Chris Powell: Murphy smears the Conn. ‘war industry’
Electric Boat’s submarine-construction facility in Groton, Conn.
MANCHESTER, Conn.
To hear Connecticut U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy tell it, President Trump dispatched Air Force bombers and Navy submarines to destroy Iran's nuclear bomb-making facilities because the “war industry" is so influential in Washington.
On the leftist-leaning MSNBC cable television network the other day, the senator agreed with his interviewer's suggestion that there was a big gap between the opinion of Democratic members of Congress and the opinion of ordinary Democrats about the attack on Iran, with Democrats in Congress far less opposed to it than ordinary party members.
“There is a war industry in this town," Murphy said of Washington. “There’s a lot of people who make money off war. The military -- I love them, they're capable -- but they are always overly optimistic about what they can do. ... The war industry spends a lot of money here in Washington telling us that the guns and the tanks and the planes can solve all our problems."
“All our problems"? That was hyperbole worthy of President Trump.
Of course there is a "military-industrial complex," as President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned as he left office in January 1961. But it just wants its products to be manufactured and purchased by the government and cares little about whether they are actually used.
Contrary to Murphy's suggestion, Trump didn't consult military contractors about attacking Iran. The president may have had mixed motives, including bad ones -- such as the desire to be seen as a tough guy and war leader decades after evading the military draft -- but pleasing the “war industry" wasn't one of them.
While Eisenhower's remark long has been construed as scorn for military contractors, he actually acknowledged their necessity. He had been a general of the Army when the United States found itself badly unprepared for the world war into which it was dragged in December 1941.
On reflection Eisenhower said: “Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action. ... We can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense. We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. … This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. ... Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. ... In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex."
The “war industry" that Senator Murphy accuses of complicity in Trump's attack on Iran includes jet-engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney in East Hartford and Middletown, for which 1st District U.S. Rep. John B. Larson is always cheerleading. It includes nuclear-submarine maker Electric Boat in Groton, for which 2nd District U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney spends much time supplicating. And it includes Sikorsky Aircraft in Stratford, whose fortunes are guarded by 3rd District U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro.
In turn, Pratt is a subsidiary of Raytheon, EB a subsidiary of General Dynamics, and Sikorsky a subsidiary of Lockheed-Martin, all giants of military contracting.
Yet Larson, Courtney and DeLauro, all Democrats like Murphy, quickly expressed opposition to Trump's attack on Iran. While they also voted against impeaching the president for the attack, their voting to impeach Trump for disregarding the War Powers Act when they had condoned similar violations by Democratic presidents might have seemed hypocritical.
Serious journalists might ask Murphy if his Democratic colleagues in Connecticut, so supportive of the military contractors in their districts, are tools of the ‘war industry" he thinks induced the president to attack Iran.
Eisenhower was right. As totalitarian nations pursue ever-more devastating weapons, the United States needs to keep ahead of them, even if this country doesn't need as many nuclear warheads as it has. Whether and how to use those weapons will always be a matter of judgment for elected officials.
By scapegoating military contractors to gain more approval on the far left, Murphy showed his lack of judgment and exceeded Trump's own posturing and demagoguery.
Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics for many years (CPowell@cox.net).