At What Cost?

The question above is asked on the site of the Commission on Wartime Contracting as to their recently released report.

Remember the meme at the beginning of the War Drum Beating and the easy certain Corporate "No Bid Contracts" in support of the Wars and Occupations: "They're the only ones in the World who can do the organizing and work needed in support of our Military and the Coalition of Willing!"

Never mind they were connected by the hips to those beating the drums, never mind they were only paper pushers tens of thousands of miles away and sub-contracting out all the work, never mind the many issues of lost billions, shoddy work, bonuses, waste and corruption that almost instantly started coming to light and even with that they were given more, not even handshakes, just here ya go Pallets with Shrink wrapped Blocks of Cash, Millions and Billions, freshly printed and minted!!

I had similar questions as this LTE writer asks, well before the report was issued the other day and this posted today, but than again many of us have had the questions of Defense Spending for years, with extremely little questioning from the greater masses. Especially us Veterans of our previous failed policies as we've watched our brothers and sisters being short changed for their service, short changed and no questions or willingness from the greater masses who don't serve!

No tea parties over billions lost in Iraq?

Where are the tea parties? Where is the outrage from the purveyors of the vaunted, unregulated “free market?”

The Wartime Contracting Commission reports that tens of billions have been wasted on private sector contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, due to “poorly defined work orders, inadequate oversight and contractor inefficiencies.”...........

The following was released a few days ago, yet I've heard very little talk from the talking heads, Especially the opinionated right wing spinmeisters, they have alot to say about everything else, in this country or so called libertarians and very little from the left, All War Drum Beating Supporters Of, remember there was some seventy five plus percent in favor of destroying an innocent country and many still in favor of occupying two countries while bombing another!

Commission on Wartime Contracting

Contingency Contracting In Iraq and Afghanistan

Interim Report to Congress: 121page PDF

Since 2001, Congress has appropriated about $830 billion to fund U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over that period, America’s reliance on contractors has grown to unprecedented proportions to support logistics, security, and reconstruction efforts related to those operations. More than 240,000 contractor employees—about 80 percent of them foreign nationals—now work in Iraq and Afghanistan, supporting the Department of Defense. Additional contractor employees support the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Dude, Where's My Money?

Waste, Fraud, and Abuse: three words used in an official report describing what has happened to the 380 billion US dollars spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Contractor oversees security guards in Afghanistan

A major security contractor is running an office overseeing armed guards in Afghanistan, a situation at odds with the Pentagon's claim that military officers would be in charge of such sensitive work.

A new report on wartime spending to be made public Wednesday at a congressional hearing says the contractor, Aegis Defense Services, has operated with limited U.S. government supervision...............

War contractor bonuses an outrage

Yes, bonuses paid to the contractors that rival the corporate bonuses paid here..............

US military wasted taxpayer money in Iraq: Report

The first audit released by US Congressional Commission of Wartime Contracting reveals that the military has wasted huge sums of its USD 834b budget on contractors.

The 121-page report on security, logistics and renovation contracts indicates that the US government has failed to oversee the defense expenditures it disbursed to key contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. The report refers to large-scale cases of fraud and mismanagement of contracts during the so-called 'war on terror', which have cost American taxpayers 'billions' of dollars.................

US Senators Webb & McCaskill ask Secretary of Defense to review findings, address immediate concerns identified in wartime contracting commission Report

Following today’s release of the Commission on Wartime Contracting’s interim report to Congress, Senators Jim Webb (D-VA) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) asked Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to review the Commission’s findings and address a number of critical issues of “immediate concern.”..............

Again the question should be asked "No tea parties over billions lost in Iraq or Afghanistan?" which won't be answered even at further so called "teabaggin" rallies, certainly not by the speakers invited!

This goes along with another question asked years back now by a GoldStar Mom, "For What Noble Cause Mr. President?"!!

Oh, before I go, one more issue and another question, especially to the masses who never serve but cheer on:

Weapons programs re-branded as jobs programs

Military industry appeals to job-loss fears Pt2/2



Part 1of2 Will Obama slash the military budget?
Pentagon fighting to maintain military spending

Will Obama slash the military budget?

Will Obama Cut War Waste and Military Misappropriations?

