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Andrew Bacevich, a noted scholar, author, and critic of U.S. imperialism, will be speaking on U.S. policy, or lack thereof, in the Middle East on October 6 from 7-9 pm at the Westminster Unitarian Church, 24 Kenyon Street in East Greenwich, RI. This public presentation will be based largely on his most recent book: America’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History. Among his eight other books is the important Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War. There will be a Q&A period.
Prior to a distinguished academic career, Bacevich served in the U.S. Army, retiring with the rank of Colonel. His son, Andrew Bacevich Jr., was also in the army but was killed in Iraq by an IED. Dr. Bacevich had expressed strong opposition to this disastrous war prior to his son’s death.
In addition to the books, Bacevich has written many articles that have been published in various magazines and journals and has appeared frequently on a variety of news shows. He is a Professor Emeritus of Boston University and also is an associate editor for Harper’s Magazine.
This event is being organized by the Rhode Island Anti-War Committee, Pax Christi Rhode Island, the American Friends Service Committee, and the Tuesday Interfaith Peace Group. Cosponsoring and hosting is the Social Responsibility Committee of Westminster Unitarian Church. Light refreshments will be available and attendees are encouraged, if possible, to bring cookies or some type of simple finger food to share. There is ample parking in the Church lot.
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The Union of Concerned Scientists and the Catholic Church have at least two things in common. Both organizations have sounded the alarm on climate change and nuclear proliferation. It’s the latter that will bring the two organizations together on this week in Providence. They are two of the organizations hosting a forum called “A New Global Nuclear Arms Race: Risks, Prevention and Moral Imperatives” Wednesday night, 7 p.m. at McVinney Auditorium, Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, 43 Dave Gavitt Way in Providence.
“The topic is particularly germane to Rhode Island voters because their state is home to a facility that will help manufacture new nuclear-armed submarines,” according to a news release, making reference to Electric Boat. “In addition, Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed serves as ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Rep. James Langevin serves on the House Armed Services Committee.”
One of Wednesday’s speakers, Dr. Lisbeth Gronlund, co-director of the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said, “As a long-standing member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Reed has an important role to play in ensuring that the U.S. spends its defense dollars wisely. Current plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build a whole new generation of nuclear weapons are not just a waste of money but would undermine U.S. security.”
Gronlund plans to speak about “what President Obama—and the next president—should do to reduce the odds that nuclear weapons are used again. She’ll discuss the administration’s plan to build a whole new generation of nuclear bombs, missiles and submarines, which will cost roughly $1 trillion in coming decades. She also will call on the president to remove land-based nuclear missiles from hair-trigger alert, which sets the stage for an accidental nuclear launch,” according to the news release.
The United States is the only nation to ever use a nuclear weapon. In August on 1945, the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, effectively ending the war with Japan.
Dr. Stephen Colecchi, the director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office of International Justice and Peace, will also speak at the event in Providence on Wednesday night.
“The Catholic Church at its highest levels has supported nuclear disarmament as a moral imperative for decades,” Colecchi said, according to the news release. “Saint Pope John XXIII called for a worldwide ban on nuclear weapons in 1963. Pope Benedict reminded us that in a nuclear war there would be ‘no victors, only victims.’ And Pope Francis has asserted that ‘spending on nuclear weapons squanders the wealth of nations.’”
“Of course I’m against wars, I don’t know anyone who is in favor of wars,” Tobin said. “I think it was St. John Paul who said war is always a defeat for humanity. It’s never good.” But, he added, “Sometimes there are prudential judgments.”
He continued, “The Catholic Church has a long tradition of talking about a ‘just war theory’. It is never to say someone is just in starting a war, but we certainly believe in the right of self defense. What would someone do to respond to the attacks of terrorism, of ISIS, the terrible persecution of Christians taking place in the Middle East, the attacks on our own country or in France or in Belgium? How do we respond to these violent terrorist attacks without having some means of self defense. That’s where I think someone providing legitimate armaments and self defense has a legitimate role to play. Again, no one is in favor of war.”
Tobin sidestepped weighing in on the the other issue the Catholic Church and the Union of Concerned Scientists agree on – climate change. After Pope Francis called upon Catholic churches to take a stand against climate change, Tobin said, ““The pope’s message deserves careful study and prudent discussion by Catholics and all those concerned about this issue.”
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The protests against Textron cluster bombs are spreading from Rhode Island to Massachusetts. On Wednesday, Massachusetts Peace Action held a protest at Textron Systems, a subsidiary of Providence-based Textron in Wilmington, Mass., that was attended by more than 40 people.
“This was inspired by the Providence protests,” said Cole Harrison, executive director of Mass Peace Action, as activists lined the street outside the division of Textron that makes the controversial cluster bombs the Providence-based conglomerate sells to Saudi Arabia and other nations through the US military.
Textron’s cluster bombs became a cause celebre earlier this year after Human Rights Watch produced evidence that Saudi Arabia used cluster bombs in civilian areas of Yemen. Mass Peace Action planned its action to coincide with recent attempts by Democrats in Congress to ban cluster bombs sales to Saudi Arabia.
“We realized it was an activist issue in Congress,” Harrison said. “We hope to help turn the tide on this. We don’t think it’s an issue that people understand very well.”
This was the first action Mass Peace Action has held at Textron Systems. But it won’t be the last, said Paul Shannon of Summerville, Mass. “Our plan is to come back,” he said. “What we might do is start in town and hand out leaflets to people and then have a march. This is really important to get something off the ground here.”
The action attracted older activists, such as Shannon and Harrison, but also millennials like Matthew Hahm, a Boston College student originally from Seattle.
“I don’t agree with what Textron is doing, selling weapons and profiteering off of that,” he said. “They are complicit in Saudi Arabia war crimes, essentially. It’s pretty terrible stuff. Not enough young people care about peace because it seems far off and removed, but if more young people begin to care…”
While this was the first Textron protest for Mass. Peace Action, there have been a different kind of action every month outside Textron Systems for years. John Bach, a Quaker chaplain from Cambridge, has held “silent meeting for worship” once a month there for six and a half years.
“It’s not a politicization of our spirituality,” he said. “It’s bringing our spirituality to a place that is very dark and needs light.”
John Bach, right.
He said there are between 12 to 18 people who attend. “We circle up right around the sign and we worship in silence,” he said. “It’s called a gathered meeting. The actual worship is creating the time and the space for what we call the spirit, the small still voice, the divine light, the spark of life – whatever it is – to be spoken through us.”
Bach, who spent two years in prison for refusing to be drafted into the Vietnam war, called cluster bombs “particularly gruesome, they are loathsome, they are uncivilized and according to any just conduct of war, which I do not subscribe to because I am a pacifist, you do not do something that kills as many civilians [as enemy combatants].”
Quoting what he called a popular saying from the 1960’s, Bach said, “When they come for the innocent without having to cross over your body then cursed be your religion and your life.”
He added, “The kids in Yemen are the innocent, clearly.”
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Congress is coming under increasing pressure to stop supplying cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia, but Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed doesn’t seem to be feeling it. He said the weapons, which are made by Rhode Island-based Textron and banned by 119 nations but not the US and Saudi Arabia, “should still be provided under strict conditions,” he told RI Future.
“I think we should still be selling those weapon systems that comply with the law,” said Reed, the senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees.
Providence-based Textron is the last North American producer of cluster bombs, and the only source of cluster bombs for the US military. They’ve become a hot button issue as evidence mounts that Saudi Arabia has used cluster bombs it procured from the US in civilian-populated areas of Yemen.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have each independently found evidence that Textron’s cluster bombs have malfunctioned more than 1 percent of the time in Yemen and have been used in civilian-populated areas. Both allegations would be violations of US law concerning cluster bombs.
“That is something we have to look at very closely because the threshold is 1 percent or less,” Reed said. “That’s the way they are designed, that’s the way they’re tested and that’s the way they are maintained. We have strict protocols in design and the systems need to perform to very high standards and that as a result those and only those systems are sold.”
