<%@LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> April Fools Day 2009

Are you ready to start losing that ugly fat in YOUR Pentagon budget? Join the club!
Let's help the Pentagon trim down and shape up for a new fiscal year!
Vote one of these weapons systems OFF the island.

Have you been trying to find a tactful way to tell the federal budget that its military has gotten way too big? We've all seen it swelling up, year after year, but we've been afraid to say anything. We're worried that if we lose some weight down there, we'll lose some of our defense capabilities. Bigger is better, right?

But that's not really true. Instead, it's just gotten bloated and uncomfortable. It can't move around very well, its systems are aging much too fast, and it's ignoring things that would really make it fit in today's world. (Homeland security and non-military international engagement -- including diplomacy, nonproliferation, foreign aid, peacekeeping.)

So it's time to shape up! We need to change the way we slice our budget pie: give more to other pieces that will build UP our communities and our economy; and LESS to the lumbering war machine. We'll be safer and stronger when we do.

If we don't, we'll just get older and slower. Our military machine is heavily invested in things that were intended to keep us safe from the threat posed by the Soviet Union. Communists. Remember them? We're still researching, building, and buying weapons systems meant to fight an enemy that no longer exists.

Help the federal budget trim down! Vote for YOUR biggest loser weapon system. We can lose some of that ugly winter weight that's been building up; and start getting out in the world again!

More information here.

F/A-22 Raptor Aircraft
"At a total of $354 million per plane this new information shows the F-22 is not only the most expensive but also the most difficult fighter aircraft to maintain--and it isn't even experiencing combat stress," said Danielle Brian, Executive Director of POGO.
It was designed to combat advanced aircraft from the former Soviet Union -- which were never built.

Time magazine cover story on the Osprey,
"A Flying Shame"

V-22 Osprey
Has been "25 years in development, more than twice as long as the Apollo program that put men on the moon. V-22 crashes have claimed the lives of 30 men -- 10 times the lunar program's toll -- all before the plane has seen combat. The Pentagon has put $20 billion into the Osprey and expects to spend an additional $35 billion before the program is finished." --Time magazine

More information here.

Missile Defense
It doesn't work. But we keep spending billions on it ($10.5 billion last fiscal year). Why? Perhaps because it makes some people very rich. Er, fat.
"Boeing gave out trinkets bearing the logo of its missile defense programs, including a box of mints, a bag of blue and white jelly beans and a magnetic dart board that reads "Right on Target" with a fireball explosion in the background." --Washington Post

More information here.

DDX Destroyer
"Just one thing is missing: an enemy. 'The DD(X) is the most revolutionary surface warship in decades,' says John Pike, director of defense think tank GlobalSecurity.org. 'But I have yet to have anybody explain to me--point to a place on the map--and say what they propose to do with it.'" --Popular Mechanics

More information here.

Excessive nuclear weapons
Of the 25,000 nuclear weapons worldwide, the U.S. maintains several thousand warheads on alert, able to be launched within a matter of minutes. Does that make you feel safer?
We could easily reduce the number of nukes; and with the money freed up, we could work to prevent the spread of nukes to other nations or terrorists. We could even fund programs that would help to make the world a better place... (There is a bill to this effect.)

And other things you can do to help!

"We'll... reform our defense budget so that we're not paying for Cold War-era weapons systems we don't use."
(President Obama, 2/24/09)
WAND - Women. Power. Peace. Women's Action for New Directions Education Fund
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781-643-6740 | e-mail: peace@wand.org