|
Bankrupt and Broke!
Let's be honest with each other—as a nation we
can't afford to pay attention much less maintain our armed forces.
As America slips deeper and deeper in debt and becomes the largest
debtor nation on Earth, far surpassing all third world countries,
our status as the last super power slips as well. The Service Chiefs
are trying to put a brave face on drastic reductions in their services
saying they want a smaller, faster Navy and Air Force with fewer
ships and airplanes (yeah, and I believe in the tooth fairy, too!).
Small, fast coastal patrol boats--isn't that the role of the U.S.
Coast Guard? Isn't our Navy supposed to be a "blue water"
Navy whose role is to fight a war far away from the shores of America?
The Service Chiefs are publicly saying they want to
close down bases, lay off thousands of their workers and cut the
support infrastructure by 30 percent. Our members at our four Naval
Shipyards and at the few (6) remaining private shipyards that can
build Naval warships in America will be devastated. With a brown
water Navy of coastal patrol boats, America ceases to be a sea power
and a world power. The public remarks of the Service Chiefs remind
me of the AOL commercial of folks saying they want their computers
to get a virus, crash and lose all data.
Why? What's going on that caused this sorry state
of affairs of our national defense?
Our "lone ranger," go-it-alone approach
to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has had the same effect on America
that invading Afghanistan had on the Soviet Union--they went broke!
They ran out of resources and saw it was a never-ending, bottomless
pit devouring troops and equipment.
Try as we may to put a pretty face on Iraq, the facts
are harsh and sobering. America will have spent $153 billion in
Iraq by February 1, 2005. Check for yourself. Go to the website
Cost of War and see how much per minute it is costing your state—
Here are just a few examples
of what impact this spending has by city:
Baton Rouge, LA- $ 62,494,269.00
Jackson, MS- $ 44,237,846.00
Houston, TX- $988,700,733.00
Raleigh, NC- $147,089,471.00
Richmond, VA- $80,193,903.00
Yakima, WA- $31,953,992.00
Cheyenne, WY- $29,029,345.00
This is just the money we are spending. It does not
consider the human costs of the injured and killed in the war. No
one knows exactly how many Iraqis have died and are permanently
injured in the war; but it is in the tens if not hundreds of thousands,
many of them civilian non combatants, women and children. Add to
this human suffering, the thousands of maimed and wounded American
service men and women who will be deeply affected by this war for
life. While some wounds will heal, many of these brave men and women
will never fully recover from their experiences. Over 1200 of our
brightest and best have been killed in Iraq. I cannot imagine the
depth of sorrow and anguish a parent of one of America's fallen
heroes when the doorbell rings and a member of the service delivers
the sad news.
The question is: Is it worth it? Is the war in Iraq
worth what we are paying? What will America's sacrifices ultimately
accomplish in Iraq? Our CIA forecasts the outcome of the national
election to be the strong probability of a secular fundamental Muslim
nation that will mirror Iran; a nation not friendly to the United
States.
Just think about this- The Navy is proposing to save
money by retiring the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy and its entire
battle group of ships. The Army Reserve Commanding General is warning
that the Reserves are quickly becoming a "hollow force"
and questions their readiness. Do we need the Kennedy and its battle
group? Do we need a well-equipped, ready-to-fight Army Reserve?
You know the answers to these questions.
And my friends, it is against this dire backdrop that
we see the Department of Defense rolling out and spending billions
of dollars desperately needed by the operating forces in the field
to implement its new "National Security Personnel System."
Do not be fooled by the catchy "National Security" phrase
in the title. It is union busting, plain and simple, that is all
it is. It does not fix anything that needs fixing. NSPS just takes
away the basic workplace rights of 740,000 civilian workers in the
Department of Defense, rights that workers in private industry have.
But, we have to ask--which workers will be targeted next? Are your
rights in jeopardy, too? We all have a stake in this.
I ask each of you who take the time to read this to
take just a moment and call your member of Congress and ask them
to stop the DOD from wasting precious resources on a new personnel
system they don't need. Tell our Congress we need to support our
troops with every dime we have and not waste any.
In Solidarity,
Ron Ault,
President,
Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO
|