He added, “I think you do look at all the data that is being submitted. I think we are looking at it, and we are testing it.”
Reed said the US military still has cluster bombs in its arsenal, as well. “We have them in our own inventory so we’re very conscience of trying to make sure they are tested properly,” he said.
He seemed confident in their efficacy. “The systems we provide, technically, are designed so that if a cluster does not detonate it will be deactivated. They are the only ones authorized to be sold.”
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It was narrowly defeated by 12 votes, 204 to 216. Neither of Rhode Island’s congressman could be immediately reached for comment. But Congressman Hank Johnson posted a news release about the bill and his speech before the House Armed Service Committee (Congressman Cicilline can be seen in the background).
“Earlier this year, the Saudi led-coalition dropped cluster bombs in Yemen’s that struck a rehabilitation center for the blind – which also has a school for blind children,” Johnson said. “The destruction of the school and the injuries sustained by the children were unbearably gruesome. This deliberate and reckless use of cluster munitions by Saudi Arabia highlights their complete disregard for the welfare of innocent people. This is unacceptable. We cannot ignore our duty to protect basic human rights values here and around the world. There is something fundamentally wrong with preaching human and civil rights here at home while we export death abroad. Rather, Congress must step up our efforts to keep such internationally reviled weapons out of the hands of those that would misuse them.”
If passed, the bill would have further limited Rhode Island-based Textron’s market for cluster bombs. Located in downtown Providence, Textron, a defense industry conglomerate, is the last North American manufacturer of cluster bombs, which have been banned by 119 nations but not but the United States and Saudi Arabia. The US is known to have sold Saudi Arabia Textron-made cluster bombs and Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International as well as local peace activists have called upon Textron to stop making cluster bombs.
“It’s an important program for us,” Textron spokesman David Sylvestre told RI Future in February. He could not immediately be reached for comment today.
Human Rights Watch in a post published today mentioned the grassroots effort in Rhode Island to convince Textron to stop making cluster bombs.
“Public pressure seems to be mounting against Textron,” wrote Mary Wareham, advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. “Outside Textron’s headquarters in Providence, Rhode Island, local activists have been demonstrating for weeks – demanding that the company cease its production of cluster munitions.”
The FANG Collective and the American Friends Service Committee have led efforts to call public attention to Textron cluster bombs. Members of the groups and other peace activists participated in another protest outside Textron headquarters in downtown Providence today.
Singapore recently stopped making cluster bombs and Wareham wrote, “Textron should follow the example set by Singapore Technologies Engineering and commit to stop making these indiscriminate weapons as a way to assure the public that it is responsive to global concern at civilian suffering.”
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Focusing more sharply on Textron, a new Human Rights Watch report calls on the United States government and the Rhode Island-based conglomerate to stop selling cluster bombs. The report offers fresh evidence the Textron-made weapons – banned by 119 nations but not by the US – were used by Saudi Arabian forces in Yemen, injured civilians and malfunction more frequently than US trade law allows.
“HRW staff photographed remnants from the attack showing markings indicating a manufacture date of July 2012 by Textron,” Human Rights Watch Arms Advocacy Director Mary Wareham told RI Future about this photo.
“The United States should cease its production and transfer of cluster munitions to conform with the widely accepted international ban on the weapons,” says the HRW report. Textron spokesman David Sylvestre declined to comment.
Textron-made cluster bombs injured a woman and two children in December, 2015 and two civilians in April, 2015, according to the report. HRW documents six separate locations where unexploded cluster bombs were found, most recently in February of this year.
The report also contains new proof that Textron-made cluster bombs malfunction more often than US trade law allows. US export law prohibits the use of cluster bombs in populated areas and only allows the sale of cluster bombs that malfunction less than 1 percent of the time, a rate HRW says Textron’s cluster bombs have not complied with.
“Following multiple attacks in Yemen, it is now obvious that Sensor Fuzed Weapons are not the ‘reliable’ or ‘intelligent’ cluster munitions they have been promoted as,” said Steve Goose, arms director at Human Rights Watch and chair of the Cluster Munition Coalition, the international coalition working to eradicate cluster munitions. “The US should cease production and transfer of these weapons following the evidence of their failures and their use in and near civilian areas and should join the international ban on cluster munitions.”
RI Future reporting on Textron and Rhode Island grassroots activism targeting Textron is cited in the HRW report.
In an RI Future article on February 24, 2016, a Textron spokesperson, David Sylvestre, asserted that the company cannot be held liable if the weapons are misused, reportedly stating: “We’re not in the plane dropping the bomb. If it was dropped in an area that is perhaps too close to a civilian population, that is not supposed to happen.” The report said that he affirmed that CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons are provided to the US military for delivery to foreign recipients, stating: “No company can put that on a boat and deliver it to a foreign government.”
Sylvestre described the CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons as “intelligent” munitions and said: “They are not intended to target human beings at all…. They are made to target armored-vehicles.” None of the CBU-105 attacks documented by Human Rights Watch in Yemen have involved armored vehicles nor have any damaged or destroyed armored vehicles been documented at the strike locations.
During an April 19 demonstration at Textron’s corporate headquarters in Providence, Rhode Island, Textron representatives apparently refused to receive a petition signed by more than 3,000 people calling on the company to cease its production of cluster munitions. Two days later, Rhode Island police arrested three activists who chained themselves to Textron’s front doors during a protest against the company’s production of cluster munitions.
Megan Burke, the director of the Cluster Munitions Coalition who participated in the April 19 demonstration outside of Textron headquarters in Providence, said in a news release, “The only way to ensure that no lives or limbs are claimed by cluster munitions in the future is to eliminate those weapons altogether. The United States should stop producing and exporting cluster munitions, and join the Convention.”
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Multiple peace groups are targeting Textron because the Rhode Island-based conglomerate provided cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia that were used in the conflict in Yemen, injuring civilians and contributing to a growing human rights catastrophe in the severely impoverished Middle Eastern nation.
“The only beneficiaries of Endless War have been the huge military industrial complex,” according to a news release from the groups. Textron, according to the release, “produces many pieces of the war machine.”
Cluster bombs have been outlawed by 119 nations across the planet because of the indiscriminate harm they can cause to civilians during and after military conflicts. They are not banned by either the United States or Saudi Arabia.
“When these weapons are dropped, it is impossible to be sure they will not hit people’s homes or neighborhood. Each cluster munition contains many small submunitions- some of which do not explode when dropped,” said Megan Burk, director of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines – Cluster Munition Coalition, who will speak at Monday’s action. “These unexploded submunitions act as landmines.”
“We, the undersigned, call on Textron Industries and CEO Scott C. Donnelly to immediately cease all sales of munitions to Saudi Arabia,” it says. “Textron’s munitions have been part of a campaign that has caused the death of 3,000 innocent Yemeni civilians. It’s time for this to stop. Please immediately cease all weapons sales to Saudi Arabia to ensure that your products are not used to commit further atrocities.”
After protesting at Textron, the group plans to deliver a copy of the petition to Rhode Island’s congressional delegation. Most of the delegation has spoken out against the use of cluster bombs.
“Cluster munitions pose an unacceptable danger to civilians,” said Congressman David Cicilline. “I’ve advocated for restricting the use of these weapons in the past, and I’ll continue working to limit the risk they pose to civilians.”
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a co-sponsor of the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act, said, “Cluster bombs can take a terrible and lasting toll on civilians, which is why I’ve cosponsored legislation to restrict their use. I hope the Senate will take action on this bill to help protect innocent civilians from these dangerous weapons of war.”
Senator Jack Reed, the senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, “has supported efforts to limit the sale and transfer of cluster munitions and to ensure the use of more precise technologies to protect civilians,” according to spokesman Chip Unruh.
