A (Small) Measure of Sanity

Yesterday, the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee proposed cutting $764 million from the Pentagon's $8.9 billion request for missile defense programs in Fiscal year 2008. Included in the cuts were $160 million from the missile defense system in Europe which would "temporarily halt" construction of silos in Poland but permit continuation of the ground-based radar in the Czech Republic and the R&D on the missile interceptors.

According to Walter Pincus of the Washington Post, subcommittee Chairwoman Ellen Tauscher said there needs to be debate on "Eastern European deployment…adding that the administration is trying to go around NATO while ‘we should be working within NATO….'"

But even these minimal cuts might not hold. The subcommittee's ranking member, Republican Rep. Terry Everett, hopes that the money for the Polish site will eventually be restored and Republican Rep. Trent Franks said he was "dumbfounded" by the cuts and will offer amendments when the full House Armed Services Committee meets next week.

"If this cut holds, it affects the third interceptor site in Poland – the interceptors in Alaska and California are already deployed – but it doesn't kill it entirely," says Victoria Samson, Research Analyst at the Center for Defense Information. "The funding exists to start doing R&D on the proposed interceptors and leaves open the possibility for future cooperation on the Polish site."

Another critical and perhaps less noticed cut was $10 million for the proposed insidiously named Space Test Bed. According to a CDI report co-authored by Samson "this [program] would represent the first dedicated spacebased weapons program since 1993." The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) proposes spending $290 million on this system through FY13. (It is notable that the MDA reduced its request for FY08 from $45 million to $10 million which raises these questions: are other programs doing background research for the Space Test Bed on the down low? Or perhaps the work has been classified?)

"I'm glad to see that the entire FY08 budget for the proposed Space Test Bed is gone," Samson says, "let's see how that holds up in the budgetary process. This funding would weaponize space by stealth – a move that merits a serious debate of the pros and cons, as well as an acknowledgement of the potential consequences."

Debate? Acknowledgement of consequences? Both are in short supply in the New Cold War. If your representative is a member of the House Armed Services Committee let him or her know these cuts need to be retained – and new ones identified. Spending billions on a new nuclear arsenal, and a system that raises fears of a first strike capability, is no way to promote peace.

Comments (7)

1. Mrs. Cohen been talking with the hubby again, huh?

   Posted by Mask at 05/04/2007 @ 1:21pm

2. HMAN,

   If you are out there..

   I am at the Elephant and Castle.

   Posted by JOHN MAASCH 05/04/2007 @ 2:56pm

   Posted by john maasch at 05/04/2007 @ 2:58pm

3. BTW.....?!??!?

   "But even these minimal cuts might not hold. The subcommittee's ranking member, Republican Rep. Terry Everett, hopes that the money for the Polish site will eventually be restored and Republican Rep. Trent Franks said he was "dumbfounded" by the cuts and will offer amendments when the full House Armed Services Committee meets next week."

   So somehow REPUBLICANS now run the House Armed Services Committee??!?!??!

   Geez, I could have sworn that DEMOCRATS held the majority in the House and Senate?!?!?!

   Posted by Mask at 05/04/2007 @ 4:33pm

4. Imperially Deluded Well....maybe the Cold War never ended...just took a pause to regroup. Be careful what you wish for Katrina.

