Here is Emanuel’s review of Winslow\u00a0Wheeler’s book on defense spending “The Wastrels of Defense” as it appears on the site of the\u00a0Center for Defense Information<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Rebels Within the U.S. Federal System\u00a0”<\/p>\n
Emanuel Pastreich<\/p>\n
January 10, 2006<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Casually observing the mainstream media in
\nthe United States gives one the impression that conservatives support the
\nadministration of George W. Bush and the Republicans in Congress. Nothing could
\nbe further from the truth. In fact, the most strident and damning attacks on
\nthe “neo-conservatives” come not from “liberals,” but
\nrather from conservatives themselves. Moreover, although many Americans
\nfoolishly buy into the argument that they should be afraid of “government,”
\nin reality, those in government have provided the strongest resistance to
\ncorruption and corporate manipulation.<\/p>\n
An excellent example of the rebellion
\nagainst the present rule of money and privilege in America is Winslow Wheeler.
\nLike the Democratic senator John Murtha, who recently called for U.S. troops to
\nbe withdrawn from Iraq unconditionally, Wheeler is an insider with strong ties
\nto the military and the institutional culture that has dominated the U.S. for
\nthe last 40 years who decided things have gone too far and has taken a stand.
\nHe has written at length about the corruption in the military procurement
\nsystem, which is so deep that it poses a serious security threat.<\/p>\n
Wheeler’s unrelenting investigation of
\ncorruption in government, “Wastrels of Defense: How Congress Sabotages
\nUnited States Security,” was published not by “Conspiracy
\nPlanet,” but rather the U.S. Naval Institute, in 2004. Clearly he finds
\nopen support for his radical critique at the very core of the system — the
\nU.S. Naval Institute dates back to 1873. Wheeler’s writings are valuable
\nbecause rather than reflexively dwelling on Republican plots, he pays attention
\nto systemic problems that reduce government to an exploitative system and make
\nit possible for special interests to manipulate it at will. He is unsparing in
\nhis criticism of Democrats as well.<\/p>\n
Wheeler had thirty years of hands-on
\nexperience in the corridors of Capitol Hill before retiring. In 2002, Wheeler
\nwrote a highly critical essay about the response of Congress to the 9-11
\nattacks that he published under the pseudonym “Spartacus.” He
\nlamented in this essay how senators added US$4 billion in useless
\n“pork” projects to benefit their own states immediately after the
\n9\/11 attacks. Senator Robert Byrd (whom Wheeler praises elsewhere for his
\nstrong stand against the Second Iraq War) asked for an army museum for his home
\nof West Virginia and Senator Ted Stevens asked for parking garages in Alaska.
\nAll this happened at the same time that $2.4 billion was taken away from
\nmilitary training and weapons maintenance. When Wheeler’s identity as the
\nauthor of the article was exposed, he was forced by Republican Pete Domenici to
\nresign. Wheeler now works for the Center for Defense Information.<\/p>\n
After leaving a position of considerable
\ninfluence, Wheeler tried to document how meaningful oversight has vanished for
\nmilitary budgets. He does not ignore traditional abuses in the system, but by
\nprobing into the details of politicking surrounding defense issues, he
\ndemonstrates irrefutably that the system is internally damaged.<\/p>\n
Winslow Wheeler served as a staff member
\nfor numerous congressmen and in the General Accounting Office for thirty-one
\nyears. From 1996-2002 he was the senior analyst for national defense for the
\nRepublican staff of the Senate budget committee. Wheeler served on the staffs
\nof Pete Domenici (Republican, New Mexico), Jacob Javits (Republican, New York),
\nNancy Kassebaum (Republican, Kansas), and David Pryor (Democrat, Arkansas).<\/p>\n
Not only does Wheeler suggest that much of
\nthe spending on defense is meaningless for the protection of the U.S., he
\npresents countless examples of how projects that have real security value are
\nundermined or gutted to feed pork projects that enrich their patrons. In
\ncontrast to the overlapping systems of review for military projects that
\nguarded against abuse twenty years ago, Wheeler paints a bleak picture of a
\nbureaucratic culture in which military officials, corporate interests, staffers
\nand would be watchdogs cooperate in perfect harmony, considering meaningful
\nquestions about problems off-limits. Wheeler writes of pork, “What was
\nonce a predictable but part-time activity has become a full-time preoccupation
\nthat permeates Congress’s activities and members’ decision-making processes.
\nIronically, this occurs even though there is less selfish benefit to pork than
\nmost members of Congress and their staff think.”<\/p>\n
Wheeler describes an attempt within the
\npowerful Defense Subcommittee on the Senate Appropriations Committee to blame
\nfriendly-fire incidents involving aircraft on pilots in order to avoid
\ndiscussing design flaws. The purpose of the subcommittee had become not the
\npursuit of truth, but rather the defense of patrons.<\/p>\n
With regards to wasteful expenditures in
\nthe defense bill passed after 9-11, Wheeler notes that the culture in Congress
\nhas so degenerated that there was no longer anything odd about the decision of
\nsenators to add massive pork to a defense bill passed in a moment of crisis.
