My Congressman, Trent Franks (R-AZ), as founder and co-chair of the Missile Defense Caucus (MDC) wonders why the US government can allocate funds toward stimulating an economic recovery, while neglecting to protect our great country from specific missile threat from North Korea and Iran. (Huh?)
When the Strategic Forces Subcommittee voted to curtail $1.2 billion in missile defense and in particular cut $500 million to counter N. Korea and Iran, Franks introduced legislation re-allocating funds designed for the expressed purpose of thwarting intercontinental missile attack on the west coast of the USA. I kid you not. Bet you didn’t know those evildoers in North Korea and Iran posed “a real threat to the United States homeland”.
While the cold war ended back when St. Ronnie of Reagan haunted the white house over 20 years ago, chicken hawks like Franks want us to fear the bellicose barking of mad third world powers N. Korea and Iran. He conflates words with ability, while he equates the desires of Kim Jong Il of Korea and Ahmadinejad of Iran with the real might of the former Soviet Union.
Franks and three other Republican legislators and two Dixie Democrats, have co-sponsored the “Protect the Homeland from North Korean and Iranian Ballistic Missiles Act†H.R. 2845, calling for half-billion dollars to be spent to deploy physical defenses against the words of tyrants — just like we did under the sage leadership of Bush the younger, where Republicans ruled, deficits soared and economic security for the homeland mattered not.
So it is understandable that Franks would denigrate civil project expenditures in this country, while touting military appropriations. After all, when Iraq threatened the east coast with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) we invaded that country. Half a billion for a less ambitious scam should not be asking that much.
Tags: chicken hawks, military-industrial complex, national security