Middleboro Review 2: BREAKING: Pentagon set to buy 375 F-35 fighter jets that can’t fly

Sunday, August 14, 2022

BREAKING: Pentagon set to buy 375 F-35 fighter jets that can’t fly

The non-partisan GAO recently found that, “an increasing number of F-35s have not been able to fly because they don't have a working engine.”

Win Without War doesn’t have an aerospace engineer on staff, but we’re pretty sure a working engine is an integral part of a plane. So it’s mind boggling that the Pentagon recently announced a new deal to spend $30 BILLION more on another 375 F-35s.

Why is our government so committed to a flawed plane? Well, it might be a coincidence, but over the last 20 years the weapons industry has spent $285 million in political donations and $2.5 BILLION on lobbying to gain influence. What’s more, last summer an investigation found that at least 47 members of Congress or their spouses hold stock in weapons corporations.

Let’s break that down: Taxpayer money is redistributed to weapons corporations by the same people cashing checks from the weapons lobby. It’s corruption, plain and simple — and when you’re talking about weapons and war, the consequences are life or death.

Not many are willing to go up against the enormous influence of a half-a-trillion dollar industry and their lobbyists, but that’s what Win Without War is built to do. This fall, we’re facing a slew of crucial fights to push back on the Pentagon budget and stop a weapons and war spending spree. It’s all coming to a head in the next few weeks, and we need you with us along the way.

We’re not a movement of billionaire war profiteers; Win Without War’s work is fueled by grassroots supporters like you. We know this is a tough time financially for many people. But if you can, will you chip in $15 now to help stop the multi-billion dollar weapons dealer payouts?

This year, key committees across the House and Senate voted to add F-35s above and beyond the Pentagon’s request during the debate on the National Defense Authorization Act. But it’s not just fighter jets – this sort of corruption spans from sky to sea.

Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, just unveiled a new push to spend BILLIONS more on boats that the president didn't request, that weren’t authorized by Congress, and that the Navy’s top admiral doesn’t even want.

It’s the same Senator Shelby who has personally raked in over $3.5 million in campaign donations from weapons contractors and their lobbyists over the years, including from — you guessed it — General Dynamics and Huntington Ingalls, the companies who make the unnecessary destroyers these extra billions would fund.

Shelby would argue that these payouts mean jobs for his home state, but that’s a lie, and one the weapons industry has sold us for too long. The reality is spending on weapons and war creates FEWER jobs than if the same amount of money was invested in other sectors.

Winslow Wheeler, a former Senate aide who also served as an assistant director at the Government Accountability Office, called Shelby’s actions, “a profoundly corrupt, but technically legal, DOD funding system.”

Because of this corruption, the average taxpayer paid $929 to Pentagon contractors last year. And if you’re sick and tired of your resources being wasted on warships and funding failed fighter jets, we need you with us — because Win Without War is determined to turn the status quo around.

This is a massive uphill battle, but we are better positioned than ever to build power and win. When your donation is combined with hundreds of others, it amounts to a huge sum — and it makes an enormous difference as we use every tool we’ve got to block the bloated Pentagon budget and get our priorities in order. Can you chip in $15 today?

Right now, the United States is the largest exporter of war. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Our work to push back on this reckless spending spree is heating up; please join us.

Thank you for working for peace,

Stephen, Abbey, Eric, and the Win Without War team