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Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. will present a talk titled “The End of the American Empire: Foreign Policy without Diplomacy” at The Barrington Congregational Church, Fellowship Hall on Saturday, April 2, 2016 at 7:30 PM at 461 County Rd, Barrington, RI.
Ambassador Freeman is a businessman, author and senior fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. An American diplomat, he was Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs from 1993-94 and honored for his roles in designing a NATO-centered post-Cold War European security system and in reestablishing defense and military relations with China. He served as U. S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1989 to 1992 and was principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs during the historic U.S. mediation of Namibian independence from South Africa and Cuban troop withdrawal from Angola.
Ambassador Freeman is the author of two books on U.S. foreign policy, two on statecraft and was the editor of the Encyclopaedia Britannica entry on “diplomacy.” After his retirement from government, he served concurrently as co-chair of the United States China Policy Foundation, president of the Middle East Policy Council, and vice chair of the Atlantic Council of the United States. He is a sought-after speaker on a wide variety of foreign policy issues.
The program is sponsored by East Bay Citizens for Peace, the Mission and Justice Ministry of the Barrington Congregational Church UCC and American Friends Service Committee – South East New England. It is free and open to the public.
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Rhode Island-based Textron sold cluster bombs to seven foreign nations since 2004, according to a report from PAX, a peace group that is part of a global initiative to end the production and use of these increasingly controversial air-to-armored vehicle weapon of war.
Textron’s cluster bomb, the only such weapon still made in North America, was recently featured in a Human Rights Watch report condemning the use. The report says Textron’s product malfunction more than 1 percent of the time, which would be a violation of US export law pertaining to the sale of cluster munitions to foreign governments. The HRW report tells of civilian injuries from errant cluster bomb projectiles during Saudi-led military raids on Yemen. Saudi Arabia purchased the cluster bombs from Textron, via the US military.
About half of the cluster bombs Textron produces are sold to foreign governments, Textron spokesman David Sylvestre told RI Future. The report, citing the company’s 2013 factbook, says Textron has sold more than 7,400 of the cluster bombs to the US Air force and foreign governments. “It’s an important program for us,” Sylvestre said.
It’s an important program of a different kind for PAX and the Cluster Munitions Project. “Textron is included on the red flag list because there is sufficient evidence that the company has produced the SFW after May 2008,” says the report. “The company has not stated publicly that it will end its involvement in the coming 12 months.”
The 200 page report devoted to private sector cluster bomb industry has one-page a section about Textron under the chapter “Hall of Shame: Financial Involvement and Investments.” Textron is on the “red flag” list – the seven companies most responsible for the continued production of cluster bombs. There are only two American companies on the red flag list: Textron and ATK, which was included because it makes a component of the Textron cluster bomb. Like Textron, ATK has a diverse portfolio. It makes military grade defense weapons, firearms for civilians, ammunition, stand up paddle boards, Bolle sunglasses and Camelbak water bottles. Textron also makes Cessna airplanes Bell helicopters, golf carts, gas tanks and power tools.
Textron is a longtime Rhode Island-based company with about 300 employees in the Ocean State and more than 34,000 across the globe.
Sylvestre told RI Future military products, made by subsidiary Textron Systems, represents about 11 percent of Textron’s total revenues. DefenseNews lists Textron as the 17th largest military contractor in the world, with $4.179 billion in defense revenue in 2014. It says 34 percent of the company’s revenue comes from military contracts.
Three of four members of Rhode Island’s congressional delegation has responded for comment about America’s continued role in cluster bomb use and production. Much of Europe, Canada and 118 total nations have already banned the use of cluster bombs. The United States has not but has committed to curtailing their use and danger.
“Cluster munitions pose an unacceptable danger to civilians,” said Congressman David Cicilline. “I’ve advocated for restricting the use of these weapons in the past, and I’ll continue working to limit the risk they pose to civilians.”
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a co-sponsor of the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act, said, “Cluster bombs can take a terrible and lasting toll on civilians, which is why I’ve cosponsored legislation to restrict their use. I hope the Senate will take action on this bill to help protect innocent civilians from these dangerous weapons of war.”
Senator Jack Reed, the senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, “has supported efforts to limit the sale and transfer of cluster munitions and to ensure the use of more precise technologies to protect civilians,” according to spokesman Chip Unruh.
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Rhode Island-based Textron is one of four private-companies on earth, and the last North American producer, to manufacture what is quickly becoming one of the world’s most controversial weapons of war: cluster bombs.
“The cluster munition industry is gone because many nations have banned the weapon,” said Mark Hiznay, a senior arms researcher for Human Rights Watch.
“Most foreign producers are state-owned industries,” he said, such as China and Russia. In addition to Textron he knows of only three other privately-held companies in the world that still make cluster bombs, two are in South Korea and one is in Singapore.
The United States, on the other hand, has not signed the 2008 Convention on Cluster Bombs treaty. In 2003, the US military used Textron-made cluster bombs against Iraqi tanks as it advanced on Kirkuk.
Both of Rhode Island’s senators say they see the need to curtail the use of cluster bombs.
“Senator Reed has supported efforts to limit the sale and transfer of cluster munitions and to ensure the use of more precise technologies to protect civilians,” said his spokesman Chip Unruh.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is a co-signer of the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act. “Cluster bombs can take a terrible and lasting toll on civilians, which is why I’ve cosponsored legislation to restrict their use,” he told RI Future. “I hope the Senate will take action on this bill to help protect innocent civilians from these dangerous weapons of war.”
The House-version of this bill is sponsored by Massachusetts Congressman Jim McGovern, who represents the Worcester area. Congressmen David Cicilline and Jim Langevin could not be reached for comment.
The Textron-made bomb – the CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapon – is at the center of a new Human Rights Watch report that indicates the weapon malfunctions more than 1 percent of the time, a violation of US export law, and accuses the Saudi Arabian-led forces in Yemen of using the weapon dangerously close to civilian populations which has resulted in several documented injuries.
“It’s puzzling to us that Textron is marketing this as a reliable weapon,” Hiznay said. “We’re not sure if it’s Textron’s problem or the Saudis’ problem, but we’ve had the US Air Force use them in Iraq and produce duds and now we have Saudi forces using them and producing duds in Yemen.”
US export law requires cluster bombs sold to foreign countries to malfunction less than 1 percent of the time, a success rate Human Rights Watch says the Textron-made bomb has not achieved. A 2008 Department of Defense Directive, the current prevailing US policy on the use of cluster bombs, requires the US military to only use cluster bombs with similar success rates.
“Most of the SFW’s have been sold to the US Air Force,” said Textron spokesman David Sylvestre in an email. “Comparatively few have been sold to US allies.” He declined further comment about the sale of weapons saying, “Much of the data about what we sell to a particular military customer may be considered protected or classified info by the US government or the customer.”
According to a 2011 Department of Defense news release, Textron was contacted to sell 404 cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia for $355 million. In 2012, Textron was contracted to sell 325 cluster bombs to South Korea for $325 million. The US last put aside funds to buy cluster bombs from Textron in 2007, said Hiznay, but didn’t make the buy after the weapons malfunctioned more than 1 percent of the time.
“We believe that SFW is truly the best area attack weapon in the world,” said Ellen Lord, senior vice president and general manager of Textron Defense Systems. “Through a process of rigorous research, testing and analysis, we have created a weapon that is reliable, safe and meets current clean battlefield standards.”
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Recently I was talking with a colleague who said he wished that, when there is anti-war protest in Providence, the protesters would be able to offer something a bit more substantial that just slogans and pacific ideals. I agree with this sentiment
To that extent, I recently had the opportunity to speak with Eric Draitser. He is a geopolitical analyst and commentator whose work can be read in CounterPunch, RT television’s website, and a variety of other forums. He currently can be heard weekly delivering the podcast CounterPunch Radio.
