The $850 billion chicken comes home to roost The military industrial complex is not designed to actually fight wars. If so, you wouldnât see Ukraine struggling right now to win one.
As originally designed, the Bradley tanks promptly burst into flame when hit with anything much more powerful than a BB pellet, incinerating anyone riding inside. The armor bureaucrats were well aware of this defect, but pausing development for a redesign might have hurt their budget, so they delayed and cheated on tests to keep the program on track. Prior to one test, they covertly substituted water-tanks for the ammunition that would otherwise explode.
Only when Jim Burton, a courageous air force lieutenant colonel from the Pentagonâs testing office, enlisted Congress to mandate a proper live fire test were the armyâs malign subterfuges exposed and corrected. His principled stand cost him his career, but the Bradley was redesigned, rendering it less potentially lethal for passengers. Hence, forty years on, the survival of those lucky Ukrainians.
This largely forgotten episode serves as a vivid example of an essential truth about our military machine: it is not interested in war.
How else to understand the lack of concern for the lives of troops, or producing a functioning weapon system? As Burton observed in his instructive 1993 memoir Pentagon Wars, the U.S. defense system is âa corrupt business â ethically and morally corrupt from top to bottom.â
Nothing has happened in the intervening years to contradict this assessment, with potentially grim consequences for men and women on the front line. Today, for example, the U.S. Air Force is abandoning its traditional role of protecting and coordinating with troops on the ground, otherwise known as Close Air Support, or CAS. Given its time-honored record of bombing campaigns that had little or no effect on the course of wars, CAS has probably been the only useful function (grudgingly) performed by the service. (...)
While "His Lordship" Christopher Nolan always has been intent on igniting the nerve of violence in his movies (see: the Batman cinema massacre) like a typical Umrican he left out Hiroshima and Nagasaki in his movie on the Atom bomb.
I just seems like the latest Umrican (Hollyweird) hypocrisy.
This post resembles that of a certain smooth-brained troll who posted here years ago.
/observation
While "His Lordship" Christopher Nolan always has been intent on igniting the nerve of violence in his movies (see: the Batman cinema massacre) like a typical Umrican he left out Hiroshima and Nagasaki in his movie on the Atom bomb.
I just seems like the latest Umrican (Hollyweird) hypocrisy.
Hollywood What âOppenheimerâ leaves out The three-hour-long movie has gripping drama and important history, but it ignores the first victims of the nuclear era.
But one impact of the test is clear. In the months after the explosion, the entire state of New Mexico saw an unprecedented spike in infant mortality, with 56 percent more New Mexican babies dying during live births in 1945 than in 1944. That number went back down in 1946 and has never reached such high levels since, a statistical anomaly with a 0.0001 percent chance of being caused by natural conditions, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Trinity test âdownwindersâ â a term describing people who have lived near nuclear test sites and may have been exposed to deadly radioactive fallout â have never been eligible for compensation under the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). It has provided over $2.5 billion in payments to nuclear workers in much of the Western U.S. and to downwinders who were located near the Nevada test site and may have developed cancer or other diseases as a result of radiation exposure.â
Despite the Trinity test taking place in New Mexico, many New Mexicans were left out of the original RECA legislation and nobody has ever been able to explain why,â said Senator Ben Ray Luján, a New Mexico Democrat. He has helped lead efforts in Congress to expand and extend the legislation, currently due to sunset in 2024.
Census data from 1940 shows that as many as 500,000 people were living within a 150-mile radius of the test site. Some families lived as close as 12 miles away, according to the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium. Yet no civilians were warned about the test ahead of time, and they weren't evacuated before or after the test.
âThis new information about the Trinity bomb is monumental and a long time coming,â Tina Cordova, a co-founder of the consortium, said. âWeâve been waiting for an affirmation of the histories told by generations of people from Tularosa who witnessed the Trinity bomb and talked about how the ash fell from the sky for days afterward.â
The study also documents significant deposition in Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona and Idaho, as well as dozens of federally-recognized tribal lands, potentially strengthening the case for people seeking expanded compensation in those areas.
