Pork Protects Pet Projects

This article contends that jobs and money for Congressional districts is driving expensive new weapons systems, rather than their utility in modern warfare: "Members of Congress have become so obsessed with hometown pork they have no interest in knowing whether the programs they're supporting are a good idea or bad idea for the nation's defense," said Winslow Wheeler, director of the Straus Military Reform Project at the Center for Defense Information. A handful of new and expensive weapon systems under design are on center stage of the debate: the F-22 and F-35 fighter jets and a new class of Navy destroyers, named the DD(X). Critics contend the destroyer as an overpriced ship better suited for Cold War-era conflicts than today's emerging threats. Yet the project has brought billions of dollars to Massachusetts defense contractors. Why do we need the DDX? "Who are you going to use it against?" chided Chet Richards, a retired colonel with the Air Force reserve who supports slashing the Pentagon's half-trillion dollar budget by privatizing large segments of the Army. He noted that submarine hunters and naval bombardments weren't needed in the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. And nations with large armies that would require such methods -- like North Korea, China and India - the United States is unlikely to invade for various reasons, not the least of which is their purported stock of nuclear weapons. Here is a laughable answer: (Congressman Marty) Meehan also said the destroyer could "monitor much of (al Qaeda's) activities" throughout the world. "The DD(X) program could be used in Afghanistan and Iraq and the Middle East," he added. "You're able to use the technology to monitor activities in a large number of countries." Opinions differ on that account. John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense research outfit in Virginia, said production of the destroyer would put the U.S. Navy in a "category by itself." But it would not enhance the nation's ability to track terrorists, he said. "I cannot imagine how anyone could make such a claim with a straight face," Pike said, adding that the DD(X) "just doesn't have anything to do with that." I agree with Mr. Pike! http://www.reformer.com/Stories/0,1413,102~8860~3190088,00.html

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