There has been much speculation as to the new President's orientation toward the US military budget, which has been estimated at a total cost of one trillion dollars per year. As government spending takes center stage in Washington, President Obama is being called on by some to cut the military budget, an idea that has been largely absent from US politics for many years. Nancy Youssef explains how this is affecting the mood inside the Pentagon, while Miriam Pemberton debunks the supposed defense spending 'cut' that has been seen in various media reports of late.

How will the 'Taliban', 'Emboldened', republican Congressional Critters vote on the Iraq and Afghanistan War Funding Now?

Estimated Costs of U.S. Operations in
Iraq and Afghanistan and of Other Activities
Related to the War on Terrorism - PDF

This is money not spent for Americans on highways, bridges, schools, energy, health care, jobs, fire fighters, police, etc., nor has it been for the still ongoing occupations.

The 2 trillion dollars, Plus(with interest Plus), is on top of 2 trillion dollars Plus worth of tax cut given by republicans and the bush administration to the wealthiest of us all, no questions asked, and loudly cheered on by their supporters, the Huge majority not being of that elite class, but still thinking there's some sort of 'trickle down'.

Under cheney/bush/goper Incompetency: Inquiry on Graft in Iraq Focuses on U.S. Officers

Federal authorities examining the early, chaotic days of the $125 billion American-led effort to rebuild Iraq have significantly broadened their inquiry to include senior American military officers who oversaw the program, according to interviews with senior government officials and court documents.
Court records show that last month investigators subpoenaed the personal bank records of Col. Anthony B. Bell, who is now retired from the Army but who was in charge of reconstruction contracting in Iraq in 2003 and 2004 when the small operation grew into a frenzied attempt to remake the country’s broken infrastructure. In addition, investigators are examining the activities of Lt. Col. Ronald W. Hirtle of the Air Force, who was a senior contracting officer in Baghdad in 2004, according to two federal officials involved in the inquiry.

SNIP

Prosecutors have won 35 convictions on cases related to reconstruction in Iraq, yet most of them involved private contractors or midlevel officials. The current inquiry is aiming at higher-level officials, according to investigators involved in the case, and is also trying to determine if there are connections between those officials and figures in the other cases. Although Colonel Bell and Colonel Hirtle were military officers, they worked in a civilian contracting office.

SNIP

Former American officials describe payments to local contractors from huge sums of cash dumped onto tables and stuffed into sacks as if it were Halloween candy.

“You had no oversight, chaos and breathtaking sums of money,” said Senator Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat who helped create the Wartime Contracting Commission, an oversight board. “And over all of that was the notion that failure was O.K. It doesn’t get any better for criminals than that set of circumstances.”

In one case of graft from that period, Maj. John L. Cockerham of the Army pleaded guilty to accepting nearly $10 million in bribes as a contracting officer for the Iraq war and other military efforts from 2004 to 2007, when he was arrested. Major Cockerham’s wife has also pleaded guilty, as have several other contracting officers.
In Major Cockerham’s private notebooks, Colonel Bell is identified as a possible recipient of an enormous bribe as recently as 2006, the two senior federal officials said. It is unclear whether the bribe was actually offered or paid.

SNIP

Costs of the Military Industrial Complex and War/Occupation, Unquestioned!!

Rep. Barney Frank Goes There. . .

Frank: "I don't understand from my conservative friends, building a road, building a school, helping to get health care, that's wasteful spending. But that war in Iraq, that's going to cost us over a trillion dollars, yeah, I wish we hadn't done that we would have been in a lot better shape fiscally."

Frank: "The problem is that we look at spending and say, "Oh, don't spend on highways. Don't spend on health care. But let's build Cold War weapons to defeat the Soviet Union when we don't need them. Let's have hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars going to the military without a check."

Some of you may not remember this, but President Obama gave a speech titled "The Cost of War" during the campaign, here's the video and a partial transcript:

In the comments some people are pointing out that this is the argument that needs to be made, well we need to put it out there then. Please DIGG this diary so more people can see the video of Frank and the one of President Obama.

