Capitol
Hill Update, November 2008
 |
What
to expect from the new administration/Congress?
Public policy director
Marie Rietmann offers her
thoughts about what the
new administration might
mean to WAND and our work...
CLICK
HERE.
|
The
111th Congress convenes in early
January, President Obama is inaugurated
January 20 -- and then hold onto
your hats! There will be plenty
of things for WAND to work on
in the coming year. |
|
|
Marie would also
like you to know about one of
our favorite documents: the Unified
Security Budget. A new
version just hit the streets;
it's a great, fresh, and wise
take on what it means to make
a country "secure."
The
summary: A non-partisan task
force of military, homeland security,
and foreign policy experts laid
out the facts of the imbalance
between military and non-military
spending. The ratio of funding
for military forces vs. non-military
international engagement in the
Bush administration’s proposed
budget for the 2009 fiscal year
has widened to 18:1 from 16:1
in the 2008 fiscal year.
Find
the full report here.
|
|
Pentagon
board says cuts essential
Tells Obama to
slash large weapons programs
By Bryan Bender | Boston
Globe | November 10, 2008
A senior Pentagon advisory group,
in a series of bluntly worded
briefings, is warning President-elect
Barack Obama that the Defense
Department's current budget is
"not sustainable," and
he must scale back or eliminate
some of the military's most prized
weapons programs...
Other
programs suffering from big cost
increases and delays include space
systems such as satellites and
the national missile defense system,
the largest research and development
program on the Pentagon's books.
Together
these programs constitute a military
crisis in their own right, according
to the internal Pentagon documents.
The
Pentagon, one document states,
"cannot reset the current
force, modernize and transform
in all portfolios at the same
time. Choices must be made across
capabilities and within systems
to deliver capability at known
prices within a specific period
of time."
|
|
Today,
Talk About America's Future with
a Veteran
Posted November 11, 2008 | Huffington
Post
The
military has accrued all sorts
of tasks since the end of the
Cold War (1991) for many reasons.
It has the personnel, it has a
"can do" culture, it
doesn't actively engage in the
policy debates, it is under the
command of civilians, it has pretty
much all the financial resources,
(54% of discretionary budget)
it plans ahead of time. It is
a thinking organization that hates
surprises. etc. etc. And there
has been no truly consequential
debate on this question of balance
between civilian and military
for decades. (Civilians are everyone
who is NOT in uniform).
|
|
Pentagon
spending growth outpaces auditors
Report: Lack
of oversight opens door to fraud,
abuse
By
Jon Ward | The
Washington Times | October
20, 2008
In
a report issued in March, Pentagon
Inspector General Claude M. Kicklighter
summed up what had been growing
increasingly evident for years:
Defense spending has been
growing so rapidly that auditors
can no longer keep track.
"We currently are not able
to provide sufficient audit coverage
of [Department of Defense] acquisition
programs given the dollars expended
by the department," Mr. Kicklighter
wrote. "The rapid growth
of the DOD budget since FY 2000
leaves the Department increasingly
more vulnerable to the fraud,
waste and abuse that undermines
the department's mission."
Mr.
Kicklighter's report noted that
Pentagon spending had more than
doubled during President Bush's
two terms in office, rising from
"less than $300 billion to
more than $600 billion."
Yet staffing levels in
his department, which is charged
with making sure money is not
misspent, had "remained nearly
constant."
|
|
Frank
envisions post-election stimulus
from Democrats
By Steve Urbon | Standard-Times
| October 24, 2008
Rep.
Frank, D-Mass. called for a 25
percent cut in military spending,
saying the Pentagon has to start
choosing from its many weapons
programs, and that upper-income
taxpayers are going to see an
increase in what they are asked
to pay.
The
military cuts also mean getting
out of Iraq sooner, he said.
"The
people of Iraq want us out, and
we want to stay over their objection,"
he said. "It's extraordinary."
The Maliki government in Iraq
"can't sell (the withdrawal
deal with the U.S.) because it
sounds like we're going to stay
too long."
|
|
Personnel
Shortfall Slows State Department
By Joe Davidson | The
Washington Post | October
14, 2008
Staffing
shortages at the State Department
are so serious that much of its
work is not getting done.
