Secrecy in the so-called National Security State is a joke. It is used more as a means to cover-up errors by those in power then it is to protect those things that properly constitute state secrets. The unfortunate rubric of "National Security" is used indiscriminately to cover everything from flag officer's tee times to ICBM launch codes.
It is also used to cover-up billions of dollars spent on ineffective, even dangerous weapons systems. The current marquee exhibit for this is the Air Force's top of the line F-22A Raptor fighter jet, whose dangerous oxygen generation system for its pilots was featured on CBS-TV's 60 Minutes a few weeks ago. Whistleblowing pilots only felt safe to come forward after receiving guarantees of protection from members of Congress, despite the fact the system in question is the primary suspect in several F-22A crashes. No one in the Pentagon's hierarchy wants to ground the F-22A until the problem is actually fixed, not when it already has a reputation for excessive maintenance requirements, on top of a price tag of nearly one-quarter of a billion dollars per aircraft. So the cover-up is on.
Our greatest governmental failure has been to trust individuals who hide their criminality behind a faux shield of patriotism defending our country, while insisting there is no need for a system of checks and balances to insure that trust is well placed. Even conservative icon President Ronald Reagan knew that one must, "Trust, but verify."
The F-22A Raptor's many problems, of which the oxygen generation system is only the latest, is emblematic of Pentagon and other segments of the National Security State's costly failures over the last thirty years. For every success story like the M-1 Abrams Tank and F-15 Eagle, there are several acquisition disasters like the M-2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle's and VH-22 Osprey's that only work after years of modifications, as well as several Sergeant York AA tanks and B-1 bombers that never work correctly. The difference between the successful designs and the failures seem to be that the successes are created by individuals or design staffs to do only one thing, and that one thing very well. They often do that thing so well, that they can be used for purposes they aren't designed for with little modification.
In the era of the Cold War and the mindless terror of Mutually Assured Destruction by thermonuclear weapons that could raze a city and kill millions in microseconds, we have forgotten the warnings of James Madison who, with Thomas Jefferson, was both the brains of the American Experiment, and its most prescient oracle.
President Madison made two observations about a standing military. The first was "The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home." The second was that, "A standing army is one of the greatest mischief that can possibly happen."
We have become even more mindless in our fear on the subject of terrorism, than we ever were about thermonuclear war. Even the most necessary of cuts of our military cannot be proposed without scorn and openly expressed horror. Yet until September 11, 2001, the worst acts of terror in American history were perpetrated not by foreign nationals, but by right-wing extremists like Timothy McVey. Our Department of Homeland Security is far more adept at squashing dissent, especially by left-wing protesters, than they are at preventing foreign terrorists from attacking. The latter is a function most effectively done outside the country under the purview of the military and the CIA, not within our borders at the last minute.
" The proposed Constitution . . . is, in strictness, neither a national nor a federal constitution; but a composition of both."
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