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"The COVID-19 crisis has revealed that decades of funneling trillions of dollars into the Pentagon while gutting critical social services, including public health measures, has made us less safe, not more," said executive director of Win Without War, Stephen Miles.
Providing more money to the Pentagon's already colossal budget this year would be inappropriate in the context of a pandemic that is ravaging the United States and the entire world, a letter sent Wednesday by more than 60 organizations to the U.S. Congress said.
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"The COVID-19 crisis has revealed that decades of funneling trillions of dollars into the Pentagon while gutting critical social services, including public health measures, has made us less safe, not more," said executive director of Win Without War, Stephen Miles, in a statement.
Win Without War started the letter, which is signed by various organizations including CODEPINK, the Friends Committee on National legislation, Indivisible, Social Security Works, and Veterans For Peace.
"With the additional (U.S.)$10.4 billion provided to the Pentagon as part of the Phase III package, the Pentagon's Fiscal Year (F.Y.) 2020 appropriated funding now totals over $756 billion and provides more than enough resources to respond to the pandemic," the letter states.
In their message, the groups described what they see as incomprehensible funding priorities.
"Over half of all spending appropriated by Congress annually goes to the Pentagon, leaving other federal agencies to compete with one another for scarce resources," they noted.
"In this context, the United States has chronically underfunded human and environmental needs while, particularly in recent years, passing historically high Pentagon budgets that foster militarism, enable endless war, engender waste, and sow corruption," they denounced, providing eloquent examples to support their statements.
"The combined annual budgets of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute of Health and the annual U.S. contributions to the World Health Organization together equal just seven percent of the annual Pentagon budget."
The Department of Defense (DoD) should look at savings resulting from a slowdown in arms production instead of looking for more cash, the groups wrote.
"Given the steep drop in the price of oil, the Pentagon, as the world's largest purchaser of oil, stands to save billions," it said.
Some say that in the long term, the Pentagon could save hundreds of billions of dollars by ending wars, reforming defense contracting, right-sizing the military services, scaling back or forgoing the purchase of legacy weapons systems, and closing overseas bases. Apart from the savings, these steps would also bring more security and stability in the world.
"If taxpayers are being asked to adjust their budgets, surely the recipient of three-quarters of a trillion of our tax dollars can be asked to do the same," the organizations said.
"We urge you to focus your attention on the national pandemic response and economic relief for people across the United States rather than providing more money for the Pentagon's already overflowing coffers."
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