Pretty much a non-issue. We know a hell of a lot about health physics and know that any impacts would be exceedingly small.
Boilerplate. It may be "a non-issue" to you.
Trinity test âdownwindersâ â a term describing people who have lived near nuclear test sites and may have been exposed to deadly radioactive fallout â have never been eligible for compensation under the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). It has provided over $2.5 billion in payments to nuclear workers in much of the Western U.S. and to downwinders who were located near the Nevada test site and may have developed cancer or other diseases as a result of radiation exposure.â
Despite the Trinity test taking place in New Mexico, many New Mexicans were left out of the original RECA legislation and nobody has ever been able to explain why,â said Senator Ben Ray Luján, a New Mexico Democrat. He has helped lead efforts in Congress to expand and extend the legislation, currently due to sunset in 2024.
Census data from 1940 shows that as many as 500,000 people were living within a 150-mile radius of the test site. Some families lived as close as 12 miles away, according to the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium. Yet no civilians were warned about the test ahead of time, and they weren't evacuated before or after the test.
âThis new information about the Trinity bomb is monumental and a long time coming,â Tina Cordova, a co-founder of the consortium, said. âWeâve been waiting for an affirmation of the histories told by generations of people from Tularosa who witnessed the Trinity bomb and talked about how the ash fell from the sky for days afterward.â
The study also documents significant deposition in Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona and Idaho, as well as dozens of federally-recognized tribal lands, potentially strengthening the case for people seeking expanded compensation in those areas.
âThe extent to which America nuked itself is not completely appreciated still, to this day, by most Americans, especially younger Americans,â (Dr. Wellerstein) said.
Pretty much a non-issue. We know a hell of a lot about health physics and know that any impacts would be exceedingly small.
âThe extent to which America nuked itself is not completely appreciated still, to this day, by most Americans, especially younger Americans,â (Dr. Wellerstein) said.
The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party(I guess they need to be kept busy)
Republican members argued that not only was diplomacy a sign of weakness, but so too is trade, with two calling for the end of all trade with China moving forward. While questioning Rozman Kendler on why the U.S. continues to trade with Beijing, Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.) said âweâve got to stop everything going to China,â because a âwillingness to be a partner with them endangers us down the road.â
On a slightly more up-tempo note, the 2023 Women's World Cup soccer tournament starts today. Our USA women are predicted to win. WUS's first game is Friday night against newcomer Vietnam.
As a side note, Hub and I were in Paris during the 2018 Cup and went to Sweden vs. Canada... WOW! Dads and daughters from all over the world, stadium was packed and this was only the second or third round. Gave me whole new respect and appreciation for Girl Dads!
Known as âthe arsenal of democracyâ during World War II, America has now simply become an arsenal, with a military-industrial-congressional complex intent on forging and feeding wars rather than seeking to starve and stop them. The result: a precipitous decline in the countryâs standing globally, while at home Americans pay a steep price of accelerating violence (2023 will easily set a record for mass shootings) and âcarnageâ (Donald Trumpâs word) in a once proud but now much-bloodied âhomeland.â (...)
For whether you call it fascism, as with Nazi Germany, communism, as with Stalinâs Soviet Union, or democracy, as with the United States, empires built on dominance achieved through a powerful, expansionist military necessarily become ever more authoritarian, corrupt, and dysfunctional. Ultimately, they are fated to fail. No surprise there, since whatever else such empires may serve, they donât serve their own people. Their operatives protect themselves at any cost, while attacking efforts at retrenchment or demilitarization as dangerously misguided, if not seditiously disloyal.
The global 'good guy with a gun'.
Yep, there's a lot of truth in that, but again "it is only half the story"
All political systems survive on the basis of the support given to them by the people they govern. There are better and worse ways of getting that support. Winning them over with reason, inciting religious-type fervour, coercing them or downright suppression.
This battle never stops and the political landscape slips and slides over time. That said, while being far from perfect, the US system has got a pretty good track record compared to others, basing its system on reason and checks and balances. It still gets my vote. Were the fascists to truly take over and erode the system, I'd very quickly change my view accordingly.