The
situation is so bad that State
needs to increase its hiring by
46 percent -- adding more than
4,700 jobs -- between 2010 and
2014.
That's
the conclusion of retired ambassadors
and other foreign policy experts,
who produced a report on the shortfall
for the American Academy of Diplomacy.
The
study, "A Foreign Affairs
Budget for the Future," which
the academy will release Thursday,
is blunt:
- "Our
foreign affairs capacity is
hobbled . . . "
- "Significant
portions of the nation's foreign
affairs business simply are
not accomplished."
- "The
diplomatic capacity of the United
States has been hollowed out."
|
|
Pentagon
Begins 'Peer Reviews' To Reduce
Protests
By Gopal Ratnam
& Tony Capaccio | Bloomberg
News | October 27, 2008
The U.S. Air Force's $15 billion
rescue helicopter and $35 billion
aerial-tanker programs, both delayed
by protests, will be among the
first subjected to a new review
system that may make it harder
for losing bidders to overturn
contracts.
The new process will require Army
and Navy officials to conduct
peer reviews of the Air Force
programs before, during and after
contract decisions, Shay Assad,
the Pentagon's director of procurement,
said in an Oct. 24 interview.
The Air Force, in turn, will help
review contracts for the other
branches. The new process began
Sept. 30 for all programs worth
$1 billion or more.
|
|
Advisers:
Overhaul DoD Arms Buying
After Overruns,
'Business as Usual No Longer an
Option'
By John T. Bennett | Defense
News | October 27, 2008
U.S. combatant commanders, not
service branches, should write
weapons requirements, ac¬cording
to the Defense Business Board.
The next U.S. presidential (Obama’s)
ad¬ministration should quickly
overhaul the Pentagon panel that
validates new weapons by alter¬ing
its membership and linking it
to the military’s acquisition
process, the board is proposing.
|
|
20
States That Can't Pay for Themselves
by Prashant Gopal | Business
Week | October 8, 2008
Things are getting tight in California,
Arizona, New Jersey and Rhode
Island. A number of other states
are experiencing a huge dive in
tax revenue and could be going
cap in hand to Uncle Sam alarmingly
soon. How bad could it get? The
potential cost for all the 31
states facing both major and minor
shortfalls could be as much as
$53.4 billion...
How is your state faring? Find
out!
|
|
Officials
Ax Another Troubled Army Helicopter
Program
By Megan Scully
| CongressDaily
| Oct. 17, 2008
Citing
steep cost overruns, the Pentagon
announced late Thursday it was
canceling the troubled Armed Reconnaissance
Helicopter program, forcing
Army officials to move quickly
to find an alternative. Termination
of the Bell Helicopter Textron
aircraft, the successor to the
failed Comanche reconnaissance
and attack helicopter, will force
the Army to keep its aging fleet
of OH-58D Kiowa Warriors flying
far longer than anticipated. The
Kiowas have logged more than 2.6
million flight hours during operations
overseas since 2003.
|
|
Welcome
to new Congresswomen committed
to change!
WAND
PAC is excited to announce that
at least four of our candidates
were elected to Congress!
State
Senator Debbie Halvorson (IL-11),
former Senator Chellie Pingree
(ME-1), former Governor Jeanne
Shaheen (NH-Senate) and Betsy
Markey (CO-4) were all elected
to the 111th Congress!
It's still too close to call
the race for Mary Jo Kilroy
(OH-15).
We're
especially pleased that TEN
women from the ranks of WiLL
ran for Congress this year.