\nCalculating how to use defense funds to pay for fisheries, gyms, day care
\ncenters and defense systems of marginal utility has become a full-time job for
\nmany Capitol Hill staffers. That process is often more important than trying to
\nevaluate the merits of proposals. Therefore, even in a pinch, staffers merely
\nproceeded to do their jobs as they understood them.<\/p>\n
Previously, there existed a counterforce to
\nargue for the greater good when congressmen tried to get projects inserted in
\nthe budget for their states and their corporate supporters. These days, there
\nis no voice of reason in the room as the budgets are made into fodder for a
\nre-election campaign. Although Senator John McCain makes speeches against
\nwaste, Wheeler demonstrates that within the legislative process he makes little
\neffort to counter it.<\/p>\n
Wheeler is not merely uncovering personal
\nvenality; he argues that what was once a democratic process in the U.S. is
\nabsolutely dysfunctional. Whereas defense appropriations bills in the 1980s
\nmight have had as many as 200 or 300 pork items, a bill today typically
\ncontains thousands, and only very short explanations of their content that are
\nrarely read by the lawmakers themselves.<\/p>\n
Wheeler describes the bravery of another
\nera, especially that of Senator Thomas Eagleton, the primary author of the War
\nPowers resolution of 1973 that limited the ability of the president to wage war
\nwithout congressional authority. He concludes that such bravery and integrity
\nare beyond anything to be found in Washington today.<\/p>\n
Of course, the culture in Washington has
\nbecome far more amicable than it was back in the 1970s. The capital has more
\ngourmet restaurants and forms an environment in which deals can be made without
\nconfrontation. Moreover, the process for approving projects has become institutionalized
\nso that special interests push forth the process while congressmen spend their
\ndays struggling to raise money for campaigns.<\/p>\n
In many cases, the damaging pork spending
\nis not demanded by Congress itself. Instead, spending not included in the original
\ndefense budget is introduced later by contractors and their close allies in the
\nDepartment of Defense bureaucracy to avoid scrutiny. The political
\nconfrontation that was so strong forty years ago was exactly what made the
\nbalance of powers work.<\/p>\n
Now, senators cultivate close friendships
\nwith generals in the Pentagon, studiously avoiding any decisions that might
\naffect those relationships. Members of Congress and their staff may do a good
\njob of presenting a message to voters, but Wheeler describes them as,
\n“little more than messenger boys for the Department of Defense personnel
\nwho originate and approve the thousands of pork projects congress adds to
\ndefense bills.”<\/p>\n
The Secretary of Defense does not control
\nthe process described. If anything, his crime is sitting by as the process of
\nmeaningful procurement falls apart. The cost? Basic training, standard
\nequipment, spare parts and relevant technology are ignored to the detriment of
\nmilitary effectiveness. That process has been accelerated by the unquestioning
\ncommitment of Vice President Dick Cheney to “privatization.”<\/p>\n
Staffers have become an independent class
\nthat pursues their own interests. The uncontrolled growth of congressional
\nstaff forms a fundamental structural flaw. Wheeler writes that although many
\nargue that a large staff is necessary to “deal with the complexity of the
\nmodern world,” the growth in staff is found not among expert staff or
\nresearch agencies, but rather in personal offices where they have one goal:
\n“enhancing the member’s profile in Washington.”<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, despite his trenchant
\ncritique, a distinct myopia creeps into Wheeler’s writing. Wheeler hesitates to
\ncome to an overarching conclusion about the phenomena he observes as part of a
\ngeneral breakdown of civil society, citizenship and ideology in the U.S. He
\nhesitates to take the next step and identify a dysfunctional ruling class that
\nlays waste to government through its neglect. Why is it that these staffers can
\ngo about their business without a thought to the terrible consequences of
\nspecial interests? That essential issue might seem more critical that the
\ndetails of how pork is snuck into the budget.<\/p>\n
Nor does Wheeler fully flesh out how
\ncorporations force inefficiency onto the government. Of course, the question of
\nhow things fall apart in a society is always tricky. We must ask ourselves how
\na culture of intentional amnesia emerged in America that led to Wheeler’s
\ninvaluable book being essentially ignored.<\/p>\n
# # #<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.cdi.org\/program\/issue\/document.cfm?DocumentID=3254&IssueID=81&StartRow=31&ListRows=10&appendURL=&Orderby=DateLastUpdated&ProgramID=37&issueID=81<\/a><\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here is Emanuel’s review of Winslow\u00a0Wheeler’s book on defense spending “The Wastrels of Defense” as it appears on the site of the\u00a0Center for Defense Information “Rebels Within the U.S. Federal System\u00a0” Emanuel Pastreich January 10, 2006 Casually observing the mainstream media in the United States gives one the impression that conservatives support the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9296425,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[651,49161,62332306],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-technology-and-society","category-today-in-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctpolitics.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctpolitics.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctpolitics.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctpolitics.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9296425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctpolitics.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ctpolitics.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctpolitics.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctpolitics.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctpolitics.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}