Who Stole the American Dream? (72 page)
Read Who Stole the American Dream? Online
Authors: Hedrick Smith
73
In this final push, their grand bargain
Bai, “The Game Is Called Chicken,” and Peter Wallstein, Lori Montgomery, and Scott Wilson, “He Promised Change in Washington. Then the Debt Deal Collapsed. So Obama Changed Course,”
The Washington Post
, March 18, 2012.
74
Lowest level in sixty years
Senator Daniel K. Inouye, “Domestic Discretionary Spending Flat Since 2001; Not Responsible for Growing Debt,” press release, Senate Committee on Appropriations, June 30, 2011,
http://appropriations.senate.gov
.
75
Third lowest overall tax rates
“U.S. Is One of the Least Taxed Developed Countries,” Citizens for Tax Justice, June 30, 2011,
www.ctj.org/pdf/oecd201101.pdf
.
76
Millionaires when elected
“Tea Party House Members Even Wealthier than Other GOP Lawmakers,” Center for Responsive Politics, January 4, 2012,
www.opensecrets.org
.
77
“On balance, they’re rich”
“Freshmen in 112th Congress Exceedingly Wealthy Despite Struggling Economy,” Center for Responsive Politics, March 9, 2011,
http://www.opensecrets.org
.
78
Has a large crop of millionaires
“Congressional Members’ Personal Wealth Expands Despite Sour National Economy,”
OpenSecrets.org
, November 17, 2010,
http://www.opensecrets.org
.
79
Wealth in Congress has shot up
Eric Lichtblau, “Economic Slide Took a Detour on Capitol Hill,”
The New York Times
, December 27, 2011.
80
Cantor is a multimillionaire
Kate Andews, “Eric Cantor’s Climb Up the Hill,” September 2007,
Richmond
magazine.com
,
http://www.richmondmagazine.com
.
81
Worth about $5 million
Eric Cantor, Financial Disclosure Statement, May 13, 2011, Legislative Resource Center, U.S. House of Representatives,
http://pfds.opensecrets.org/N00013131_2010.pdf
.
82
More than $2 million in campaign donations
Alec MacGillis, “In Cantor, Hedge Funds and Private Equity Firms Have Voice at Debt Ceiling Negotiations,”
The Washington Post
, July 25, 2011.
83
“Hypnotizing”
influence Deval Patrick, “How Grover Norquist Hypnotized the GOP,”
The Washington Post
, June 30, 2011.
84
The de facto leader of
Steve Kroft, “The Pledge: Grover Norquist’s Hold on the GOP,” CBS News,
60 Minutes
, November 20, 2011. Alexander Bolton, “Reid Says Republican Lawmakers ‘Being Led Like Puppets’ by Grover Norquist,”
The Hill
, November 1, 2011.
85
across-the-board reductions
Grover Norquist, testimony, National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, June 30, 2010. Although Norquist framed his proposal as a freeze in discretionary spending, by his freezing program budgets at fiscal year 2007 levels, he is actually advocating reducing all programs from their already higher levels of fiscal year 2011.
http://www.fiscalcommission.gov/meetings/public-forum/3/Grover_Norquist_6_30_2010.pdf
.
86
Oppose virtually all government
Norquist, testimony, National Commission, June 30, 2010. “Who Is Grover Norquist?” Americans for Tax Reform, July 7, 2011,
http://www.atr.org
; Rick Henderson and Steven Hayward, “Happy Warrior,”
Reason
magazine, February 1997; Robert Dreyfuss, “Grover Norquist: ‘Field Marshal’ of the Bush Plan,”
The Nation
, May 14, 2001, 11–16.
87
“No sacred cows”
Americans for Tax Reform, letter to Speaker John Boehner and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, “Conservative Leaders Call on Congress to Consider Defense Spending Cuts: Coalition Asks Republican Leaders to Restrain All Federal Outlays, Reject the Practice of Protecting Sacred Cows,” November 30, 2010. See also press release on letter,
http://s3.amazonaws.com/atrfiles/files/files/11302010pr_Defense%20Letter(2).pdf
.
88
Signing a pledge
“Who Is Grover Norquist?”
89
No congressional Republican
Ibid., accessed April 9, 2012.
90
“We will make it”
Patrick, “How Grover Norquist Hypnotized the GOP.”
