the institution, and running scared politically (lest they be labeled weak on defense and security). </blockquote>
<blockquote>
That, then, is our lot today. Civilian authorities are almost unequivocally deferential to established military preferences, practices, and ways of thinking. The military itself, as the three “items” above suggest, sets its own standards, makes and produces its own news, and appropriates policy and policymaking for its own ends, whatever civilian leadership may think or want. It is a demonstrably massive, self-propelled institution increasingly central to American life, and what it says and wants and does matters in striking ways. We would do well to consider the many faces of civil-military relations today, especially in light of the role the military has arrogated to itself. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<strong>A Crisis Appears and Disappears</strong> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
University of North Carolina historian Richard Kohn raised the specter of a civil-military crisis in a 1994 <em>National Interest</em> <a href="http://nationalinterest.org/article/out-of-control-the-crisis-in-civil-military-relations-343" target="_blank">article</a> titled “Out of Control: The Crisis in Civil-Military Relations.” He focused on the ill-disguised disdain of many in uniform for Commander-in-Chief Bill Clinton, highlighting the particularly politicized behavior of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Colin Powell, who had spoken out in opposition to two prime items on the Clinton agenda: intervention in the Balkans and gays in the military. Typical of how the bounds of propriety had been crossed, Kohn also alluded to the example of the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/16/us/general-to-be-disciplined-for-disparaging-president.html" target="_blank">Air Force major general</a> who, at a military gathering, contemptuously characterized the president as “gay-loving,” “pot-smoking,” “draft-dodging,” and “womanizing.” </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Too alarmist for many pundits, Kohn’s claim of a growing crisis gave way to the milder thought, advocated most forcefully by journalist <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1997/07/the-widening-gap-between-military-and-society/306158/" target="_blank">Tom Ricks</a>, that there was simply an increasing cultural, experiential, and ideological “gap” between the military and society, a thesis that itself then went dormant when George W. Bush entered office.<br />
Those who profess expertise on civil-military relations have tended to focus almost exclusively on civilian control and the associated issue of the military’s political “neutrality.” That’s why so much attention and controversy were generated over President Obama’s highly publicized firing of General Stanley McChrystal for the climate he created that led to the disparagement of senior Obama officials by his subordinates (as reported in the 2010 <em>Rolling Stone</em> <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-runaway-general-20100622" target="_blank">article</a> “The Runaway General”). Yet far bigger and more fundamental matters have gone largely unnoticed. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Civil-military relations are built on a tacit but binding social contract of mutual rights, obligations, and expectations among the military, its civilian overseers (executive and legislative), and society. Four things are expected of the military as part of this compact: operational competence, sound advice, political neutrality, and social responsibility. Operational competence and social responsibility are rarely even part of the discussion and yet they go to the heart of the crisis that exists, pointing both to the outsized presence of the military in American life and statecraft, and to a disturbingly pervasive pattern of misconduct over time among those in uniform. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<strong>The Failure of Operational Competence</strong> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
If we enjoyed a truly healthy state of civil-military relations, it would be characterized by a strategically -- not just a militarily -- effective force. By implication, such a military would be capable of successfully accomplishing whatever it is called upon to do. The military we have today is, arguably, ineffective not only militarily but demonstrably strategically as well. It doesn’t prevent wars; it doesn’t win wars; and it certainly doesn’t secure and preserve the peace. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
No, the military doesn’t prevent wars. At any given time over the past quarter century, on average roughly <a href="http://www.pcr.uu.se/research/ucdp/charts_and_graphs/#region" target="_blank">40 violent conflicts a year</a> have been underway around the world. The U.S. military has had virtually no discernible influence on lessening the outbreak of such conflicts. It isn’t even clear that its size, configuration, and positioning, no less the staggering sums invested in it, have had any appreciable deterrent effect on the warring propensities of our so-called peer competitors (Russia and China). That they have not sought war with us is due far less to simplistic Washington assumptions about deterrence than to factors we don’t even grasp. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