We've been working for years
to establish a pipeline of progressive,
pragmatic, skilled women who
will run for higher office during
their careers. It's a major
step toward fundamental and
lasting change!
 |
Please
join us in celebration by
donating to the reception
we hold at the start of
every new Congress to honor
our WAND women. If you donate
$50 or more, you will be
listed as a sponsor of the
reception. If you make
your donation before January
1, 2009, your donation will
be matched dollar for dollar.
|
|
Disarmament
should be the target
November 9, 2008 | Letter
to the Editor of The Boston
Globe
REMEMBER,
BOTH candidates for president
declared the need for nuclear
weapons disarmament. Why, then,
would the Globe editorialize
in praise of Defense Secretary
Robert Gates's desire to build
new warheads? The cost alone
would shock the average American,
especially in these tight economic
times. It's time for us to show
we honor the treaties we have
signed. We agreed not to test
nuclear weapons, nor build new
ones. Nuclear weapons destroy
more than they protect, including
our own soldiers. "Duck
and cover" is now a joke;
getting rid of nuclear weapons
should be the primary focus
of the new president. Let's
get smart about security and
protect citizens and the planet
without squandering money we
don't have on the infamous military
industrial congressional complex
that President Eisenhower warned
us about.
SUSAN
SHAER, Arlington
The writer is executive
director of Women's Action for
New Directions, a national arms
control and disarmament group.
|
|
Atlanta
WAND gets out the vote November
4!
 |
above,
some
of the great women who
turned out at the Atlanta
WAND office on November
4 to make phone calls
and use megaphones to
get out the vote
left,
Chisa Yarde, who
works for WAND, waves
at the photographer, Bobbie
Wrenn Banks...
Thanks,
all! |
Atlanta
WAND partnered with the Pittsburgh
Community Improvement Association
(PCIA) for a Voter Empowerment
project that worked with community
members and a young, bright
enthusiastic PCIA Youth Council
to engage the Pittsburgh residents
in voter registration, voter
education, voter mobilization.
The precincts had over
85% turnout of registered voters
– a huge success for all
involved!!
Atlanta
WAND would also like to send
out a very heartfelt “THANK
YOU” to all the hard work
for the 2008 Election all over
our city. We had an amazing
group of people who worked tirelessly
signing up new voters, calling
and checking registrations,
phone banking, and driving people
to the polls!! On Election Day,
we had over 50 volunteers in
the Atlanta WAND office. We
had poll watchers, election
protection worker, callers and
drivers engaged in various precincts
- an amazing, heartfelt and
inspiring team.
|
|
Real
National Security Begins at
Home, Say Women Leaders
By
Adele Stan | Media
Consortium | October 26,
2008
A growing chorus of women leaders
are rising in protest, seeking
to educate voters on the perils
of a dangerously unbalanced
set of priorities. From spending
cuts in state budgets in such
bread-and-butter areas as public
health and sheltering the homeless,
to a dangerous underfunding
of port security and an exodus
of first responders to the wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan, women
are seeing the Pentagon's growing
share of the federal budget
take a toll on the well-being
of their own families. Yet an
absence of women in the halls
of power helps maintain the
status quo, say activists, and
a failure to enlist military
women as allies in the cause
of national security reform
has held back the progressive
funding agenda...
What's
pie got to do with it?
At Women's
Action for New Directions,
field director Bobbie Wrenn
Banks has taken to the road
with a victual demonstration
of the classic pie chart that
WAND calls the Great American
Pie project.
"We actually use a pumpkin
pie -- literally, a pumpkin
pie," Banks explains. "And
we go into groups and we slice
the pie; it represents the discretionary
budget."
The
discretionary budget is the
piece of the federal budget
that gets negotiated between
the president and Congress (unlike
such programs as Social Security
and Medicare, whose costs are
mandatory expenditures). "And
over half of that pie -- 54
percent of that pie -- that
slice goes to the Pentagon,"
says Banks. "Then we have
very small little slivers of
pie that go to environmental
concerns, income security, affordable
housing..." And that doesn't
even cover the costs of the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
Banks says. Add in the nearly
$200 billion that taxpayers
have anted up for the wars in
this year alone, and "we're
spending nearly $700 billion
a year on the military,"
she says.