Over the next several articles, Draitser will introduce through our conversation a series of concepts and strategies that are now gaining currency within the international geopolitical arena. The theory of a multi-polar world, for our purposes, envisions the end of a world order where the United States is the dominant power in the international political arena. In its place, various regional powers emerge and develop a set of consensus points that are used to dictate a level of peace and stability in the world. In this world-view, the Russian, Chinese, Indian, and Iranian leadership in their spheres of influence help balance out and reduce the occurrence of conflicts.
This is not a new concept and it is one that is quite familiar to figures such as Sen. Jack Reed, the Rhode Island congressional delegate who is considered a liberal despite sitting on a military appropriations committee where he has shoveled billions of dollars into the maw of the military-industrial complex while Rhode Island has above-average unemployment and astounding rates of childhood hunger, homelessness, and poverty. Sen. Reed knows that a multi-polar world would reduce the spending on the Pentagon budget and make some of the social safety net programs proposed by the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign not just tenable but conservative when one considers that over half of our total annual budget goes to fund war. Yet in the name of an antiquated and paranoid Cold War mindset wherein we must fear the Moscow-Peking alliance, America is a shambling, barely-conscious impersonation of the late Roman empire, over-extended and dependent on a semi-privatized contractor military the has wrought chaos, destruction, and death across much of the world while alienating those who would have us as allies.
I do not deny that some of these concepts are jarring at first. The power structure has engineered a clever campaign to make the efforts of our potential allies seem like “imperialism” and “aggression”. It is also vital to understand that these are not apologias for singular individuals or governments, states are always violent systems. It is also not a direct path to the Big Rock Candy Mountain of some wonderful socialist tomorrow. Yet in a world where America is a pariah and loathed by its neighbors due to imperial arrogance and where Jack Reed, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Hillary Clinton are not sending themselves or their loved ones to die in war, consider these ideas with maturity.
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Rhode Island-based Textron sold to Saudi Arabia cluster bombs that, according to a new Human Rights Watch report, “are being used in civilian areas contrary to US export requirements and also appear to be failing to meet the reliability standard required for US export of the weapons.”
The CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons produced by Textron, according to HRW, have been deployed dangerously close to civilian populations as Saudi-led military strikes have targeted Yemen in 2015 and 2016. According to a recent New York Times story, “If confirmed, the report could put new pressure on the United States over support for its ally Saudi Arabia in the Yemen conflict.”
The report alleges several Yemeni civilians have been injured by malfunctioning cluster bombs. HRW and 118 nations oppose any use of cluster bombs in general, but the report says these weapons in particular are malfunctioning.
“While any use of any type of cluster munition should be condemned, there are two additional disturbing aspects to the use of CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons in Yemen,” says the report. “First, US export law prohibits recipients of cluster munitions from using them in populated areas, as the Saudi coalition has clearly been doing. Second, US export law only allows the transfer of cluster munitions with a failure rate of less than 1 percent. But it appears that Sensor Fuzed Weapons used in Yemen are not functioning in ways that meet that reliability standard.”
Textron spokesman David Sylvestre confirmed that Textron produced the CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons.
The bombs passed rigorous inspection before being handed over to the US military for delivery to Saudi Arabia. “No company can put that on a boat and deliver it to a foreign government,” he said, noting that Textron can’t be held liable if the weapon was misused. “We’re not in the plane dropping the bomb. If it was dropped in an area that is perhaps too close to a civilian population, that is not supposed to happen.”
Sylvestre made a point to differentiate the CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons from what he called “Vietnam-era cluster bombs.” The modern version are “intelligent” and only target tanks, he said. “They are not intended to target human beings at all,” he said. “They are made to target armored-vehicles.”
About half of the weapons Textron produces are sold to governments other than the United States, said Sylvestre. He did not know how much business Textron does with Saudi Arabia, or how much it paid for the Sensor Fuzed Weapons. A recent report from the Congressional Research Service says Saudi Arabia spent more than $100 billion since 2010 on US military equipment and training.
“It’s an important program for us,” Sylvestre said.
Headquartered in Providence, Textron employs about 300 people in Rhode Island and has more than 34,000 employees across the globe. The cluster bombs were most likely assembled in Oklahoma while individual parts might be manufactured elsewhere, according to Sylvestre. Textron Systems, a division of Textron Inc. headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts, is responsible for the military products, which represent about 11 percent of Textron’s total revenue, Sylvestre said. The company also makes Cessna airplanes, Bell helicopters, golf carts, gas tanks and power tools, among other products. At one time, it owned Gorham, Speidel and A.T. Cross – themselves iconic Rhode Island companies.
Textron started as the Special Yarns Company in Boston in 1923 and the current name is an amalgamation of two early subsidiaries. Sylvestre said Textron first got into the defense industry by manufacturing rip cords used on US military parachutes.
“Mr. Little made industrial history by taking Textron Inc., which was deeply rooted in the textile industry, and grafting onto it a thicket of small companies that turned out diverse products like ball bearings, gas meters, golf carts, helicopters, metal-working machines, radar antennas, screws and snowmobiles,” says his obituary. “Mr. Little’s skill at acquisitions so outshone those of his competitors that he became famous, as Dun’s Review put it, as ‘the man who started the whole conglomerate movement.'”
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“Oh, what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive.”
Sir Walter Scott
The fix is in. The President is not elected by 105 million American voters. No, the President is selected by five Supreme Court justices.
Justice Antonin Scalia writes that recounting Florida votes will “cast a cloud” over the election. This is absurd.
On December 11, 2000, conservative justices rule in Bush v. Gore for George W. Bush on a technicality: The Florida Supreme Court is making “new law.” So Florida’s justices promptly submit a revised ruling.
Oh no! Isn’t there still some way to stop this recount? How?
The Supreme Court Five now invoke the opposite finding: Florida must put aside each county’s voting laws on recounts and establish ‘new law’—the same for every county.
This too is absurd. Differing legal standards for each county’s voting already exist. So, using the Court’s logic, shouldn’t Florida’s results be tossed out? No, Al Gore would win.
Moreover, applying one legal standard statewide requires judicial activism and violates states’ rights. Doesn’t Scalia detest such violations of his bedrock principles?
If the recount proceeds, however, Al Gore is almost certain to be President. The reason: Outdated punch-card machines in poor Democratic precincts negate more votes than modern machines in Republican precincts. A manual recount restores legitimate votes. And The Guardian reports that recounts commissioned by The Washington Post and Palm Beach Post document, “Florida ‘recounts’ make Gore winner.”
So the Court’s Republican caucus commits this dastardly deed of selecting their favored candidate. They declare the equal-protection clause of the 14th amendment—whose original intent is protecting the slaves—now protects Bush. This violates Scalia’s ‘originalist’ and ‘strict constructionist’ interpretation of the law—especially since he declares the equal-protection clause should not apply to women.
So much for Scalia’s ‘principled’ jurisprudence. Did he somehow forget Jesus’ bedrock principle, “The truth will set you free”?
The Court’s chicanery continues: The ruling is issued at 10 pm on December 12, requiring the Florida Supreme Court’s compliance by midnight!
The Court’s legitimate choice is to give Florida several days to conduct a fair recount. As they fear, however, Gore will win.
Make no mistake: Democracy dies on December 12, 2000. The Court’s miniature election is a coup d’etat.
This pernicious ousting of President Gore is compounded when Bush appoints two conservatives to the Court which crowned him.
Moreover, the Iraq invasion is highly unlikely with a Gore administration. Imagine: No Iraqi war deaths or refugees; no emergence of ISIS in Syria—and no fear of their terror attacks. The Supreme Court Five bear much responsibility for this widespread devastation.
But deceptions do not cease with Scalia’s death.
In the year 2000, five Republican-appointed justices overthrew a Democratic President. In the year 2016, Senate Republicans insist they will block any candidate the Democratic President nominates. Thus, Republican leaders only ethic is winning at all costs—the ethic of dictators.
A coup for Scalia’s successor is repugnant. Again, the excuses are absurd.
