The Pentagon church and the people

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LC26Df02.html


When it comes to the United States' military affairs, ignorance is not bliss. What's remarkable then, given the permanent state of war in which we find ourselves, is how many Americans seem content not to know.

There are many reasons for this state of affairs. Our civilian leaders encourage us to be deferential toward our latest commander/savior, whether Tommy Franks in 2003, David Petraeus in 2007, or Stanley McChrystal in 2010. Our media employs retired officers, most of them multi-starred generals, in a search for expertise that ends in an unconditional surrender to military agendas. A cloud of secrecy and "black budgets" combine to obscure military matters, ranging from global strategy to war goals to weapons procurement. The taxpayer, forced to pony up about one trillion dollars yearly to fund our military, national security infrastructure and wars, is sent a simple message: stay clear and leave it to the experts in uniform.

The powerlessness of ordinary Americans in military matters is no accident. Recall the one-word reply - "So?" - Dick Cheney offered in March 2008 when asked to comment on popular opposition to the war in Iraq. The former vice president was certainly far blunter than Washington usually is, and for that we may owe him a measure of thanks. By highlighting the arrogant dismissiveness of Washington's warrior-elite when it comes to American public opinion, he revealed more than he intended.

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Think about this: last year, our country held innumerable public hearings on health-care reform. Congress continues to fight about it. It's constant news. There's a debate alive in the land. All this for a program that, in 10 years, will cost the American people as much as defense and homeland security cost in a single year.

Yet runaway defense budgets get passed each year without a single "town hall" meeting, next to no media coverage, and virtually no debate in congress. Indeed, you'd think each Pentagon budget was an ex-cathedra pronouncement, given the way congress genuflects before them and Americans accept them without so much as a peep of protest.

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Sound crazy? Here in the US it most distinctly does, but not to the citizens of New Zealand. A Kiwi friend of mine recently sent me "Defense Review 2009," a publication of New Zealand's Ministry of Defense (MoD). And catch this: it includes a survey soliciting the advice of ordinary New Zealanders with respect to military affairs. It actually asks for the counsel of civilians on a "top 10" list of questions whose topics are remarkably comprehensive, including what the priorities of the country's defense force should be, both now and in the future. Citizens can even present their views on military matters at a public hearing attended by MoD representatives, all in the name of public consultation. And the defense minister responds to the people in clear English sans the cobwebs of jargon that typically entangle our military pronouncements.

In case you haven't noticed, here in the US, requests from the Pentagon for citizen feedback aren't flooding our e-mail boxes. So I thought - since no one in that five-sided fortress on the Potomac has asked a thing of me - the least I could do was ask a few questions on my own. Here, then, is my own top five list of questions that we, the American people, should ask the Pentagon, even if none of its officials want to hear from us. Maybe they're a tad more pointed than those in the Kiwi survey, but that shouldn't be surprising. After all, they've been a long time in coming.

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4. America is facing painful budgetary belt tightening. Why is the military immune?

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Perhaps the MoD recognizes as well the difficulty military professionals have in thinking outside the box. Despite its gargantuan size and its endless advisory committees and boards, our Department of Defense is, in essence, a well-insulated church of like-minded believers, administered by tightly wound power brokers. It sees the world only as an arena of, and for, conflict. Wherever it looks, even within its own ranks, it sees rivals and enemies. It cannot help dividing the world into believers and heretics, friends and foes.

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How about it? Are you ready to challenge the Pentagon church militant? Or are you content to mouth the usual catechism, while continuing to dump billions each week into the collection basket?

Citizens of courage will surely choose the path of challenge.
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I'm ready