Absent a pie-bearing visit from
Banks herself, she advises women
to take a look at an effort
at reform outlined in the Unified
Security Budget proposed by
the left-leaning group, Foreign
Policy in Focus (part of the
Institute for Policy Studies),
which looks at how the budget
is divided among various security
needs. "[W]hen you look
at the overall security spending
pie, it's just so staggeringly
lopsided, because 90 percent
of our security money goes to
the offense, with a 6 percent
slice of that pie going to?
homeland security, and only
a 4 percent slice going to (conflict)
prevention." Prevention
includes diplomacy, foreign
assistance in the form of infrastructure-building,
and activities such as those
done by the Peace Corps.
States
starved for security
As president of the Women
Legislators' Lobby,
Nan Grogan Orrock, a state senator
in Georgia, knows all too well
how the dearth of homeland security
funding plays out on the ground.
"You've got an array of
issues around homeland security,
around the railroads, and the
freight containers, you know,
the ports and the whole baggage
and cargo screening," says
Orrock. "They need another
$ 1.25 billion just to meet
what are considered appropriate
standards for cargo and baggage
screening."
Earlier this year, 339 women
state legislators signed WiLL's
letter to members of Congress,
asking them not to increase
the Pentagon's budget. "At
least 22 states in the country
have budget gaps, and 29 states?have
had to cut their budgets to
try to balance them," Orrock
says. "We have seen cuts
to rape crisis centers and domestic
violence shelters, cut anywhere
from 38 to 42 percent of their
state funding...and yet, under
these Bush military budgets,
we're spending more than at
any time on the military since
World War II."
Read
more
of this article. Visit WAND's
Great
American Pie Campaign or
view WiLL letter....
|
The
Pie on the road in Mississippi!
Bobbie
Wrenn was on the road again with the
Great American Pie Campaign in Mississippi
from October 26-30. She was in Oxford,
Tupelo, Columbus and Jackson. For
more information on this campaign
and other field events, please contact
Kathy Robinson, krobinson@wand.org
(202) 544-5055 ext. 2605
| The
Real Story Behind the U.S.-India
Nuclear Deal
By Subrata
Ghoshroy | AlterNet
| October 17, 2008
That
the nuclear deal was about much
more than nuclear energy was evident
from the title of the hearing
this summer, which took place
on June 25th: "More than
just the 123 Agreement: The future
of U.S.-Indo relations."
A cursory search of the transcript
for the word "Iran"
found it mentioned a total of
96 times, compared with 81 for
"nuclear" (with the
two often mentioned in the same
context). Of the three witnesses
who testified before the committee,
all were old State Department
hands and cheerleaders for the
deal. No skeptics were invited,
not even for the appearance of
balance. AlterNet.
|
|
What
to do with a vision of zero
Nov
13th 2008 | The
Economist
The
tantalising ideal of a world entirely
free of nukes is hoving back into
view. It’s a goal that disciplines
minds, even if you never quite
attain it.
A
WORLD without nuclear weapons
is a vision as old as the nuclear
age. The makers of the bombs that
exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki
in 1945 fretted a lot about the
ultimate consequences for mankind
of their devilish ingenuity. Now
anti-nuclear campaigners are hoping
that “Yes, we can!”
will do more for their cause than
older slogans like “Ban
the bomb!” ever did. For
on the stump, Barack Obama, America’s
president-elect, promised to make
the goal of eliminating nuclear
weapons worldwide a “central
element” of America’s
nuclear policy.
He
will not be the first American
president to dream of nuclear
disarmament; that unlikely peacenik
Ronald Reagan did so too in his
day, to the consternation of allies
at home and abroad. The reality,
in any event, is not one that
America can will on its own. Yet
Mr Obama has tapped into a new
seam of dissatisfaction with the
world’s nuclear order. Might
getting to zero soon be a less
forlorn prospect?
|
|
New
Pentagon Report Slams Missile
Defense Agency
by Joseph Cirincione, President
of the Ploughshares Fund
& Victoria Samson, Senior
Analyst at the Center for Defense
Information
The
Huffington Post | Oct. 21,
2008
A
new Pentagon study says we need
to take the current missile defense
program back to the garage for
some serious repairs. The report
should help the next president
redirect funds from this $13 billion
a year boondoggle to weapons we
need, and get the program back
on track.