Excuse #1: Time’s too short. False. Since Clinton’s presidency, the longest confirmation takes 87 days. Obama still has more than 300 days in office.
Excuse #2: The voters should decide with the next President. Wrong. The voters already decided, electing President Obama for four years—not three.
Excuse #3: As no president has made a Supreme Court nomination in his last year in office for 80 years, doing so would violate our tradition. Sounds good—except no such ‘tradition’ of waiving nominations exists.
Excuse #4: Supreme Court nominee Abe Fortas was rejected in 1968 because it was the last year of LBJ’s presidency. Again, the deception meter buzzes. Abe Fortas was filibustered because Republicans were outraged with the Warren Court’s decisions.
In this instance, Ted Cruz is deceptive—obscuring Republican obstructionism to justify his own case for Republican obstructionism!
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Rumors have been floating that former Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, might run for president. Bloomberg has presented his potential run as a middle-ground between rightwing candidates like Donald Trump and progressive leaders like Bernie Sanders. Whatever critiques there might be of Bloomberg, the fact is that he’s led on some issues. Bernie Sanders should work hard to undermine Bloomberg’s base of support on a key issue where the Bloomberg administration led: transportation.
Michael Bloomberg was a big proponent of stop-and-frisk policies, which should be a concern for any progressive voter. Stop-and-frisk did recover caches of weapons, perhaps preventing some crimes, but only by harassing large numbers of people of color with an indiscriminate dragnet. The vast majority of people stopped-and-frisked were found to have committed no crime whatsoever, and federal courts found that the policy systematically violated the rights of people of color. Bloomberg’s candidacy would certainly be considerably better than any of the Republican candidates, but in an election year when voters have the ability to choose a candidate like Bernie Sanders, it shouldn’t be hard for progressives to make the choice: Sanders has led on issues of mass-imprisonment, ending the drug war, and restoring respect for people of color in a way that few American candidates, and no mainstream American candidate, ever has. Alongside Bloomberg’s iffy positions on civil rights stand some genuine achievements in transportation and land use. Bloomberg’s New York became a leader on environmental issues related to transportation, and the Sanders’ campaign needs to sharpen its messaging on this subject in order to undermine that leg of support.
A signature advantage for Bloomberg is that his administration smartly approached transportation policy to augment environmental and social benefits for New Yorkers. This Streetfilms video shows the almost magical transformation of many New York intersections under the tutelage of Janette Sadik-Kahn and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Even for someone like me who “Feels the Bern”, and who doesn’t fully trust Michael Bloomberg on a range of other issues, it’s hard to not be impressed:
Sanders’ campaign has called for infrastructure investment as a major plank of his get-people-back-to-work message. I have disagreements with Sanders’ approach. I think that transportation funding should come from user fees. None of the candidates–Sanders included–has taken this position. But even as Sanders approaches the funding mechanisms differently than most urbanist voters would like, he can still draw from his past experience and speak to the need to economize on what the country spends on out of that funding.
The United States spends more money on expansion of its road system than on maintenance, and despite some hopeful examples to the contrary, has often maintained design mistakes like urban highways into their second lifecycle, often at the behest of corporate giants like Microsoft and against the wishes of local voters and small businesses. Sanders, who was a four-term mayor of a leading urbanist place, Burlington Vermont, doesn’t need to stretch himself into any pretzels to speak eloquently to why this is a mistake. But at present, Sanders is not doing enough through his campaign to explain how America’s infrastructure crisis is one of overspending. His campaign needs to say clearly: #NoNewRoads.
As a mayor, Bernie Sanders ‘out-Republicaned Republicans‘. He did so by introducing radical concepts like competitive bidding, by successfully lowering property taxes, and by successfully guiding the city towards new development while also protecting the rights of poor people in public housing. Sanders inspires people like me not just with his social-democratic approach to some issues, but his genuine understanding of when free markets work well. Transportation is an opportunity for Sanders to bring that cost-saving approach into focus.
Sanders wants a new single-payer healthcare system, but has also spoken eloquently to the fact that Americans spend more on healthcare than any other industrialized nation. Just as we waste money on healthcare procedures that bring poor results, we also are wasting precious resources on transportation boondoggles that do not add up to longterm economic growth. It’s time for the Sanders campaign to speak more forthrightly on this. In the second Democratic debate, Sanders again stuck to this spending issue:
…[W]hy do we remain the only major country on earth that does not guarantee health care to all people as a right? Why do we continue to get ripped off by the drug companies who can charge us any prices they want? Why is it that we are spending per capita far, far more than Canada, which is 100 miles away from my door, that guarantees health care to all people?
It will not happen tomorrow. But when millions of people stand up and are prepared to take on the insurance companies and the drug companies, it will happen, and I will lead that effort.
Medicare for all, single-payer system is the way we should go.
On imprisonment, the focus on fiscal conservatism has been mixed into Sanders boldly progressive message. From the second Democratic debate:
We’re spending $80 billion locking people up disproportionately, Latino and African American. We need very clearly major, major reform in a broken criminal justice system from top to bottom. And that means when police officers out in a community do illegal activity, kill people who are unarmed, who should not be killed, they must be held accountable. It means that we end minimum sentencing for those people (UNINTEL). And it means that we take marijuana out of the federal law as a crime and give space for freedom to go forward with legalizing marijuana.
Sanders has even brought his hawk-eyed approach to spending to military waste. From the second debate, again:
This nation is the most powerful military in the world. We’re spending over $600 billion a year on the military. And yet significantly less than 10% of that money is used to be fighting international terrorism.
We are spending hundreds of billions of dollars (UNINTEL), 5,000 nuclear weapons. I think we need major reform in the military making it more cost effective but also focusing on the real crisis that faces us. The Cold War is over and our focus has got to be on intelligence, increased manpower, fighting international terrorism.
A “no new roads” approach, sometimes called a “fix-it first” approach, would also be surprisingly within the mainstream. In a recent interview, Urban Cincy blog author Randy Simes points out that even fairly conservative and car-oriented DOTs like Ohio’s ODOT are looking to “fix it first” for financial reasons. Part of what worries transportation advocates about Bernie Sanders’ messaging on transportation funding is that this fix-it-first way of doing things might evaporate at the state level if more money became available. Sanders should make it clear to the transportation community that his focus on transportation funding does not mean a return to business-as-usual for road expansions, and that DOTs still need to start prioritizing and limiting their spending to bring the U.S. back on track.
Talking about the true roots of America’s transportation crisis–overspending on bad projects–should hone close to an attitude about public finance that Bernie Sanders has already embraced his entire life. It will clearly energize existing, young, liberal voters, while also reaching out to moderates who are concerned about costs. It takes away the false choice of progressive vs. practical, and puts them in one candidate together. Supporting the #NoNewRoads campaign will also bring Sanders close to a group of people the Clinton campaign has been attempting to separate him from: Obama lovers. Sanders has supported many of the positive achievements of the Obama era while also criticizing the president from the left, but on this issue he would be in line with our current president: President Obama invited Strong Towns, the organization that coined #NoNewRoads, to the White House to speak on rural development issues. Sanders can demonstrate that he’s able to work with fiscal conservatives, champion climate change action, and shore up support from supporters of President Obama, all at once. Win-win-win.
Donald Trump may think that we can slap a billion dollars on anything and make it better, but Bernie Sanders has shown on a range of issues that he’s much smarter. Sanders is a “man of the people” says one article: he walks to work and takes the middle seat on planes. The Sanders campaign should speak smartly on transportation so as to draw on the approach he’s taken in the past. Let’s #FeelTheBern for #NoNewRoads.
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“Lord, do you want us to command
fire to come down from heaven
and consume [Samaritans]?”
James and John to Jesus
As ‘lone wolf’ terrorism will likely rise, how will we relate to Muslims? Should we escalate wars in Muslim countries?
Samaritans, who share religious roots with Muslims, utterly rejected Jesus and his disciples. So the disciples proposed Holy War. Jesus rebuked them.
