Stocks Rise for Defense Contractors

by Frieda Gardner, WAMM

To no one's surprise, the Bush administration has put its weight behind a National Missile Defense (NMD) system. On May Day, 2001, the president promised a huge package of military goodies to defense contractors all over the country. And he defended the project not with stern talk about an impenetrable shield guarding our citizens, but in an amiable, relaxed, frat-boy style that emphasized his pragmatism and flexibility. The word "pinpoint" did not appear in his speech.

The NMD will provide "limited but effective defenses." We aren't going to pin ourselves down to stationary launching sites either; our anti-missiles will travel the seas, ready to strike when trouble is near. What's more, NMD will function only as part of what Bush called a "layered system," which will include existing technology as well as untested high-tech items like "space-based lasers."

"Layers," unlike "lasers," is such a comforting term. And Bush tried to reassure. Because not only are we going to layer up, we're also going to strip down our old-fashioned nuclear arsenal to 3000--maybe even 2000--warheads. Forget that relic, the crazy old Cold War. Hey! We're going to disarm while we re-arm. And Russia, Vladimir Putin having put his objections to one side for the moment, might become our ally.

OK. So there are problems Bush neglected to point out: All those tests the NMD has failed. The 1972 Anti-Ballistic Weapons Treaty we'll need to abrogate. Those potential terrorists who might simply walk into the country with a suitcase full of bombs or germs. The incredible expense, especially considering the huge proposed tax cut. (But not yet . . . this year, we're only asking for a "supplementary" six or eight billion dollars. And listen: Is $310.5 billion for fiscal 2002 that much, considering the benefits?) Our allies' fears of global destabilization and yet another form of arms race. We've thought of that. At this very moment, high-level representatives are traveling all over Europe and Asia, using exotic phrases like "multimegawatt oxygen-iodine lasers," which we're going to attach to good old Boeing 747s!

Bush used the word "new" four times in the excerpt I read: "new policy," "new concepts," "new framework," "new ways of thinking." But the same old news comes across clearly: The American Empire is taking care of its far-flung business. We've got the right ideas, lots of money, and the muscle to do what we want. Vice President Cheney and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, from behind Bush's throne, speak coolly and without fuss. Cheney says, "There are still regions of the world that are strategically vital to us, where we care very much about whether or not they're dominated by a power hostile to our interests." Rumsfeld, still hard at work on the latest versions of our new defense "posture," claims the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty is "ancient history."

It remains to be seen what effects NMD and the "new" armed forces will have on the relatively modest Minnesota defense industry. We are ranked 24th on the list of states, with $1.7 billion sent our way in the year 2000 and 4000 jobs (half of them high-skill, high-wage). Compared to first-ranked California at $17.4 billion, Minnesota's share of defense contracts seems small, but it is poised to grow.

Alliant Techsystems, now in Maple Grove, is working on a two-barreled, computerized Objective Individual Combat Weapon (OICW), slated to replace "regular," less precise, combat rifles. A division of Lockheed Martin in Eagan produces surveillance systems and work stations for submarines, aircraft, and ships.

United Defense Systems of Fridley makes all kinds of advanced weapons, including the Crusader, a "high-tech artillery system," which looks very much like a gigantic tank. The Crusader, designed to hit targets 35 miles away at ten rounds a minute, is under scrutiny by one of Rumsfeld's advisory panels as too slow. But scrutiny or no, all these companies have seen their stock rise in the months since Bush took office. The good news has arrived for these corporations; increased "lethality" is but one of the deadly goals of the "new" and soon-to-be-expanded defense world.

So, in addition to working against the NMD on a national level, we need to begin thinking locally how best to protest the "lethality" of the arms industry in Minnesota, which will include some scrutiny of our new senator, Mark Dayton, who now sits on the powerful Armed Services Committee.

Sources for this article included the New York Times, the Star Tribune, the National Priorities Project's "State of the States, 2000," The New Yorker, Mary Shepard, and Marv Davidov.

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