The
study, done for the Pentagon
by the Institute of Defense Analyses
and headed by the respected retired
General Larry Welch, says that
the Missile Defense Agency (MDA)'s
rush to deploy something, anything,
has come at the expense of research
and careful development of weapons
that work. It questioned the MDA's
ability to maintain and operate
the weapons coming out of its
shop and recommended that most
of the programs be handed over
to the military as quickly as
possible, demoting MDA back to
the research and coordinating
body it was before President Bush.
|
|
Gates
Suggests New Arms Deal With Russia
Next President
Should Engage Moscow on Warhead
Reduction, Defense Secretary Says
By
Walter Pincus | The
Washington Post | October
29, 2008
Defense
Secretary Robert M. Gates said
yesterday that he would advise
the next president to seek a new
nuclear arms agreement with Russia
that provides for further reductions
in nuclear warheads, keeps the
existing verification procedures
and is easy to amend in the event
threats develop.
No
matter who is elected president,
Gates said, "there is a willingness
and an ability to make deeper
reductions" below the limit
of 1,700 to 2,200 deployed warheads
called for in a June 2003 treaty
signed by President Bush and then-President
Vladimir Putin. "I am confident
that . . . whoever is elected
president, we will go to the bargaining
table," Gates said in response
to a question at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace,
where he delivered a wide-ranging
speech on nuclear weapons.
|
| The
Devastation in Iraq Is Systematic
-- And It's About to Get Much
Worse
By Michael Schwartz |Alternet/Tom
Dispatch | October 27, 2008
In
addition, the devastation that
is now Iraq is not of a kind that
can always be easily explained
in a short report, nor for that
matter is it any longer easily
repaired. In many cities, an American
reliance on artillery and air
power during the worst days of
fighting helped devastate the
Iraqi infrastructure. Political
and economic changes imposed by
the American occupation did damage
of another kind, often depriving
Iraqis not just of their livelihoods
but of the very tools they would
now need to launch a major reconstruction
effort in their own country.
As
a consequence, what was once the
most advanced Middle Eastern society
-- economically, socially, and
technologically -- has become
an economic basket case,
rivaling the most desperate countries
in the world. Only the (as yet
unfulfilled) promise of oil riches,
which probably cannot be effectively
accessed or used until U.S. forces
withdraw from the country, provides
a glimmer of hope that Iraq will
someday lift itself out of the
abyss into which the U.S. invasion
pushed it.
|
New
Blasts in Uptick of Iraq Violence
By Riyadh Mohammed & Katherine
Zoepf | New
York Times | November 4, 2008
Fifteen
people were killed and dozens
wounded by bombings in Baghdad
on Tuesday, according to the police
and hospital officials, part of
an uptick in violence after a
relatively quiet few weeks here.
|
|
For
Nation at War, Gates Seeks Smooth
Transition
Pentagon Chief Breaks From Past
With Leaner Approach
By Ann Scott Tyson | Washington
Post | November 16, 2008
...[W]hoever
takes charge of the Pentagon will
face serious institutional challenges
that extend far beyond the ongoing
conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Vast budgetary, personnel and
organizational problems await
the new chief -- problems that
Gates has done only so much to
tackle.
With
nearly 2 million civilian employees
and an annual base budget exceeding
$500 billion, deciding on the
fiscal 2010 defense budget will
be an early challenge, experts
say.
The
Pentagon's planning and budget
process is "broken internally"
as well as in the eyes of Congress,
said Kathleen Hicks, a senior
fellow at the Center for Strategic
and International Studies who
has assessed reforms at the Pentagon
from 2001 to 2008. "There
is no faith on the Hill that the
DoD is linking what it is supposed
to achieve in the world with what
it is buying and doing."
|
|
Did
the Raid Into Syria Signal the
Death of International Law?
By
Robert Dreyfuss | The
Nation | October 30, 2008
...Of
course, the very invasion of Iraq
was illegal in 2003, and it flouted
international law. So some may say,
these cross-border raids are small
potatoes. But they're not. This
is a big deal. If it becomes a standard
part of U.S. military doctrine that
any country can be declared "criminal"
and thus lose its sovereignty, then
there is no such thing as international
law anymore.
