Feb 20: Runaway Military Spending
Prevent War: Runaway Military Spending
February 20th, 2008
President Bush submitted his budget request to Congress in early February. If Congress were to approve it, military spending—even excluding expenditures for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—will be higher than at any time since World War II. The Pentagon’s budget would exceed spending on the rest of the world’s militaries combined, according to the Institute for Policy Studies.
Topics in this message:
- Spending Priorites Askew
- Take Action: Civilian Peacebuilders Legislation
- Take Action: Support Human Rights in Colombia
- Additional Reading
- New Resources at fcnl.org
1) Spending Priorities Askew
President Bush’s budget request for the military would increase spending by 5 percent from the congressionally approved military budget for 2008. Even excluding current spending on the wars in the Iraq and Afghanistan, total military spending for fiscal year 2009 would reach a staggering $741 billion, according to FCNL’s budget analyst Ruth Flower. See FCNL’s budget chart on President Bush’s budget proposal for FY09.
The militarization of US foreign policy is unprecedented and disturbing. Moreover, it runs counter to the conventional wisdom among US foreign policy experts and intelligence agencies that the militarized US response to terrorism has stoked violent radicalism and made the world less secure. Rather than increasing military spending, the US should invest more in proven measures to peacefully prevent conflict such as diplomatic engagement, development, post-conflict peacebuilding efforts and key international organizations such as the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)..
While proposed military spending is grossly disproportionate to spending on diplomacy and development, the president’s request did include a few rays of light. He requested funds that would enable the State Department to hire 1,100 new diplomats to make up for the shortfall the State Department predicted last fall. Increasing the US diplomatic presence, especially in conflict prone regions, is crucial to monitor political developments and better prevent crisis from escalating into violent conflict. Find out more about the need for increased U.S. diplomatic engagement with the world.
President Bush’s proposed budget also increases funds for non-military engagement (i.e. diplomacy, development and post-conflict reconstruction) by 14.9 percent from last year. This includes $250 million to support a rapidly deployable civilian reserve corps and the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization. Find out more more about what FCNL supports and doesn’t support in the President’s 2009 budget request.
2) Take Action: Civilian Peacebuilders Legislation
Thank you for your emails on the Reconstruction and Stabilization Civilian Management Act (H.R. 1084). Including the original sponsor, Sam Farr (CA), HR 1084 has 32 cosponsors as of February 20. We anticipate that the legislation will be marked up in the House Foreign Affairs Committee soon, which is the first step in getting the legislation voted on by the full House. The more cosponsors the bill has, the greater likelihood that it will come up for a vote.
Has your representative already cosponsored this bill? If not, please send a message to your representative, even if you have already contacted her or him on this bill, and urge her or him to support it. If your representative is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, they especially need to hear from you.
Find out more about how this legislation would advance the peaceful prevention of deadly conflict.
3) Take Action: Support Human Rights in Colombia
We often write about the broad idea of “militarization” of foreign assistance, but what does this term actually mean and why should we care? An excellent case study of the militarization of US foreign assistance can be found in the US assistance package to our South American neighbor, Colombia. Since the inception of the anti-drug program called Plan Colombia in 2000, the US government gave about 700 million a year to Colombia, approximately 80% of which went to military assistance and helicopters for fumigating coca crops, with only 20% or so to programs that tried to address the underlying structural reasons for why farmers were planting coca plants (the base plant of cocaine). Despite all of this funding, the production of coca in Colombia hasn’t significantly decreased over the last 7 years.
Last year, Congress wised up to the problems inherent in the aid package to Colombia, and has shifted some funding from the military assistance to programs that help farmers earn a legitimate living and address some of the stark poverty and social exclusion that exists in the rural areas of the country. This is a welcome change in putting the breaks on providing military based solutions to inherently social and economic problems in the poverty stricken rural areas of Colombia.
Preventing war entails addressing the structural problems that create the conditions for conflict. While we applaud shifting of foreign assistance dollars to more effective poverty-reduction programs, there are other integral components to support a just world. Chief among these components must be a basic respect for human rights. Unfortunately, Colombia still faces significant challenges in regards to its human rights record. For example, human rights groups in Colombia and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) in Bogotá have documented an increase in the number of civilians killed by the army over the past few years. As paramilitary forces are being demobilized, the army, under pressure to “get results,” appears to be directly involved in more human rights abuses.
Because of this disturbing trend, Senators Dodd and Feingold are currently circulating a “dear colleague” letter to Secretary of State Rice expressing concern over the alarming increase in killings by the Colombian army.
The letter urges Secretary Rice to refrain from releasing military aid to Colombia until these human rights abuses are investigated, tried in civilian courts, and those responsible are brought to justice. It also urges Secretary Rice to refrain from certifying military aid to Colombia until these human rights abuses are investigated, tried in civilian courts, and those responsible are brought to justice.
Please call your senators today through the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121. Ask them to sign onto the Dodd-Feingold letter and send the message that human rights matter.
4) Additional Reading
United Nations Report: More effective strategies needed to prevent global conflicts
A new report from Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s office has proposed changes to strengthen the UN’s capacity to prevent conflict. According to the UN Secretary General, a “considerable gap” exists between the UN's rhetoric and effective measures by the institution to prevent deadly conflict. To fix this gap, the Secretary General wants to increase the number of UN diplomats monitoring conflicts and unstable regions. A greater diplomatic presence in ‘global hotspots’ would help to warn the international community of pending crisis and conflicts. B. Lynn Pascoe, the Under-Secretary-General for the Department of Political Affairs and highest ranking U.S. diplomat at the UN, also recently expressed his support for improving the UN’s capacity to prevent conflict.
A mission impossible – Paul Rogers (Open Democracy)
The political-military projects in Afghanistan and Iraq are in trouble, according to Paul Rogers, a professor of Peace Studies at Bradford University (UK) and regular contributor to Open Democracy. Rogers argues that colonial style occupations by Western nations are no longer feasible, if they ever were. Rapid communication and news reports have enabled the entire world to see what is happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. Moreover, the move towards non-conventional warfare by armed groups has made conventional occupations by Western militaries in foreign lands difficult if not impossible.
5) New Resources at fcnl.org
If War is Not the Answer, What Is?
Visit FCNL’s new page for three easy actions to support a more secure world. Urge Congress to fill the empty desks at U.S. embassies, authorize a rapidly deployable civilian reserve corps to respond to escalating crisis and conflicts; and support international cooperation by appropriating the full U.S. contribution to United Nations.
More Troops or More Funding for Peace
Every major presidential candidate supports increasing the size of the military by at least 80,000 troops.