Jim McDermott Challenges 14 Billion Dollar Iraq Boondoggle
Congressman Jim McDermott appears to have uncovered a new incident of gross military waste in Iraq this week. And what’s been done about it? It’s been covered back up, with a thick blanket of media silence.
The story revolves around the spending of 14 billion dollars by the US military to construct an elaborate air traffic control tower… for an airfield in Iraq that is only used by two helicopters. Why do two helicopters need air traffic control? Couldn’t they just communicate with each other directly by radio?
It was an American soldier who brought the wasteful spending to Congressman McDermott’s attention, during the Congressman’s visit to Iraq, and on Thursday, March 5th, McDermott spoke about the waste on the floor of the House of Representatives.
Not one commercial news organization has covered the story. Only one web site has reported on it so far.
It’s telling that a member of Congress can make a speech on Capitol Hill revealing this kind of outrageous waste, and yet be completely ignored. It tells me that there’s a lot of military waste going on right under the noses of people who are supposed to be conducting oversight, and the waste gets swept under the rug. It tells me that for every incident of military waste we are told about by the news media, there are many more incidents that never get the attention of any journalists who care enough to tell the stories.
Here’s an excerpt of what Representative McDermott had to say:
“We have thrown money away endlessly. Talk about waste, fraud and abuse, the military, in my view, is as ripe for an investigation as any part of government. Before we expand the budget, we ought to look at and have investigations, as Harry Truman did, after the Second World War. He made his reputation on looking at the misexpenditure of money in the Second World War, and that’s what ought to be going on now.
We are simply bloating the budget around issues that do not make us more secure and make us, actually, more enemies in the world. For that reason I think your examination, the Progressive Caucus examination of the budget is extremely important.
I think that this is an issue, obviously, people, as you point out, have jobs. People make a living making war machinery. But there have to be other things they can make, maybe things related to green energy, or there’s a lot of other places that the workers in this country, with all their creativity, could be put to work rather than simply building more and more arms to sell around the world and for us to use in various situations.
We are talking about leaving Iraq . But one of the soldiers said to me, if we are getting ready to leave Iraq , why are we still building buildings like that one over there, what are we building for?
It is a really good question. I mean, if you listen to the soldiers, they can see that lots of money is being spent wastefully. There is a tower, a control tower for an airport in Iraq . We spent $14 billion building a control tower for a field where there are two helicopters, two helicopters.
Now, you ask yourself, what was that tower built for and why was it built there? And these kinds of questions aren’t being asked.”
Thank you, Congressman McDermott, for asking the questions that no one else is daring to ask.
I think these numbers are too great and the majority of the American people spend too little time comprehending these numbers. 1 billion dollars is 1,000 million dollars! I have a hard enough time imagining what good 1 million dollars could do for our country or other people around the world. To win the “war” on spending, we need figures or examples that can catch the attention of the common American.
to the moderator: I know my name might be offensive to some, but it is a fact