When Defense Secretary
Robert Gates was asked about this,
here's what he said, as quoted
in the Post article cited earlier:
"We
will do what is necessary to protect
our troops,' Defense Secretary
Robert M. Gates said in Senate
testimony last month, when asked
about the cross-border operations.
Under questioning, Gates said
that he was not an expert in international
law but that he assumed the State
Department had consulted such
laws before the U.S. military
was granted authority to make
such strikes."
|
| Officials
Say U.S. Killed an Iraqi in Raid
in Syria
By Eric Schmitt & Thom Shanker
| New
York Times | October 27, 2008
But
in justifying the attack, American
officials said the Bush administration
was determined to operate under
an expansive definition of self-defense
that provided a rationale for
strikes on militant targets in
sovereign nations without those
countries’ consent.
Together
with a similar American commando
raid into Pakistan more than seven
weeks ago, the operation on Sunday
appeared to reflect an intensifying
effort by the Bush administration
to find a way during its waning
months to attack militants even
beyond the borders of Iraq and
Afghanistan, where the United
States is at war.
Administration
officials declined to say whether
the emerging application of self-defense
could lead to strikes against
camps inside Iran that have been
used to train Shiite “special
groups” that have fought
with the American military and
Iraqi security forces.
|
|
Andrew
Bacevich, Strategic Vacuum
TomDispatch
| October 30, 2008
After
a several day delay, American
officials told the Washington
Post that the raid was "intended
to send a warning to the Syrian
government. 'You have to clean
up the global threat that is in
your backyard, and if you won't
do that, we are left with no choice
but to take these matters into
our hands,' said a senior U.S.
official, who spoke on the condition
of anonymity because of the sensitivity
of the cross-border strike."
It
was also an operation, according
to Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker
of the New York Times, that may
have been meant as a warning to
Iran. Perhaps the most
important party being signaled,
however, was the next administration.
They were undoubtedly being reminded
that Bush Rules should rule the
future, that no sovereignty but
American sovereignty is ever worth
a hill of beans, and that a newly
enunciated Bush Doctrine "principle"
-- "you can only claim sovereignty
if you enforce it" -- should
not be abandoned.
|
 |
Faith
in Action November 2008
This
was the election of my generation.
Our moment, when all things were
possible, and the power of our
democracy was demonstrated not
by military might "spreading
democracy abroad," but by
millions upon millions exercising
our moral obligation to vote.
|
|
WiLL
members running for higher office
-- and winning! Welcome to new
Congresswomen from our ranks.
WiLL
is proud to announce that four
of our members were elected to
Congress! State Senator
Debbie Halvorson (IL-11), former
Senator Chellie Pingree (ME-1),
Senator Dina Titus (NV-3) and
Senator Kay Hagan (NC-Senate)
were elected to the 111th Congress.
In total, ten WiLL women
ran for Congress this year. We
are looking forward to working
with the new Congresswomen, and
we encourage those who lost to
try again in 2010.
WiLL
is preparing for the start of sessions
in state legislatures across the
country. WiLL State
Directors from 48 states are helping
us recruit new members. WiLL staff
will also be at NCSL’s Fall
Forum in Atlanta, Georgia on Friday,
December 12 and will host a reception
to present our Security and
Climate Change action guide.
While the federal government fails
to take meaningful steps to address
climate change, state legislators
across the country are passing innovative
bills to deal with the issue. We
urge state legislators to go even
further and encourage their Congressional
delegations to address climate change
through the lens of the military
budget. |
IDEAS,
VISIONS, RESOURCES FOR
A BETTER WORLD |
 |
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Education Fund participates
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encourage you to participate!
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Fund as your cause.)
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Fund as your cause.)
And
it's not just books! Oh,
no. It's toys, groceries, DVDs,
magazines, and even gift certificates!
It's all good. |
 |
Be
part of a powerful community
of women and men leading our
country to a secure future!
*
To
join using a credit
card online,
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here.
|
Click
here and you'll find out
more.
Click
here and you'll find
out all about what our chapters
and partners are planning for this
month.
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2008 WAND. |