91
Just as Grover Norquist had predicted
“House Passes Deal to Raise Debt Cap and Defuse Crisis,”
The New York Times
, August 2, 2011.
92
“It is an unhappy fact”
David Bromwich, “Obama: His Words and His Deeds,”
New York Review of Books
, July 14, 2011.
93
Appalled at the “irresponsible actions”
Chuck Hagel, interview,
Financial Times Video
, August 31, 2011.
http://video.ft.com/v/1138459180001/Former-Republican-senator-criticises-party
.
94
“I find it frustrating”
Jennifer Steinhauer, “Snowe Opts Not to Seek Re-election in Maine,”
The New York Times
, February 29, 2012.
95
“Lugar was knocked off”
Monica Davey, “Lugar Loses Primary Challenge
in Indiana,”
The New York Times
, May 8, 2012; Kirk Johnson, “Leader of ’76 Insurgency Is Now the Target of One,”
The New York Times
, May 22, 2012.
96
“It’s not honorable to kowtow”
David Brooks, “The Possum Republicans,”
The New York Times
, February 28, 2012.
97
“Today’s Republican Party”
Mann and Ornstein,
It’s Even Worse Than It Looks
, 102.
98
“Bringing the Republican Party”
Ibid.
1
“To amass military power”
President Dwight Eisenhower, State of the Union Address, February 2, 1953,
http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org
.
2
“The total amount”
Christopher A. Preble,
The Power Problem: How American Military Dominance Makes Us Less Safe, Less Prosperous, and Less Free
(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009), 3.
3
“The hell that was Anbar Province”
Matthew Hoh, “Measuring Quick Sand,”
Huff Post World
, June 9, 2011,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
.
4
Twenty-one thousand more U.S. troops
President Barack Obama, remarks, “A New Strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan,” March 27, 2009,
http://www.whitehouse.gov
; Bob Woodward,
Obama’s Wars
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), 95–98, 113.
5
Win support among the tribes
Karen DeYoung, “U.S. Official Resigns over Afghan War,”
The Washington Post
, October 27, 2009.
6
There was not one insurgency
Ibid.
7
America was widely perceived as the occupier
Matthew Hoh, resignation letter to Ambassador Nancy J. Powell, director general of the United States Foreign Service, September 10, 2009,
http://www.washingtonpost.com
.
8
“The people we are fighting”
Matthew Hoh, media press conference, ABC News, October 27, 2009,
http://abcnews.go.com
.
9
“I have lost understanding”
Hoh, resignation letter.
10
The initial withdrawal
President Barack Obama, remarks, “The Way Forward in Afghanistan,” June 22, 2011,
http://www.whitehouse.gov
.
11
“If we’re going to cut programs”
House Clerk records, final vote results for roll call 373, May 26, 2011, show vote of 215–204 against the measure (207 Republicans and 8 Democrats against; 26 Republicans and 178 Democrats in favor),
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2011/roll373.xml
.
12
Forced to make “deeply painful cuts”
Michael Cooper, “Mayors See End to Wars a Fix for Struggling Cities,”
The New York Times
, June 18, 2011.
13
“We can no longer”
“Cost of Wars a Rising Issue as Obama Weighs Troop Levels,”
The New York Times
, June 22, 2011.
14
Appropriated $1.4 trillion in funds Amy Belasco
, “The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11,” Congressional Research Service, March 29, 2011,
fpc.state.gov
.
15
Totaled the costs of the war through fiscal year 2015
Eisenhower Study Group, “The Costs of War Since 2001: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.” (Providence, RI: Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University, June 2011), table 5. From their total estimated cost of $3.668 trillion, I have subtracted $155 billion listed as projected Pentagon war spending for fiscal years 2016–2020 because U.S. military engagement in that period is highly problematic. That gives a total of $3.513 trillion. For simplicity, I have also combined cost for fiscal year 2012 with previous years.
16
A more realistic “moderate” estimate … would be
Ibid. Here, I have given original Eisenhower Study Group estimate. Also, see Daniel Trotta, “Cost of War at Least $3.7 Trillion and Counting,”
Reuters
, June 29, 2011.