DIGG it here

What is a 'Stimulus Package' especially as to Infrastructure and Program Investment? It's our federal tax dollars, that should have already been coming back to our states, in maintaining and improving that which we had already built and developed. Spent wisely it brings returns back to the communities and the country. These monies have not been returning, as they should have, as we spent and wasted them on that which brings wealth and power to the few, pushing off to later dates the really needed. Thus causing those cost to skyrocket way above what should have been and passing on these costs to coming generations and wasted interests on that which is now borrowed to fix that which should already have been!

A Just Foreign Policy

YES Magazine, Summer '08 Edition, has a number of really good articles, and an interview, that should be read and obsorbed as to some of what we should be putting into public discussion as we try to turn this ship of state around and head in a direction that should already have been. These articles touch on a number of important issues, Very Important, not only for us, as a country, but our place in the world and for the world as a whole. They are also a matter of our Security and the Security of the planet

This one with Shultz might sound abit familiar for any who heard him talking when they returned from this conferance, but this is an Extremely Important subject and not only for us, and our National Security but the Security of everyone.

George Shultz: No Nuclear Weapons
Nuclear weapons abolition is not only possible, but necessary for our security and perhaps even our survival.

It starts of thus:

George Shultz was there when nuclear disarmament slipped through our fingers. Today, he says, action is even more urgent. Sarah van Gelder interviews George Shultz, former Secretary of State.

This near the end stood out:

Shultz: I’m not trying to prescribe for the next president. We’re trying to get the building blocks ready. We’ve talked to people from some other countries, and they’re interested enough so that if the United States, working with Russia, were to take this initiative and get other people to join, it might be pretty exciting. And it might once again put us in the role of doing something that people feel good about.

"Doing someting the people feel good about." Not just something, for we have an awful lot to do, but this issue would bring back much of what we lost in our Moral Standing as a world neighbor. The Neo-Cons, or whatever label one would smack on them, have not only destroyed the arms talk tables, they are developing other uses, under the Nuclear Umbrella, for ordinance, with no worry as to the damage it will inflict nor the long term lasting effects, all for the Now, in Power and Blood Wealth!

Smart Security and the End of War
David Korten's thoughts on a just foreign policy and an emergent social movement calling the world’s parliaments to adopt the principles of Article 9 added to the Japanese Constitution following World War II.

This touches on a number of important issues and leads off thus:

David Korten’s thoughts on a just foreign policy (the theme of the summer 2008 issue of YES! Magazine). “We humans have arrived at a defining moment. We must bring ourselves into balance with one another and Earth or suffer the consequences of social and environmental collapse. It creates a unique opportunity for bold action to end war as an instrument of foreign policy, convert to a peace economy, and create a world that works for all.”

He breaks this down to topics on:

The End of Excess

A Defining Challenge

The Last Superpower

Getting Smart

A Global Movement

A Smart Security Policy for the United States

And ends it with this:

It is an opportunity to at once increase our security, improve the quality of our lives, and regain a position of principled global leadership.

Talking NAFTA and Immigration.

Reclaiming Corn and Culture
For 14 years, NAFTA has displaced farmers and spurred migration. The answer from Mexico’s grassroots: co-ops and fair trade.

Mexicans doing it themselves, and to help solve the immigration problems We should be helping them.

They have sounded their voices loudly in Mexico’s capital, while quietly developing their own answers to NAFTA in farming communities throughout the country—working models of “fair trade” that consider people and the environment, not just profit margins.

Who are the losers.

By 2003, 1.3 million Mexican peasants had lost their livelihoods because of NAFTA. Many of the displaced farmers came north in search of work. Mexican migration to the U.S. increased an estimated 75 percent in the five years after the trade agreement took effect.

And in the name of Corporate, not to mention others seeking lowscale wage earners, profits and to force wages down, what has been presently going on.

Pickard has been a vocal critic of a new trade initiative under the Bush Administration that broadens NAFTA with increased emphasis on border security and corporate access to natural resources. The initiative, called the “Security and Prosperity Partnership,” or SPP, was launched two years ago in a series of negotiations with the Mexican and Canadian governments. Because the SPP is not a treaty, there is no congressional oversight, nor any process for citizen comment. The only input comes from a council of 30 advisors, ten selected by each government. The list reads like a Who’s Who of corporate North America, including the CEOs of Bell Canada, Chevron, Ford, General Electric, General Motors, Home Depot/Canada, Kimberly-Clark/Mexico, Lockheed Martin, Scotiabank, and Wal-Mart.

