This is the last in a series of posts on nuclear near missiles occurring from 1961 through 2014; also, this post continues Mother Jones magazines's detailed dissection of the Pentagon.
I. Continuing the List of Nuke Near Misses
2007: Six fully armed nukes go missing from Minot Air Force Base for 36 hours.
May 2008: A fire in a Minuteman III silo goes unnoticed for five days.
Oct. 2008: The Air Force pledges to "sustain, modernize, and recapitalize" its nuclear capability.
Feb. 2010: A nuclear munitions crew at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico is decertified for failing safety inspections.
Oct. 2010: A computer glitch cuts off communications to 50 Minuteman III missiles for more than an hour.
2011: The reforms the Air Force initiated in 2008 are backfiring, notes an official report, "creating a climate of distrust."
July 2012: An 82-year-old nun and two accomplices break into a weapon-grade uranium facility in Tennessee -- she is sentenced to 35 months in prison for a breach that exposed "troubling displays of ineptitude."
Dec. 2012: A decertified missileer is placed on launch duty at Malmstrom Air Force Base.
April 2013: At Minot, 17 missileers have to surrender their launch authority due to performance and attitude problems.
Aug. 2013: The missile wing at Malmstrom fails its safety and security inspections; an investigation into drug use finds evidence that officers are cheating on proficiency tests.
Oct. 2013: The Air Force's ICBM commander is removed following his "inappropriate behavior" on a state trip to Russia.
Nov. 2013: RAND report: US missileers are suffering from burnout.
2014: Nine officers at Malmstrom are stripped of their commands and their CO resigns. The Air Force announces changes intended to discourage cheating and improve morale. (Source of this list: "That Time We Almost Nuked North Carolina," Mother Jones, January/February 2014.)
II. The Missing Peace Dividend
Defense spending (in billions of 2013 dollars) dropped sharply after earlier conflicts. But not this time.
Defense spending soared to $1,100 (billion) in World War II (1941-45); however, by 1948 it had dropped to a little under $100 (billion).
After the Korean War (1950-53) it had increased to about $475 (billion) and within about two years, defense spending had dropped to about $375 (billion).
The Vietnam War (1965-75) increased defense spending to about $575 (billion) but by 1975 it had dropped to about $375 (billion).
The Reagan military buildup (1981-89) jumped defense spending to about $600 (billion) and by 1998 it had declined to about $375 (billion).
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (2001-13) increased military spending to about $750 (billion) and haves dropped very little in percentage terms since then. Strictly speaking, we have at least 5,000 Special Forces troops fighting a different war in Iraq and will have about 8,000 troops in Afghanistan through 2017 at least.
We now have what amounts to a permanent standing army.
III. We're the World's 800-Pound Gorilla
The United States, with under five percent of the world's population, accounts for nearly 40 percent of global military spending. The FY 2017 Pentagon budget is nine times the corresponding budget of Russia and three times the current budget of China.
The National Priorities Project does an annual pie chart on discretionary spending, with the spending for the various activities of government sectioned off as slices. For the last few years, the Pentagon's slice of the pie has varied between 54 to 55 percent. Given that president-elect Trump has called the military "a disaster" and has promised a major buildup, it is reasonable to believe that the Pentagon's share of the pie will increase at least into the low sixties.
IV. The U.S. Paid for Two Wars with Credit
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost $1.5 trillion (through 2013), that is about twice the cost of the Vietnam war in inflation-adjusted dollars. And that's just the "supplemental" military spending passed by Congress for the wars -- the regular Pentagon budget also grew nearly 45 percent between 2001 and 2010.
The funds to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan came entirely from borrowing, contributing nearly 20 percent to the national debt accrued between 2001 and 2012.
Contributing significantly to the militarization of the United States, the Pentagon follows a doctrine of Total Spectrum Dominance, a doctrine that means the U.S. must have superiority over every nation in every aspect of military warfare.
V. The Wartime Wage Gap
According to the special section on the military in the January/February 2014 issue of Mother Jones magazine -- from which much of the material for this post has been obtained -- while the number of Americans in uniform increased three percent during the past decade, the annual cost per person doubled to around $115,000. "Congress approved multiple raises during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but a look at base pay rates (what soldiers earn before add-ons like housing allowances and combat pay) shows that wartime wages didn't trickle down the chain of command. Some of that can be explained by 'brass creep' -- the swelling ranks of generals and admirals who earn high salaries and retire with cushy pensions."
No comments:
Post a Comment