And no, the military doesn’t win wars anymore. It hasn’t won one of note in 70 years. The dirty wars in the shadows it now regularly fights are intrinsically unwinnable, especially given our preferred American Way of War: killing people and breaking things as lethally, destructively, and overwhelmingly as possible. It’s an approach -- a state of mind -- still largely geared to a different type of conflict from an era now long since past and to those classic generals who are always preparing for the last war. That’s why today’s principal adversaries have been so uniformly effective in employing asymmetric methods as a form of strategic jujitsu to turn our presumed strengths into crippling weaknesses. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Instead of a strategically effective military, what we have is quite the opposite: heavy, disproportionately destructive, indiscriminately lethal, single-mindedly combat-oriented, technology-dominant, exorbitantly expensive, unsustainably consumptive, and increasingly alienated from the rest of society. Just as important, wherever it goes, it provokes and antagonizes where it should reassure and thereby invariably fathers the mirror image of itself in others. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Not surprisingly, the military today doesn’t secure and preserve peace, a concept no longer evident in Washington’s store of know-how. Those in uniform and in positions of civilian authority who employ the military subscribe almost universally and uncritically to the inherently illogical maxim that if you want peace, you had best prepare for war. The result is that the force being prepared (even engorged) feeds and nurtures pervasive militarism -- the primacy of, preference for, and deference to military solutions in the conduct of statecraft. Where it should provide security, it instead produces only self-defeating insecurity. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Consider just five key areas where military preferences override civilian ones and accentuate all manner of insecurity in the process. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<strong>Rapacious defense spending: </strong>The U.S. military budget exceeds that of the <a href="http://www.globalfirepower.com/defense-spending-budget.asp" target="_blank">next 10 countries</a> combined, as well as of the gross domestic products of all but <a href="http://knoema.com/nwnfkne/world-gdp-ranking-2015-data-and-charts" target="_blank">20 countries</a>. At 54% of federal discretionary spending, it surpasses all other discretionary accounts combined, including government, education, Medicare, veterans’ benefits, housing, international affairs, energy and the environment, transportation, and agriculture. Thanks to the calculations of the <a href="https://www.nationalpriorities.org/interactive-data/trade-offs/" target="_blank">National Priorities Project</a>, we know that the total cost of American war since 2001 -- $1.6 trillion -- would have gotten us 19.5 million Head Start slots for 10 years or paid for 2.2 million elementary school teachers for a decade. A mere 1% of the defense budget for one year -- just over $5 billion -- would pay for 152,000 four-year university scholarships or 6,342 police officers for 10 years. What we spend on nuclear weapons alone each year -- $19.3 billion -- would cover a decade of low-income healthcare for 825,000 children or 549,000 adults. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<strong>Promiscuous arms sales:</strong> The United States remains by far the world’s leading proliferator of conventional arms, <a href="http://fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/R44320.pdf" target="_blank">accounting</a> for some 50% of all global sales and 48% of all sales to the developing world. During the 2011-2014 period alone, U.S. weapons deliveries included a wide array of advanced weapons technologies: 104 tanks and self-propelled guns, 230 artillery pieces, 419 armored personnel vehicles, 48 supersonic aircraft and 58 other aircraft, 835 surface-to-air missiles, and 144 anti-ship missiles, much of that to the volatile Middle East. Skeptics would say that such transactions are motivated less by an urge to enable recipient countries to defend themselves than by the desire to buy influence abroad while aiding and abetting arms manufacturers at home. The result of such massive sales is, of course, the creation of yet more instability where stability should be. ...<span id="goog_928426143"></span></blockquote>
<i><b><a href="https://draft.blogger.com/">Read the full article<span id="goog_928426144"></span></a></b></i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-42908680223795519702014-05-26T09:40:00.000-04:002014-05-26T09:44:57.230-04:00How to make Woodstock a "No Drone Zone"The Town Board of Woodstock, NY, has <a href="http://www.dailyfreeman.com/general-news/20140523/woodstock-wants-to-be-off-limits-to-drones">passed a resolution</a> stating the Town Board's desire that Woodstock be a "No Drone Zone". In a 4-0 vote this week, the board decided to urge Congress, the state Legislature and members of the Ulster County Legislature to keep the unmanned aircraft out of municipal skies. The resolution stresses the threats that surveillance drones pose to privacy and constitutional rights, and notes that "the use of drones by the United States military provides a dangerous precedent for their domestic use".
<br /><br />
This is an admirable precedent that should spread to other towns. But it's worse than an empty gesture if Woodstock doesn't end its role as a source of crucial components for these same drones. We know that Woodstock's largest employer <a href="http://woodstockweaponswatch.blogspot.com/2011/09/predator-drones-rely-on-made-in.html">is the sole supplier</a> of a crucial component of the military's Predator drone, and <a href="http://woodstockweaponswatch.blogspot.com/2013/06/woodstocks-part-in-global-hawk-spy.html">makes components</a> for the Global Hawk spy drone. (And we can be sure that Woodstock's Ametek Rotron has other drone contracts, as only a few of the company's contracts come to public notice.)