Samaritans and Jews detested each other: As to religion, Jews cursed Samaritans in their synagogues; as to race, Jews called Samaritans half-breeds; as to foreigners, Jews walked 40 additional miles when traveling north just to avoid Samaria.
Americans mimic this hatred by reviling Muslims: 56 percent recently polled stated Islam is not consistent with American values. This ignores three million Muslim-Americans, most born here, who cherish this nation.
Enter Donald Trump. He hysterically whips up fears of Muslims and Mexicans. He even retweets that whites are killed by blacks 81 percent of the time—with a black man’s image pointing a gun. The truth: Whites killed by blacks total 14 percent.
Though many differ, some prominent Republicans denounce Trump’s exclusion of Muslims as fascism, or declare he violates American values. RI Republican Party Chair Brandon Bell calls Trump’s proposal “un-Republican, un-American and unconstitutional.”
Sadly, I must also conclude Trump is a white supremacist. The evidence: Trump hates and fears people for their religion (Muslims) and their race (blacks) as well as foreigners (Mexicans).
Trump dismisses Jesus’ teaching to love people whose religion, race or nation is different. Jesus’ parable of The Good Samaritan—not The Good Israelite—was scandalous. Today, instead of The Good American, Jesus would scandalize Trump’s followers with the parable of The Good Muslim.
Actually, Christian extremists have killed and maimed far more Americans in recent years than Muslim extremists. Anti-abortion bombers and “Christian” mass shooters are terrorists. Indeed, the Southern Poverty Law Center identifies 142 neo-Nazi and 72 Ku Klux Klan groups. Christian identity and sovereign citizen groups have also increased.
Still, can we imagine discriminating against Christians as Trump discriminates against 1.5 billion Muslims? Imagine a “total and complete shutdown” of Christians entering this country. Imagine registering our nation’s Christians. Imagine surveying and closing churches.
Hatred and fear of all Muslims is no more justified than for Christians.
The U.S. is not a theocracy. We are not a “Christian nation.” We cannot favor one religion, but must affirm America’s religious freedom for all.
Jesus taught we must take the log out of our own eye before removing the speck in our neighbor’s eye. So consider the 3,000 who died on 9/11 as well as the fourteen in San Bernardino. How horrendous these attacks were for our nation! Now consider the half million Iraqis who died. That’s 166 days of 9/11 attacks.
American deaths from 9/11 are one per 100,000; Iraqi deaths are one per 75. Four million Iraqis—one in ten—are refugees. Iraq is decimated.
We rightly condemn jihad, a Holy War. But our politicians’ moral justifications for Iraq’s invasion begat a vastly more destructive Holy War than 9/11.
Jesus rebuked his disciples’ Holy War “solution” for enemies. Do we agree regarding our wars?
It’s not just Iraq. Many want to escalate war in Syria. Have we learned nothing from our failures? How many more years will we kill and be killed in the Middle East? How many more lone wolf attacks must we endure? Does our unceasing warfare risk another massive attack? Are we really surprised that inflicting great suffering brings retaliation?
The military cannot defeat terrorism. Bombs and bombastic rhetoric continually recruit ISIS fighters.
We must overcome our country’s fears and purge our national prejudices. Recall the aspiration of the Star Spangled Banner’s concluding verse. The opposite occurs, our nation becoming ‘the land of the cruel, and the home of the fearful,’ if we adopt Trump’s dogma instead of Jesus’ teachings.
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Over the past two weeks, this series has laid out a case for why Rhode Island is in the business of empowering veterans and what the future of state-level veterans affairs can be. But a discussion about veterans can’t occur in a media vacuum and it’s impossible to ignore sizzling headlines about the VA and presidential candidates.
Snapshot: Hillary Clinton was asked about the systemic problems at the VA recently, her response included a comment that the issues weren’t “as widespread as it has been made out to be,” and veterans (as well as congressional leaders) have taken her to task for it.
The upside is renewed media attention to a significant moral issue of our time: setting the standard for providing the highest quality and timely healthcare possible to our veterans. The continued problems with access to care are heart wrenching. Just a few months ago, I was meeting with disabled veterans who were receiving sporadic care at a VA in Texas – it was difficult to hear that they were having such a hard time after being discharged, especially when most of them received consistent and quality treatment while still in uniform.
The truth is that, even though there are many veterans getting excellent treatment at the VA, things are still a mess. And I hope journalists continue to draw attention to the problems as well as the progress – let’s see a real-time report card of how the VA is shaping up and (finger’s crossed) celebrate the positive changes being implemented.
But the end of this series is about Rhode Island’s Veterans Affairs. The Division needs to go through it’s own metamorphosis and today, we’ll explore two seldom discussed obstacles it will need to tackle to get there.
ONE: Inter-Generational Collaboration
About half of the 72,000+ veterans in the state of Rhode Island are over the age of 65. Who are these vets? Check out the infograph:
As reported by the Providence Journal (May 22, 2015)
While some veterans who served in Vietnam are a bit younger, many are 65 or older. And when talking about veterans, the era you served in matters. The obvious difference is how these veterans were received during their transition home; the starkest contrasts are between WWII, Vietnam, and Post-9/11 Vets. WWII veterans came home to parades while Vietnam veterans were faced with protests. Post-9/11 veterans are received with some fanfare, along with Yellow Ribbon bumper stickers and interesting “thank you” hand gestures. These differences have had a lasting impact on how these veterans see themselves and other-era vets.
Another huge difference is the level of participation in traditional veterans’ organizations. Older veterans comprise the majority of organizations like the VFW and American Legion – important groups that have been struggling to attract younger veterans (there are exceptions). This highlights the evolving way that veterans connect and what they view as useful as they come home.
Bottom Line: The Division will have to invest time and energy into developing not only a robust digital media platform, but strengthening inter-generational relationships with engaging, purpose driven programs.
TWO: Redefining the Veteran Identity
Veterans of The Mission Continues, Photo by Stephen Bevacqua
The first time I came home to Bristol, I wrestled with the title, “veteran.” While doing outreach in Boston, I learned I wasn’t alone. All veterans coming home have to answer the question: Who am I now? There are roughly three answers:
I’m a veteran living amongst civilians.
I’m a veteran and a civilian.
I’m a civilian – forget about the veteran stuff.
Understanding what informs these different ways vets identify is crucially important to not only their successful transition but also creating a strong, vibrant veteran community in our state. The less someone identifies as a veteran, the harder it is to find them. And you have to identify and engage veterans before you can empower them. Ask any Veterans Service Officer or student veteran who’s attempting to organize – they’ll tell you that attracting veterans en masse is difficult. But here’s a shout out to a few organizations I think are getting it right and broadening the veteran identity: Team Rubicon, The Mission Continues, and The 6th Branch.
Bottom Line: The Division will have to rally around an outreach message that resonates with folks who don’t necessarily think of themselves as veterans first but who would jump at the chance to serve a greater good.
The challenges we see at the federal level are daunting. But in Rhode Island, there are plenty of readily accessible opportunities to improve the lives of veterans and our community. From accelerating the transition process for new veterans to completely reshaping the way we do outreach, the next decade has the potential to be an exciting time to be a veteran in Rhode Island. The biggest risk our state takes is in not seizing this moment. My challenge to our leaders this Fall: shake things up and make some waves.
This is the last of a 3-part series covering veterans affairs in Rhode Island: Part One | Part Two
Want to be the new Director of the Division of Veterans Affairs? Apply by November 6th!
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Veterans are fierce, persistent against all odds, and amazing leaders. Sure, not all veterans are the same, but a majority of vets are exceptional with whatever they pour their energy into, whether it’s fixing diesel engines or running a Fortune 100 company. A vision for the future of the Division of Veterans Affairs has to be equally bold. When I think “bold,” I think of Bobby Kennedy’s powerful declaration:
“There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why… I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?”
