Take On the Talking Heads
Corrupt Patriotism
by Garry Wills
April 20, 2000 -- The experimental airplane-helicopter known as the Osprey crashed last week, killing 19 Marines. Surprise, surprise. It was the third crash for this expensive ($60 million a pop) aircraft. The first crash cost the lives of seven Marines. How many more must die before this bad idea goes away?
This was a weapon the Pentagon did not want. In 1992, the secretary of the Navy, Sean O'Keefe, told Congress it was not a sound investment. But congressmen, led by the Republican from Pennsylvania, Curt Weldon, wanted it very much. As tends to happen with new technologies in which its sponsors have large personal stakes, tests of the Osprey have been aimed more at making the product look good than at proving its real battle-readiness. In the 18 years that have gone into its development, both the Pentagon and the General Accounting Office have accused the weapon's developers of testing it in unrealistic or artificial conditions.
Why this pursuit of an expensive thing the military itself does not want? The Osprey carries 20 Marines at most -- hardly a fighting unit. O'Keefe says it is simply "a bus to bring 20 people from ship to shore." But a wish list of Congress differs from that of the Pentagon. Where the latter sees battle and casualties, the former looks at dollars and jobs. The Osprey is a milch cow for the politicians. The principal developers of the craft are the Boeing helicopter division in Pennsylvania and Bell Helicopter Textron in Texas. Both firms have been major soft-money donors to both parties.
But the programs have many ways of buying politicians, entirely aside from donations. Components of this product are being developed in 40 states, offering high-tech jobs and facilities to constituents of the congressmen from those states. Is this the most efficient way to develop a system? Of course not. But it is efficient at lining up sponsors for the project on Capitol Hill.
And the leverage does not stop at financial enticements. Superpatriotism has been enlisted, too. Rep. Weldon boasts that he has drawn on support from the ex-Marine organization in Congress and from the retired Marine reserve officers association. Pride in the Corps and professions of service to the country are invoked. If you are going to have a corrupt project, it looks better to make it patriotic corruption.
When Republicans profess a desire to reduce government expenditures, it is a grisly joke to see them throwing away money and lives on a technological gamble that military and accounting agencies have opposed from the outset. What we need is a flying bus to ferry some of these congressmen out of Washington and back to their home states. That would truly promote the national defense they have been invoking as a cover for their own nest lining.
Copyright © 2000 Universal Press Syndicate