   By MART LAAR DOW JONES REPRINTS May 3, 2007 Wall Street Journal Commentary

   TALLINN -- Flush with petrodollars, and amid disarray in the Western camp, Russia's hopes of restoring its lost empire are rising. Vladimir Putin's annual address to both houses of the parliament, delivered last week, was just the latest signal. The Russian president declared that his country's obligations under the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty would be suspended as long as the U.S. planned to install a missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. Mr. Putin threatened Russia would abandon the treaty if NATO countries failed to address his grievances. The defense shield, he claimed, was a threat to national security. Nobody can take Russia seriously on this point. Neither the shield nor the Czechs or the Poles threaten, or could threaten, a Russia armed with thousands of nuclear missiles. But Mr. Putin is doing something else here. He wants to reclaim for Russia its previously dominant position in Central and Eastern Europe, harking back to a time when every strategic move in this region had to be negotiated and agreed with Moscow. Mr. Putin's threats are intended to make Russia the de facto power in its "near abroad," and a signal to the West that the Russians -- who once pushed their way around in the world as a Czarist, then a Soviet, Empire -- are back in the game. * * * This new old imperialism comes, aside from the tough rhetoric, with a changing view of recent history. During the presidency of the recently departed Boris Yeltsin, Russian archives were opened to the public and its recent past examined. President Yeltsin was ready, at some times more than others, to recognize the crimes of communism. For example, he apologized to Finland for the 1940 Winter War. But Mr. Putin has dramatically altered the approach at the Kremlin to the past -- and therefore to the future. The current Russian president builds a new messianic and imperial identity around the victory over Nazism, which was also used by his predecessors to legitimize the U.S.S.R. This war, which the Russians call the "Great Patriotic War," didn't start with Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939. Russia helped start World War II through the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact signed a week before the Panzers stormed east, while Stalin's troops took chunks of Poland and all the Baltic countries. The "Great Patriotic War" begins in 1941, when Hitler turned on his ally. In a context where Stalin is more and more a founding hero for the "new Russia," it's no wonder that the crimes of occupation of neighboring countries and of communism are denied. And Russia aggressively demands that formerly occupied countries in the Soviet bloc accept its new understanding of the past. Any mention about the crimes of the Soviet era is called an insult to the "heroes of the Great Patriotic War." Former NKVD officers, accused of committing crimes against humanity for organizing deportations, are defended by lawyers hired by Russia. When Georgia opened its museum of Soviet occupation, it was furiously criticized by the Kremlin and Russian media. More recently, Russia launched a propaganda campaign against Estonia that led to violent rioting in Tallinn and other cities over the weekend. The government last Friday removed a bronze monument to the Red Army, and soon plans to exhume the remains of Soviet soldiers from a central square in the capital. They will be placed in a military cemetery outside Tallinn, and the ceremony will be done with full military honors. But the Kremlin raised a fuss, calling the plan a violation of "human rights." In Russia itself, war monuments are destroyed every month. In the small town of Himki, near Moscow, the razing of one led to violent clashes between young communists and riot police. But in Estonia, Russia encouraged street protests -- which turned violent, leading to one death, and widespread looting -- and continues to whip up anti-Estonian sentiment, even as those demonstrations have tapered off. All this agitation comes over a monument that not only was not destroyed but that most Estonians view as symbol of over four decades of Soviet occupation. On September 22, 1944, the Red Army "liberated" Tallinn not from German forces, who were nearly gone, but from a legitimate Estonian government. The Estonian flag, not the German swastika, was taken down from government buildings that day. The swastika had been removed by Estonian soldiers, some of whom died in the fighting. The Soviets arrested the Estonian government, shot some of its members and sent others to the gulag. So Estonians shared the fate of the leaders of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, who were also hunted down and killed by NKVD after putting up a valiant fights against the Nazis. These are the facts that official Russia ignores, and most ordinary Russians are not even aware of. Members of Estonia's 1944 government haven't even been rehabilitated in post-Soviet Russia, whose Supreme Court still considers them "enemies of the state," as the U.S.S.R. branded them. Rather than trying to address this history, Moscow's diplomats in Estonia are developing contacts with the ethnic Russian extremists, some of whom were arrested for leading the violent riots and vandalism in Tallinn these last days. Such new imperialism is dangerous not only for Europe and the world, but most of all for Russia itself. History has proven several times that the biggest victims of Russian imperial aspiration have been the Russian people themselves. Until Russia turns its attention to finding solutions to its own huge problems, there will be no hope for a better future. The best way to help Russia is to correct the falsified picture of European history that Russia's leaders are offering. Crimes of communism can't be ignored. Let's start a discussion about the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and Stalin's role in starting World War II, the aggressions against Poland and Finland in 1939, the occupation of the Baltic countries in 1940, the massacres of Polish officers in the Katyn forest, and so on. There is no difference between the denial of the Holocaust and the denial of the crimes of Soviet communism. This story must be told in the same detailed way as was the story of the Holocaust. It's important to remember so that the millions killed by communism and the brave people who fought against it didn't do so in vain. Mr. Putin's ideas for Europe make this a pressing task.