‘Why not?’ is like a mental palate cleanser, one that will suit us well. I’d invite you, for a moment, to forget everything you think you know about how things work in state government and even what you may believe about veterans – and let’s start with a clean slate.
This is the 2nd part of a three-part series on veteran’s affairs in RI.
First, let’s think about the people of the RI Division of Veterans Affairs, or the VetAffairs team as I’ll call them. The division has to be a lean team with some of the most dynamic, engaging, and creative Rhode Islanders around. They’d be beyond committed to veterans and their families and have a deep appreciation for everyone in the National Guard, Reserves, and Active Duty force who live in our state. You’d hear their enthusiasm and commitment in the tone of their voice, a warmth and sincerity as they talk about why they joined the VetAffairs team.
The organization would become agile, responsive, and super connected to every town and city in the state. If you’re a veteran, you’d know someone on the team or at least follow them on Twitter (yes, I said Twitter, @RIVeterans does exist). Above all else, the team would be facilitators, connectors, and community builders.
Second, services provided by the division need to match the pressing issues of our time. The Division can no longer be a resource hub; it must become a platform for human capital development. Its core competency will be taking the unique assets each veteran brings back to the state and leveraging this talent in the local economy to foster small businesses, cutting edge research, and new jobs. The veterans will do the heavy lifting, while the VetAffairs team will empower them by accelerating their transition to civilian life (see Part Three in the series, next week!).
The RI Department of Labor & Training and local non-profits in the state must realize a real-time, fluid collaboration with the VetAffairs team to synchronize veteran’s aspirations with mentors, leaders in business, technology, education, and healthcare. Veterans who graduate from Rhode Island universities will stay here, infusing local industry with a powerful combination of millennial entrepreneurship and veteran tenacity.
Embracing Rhode Island’s size, each one of the 72,000+ veterans of our state have to be brought to the table, to become solution designers and collaborators. Our focus is sometimes so strained on those who need assistance, the homeless or unemployed veteran, that we forget there are tens of thousands of veterans who are doing well in our state. For every veteran who is homeless in Rhode Island, there are 266 veterans with a place to call home. And for every veteran who’s unemployed, there are 16 that have a job. We need a charismatic team of expert communicators who can inspire a powerful veteran network of connectors and mentors. But why stop there? The success of a veteran’s transition can be multiplied by the success of the community around them. Remember the other 93.4% of Rhode Islanders who aren’t veterans. That’s a lot of personal and professional capital to jumpstart educational dreams, seed funding for startups, and long-term career planning for every vet who comes home to the Ocean State.
Why should we be so focused on accelerating a veterans’ transition from active duty? Over the next decade, millennials (post 9/11 veterans) will become 75 percent of the total workforce. Our success in harnessing their talent and leadership will directly impact the growth and health of our state’s economy as well as the long-term welfare of our veterans and their families. It’s also the quintessential preventive measure, nipping in the bud the negative consequences of a poor transition– negating many of the problems that typically consume media attention around veterans: strained mental health, unemployment, homelessness, etc. The Division of Veterans Affairs has the most crucial role to play in this preventative strategy, one that sets our veterans up for success and saves us all the costs of inaction or poor execution.
While there ought to be vigorous engagement with new veterans, older veterans are making a different, but hugely important transition too: retirement. Having worked as a psychologist with many veterans crossing this bridge, the significance and challenges of retirement cannot be underestimated. Most of these veterans can expect a complete reconfiguration of their lives, their identities, and changing health needs. Our primary responsibility to these veterans is assuring that those who are eligible and wish to receive their healthcare from the Providence VA Medical Center, get it reasonably quickly. The Providence VA has some of the most dedicated clinicians providing the highest quality care. The VetAffairs team must support a seamless enrollment process so vets can get that fantastic care. It starts by maintaining a strong, active collaboration with those who deliver healthcare to our veterans (Dr. MacKenzie, the Medical Center Director, and her entire staff).
Lastly, by 2017, the division will have an amazing home to offer nearly 200 older veterans. The new and improved Rhode Island Veterans Home promises to be one of the best assisted-living facilities for veterans in the nation. Yet, we need to go beyond offering veterans a state of the art residence. We need to offer the Rhode Island community a new cultural center.
I grew up on Roosevelt Drive in Bristol, a street that runs beside the Veterans Home. And even so, when I think of ‘veterans’ I don’t picture the Veterans Home. Instead, I think of the vets marching in formation or sitting on the back of slick, classic corvettes during the Bristol 4th of July Parade. After investing $94 million into the home’s revitalization, part of it should be a gathering place where our state’s rich military history is not only told with engraved stones and markers, but by the people who actually lived it. Let’s create a convening space where our World War II, Korea, and Vietnam veterans are invited to share their stories and maintain a vibrant connection to the life of the Bristol community and broader state. Let’s showcase our deep naval roots and sea faring heritage. Let’s not, as a WWII resident at the Veterans Home recently cautioned, lose all of that history.
Some will read this article and think it unrealistic. There’s plenty of cynicism to go around these days, especially about what government can do – and the Division of Veterans Affairs is part of state government. But I’ve never bought into the cynicism. If there is any part of government that has the potential to deserve your trust and confidence, it is the VetAffairs team – comprised of veterans empowering veterans, a rock solid recipe for efficiency, accountability, and tremendous social impact. Rhode Island is positioned to lead the nation in fast tracking its veterans’ success. Let’s get it done.
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It only took about 5-years (or 125 years1), but Rhode Island veterans are finally getting a director for the Division of Veterans Affairs! Thank you, Governor Raimondo.
Applications are due November 6th. As veterans submit their resumes over the next few weeks, we’ll explore the state of veterans’ affairs, a vision for the future of the agency, and finally how we get there. Let’s start with some back-story.
I’m a fan of putting things into context and the mission (or future mission) of the Veterans Affairs Division ought to be placed in three different contexts: the national defense, the role of veterans in society, and the relationship between veterans and non-veterans.
The Division of Veterans Affairs is our state’s response to the challenges that veterans of any era face after their service. Given that the core purpose of government is the protection of life (e.g. the national defense) and our citizens who serve in the military provide that protection, it’s relatively unquestionable (today) that we offer unique services and benefits to them for their equally unique contribution to our society. The benefits and funding for them come mostly from the Feds. The state, being closer to its people (and hopefully less difficult to navigate), plug veterans into the right Federal resources. The state also provides an assisted living facility in my hometown of Bristol as well as burial in a Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Exeter.
You may be surprised, but providing benefits to veterans wasn’t always a given. Take for example President Coolidge, who in 1924 vetoed a bill granting bonuses2 to WWI vets, saying, “Patriotism… bought and paid for is not patriotism.” Or how about the Continental Army which was not paid back and stormed the U.S. Congress in Philadelphia to get it. They were ironically ‘expelled’ from the nation’s capital by the U.S. Army as were WWI veterans in 1932.
Being a post-9/11 veteran, I never experienced such shenanigans after my time in the Marine Corps and Navy. And I attribute my ability to pay for a college education to the Montgomery GI Bill and ability to purchase my first home to the VA Loan Guaranty. I’m obviously biased, but I believe we should make much larger investments in our veterans for a million reasons. Here’s the historical rationale:
A moral obligation to those who voluntarily sacrifice a piece of their liberty and risk their lives for our protection,
An incentive to forego private sector wages and join an all-volunteer force, and lastly,
To ease the impact of reintegration post-service on veterans and consequently, the larger society.
The last rationale leads us to the second context informing the veterans affairs division character: the role of veterans in our society. Exceptional veterans help create vibrant communities. After World War II, the reintegration of American GI’s (12 percent of the U.S. population) was accelerated with the G.I. Bill, leading to a “major contribution to America’s stock of human capital and long-term economic growth.”3 The strength of the middle class was never greater and veterans were a key part of this achievement. Why? It was likely a combination of their tenacity and the educational, housing, and medical benefits that supported their transformation into economic engines and community leaders.