Known as âthe arsenal of democracyâ during World War II, America has now simply become an arsenal, with a military-industrial-congressional complex intent on forging and feeding wars rather than seeking to starve and stop them. The result: a precipitous decline in the countryâs standing globally, while at home Americans pay a steep price of accelerating violence (2023 will easily set a record for mass shootings) and âcarnageâ (Donald Trumpâs word) in a once proud but now much-bloodied âhomeland.â (...)
For whether you call it fascism, as with Nazi Germany, communism, as with Stalinâs Soviet Union, or democracy, as with the United States, empires built on dominance achieved through a powerful, expansionist military necessarily become ever more authoritarian, corrupt, and dysfunctional. Ultimately, they are fated to fail. No surprise there, since whatever else such empires may serve, they donât serve their own people. Their operatives protect themselves at any cost, while attacking efforts at retrenchment or demilitarization as dangerously misguided, if not seditiously disloyal.
It's about half of the story. The US wants to remain the sole superpower and preserve 'primacy'. And that has implications.
and this month's winner of stating the bleeding obvious goes to...
.. the only point you forgot to mention is that some of those implications are viewed very favourably by countries threatened by large autocratic neighbours.
This takes us back to the new alliance of former Soviet satellite states (namely the Baltics from Finland south, through Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, to name the most vocal, they I mentioned a few weeks ago.
These guys are not stupid. They know the game the US is playing, but still see NATO as by far their best bet for their defensive future. But they are not going to rely solely on that. Rather, they are rearming at an extraordinary rate, Poland in particular. Remember, these guys got royally f-ed over by both Germany and Russia and continue to be played for fools by the arrogance of the both Germans and Russians to this day. As soon as they have their own arms industry up and running to scale, they won't be as reliant on US support as they are now and will be much more assertive against Russia than the current pissing contest where they are forced by the US to fight with one hand tied behind their back.
It is also noteworthy that a massive cooperation in arms manufacture is currently evolving between South Korea and Poland, which makes perfect sense, when you see the parallels between them.
So, as for US wanting "primacy".. that is fine with most of the western world most of the time. The bigger threat for the other NATO countries is not the current primacy of the US on the world stage, but the rise of fascism there locally. This would automatically nullify its moral leadership of the western world, which is still, first and foremost, a club of shared values.
So it is no wonder that Russia has been investing massively in destabilising US domestic politics via various channels. It's the most effective weapon they have.
But it's also no surprise that many of the other countries in NATO have woken up to their need to keep a viable defence force. We may not be able to rely on the US in future after all and it's high time to prepare for that.
agreed. The irony is that the Republicans are writing this as if Biden is Hitler and our imperial aspirations are destroying cultures around the world and making it unfair to China.
They don't know what they want, but they sure as hell don't want Biden getting credit for anything good, so they bring out the pretzel machine.
The other comment I made... Biden is going to be playing the Marjorie Taylor Greene speech on his own ads for the 24 election. She's so catastrophically stupid, she had no idea how all of the things she was saying might actually be viewed by most Americans as good things. She's a national embarrassment...regardless of the party/people you support.
It's unfortunate that it's now down to (mostly) conservatives to question imperialism and militarism. It's still a bipartisan support project. See defense budgets and continued 'nation building'.
Some of that is merely partisan dynamics. They go high/right, we go low/left, and vice versa.
It's about half of the story. The US wants to remain the sole superpower and preserve 'primacy'. And that has implications.
agreed. The irony is that the Republicans are writing this as if Biden is Hitler and our imperial aspirations are destroying cultures around the world and making it unfair to China.
They don't know what they want, but they sure as hell don't want Biden getting credit for anything good, so they bring out the pretzel machine.
The other comment I made... Biden is going to be playing the Marjorie Taylor Greene speech on his own ads for the 24 election. She's so catastrophically stupid, she had no idea how all of the things she was saying might actually be viewed by most Americans as good things. She's a national embarrassment...regardless of the party/people you support.