Just the Facts: Military Spending versus Foreign Aid
The U.S. spends piles of money on foreign aid, right? See how the spending actually stacks up.

Just The Facts Poster in PDF

The top link above gives a smaller version of the tables on spending, the PDF can be downloaded and saved.

Raiding the War Chest
How to cut billions in unneeded weapons systems—and redirect the money towards health care, the economy, and climate.

It’s called “defense” spending, but how much of it is actually about defense? Here’s how we could save billions, and still have billions left to make the U.S. and the world more secure.

This speaks for itself, our continuing wasteful Huge and ever growing Defense Budgets, Questions Never Asked, Schrugs when coruption comes to light, and back to continuing growth of budgets, lining the pockets of the few rather than giving Us what we led to believe we are getting.

An economy slouching toward recession, or—depending on who you talk to—already there, has produced two seemingly contradictory effects. It has pushed the worst foreign policy disaster in U.S. history off the top of the list of citizen concerns. And it has simultaneously gotten those citizens, and even their members of Congress, talking much more about that disaster’s economic costs.

And how much are the 'Look the other way' Representatives, Our Representatives, reaping.

Since 2001 the Administration’s military budgets have more than doubled. Congress has approved every one, sometimes even expanding them a bit

No accountability for the "Worst Foreign Policy Disaster in U.S. History!", just rubber stamp what's requested, and tack on more, to continue the disaster, the disaster not only for us but especially for those we reaped it upon

Just some of what should be eleminated.

A half-dozen items that top this list are:

* The F/A 22 Raptor:
An obsolete, ever-more-costly aircraft designed to counter a Soviet model that was never built.

* Ballistic Missile Defense:
A system that doesn’t work for a threat that doesn’t exist.

* Virginia-Class Submarine:
Any conceivable mission for this new sub can be handled by the existing fleet.

* DD(G-1000) Destroyer:
Another cost-escalating program whose missions are well-covered by existing ships.

* V-22 Osprey:
This hybrid plane-helicopter is being rushed into service in Iraq despite safety, technical, and cost problems, both old and new.

* C-130J transport plane:
Has 168 documented deficiencies that render it unsafe.

And closes with this:

And while we’re repairing the damage to our relations with the rest of the world, we will need to put some of the money into repairing the social contract with our own citizens, by investing in our battered economy.

Just investing in our infrastructure would reap benefits across a number of area's, and investing in other much needed area's would expand those benefits and keep expanding them.

You can go here:

Theme Guide :: A Just Foreign Policy

To catch the ones above and a few more, all in the same issue, and online.

Superpower? Get Over It

Five years into the occupation of Iraq, the American public has had it. Add in an overstretched economy, spreading nuclear arms, climate disruption, and scrambles for scarce resources, and many are ready to ditch the superpower role and join a world of equals to confront our common challenges.

bet you thought I was through passing on some good reads and important information, well I'm not

The ACLU Releases Navy Files On Civilian Casualties In Iraq War (7/2/2008), this will take you to the Press Release.

Public Has A Right To Unfiltered Information About The Human Cost Of War, ACLU Says

Today's documents are available online

Attorneys involved in this project are Bargzie, Ben Wizner and Jameel Jaffer of the ACLU National Security Project. In a separate lawsuit, the ACLU sued for records concerning the abuse of prisoners held by U.S. forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay. To date, that request has resulted in the release of more than 100,000 pages, all of which are available online

And another documentary of importance:

The Trailor

ON THE LINE is an inside look at the people behind one of the largest nonviolent movements in America today: the movement to close the School of the Americas/WHINSEC, a U.S. Army school that trains Latin American soldiers. In a world where politics, passion, and Constitutional rights collide, protesters discuss their activism, the dark side of U.S. foreign policy, and the challenges of protesting since 9/11.

The principal cast includes:

* Martin Sheen, actor

* Susan Sarandon, actor

* Fr. Roy Bourgeois, Founder of School of the Americas Watch

* John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman

* Bob Barr, political analyst and former US Congressman

* Gerry Weber, ACLU-Georgia

The film is 55 minutes long.

"Those who make peaceful evolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable." -- John F. Kennedy