On the character building front, military service provides a foundation for most veterans to become successful entrepreneurs, executives and leaders. The next time you drop off a box at FedEx, thank the attendant by saying, “Semper Fi” (Latin for “Always Faithful”, the Marines motto). Two years after completing his Marine Corps service in Vietnam with a Silver Star, Bronze Star, and two Purple Hearts, Frederick Smith founded FedEx – the first overnight express delivery company and largest in the world! There are thousands of success stories where veterans leveraged their unique grit, perseverance, and leadership agility to breathe life into local communities and even national economies. The key has been a dynamic transition path, supported by friends, family, community – and strong veterans’ benefits.
The last context for understanding the mission of the veterans affairs division involves the relationship between veterans and the other 93.4% of Rhode Islanders. If you’re a veteran or if your daughter is on active duty, veterans’ issues are dining room table issues. They are issues that you’re passionate about and that influence your vote. The Division of Veterans Affairs is not immune to the presence of political will and budget priorities. Case in point: The director position was originally created in 2011, but not funded until our current governor came into office and made it a priority.
A big piece of the division’s mission will be expanded or constrained by the degree that Rhode Islanders are engaged. This will increasingly become a national challenge. For over 40 years, the draft has been off the table and with it, a broad-based visceral connection to the issues of those who served. The challenge of this disconnect is summed up well by a quote given to Linda Borg of the Providence Journal earlier this year.
Robert Hamel, 90, is a World War II and Korean War veteran from Warwick. He wonders “why more people aren’t interested in hearing his colleagues’ stories. ‘We got fellas here who served with General [George] Patton [in World War II]. We’re going to be gone in a couple of years. We’re going to lose all of that history.’”4
I say, let’s not allow those stories to disappear with the tides of time. Let’s be motivated by their heroism and sacrifice to envision real, tangible ways to partner with our veterans and make things happen. There is no greater responsibility of government than to protect its citizens, and there is no greater honor than in empowering those that defend our nation to excel after their service.
Our collective responsibility as citizens of Rhode Island is not only to recognize the utility of building a best-in-class transition path for our vets, but to create at least a small space in our hectic lives to connect emotionally and viscerally to the reality of their service. Creating this connection will be a crucially important task of the newly minted director. It will serve as the foundation to tackle some hefty challenges our veterans face, linking veterans with veterans, and a community with itself.
This is part one of a three part series. Next week we will explore the future of veterans affairs in Rhode Island.
_______ 1 The “Rhode Island Soldiers’ Home” was established in 1890 and is technically under the purview of the Division of Veterans Affairs. 2 War-time military bonuses began in 1776 and were a payment for the difference between what a solider earned and what they could have had they not enlisted. 3 Suzanne M. (2005). Soldiers to citizens: The GI Bill and the making of the greatest generation. 4 Borg, L. (May 22, 2015). Ground broken on new $94-million veterans home in Bristol. RI: Providence Journal.
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About a dozen members of RIAC (Rhode Island Antiwar Coalition) protested outside Rhode Island Hospital in Providence Friday evening against the Kunduz hospital bombing that claimed the lives of patients and medical staff, including members of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders).
RIAC notes that President Barack Obama has the singular honor of being the first Nobel Peace laureate to bomb another Nobel Peace laureate. The protest is being held on the same day as the announcement of the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize, and is aligned with other protests on the hospital bombing nationwide organized by Voices for Creative Nonviolence.
According to their press release, “RIAC calls for an end to bombing in Afghanistan and notes that the bombing of the hospital is probably a war crime. Obama, who was elected president in 2008 as the beneficiary of calls to stop these needless war deaths, bears command responsibility as commander-in-chief for the procedures in place that allowed this to happen even though he wasn’t personally the one who called for the airstrike.
“This protest is not directed against Rhode Island Hospital. The point is that bombing a functioning hospital, destroying it and killing patients and doctors, is obviously the wrong thing to do. Military strikes in countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia should be ended immediately.”
RIAC further notes that, “After the hospital bombing, Rhode Island’s Senator Jack Reed tentatively suggested changing the war plans so that more troops would continue fighting in Afghanistan.”
Passersby were generally favorable to RIACs message, honking horns in solidarity or making comments from their cars.
[Parts of this report is from a RIAC press release.]
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Dr. Jason Heap (“Jase”), executive director of the United Coalition of Reason (United CoR), “one of the largest nontheist organizations in North America,” spoke to a combined meeting with members of the Rhode Island Atheists, the Humanists of Rhode Island and others about both the group he leads and his pending court case against the United States government regarding Humanist chaplains in the United States military. Jase’s message drew on the influences of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as he emphasized unity without uniformity and celebrated nontheistic diversity.
As the case is pending, Jase could only speak in generalities about the lawsuit, and there were many questions he could not answer. A Huffington Post piece from last year explains that Jase, endorsed and certified by the Humanist Society as a chaplain and a celebrant, “is challenging both the U.S. Navy and the Department of Defense for not recognizing the group as an endorser of chaplain candidates.”
Jase’s academic credentials are impeccable. He has a BA from Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas, with double majors in philosophy and theology; a Masters of Divinity from Brite Divinity School- Texas Christian University; an MSt in history and religion from The University of Oxford, and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) with Qualified Teacher Status from Sheffield Hallam University in England. Jase has also completed a Doctor of Education degree with a specialization in administrator leadership for teaching and learning.
The suit Heap filed states that Heap’s “qualifications and experience far exceed the standards articulated by the Navy for accepting applicants… The Navy denied his application because of his Humanist beliefs.” According to the lawsuit, the Navy “does not consider Humanism to be a religion.”
For many, myself included, Humanism is not a religion, but a moral worldview that takes the place of religion. Time and again, however, the courts have ruled that Humanism and atheism are protected under the conscience clause of the First Amendment, just as religion is.
Though Jase was constrained in his talk about his lawsuit, he was fully able to talk about his role as the executive director of United CoR. United CoR works to build local coalitions of non theistic groups. Here in Rhode Island seven non theistic groups have banded together as the Rhode Island Coalition of Reason (RICoR). The efforts of this group, under the leadership of Coordinator Dr. Tony Houston, lead to both the billboard in South County and the RIPTA bus ads that sported the “Godless? So Are We!” slogan last winter.
With Jase as Executive Director, United CoR has begun to do more than simply offer a web presence and billboards. United CoR is now helping local groups succeed with educational opportunities, speaker engagements, and event promotion. UnitedCoR is also making new efforts to connect with community partners, both at local and national levels, for the benefit of the 80+ local coalitions.
Jase spoke also of Rhode Island’s leadership in establishing the first government in history where church and state were separated. Earlier in the day he had explored Touro Synagogue in Newport, an important site in the history of religious freedom in our state.
“I have always had a certain fascination for Roger Williams and respect for the historical contribution of Rhode Island, ever since I took a History of Baptist course from the late Rev. Dr. H. Leon McBeth at Brite Divinity School,” said Jase. “Williams’ 1644 work, The Bloudy Tenet of Persecution, speaks volumes in current American religious discourse when he stated, ‘all civil states, with their officers of justice in their respective constitutions and administrations, are proved essentially civil, and therefore not judges, governors, or defenders of the spiritual or Christian state and worship.’”
One last bit of exciting news: When Jase learned of my effort to raise money via GoFundMe to cover the visit of Pope Francis to the United States in September, what I called “Send an Atheist to cover the Pope,” he offered United CoR matching funds of $250 for the next $250 worth of donations. People who contribute now can double their investment in democratic journalism.
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About a dozen members of RIAC (Rhode Island Antiwar Coalition) protested outside Rhode Island Hospital in Providence Friday evening against the Kunduz hospital bombing that claimed the lives of patients and medical staff, including members of 
“This protest is not directed against Rhode Island Hospital. The point is that bombing a functioning hospital, destroying it and killing patients and doctors, is obviously the wrong thing to do. Military strikes in countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia should be ended immediately.”
