Attack on Georgia Gives Boost To Big U.S. Weapons Programs (August 16 – WSJ)
Russia’s attack on Georgia has become an
unexpected source of support for big U.S. weapons programs, including
flashy fighter jets and high-tech destroyers, that have had to battle
for funding this year because they appear obsolete for today’s
conflicts with insurgent opponents.
In
digging around for possible reasons for the Russian-Georgian conflict,
I came across this. As always, there’s instant support and money for
weapons systems in the US, because they’ve got great lobbyists and
everybody in Washington knows how to play that game. It is a well-oiled
machine. While our bridges crumble, and desperately needed research on
alternative energy goes unfunded, there always seem to be instant
tens-of-billions for weapons systems.
The logic is presented as if it were self-evident:
“We’ve spent so many resources and so much attention on Iraq that we’ve
lost sight of future threats down the road. The current conflict
between Russia and Georgia is a perfect example,” said Rep. Murtha
during a recent visit to his district.
For my part, I don’t see
any need whatsoever to militarily confront Russia, but doing so
apparently makes perfect sense to long-time DC insiders like Murtha.
I
see more threats on the domestic front than internationally, but
there’s not much political will at present to take on those issues.
Probably because doing so would require vision, leadership, and skill
to resolve, and therefore is out of reach of most of the present
establishment, who honed what talents they have during the growth of
the largest and most sustained borrowing binge in all of history. It’s
all so easy when you don’t have to set priorities and make hard
choices.
Get ready for hard.