Slashing defense spending and empowering our communities can economically and morally strengthen the United States.
There is nothing more bipartisan in the United States of America than a defense budget bill. On December 15, 2021, the Senate passed a $768 billion dollar defense bill on an 89-to-10 vote after the House passed that same bill on an 363-to-70 vote. Signed by President Biden twelve days later, this defense appropriations bill is a reflection of an war-obsessed nation whose addiction is shifting the focus of politicians from the well-being of the disadvantaged to the maintenance of American global supremacy.
In the bill are a myriad of priorities, objectives, and initiatives funded by billions of dollars of taxpayer dollars that do more harm than good. The Pacific Deterrence Initiative received a $2.1 billion boost, further expanding U.S. aid and military capabilities in the Indo-Pacific Region that are meant to deter China’s regional influence. On the other side of the world, the European Deterrence Initiative, meant to tackle Russia, is bolstered along with the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative of which the budget has increased by $300 million.
These initiatives are symbols of a Cold War policy in which the United States at this moment in time is using hard power and aggressive military strength to react to rising influence of China and Russia. This over-hyper focus on reacting fire with fire will only deepen the cracks that already exist between ourselves and these two nations. In a world where true national security issues are related to climate change, disease, and poverty, cooperation and good relations must be sought for and must be achieved through rational and mature diplomacy. China, Russia, and the rest will not be willing to sit on the negotiating table if we have a hand behind our back with our finger itching to touch the trigger.
The new defense bill also does not seek to ban an arms deal worth $650 million in American-made air-to-air missiles and missile launchers to Saudi Arabia, a nation whose air and artillery attacks have killed at least 200 people in 2019 and is causing a humanitarian crisis in Yemen. Lives of innocent people are being slaughtered by weapons made by the human rights-supporting and freedom-loving government of the United States and American military industrial complex.
To further investigate the inhumane and illogical relationship between the U.S. government and the defense industry, the Air Force through the defense budget seeks to order 600 new nuclear warheads that will be manufactured by the defense company Northrop Grumman which will cost $100 billion. This addition to U.S. defense policy was driven by intense industry lobbying which convinced politicians to support this deal as it would be economically beneficial to respective districts and states. Thus, it is rather a robust early Christmas gift to the defense corporations.
Military aggression and expansion is part of the American mind. Most of our history is defined by the wars, battle, and military interventions the United States has been a part of. And in many of those cases, like the Vietnam War, the U.S. has persistently focused on military objectives, rather than on humane objectives that focus on the lives of Americans at home who do not have adequate healthcare, childcare, education, decent housing, and food. There can be no doubt that if the U.S. government ends many of its military dealings and initiatives, rooted by either malice or foolish policy, then it can accomplish the end of poverty which is the root of the mass incarceration issue, the root of the racial and social divide in our country, and the root of the deep unhappiness and loss of faith in the American mission of true equality.
America is deeply lost when its leaders applaud its government for spending $768 billion a year on its military while simultaneously being cautious of a 175 billion a year social spending bill that seeks to help people.
If we are truly to be a nation whose righteousness and goodness is shown through its proper treatment for our children, families, and communities and through its persistence in ending all economic and social evils that bar us from achieving equality, then the entire fabric of American policy must be radically reevaluated and altered.
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