Home values have plummeted, and businesses are boarding up.
The despair of joblessness, homelessness, and hopelessness
creeps in like the plague.
And yet, with so much of our system broken, we can no longer
dismiss the call to retool, reform, and remake our
nation. Americans are, by nature, optimistic that
through the strength of our diversity, commitment
to hard work, and smart innovation, we can build a
better world. On February 24, the President struck
a note of optimism in his "State of the Union"
address, declaring "we will rebuild, we will
recover, and the United
States of America
will emerge stronger than before." We find ourselves
at the crossroads of hope and despair.
In spite of its many cruelties, the recession has
spurred renewed focus on federal spending priorities,
and many agree that the Pentagon is the place to trim
the fat. The economic recovery and reinvestment
bill recently signed into law by President Obama has
been pegged as the biggest spending bill in American
history. And yet towering above it is the cost to
taxpayers for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite Bush administration
estimates that the total war costs in Iraq would hardly exceed $60 billion,
six years later the total has climbed to $661
billion. Add to that the cost of the war in Afghanistan and the total bumps up
to $872.6
billion, with more sure to follow.
Here's the frightening part: war expenditures since
9/11 are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes
to our nation's spending on militarism. The
Pentagon put on some serious weight during the Bush
years. Christopher Hayes observes,
"Everybody knows that the wars in Afghanistan
and Iraq
have been mind-bogglingly expensive--about
a trillion-dollar bonfire. Less noticed has been the
skyrocketing of non-war-specific Pentagon funding.
Since 2001 the regular Pentagon budget has increased
by 77 percent."
We've spent more on war in the past six years than
the scrutinized $787 billion stimulus bill,
and the Pentagon’s calling for another $584 billion for the
coming fiscal year, above and beyond additional war
funding. Yet when it comes to accountability, the
cost over-runs and failed weapons systems don't raise
so much as an eyebrow. What gives? Hayes explains, "The
Pentagon budget is ruled by the appropriations equivalent
of quantum physics, in which the normal rules of constraint
do not apply."
But the current economic maelstrom may force the Pentagon
to maintain a more healthy diet and shed those extra
pounds. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Senators
on the Armed Services Committee in January, "The
spigot of defense spending that opened on 9/11 is
closing." The economic crisis offers
a rare opportunity, he said, "to critically and
ruthlessly separate appetites from real requirements."
Reforming the Pentagon's diet, however, has never been simple,
because pork is a staple ingredient. The arms industry
has co-conspired with Congressional pork-lovers to
frame weapons manufacturing as a jobs program. By
spreading jobs throughout a surprising number of districts,
the arms industry maximizes Congressional influence.
These bedfellows recently launched a $2 million PR campaign
arguing that the Obama administration's proposal of
$527 billion in Pentagon spending for the coming fiscal
year is far too weak-kneed, despite the fact that
it's a $40 billion increase from the previous year.
The F-22 Raptor fighter-jet
is positioned to be the first weapons system to test
the current battle between the arms industry and reformers
of the Pentagon budget. Designed for air-to-air combat
with a Soviet interceptor which was never built, military
experts agree the F-22 is out-dated, expensive, and
ill-adapted to the types of wars in which we are currently
engaged. Not a single F-22 mission has been flown
in Iraq or Afghanistan since the start of the
wars and yet Congress has pressured the Pentagon to
order more. Production of the jet is scheduled to
halt in 2011. Lockheed launched a PR battle that claims
95,000 jobs will be lost when the jet is discontinued.
Economists widely agree, however, that weapons manufacturing
is one of the least efficient ways to create jobs.
Re-investment in education and mass transit, for example,
creates twice as many jobs
as investing in the military sector.
So, what will it be? In
a season of both hope and despair, perhaps
the most important question we face as a nation is
whether we want to invest in weapons designed to destroy
or the rebuilding of America
for our children. Where do our priorities
lie? In the Hebrew Scriptures, God says: "I call heaven and earth to
witness against you today that I have set before you
life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life
so that you and your descendants may live."
Our time is not so different, after all, from those who have
come before us--our ancestors in faith. In the time
of Noah, it was said that "the earth was corrupt
in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence."
God was so sickened by the way human societies lived
and the institutions they had established, that regret
and sorrow filled the heart of the divine. And God
confided in Noah, "I have determined to make
an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with
violence because of them." So God resolved to
put an end to the violence and corruption of humanity
with the destructive force of a great flood.
After the flood raged and receded, God established a covenant
through Noah's family with "all flesh."
The sign of this covenant is the rainbow, an image
of God hanging up the bow, a weapon of destruction,
in favor of life. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this old, old story is that in an effort to change humanity, God emerged as the one changed.
God chose never again to
deal with evil through destruction. In spite of human
failure, God persists in relationship with us. The
effects of systemic corruption and violence issue
widespread disaster. Yet God ultimately rejects annihilation, choosing instead to maintain
relationship with humankind.
As we weather an unrelenting
economic storm, our essential choices remain the same.
Set before us are life and death. Remembering God's covenant with
us, I favor hanging up our battle bow, trimming the
fat, and getting busy with the work of building a
better nation for our children.