<br /><br />
Communities like Woodstock have an opportunity to play a positive role in making our skies safe from the scourge of drones, by cutting off the source -- by ending their role in the manufacture of drones and investigating ways to convert their local economies to peaceful, productive purposes. That way Woodstock can keep to the spirit, as well as the letter, of its resolution.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-34506295019819054672013-10-22T19:32:00.001-04:002013-10-22T19:32:40.964-04:00'Shock Doctrine' Americana: Endless War as the Ultimate Business ModelPublished on Monday, October 21, 2013 by TomDispatch.com<br />
<a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175762/tomgram:_william_astore,_war!_what_is_it_good_for_profit_and_power/">http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175762/tomgram:_william_astore,_war!_what_is_it_good_for_profit_and_power/
</a><br />
<br />
'Shock Doctrine' Americana: Endless War as the Ultimate Business Model<br />
<br />
Disaster Capitalism on the battlefield and in the boardroom<br />
<br />
by William Astore<br />
<br />
There is a new normal in America: our government may shut down, but our wars continue. Congress may not be able to pass a budget, but the U.S. military can still launch commando raids in Libya and Somalia, the Afghan War can still be prosecuted, Italy can begarrisoned by American troops (putting the “empire” back in Rome), Africa can be used as an imperial playground (as in the late nineteenth century “scramble for Africa,” but with the U.S. and China doing the scrambling this time around), and the military-industrial complex can still dominate the world’s arms trade.<br />
<br />
In the halls of Congress and the Pentagon, it’s business as usual, if your definition of “business” is the power and profits you get from constantly preparing for and prosecuting wars around the world. “War is a racket,” General Smedley Butler famously declared in 1935, and even now it’s hard to disagree with a man who had two Congressional Medals of Honor to his credit and was intimately familiar with American imperialism.<br />
<br />
War Is Politics, Right?<br />
<br />
Once upon a time, as a serving officer in the U.S. Air Force, I was taught that Carl von Clausewitz had defined war as a continuation of politics by other means. This definition is, in fact, a simplification of his classic and complex book, On War, written after his experiences fighting Napoleon in the early nineteenth century.<br />
<br />
The idea of war as a continuation of politics is both moderately interesting and dangerously misleading: interesting because it connects war to political processes and suggests that they should be fought for political goals; misleading because it suggests that war is essentially rational and so controllable. The fault here is not Clausewitz’s, but the American military’s for misreading and oversimplifying him. <br />
<br />
Perhaps another “Carl” might lend a hand when it comes to helping Americans understand what war is really all about. I’m referring to Karl Marx, who admired Clausewitz, notably for his idea that combat is to war what a cash payment is to commerce. However seldom combat (or such payments) may happen, they are the culmination and so the ultimate arbiters of the process.<br />
<br />
War, in other words, is settled by killing, a bloody transaction that echoes the exploitative exchanges of capitalism. Marx found this idea to be both suggestive and pregnant with meaning. So should we all.<br />
<br />
Following Marx, Americans ought to think about war not just as an extreme exercise of politics, but also as a continuation of exploitative commerce by other means. Combat as commerce: there’s more in that than simple alliteration.<br />
<br />
In the history of war, such commercial transactions took many forms, whether as territory conquered, spoils carted away, raw materials appropriated, or market share gained. Consider American wars. The War of 1812 is sometimes portrayed as a minor dust-up with Britain, involving the temporary occupation and burning of our capital, but it really was about crushing Indians on the frontier and grabbing their land. The Mexican-American War was another land grab, this time for the benefit of slaveholders. The Spanish-American War was a land grab for those seeking an American empire overseas, while World War I was for making the world “safe for democracy” -- and for American business interests globally.<br />
<br />
Even World War II, a war necessary to stop Hitler and Imperial Japan, witnessed the emergence of the U.S. as the arsenal of democracy, the world’s dominant power, and the new imperial stand-in for a bankrupt British Empire.<br />
<br />
Korea? Vietnam? Lots of profit for the military-industrial complex and plenty of power for the Pentagon establishment. Iraq, the Middle East, current adventures in Africa? Oil, markets, natural resources, global dominance.<br />
<br />
In societal calamities like war, there will always be winners and losers. But the clearest winners are often companies like Boeing and Dow Chemical, which provided B-52 bombers and Agent Orange, respectively, to the U.S. military in Vietnam. Such “arms merchants” -- an older, more honest term than today’s “defense contractor” -- don’t have to pursue the hard sell, not when war and preparations for it have become so permanently, inseparably intertwined with the American economy, foreign policy, and our nation’s identity as a rugged land of “warriors” and “heroes” (more on that in a moment).<br />
<br />
War as Disaster Capitalism<br />
<br />
Consider one more definition of war: not as politics or even as commerce, but as societal catastrophe. Thinking this way, we can apply Naomi Klein's concepts of the "shock doctrine" and "disaster capitalism" to it. When such disasters occur, there are always those who seek to turn a profit.<br />
<br />