   Mr. Laar is former prime minister of Estonia. URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117814574418090052.html

   Posted by OneVote at 05/05/2007 @ 11:16am

5. Thanks for continuing to "give peace a chance" Katrina. We love you.

   Adios

   Posted by lewwelge at 05/05/2007 @ 10:16pm

6. But insanity is good too:

   The answer to all your questions about why this, and why that, about hsuB:

   Hunh...it's like...

   I don't care about nuthin man.

   Roll another poll.

   Yeah cuz...

   I was gonna clean th' gervment up... Until I got high. I was gonna get up and find the budget... But then I got high. My plan is still messed up... And I know why! "Why man?" Cuz I got high. Because I got high. Because I got high.

   I was gonna go talk at congress... Before I got high. "C'mon y'all...check it out." I coulda created stuff and I coulda passed forms... But I got high. I'm doing it next session... And I know why! "Why man?" Cuz I got high. Because I got high. Because I got high.

   "Go to the next one" "Go to the next one" "Go to the next one BUSSSHHOSH!"

   I was gonna go read th' NIE... But then I got high. I just got a new power. But I got high. Now I'm sellin surge... And I know why! "Why man?" Cuz I got high. Because I got high. Because I got high.

   I was gonna get a new court... Before I got high. I was gonna stay unimpeached... But then I got high. "No you wasn't." They took my whole DOJ... And I know why! "Why man?" Cuz I got high. Because I got high. Because I got high.

   I wasn't gonna run from Katrina... But I was high. "I'm serious man" I was gonna help victims and not stop... But I was high. Now I'm a limp duck... And I know why! "Why man?" Cuz I got high. Because I got high. Because I got high.

   I was gonna get Iraq for keeps... Until I got high. "Say what...say what?" I wasn't gonna gamble on the OBL... But then I got high. Now the congress's pullin away... And I know why! "Why man?" Cuz I got high. Because I got high. Because I got high.

   I was gonna make Rove do you... But then I got high. I was gonna lead our country too... But then I got high. Now I'm wackin off brush... And I know why! "Turn that shit off" Cuz I got high. Because I got high. Because I got high.

   "Go...go...go...go."

   I messed up your entire life. Because I got high. I lost your kids at Iraq. Because I got high. "Say what...say what" "Say what...say what...ohhhhh." Now I'm sleepin at Kennebunkport... And I know why! "Why man?" Cuz I got high. Because I got high. Because I got high.

   I'ma stop speachafying this speach. Because I'm high. I'm speachafying this whole thing wrong. Because I'm high.

   "Bring it back" "Bring it back" "Bring it back"

   If I don't sell the next surge... I'll know why! "Why man?" Cuz I'm high. Because I got high. Because I got high.

   "Are you really high though...man?"

   Cuz I'm high. Cuz I'm high. Cuz I'm high.

   "Hey...where the buck stops at man?"

   Bu-bushi-bushi-bushi-buSSSSHHHOSSSHHH!!

   Because hsuB was high, because hsuB was high, because hsuB was high, because hsuB was high, because hsuB was high, because hsuB was high,...

   Posted by hsuBfools at 05/05/2007 @ 11:00pm

7. Yeah. The so-called "war on drugs" was/is a precursor to our current and on-going "semi-warrior" (read Steve Fraser) status which is essentially John Maynard Keanes-ian economy-priming with militarism and it's smiley-faced twin: corporatism.

   "And the caisons go rolling along"

   Posted by lewwelge at 05/06/2007 @ 2:25pm