Published on Portside (https://portside.org/)
Dems Help Pass
Huge Military Budget
Jessica
Corbett
May
24, 2018
Common
Dreams
While the world
responds with alarm over President Donald Trump's
spontaneous decision to cancel diplomatic talks with North Korea
scheduled for next month—which aimed to ease rising nuclear tensions—131
Democrats in the U.S. House joined with the overwhelming majority of
Republicans to pass a $717 billion Pentagon spending bill that includes massive
expansion of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
The National
Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2019 authorizes the
development of new low-yield submarine-launched nuclear warheads that the Trump
administration demanded in its Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), which
was released in February and denounced by disarmament advocates as
"radical" and "extreme."
On Thursday,
anti-war activists and lawmakers shamed the Democrats who voted with the GOP to
approve the military spending bill, and warned of its consequences. Rep. John
Garamendi (D-Calif.), according to Politico, said the measure
"pushes us even further and faster down the path to war, toward a new
nuclear arms race."
"Does it make
us safer to have a low-yield nuclear weapon on one of our submarines?"
Garamendi posed. "Probably not."
"The U.S.
spends more on defense than the next eight countries combined," noted Rev.
Shawna Foster of About Face: Veterans Against the War. Meanwhile, veterans
across the U.S. continue to suffer, and "the State Department is
underfunded, showing very little is prioritized in diplomatic solutions that
would prevent more of our young people from going to war. We have to turn this
around now."
In addition to
allocating $22 billion toward U.S. nuclear weapons programs and $69 billion for
U.S. war efforts, the legislation approves the purchase of more than 70 F-35
fighter jets, the addition of 16,000 active-duty personnel,
and Trump's request for a 2.6 percent pay raise for the military, the
biggest increase in nine years.
"Instead of a
blueprint for peace and security, this NDAA continues the practice of endless
war with no input or oversight from our congressional leaders," lamented
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), one of 59 Democrats who voted against the bill.
"It fails to compel any debate or vote in Congress on our endless wars.
And it continues the shameful practice of budgeting our wars off the books with
the unaccountable Overseas Contingency Operation (OCO) slush fund."
"The
overwhelming cost of unnecessary and aggressive military invasions could be
better spent at home meeting human needs," suggested Michael McPhearson of
Veterans for Peace. "As veterans we know that our positions are often
glorified and are used to support a culture that worships guns and violence at
home and abroad, when in reality, we know all too well the dangers and effects
of war."
Despite the
alarming components of the House-approved NDAA, in the wake of Trump's heavily
criticized withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, anti-war activists
were relieved that the measure makes clear to the White House that Congress has
not authorized the use of armed forces against Iran.
"Just weeks
after President Trump shamefully pulled out of the Iran deal, it is more
important than ever to ensure diplomacy with Iran and in the region," said
Lee, a co-sponsor of the amendment.
"This is
vital, as the elevation of Iran warhawks in John Bolton and Mike Pompeo and the
violation of the Iran nuclear deal has put another disastrous war of choice in
the Middle East back on the table," said NIAC Action executive director
Jamal Abdi, referring to Trump's recently appointed national security adviser
and secretary of state.
While calling the
Iran amendment "a welcome step," Abdi emphasized that the
administration "has shredded norms and constraints" and that
"far more political and legal constraints are needed to ensure Trump,
Bolton, and Pompeo cannot put their war plans into place."
The Senate Armed
Services Committee marked up a version of the Pentagon spending bill
this week, but the Senate's Republican leadership has not formally announced
plans to bring it to the floor.
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"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
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