Most Americans are, however, discouraged from thinking about war this way thanks to the power of what we call “patriotism” or, at an extreme, “superpatriotism” when it applies to us, and the significantly more negative “nationalism” or “ultra-nationalism” when it appears in other countries. During wars, we’re told to “support our troops,” to wave the flag, to put country first, to respect the patriotic ideal of selfless service and redemptive sacrifice (even if all but 1% of us are never expected to serve or sacrifice).<br />
<br />
We’re discouraged from reflecting on the uncomfortable fact that, as “our” troops sacrifice and suffer, others in society are profiting big time. Such thoughts are considered unseemly and unpatriotic. Pay no attention to the war profiteers, who pass as perfectly respectable companies. After all, any price is worth paying (or profits worth offering up) to contain the enemy -- not so long ago, the red menace, but in the twenty-first century, the murderous terrorist.<br />
<br />
Forever war is forever profitable. Think of the Lockheed Martins of the world. In their commerce with the Pentagon, as well as the militaries of other nations, they ultimately seek cash payment for their weapons and a world in which such weaponry will be eternally needed. In the pursuit of security or victory, political leaders willingly pay their price.<br />
<br />
Call it a Clausewitzian/Marxian feedback loop or the dialectic of Carl and Karl. It also represents the eternal marriage of combat and commerce. If it doesn’t catch all of what war is about, it should at least remind us of the degree to which war as disaster capitalism is driven by profit and power.<br />
<br />
For a synthesis, we need only turn from Carl or Karl to Cal -- President Calvin Coolidge, that is. “The business of America is business,” he declared in the Roaring Twenties. Almost a century later, the business of America is war, even if today’s presidents are too polite to mention that the business is booming.<br />
<br />
America’s War Heroes as Commodities<br />
<br />
Many young people today are, in fact, looking for a release from consumerism. In seeking new identities, quite a few turn to the military. And it provides. Recruits are hailed aswarriors and warfighters, as heroes, and not just within the military either, but by society at large.<br />
<br />
Yet in joining the military and being celebrated for that act, our troops paradoxically become yet another commodity, another consumable of the state. Indeed, they become consumed by war and its violence. Their compensation? To be packaged and marketed as the heroes of our militarized moment. Steven Gardiner, a cultural anthropologist and U.S. Army veteran, has written eloquently about what he calls the “heroic masochism” of militarized settings and their allure for America’s youth. Put succinctly, in seeking to escape a consumerism that has lost its meaning and find a release from dead-end jobs, many volunteers are transformed into celebrants of violence, seekers and givers of pain, a harsh reality Americans ignore as long as that violence is acted out overseas against our enemies and local populations. <br />
<br />
Such “heroic” identities, tied so closely to violence in war, often prove poorly suited to peacetime settings. Frustration and demoralization devolve into domestic violence andsuicide. In an American society with ever fewer meaningful peacetime jobs, exhibiting greater and greater polarization of wealth and opportunity, the decisions of some veterans to turn to or return to mind-numbing drugs of various sorts and soul-stirring violence is tragically predictable. That it stems from their exploitative commodification as so many heroic inflictors of violence in our name is a reality most Americans are content to forget. <br />
<br />
You May Not Be Interested in War, but War Is Interested in You<br />
<br />
As Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky pithily observed, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” If war is combat and commerce, calamity and commodity, it cannot be left to our political leaders alone -- and certainly not to our generals. When it comes to war, however far from it we may seem to be, we’re all in our own ways customers and consumers. Some pay a high price. Many pay a little. A few gain a lot. Keep an eye on those few and you’ll end up with a keener appreciation of what war is actually all about.<br />
<br />
No wonder our leaders tell us not to worry our little heads about our wars -- just support those troops, go shopping, and keep waving that flag. If patriotism is famously the last refuge of the scoundrel, it’s also the first recourse of those seeking to mobilize customers for the latest bloodletting exercise in combat as commerce.<br />
<br />
Just remember: in the grand bargain that is war, it’s their product and their profit. And that’s no bargain for America, or for that matter for the world.<br />
<br />
© 2013 William Astore<br />
<br />
- William J. Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF) and professor of history, is a TomDispatch regular. He welcomes reader comments atwjastore@gmail.com. To listen to Timothy MacBain's latest TomCast audio interview in which Astore discusses the difficulty of speaking one’s mind in the military, click here, or download it to your iPod here.<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-23823781428397595662012-04-23T08:54:00.003-04:002012-04-23T08:54:41.153-04:00The Shame of Nations: A New Record is Set for Spending on WarAn <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/04/23-2" target="_blank">article by Lawrence Wittner on Common Dreams</a> is well worth reading.<br />
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"... World military spending reached a record $1,738 billion in 2011 -- an increase of $138 billion over the previous year. The United States accounted for 41 percent of that, or $711 billion. ..."<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851974671313381570.post-27342923404013130972012-04-23T08:45:00.001-04:002012-04-23T08:45:30.182-04:00How your tax dollars are spent ...... an illuminating new graphic analysis at <a href="http://www.accountingdegreeonline.net/tax-dollars/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.accountingdegreeonline.net/tax-dollars/</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0