17
Fired his top economic adviser
Lawrence Lindsey, “What the Iraq War Will Cost the U.S.,”
CNNMoney.com/
Fortune
, January 11, 2008,
http://money.cnn.com
; Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, media stakeout, transcript, U.S. Department of Defense, January 19, 2003,
http://www.defense.gov
; Bruce Bartlett, “The Cost of War,”
Forbes.com
, November 26, 2009,
http://www.forbes.com
.
18
Pentagon estimated the Afghan war
James Dao, “The War Budget: U.S. Is Expecting to Spend $1 Billion a Month on War,”
The New York Times
, November 12, 2001.
19
“History shows that wars”
Bartlett, “Cost of War.”
20
Unfunded wars drag on
William A. Niskanen and Benjamin Friedman, comment on Senator Al Franken’s pay for war resolution, November 4, 2006,
http://www.franken.senate.gov
.
21
“The mission is”
President George W. Bush, remarks, “Welcoming Aid Workers Rescued from Afghanistan,” November 26, 20001,
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov
.
22
“Some very important lessons in Vietnam”
President George W. Bush, press conference, October 11, 2001,
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov
.
23
“Our military should be used to fight”
President George W. Bush, roundtable interview with foreign press, July 17, 2001, Briefing Room,
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov
.
24
“We know that true peace”
President George W. Bush, “President Outlines War Effort,” Virginia Military Institute, April 17, 2002,
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov
.
25
Al-Qaeda and its Arab recruits
General David McKiernan, briefing for Vice President–Elect Joseph Biden, December 2008, cited in Woodward,
Obama’s Wars
, 71.
26
“The mistaken mission creep in Afghanistan”
Robert Blackwill, quoted in David Sanger, “Rethinking the Afghanistan War’s What-Ifs,”
The New York Times Magazine
, July 31, 2010.
27
“No matter how long it takes”
President George W. Bush, speech, Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, December 15, 2008,
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov
.
28
Obama committed twenty-one thousand more troops
Obama, “New Strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
29
Failure to send in more troops
General Stanley A. McChrystal, memo, “Commander’s Initial Assessment,” NATO International Security Assistance Force, Afghanistan, August 30, 2009,
http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/Assessment_Redacted_092109.pdf
.
30
Wanted
defeat
written into Obama’s official orders
Woodward,
Obama’s Wars
, 144–45.
31
A bone of contention in
“President Obama’s Final Orders for Afghanistan Pakistan Strategy, or Terms Sheet,” November 29, 2009, in Woodward,
Obama’s Wars
, 385–86.
32
Obama did agree
Obama, “The Way Forward.”
33
“Inflicted enormous losses”
Joshua Partlow, “In Letter, Petraeus Offers Optimistic Assessment of Afghan War,”
The Washington Post
, January 26, 2011.
34
“Very hard, but it is doable”
Carlotta Gall, “Petraeus Confident as He Leaves Afghanistan,”
The New York Times
, July 11, 2011.
35
Pregnant parallels
Rufus Phillips, “Déjà Vu All Over Again: Are We Repeating Vietnam?”
World Affairs
, September–October 2010,
http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org
.
36
“It rhymes”
Mark Twain, in Kurt Andersen,
Reset: How This Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America
(New York: Random House, 2009), 25.
37
But the Afghan government
Phillips, “Déjà Vu.”
38
Ambassador Richard Holbrooke
Richard Holbrooke, interview, December 15, 2009.
39
The war is more political than military
Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry, classified cable to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, November 6, 2009; Eric Schmitt, “U.S. Envoy’s Cables Show Worries on Afghan Plans,”
The New York Times
, January 26, 2010.
40
Disillusioned with Karzai
Elisabeth Bumiller and Mark Landler, “U.S. Envoy Urges Caution on Forces for Afghanistan,”
The New York Times
, November 12, 2009.
41
Crooked Afghan cops
T. Christian Miller,
ProPublica
, Mark Hosenball and Ron Moreau,
Newsweek
, “$6 Billion Later, Afghan Cops Aren’t Ready to Serve,” March 20, 2010,
http://www.propublica.org
.
42
Desertions and resignations
“U.S. General Cites Goals to Train Afghan Forces,”
The New York Times
, August 23, 2010.
43
“Rapidly growing systemic homicide threat”
Matthew Rosenberg, “Afghan Soldiers Step Up Killings of Allied Forces,”
The New York Times
, January 20, 2012.
