Not So Radical

Obviously, neither major party, and I'm speaking here of the Democrats, is going to launch a program any time soon to dismantle the war machine which has gotten us into so much trouble.

However, there are ways to gradually scale back the defense budget which are beginning to look attractive even to moderates. It's irrational, for one thing, to continue to commit to programs designed to defend us against the now-extinct Soviet Union when Social Security is threatened and our bridges and electrical infrastructure are crumbling.

We could save 60 billion dollars a year and shift the money to programs which are actually useful -- rebuilding infrastructure, supporting education, and subsidizing healthcare -- without raising taxes or increasing the defecit.

Dr. Lawrence Korb, a defense expert formerly with Raytheon Corp. and an assistant secretary of defense under Reagan has authored a report detailing exactly what programs could be cut (PDF file) without adversely affecting the "war on terr" or our actual defense capacity.

In the introductory abstract of his report, Korb details where the money would come from:

"• About $14 billion would be saved by reducing the nuclear arsenal to no more than 1,000 warheads, more than enough to maintain nuclear deterrence.
• About $8 billion would be saved by cutting most of the National Missile Defense program, retaining only a basic research program to determine if this attractive idea, which has proven to be an utter failure in actual tests, could ever work in the real world.
• About $28 billion would be saved by scaling back or stopping the research, development, and construction of weapons that are useless to combat modern threats. Many of the weapons
involved, like the F/A-22 fighter jet and the Virginia Class Submarine, were designed to fight threats from a bygone era.
• Another $5 billion would be saved by eliminating forces, including two active Air Force wings and one carrier group, which are not needed in the current geopolitical environment.
• And about $5 billion would be saved if the giant Pentagon bureaucracy simply functioned in a more efficient manner and eliminated the earmarks in the defense budget."

These are ideas which are beginning to gain political traction. They've also been adopted by the political action group True Majority, which presents the same agenda in a cartoon called "Oreos". If you haven't seen it yet, it's worth watching.

Of course, for some of us, the ultimate objective is the piecemeal dismantling of the war machine and the "war first" policies it has spawned, which have brought us to grief in Iraq, Vietnam, Palestine, and elsewhere. The war machine now so dominates the economy and political process in this country that we seem helpless to perform such basic functions as repairing our bridges, policing our borders, or providing our kids with a competitive education.

I know not everyone wants to do away with the apparatus of war in this country. But even conservatives should be able to appreciate the wisdom of scaling it back a bit. After all, were only talking about a little bit of money here -- $60 billion. That's only fifteen percent of the defense budget.

I'm assuming, of course, that a Democratic Congress will be seated in January of 2007. This program wouldn't be feasible with a Republican-dominated legislature. If you live in a district with a Democratic incumbent, you might want to e-mail this post to him or her. If you're in a Republican district, find out who the Democratic candidate is and send an e-mail or write. The Korb Report is not overly long and is easy to read, and True Majority is a great resource.