44
U.S. Marines urinating on the dead bodies
Graham Bowley and Matthew Rosenberg, “Video Inflames a Delicate Moment for U.S. in Afghanistan,”
The New York Times
, January 12, 2012.
45
NATO forces mistakenly burned Korans
Sangar Rahimi and Alissa J. Rubin, “Koran Burning in NATO Error Incites Afghans,”
The New York Times
, February 22, 2012.
46
Two dozen Afghans
Alissa J. Rubin and Sharifullah Sahak, “Koran Burnings Resume in Afghanistan Despite U.S. Apology,”
The New York Times
, February 25, 2012.
47
Two U.S. advisory officers were killed
Matthew Rosenberg and Thom Shanker, “Afghan Uproar Casts Shadows on U.S. Pullout,”
The New York Times
, February 27, 2012.
48
President Karzai responded to widespread
Rod Nordland and Matthew Rosenberg, “Karzai Calls on U.S. to Pull Back as Taliban Cancels Talks,”
The New York Times
, March 15, 2012.
49
“Under the spell of the Taliban”
Ray Rivera, “Afghan Army Attracts Few Where Fear Reigns,”
The New York Times
, September 6, 2011.
50
“50 percent of the people”
Partlow, “In Letter, Petraeus Offers Optimistic Assessment.”
51
“The Taliban are coming back”
Jill Abramson, “Mission Unfinished,”
The New York Times
, Sunday section, “The Reckoning,” September 11, 2011.
52
“We have
never once gotten it right
” Robert M. Gates, speech at U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY, February 25, 2011 (emphasis added),
http://www.defense.gov
.
53
“Empire of Bases”
that Chalmers Johnson,
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic
(New York: Metropolitan Books, 2004), 151–85; Chalmers Johnson, “America’s Empire of Bases: Militarism, Secrecy and the End of the Republic,”
TomDispatch.com
, January 15, 2004,
http://www.tomdispatch.com
.
54
More than 580,000 personnel
The Pentagon listed 406,518 military personnel: “Department of Defense: Active Duty Military Personnel Strengths by Regional Area and by Country (309a),” Statistical Information Analysis Division, U.S. Department of Defense, September 30, 2011,
http://siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil/personnel/MILITARY/history/hst1109.pdf
. In addition, the Pentagon reported 175,045 defense contractors: “Contractor Support of U.S. Operations in the USCENTCOM Area of Responsibility, Iraq, and Afghanistan,” October 17, 2011, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, U.S. Department of Defense,
http://www.acq.osd.mil/log/PS/docs/5A_paper/5A_October_2011_final.doc
.
55
Listed 611 U.S. overseas
The Pentagon’s official report lists 611 overseas bases, but just like the defense budget, which did not include appropriations for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the base structure report does not include bases and military installations in war zones. “Base Structure Report: Fiscal Year 2011 Baseline,” Office of Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Installations and Environment, U.S. Department of Defense,
http://www.acq.osd.mil/ie/download/bsr/bsr2011baseline.pdf
.
56
Hot war zones—then 411 in Afghanistan
Nick Turse, “Empire of Bases 2.0,” CBS News Opinion, January 10, 2011,
http:www.cbsnews.com
.
57
“No other military in world history”
Tom Kane, “Global U.S. Troop Deployment, 1950–2005,” 10, Heritage Foundation, May 24, 2006,
http://www.heritage.org
.
58
Simply maintaining those bases
Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Dorothy Robyn, cited in Christine Anh and Sukjong Hong, “Bring War Dollars Home by Shutting Down Bases,” Institute for Policy Studies, March 31, 2011,
http://www.ips-dc.org
.
59
“There was no corner of the known world”
Joseph Schumpeter,
Imperialism and Social Classes: Two Essays
(Cleveland: Meridian Books, 1951), 51.
60
Rumsfeld made plans to bring seventy thousand troops home
Donald H. Rumsfeld, testimony, Senate Armed Services Committee, September 23, 2004,
http://www.defense.gov
.
61
“America stands alone”
President William Clinton, Second Inaugural Address, January 20, 1997,
http://www.gpo.gov
.
62
“The survival of liberty”
President George W. Bush, Second Inaugural Address, January 20, 2005,
http://www.whitehouse.gov
.