Fortress America: The American Military and the Consequences of Peace

by William Greider

Book Overview

"William Greider, one of America's most respected political and economic journalists, explores how and why America has avoided coming to terms with the end of the Cold War era--and the troubling... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1891620096
• ISBN13: 9781891620096
• Release Date: November 1998
• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• Length: 202 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

How We Got Here

In 200 startling pages, William Gireder tells America how our insatiable appetite for all things military has led us into a national dilemma, the economic and global implications of which are frightening.Grieder's 'wake up call' details a bloated military industrial machine which has consumed much of our national wealth, and now has nowhere to direct its massive inventories.Greider examines the political, social and economic effects from the perspectives of generals, line workers and politicians alike. The book has an excellent read, which will hold your interest through every paragraph. You will not be tempted to sigh and page ahead.Grieder tells us how we got here, and offers a thesis to explain the current administration's obsession with finding a new boogey man to justify the continued propping up of a military industrial complex whose utlity expired along with the threat it geared up to face for decades - the Soviet Union.

Surprisingly lnsightful Expose of Our Military Conundrum!

As a recent refugee from a career spent as a civilian `foot soldier' in the midst of the military's war against itself that Greider describes in this book, it is interesting and surprising that someone so singularly uninvolved with this country's long-term weapon acquisition system can catch so precisely the malady that confronts us. Greider's analysis captures the horns on which the dilemma is caught quite well, although I must admit to being disappointed to notice he downplays the way in which rampant military careerism plays into this disastrous recent history of misappropriation and wasting of billions of dollars in military funding. Officers are so intent on practicing self-advancement that they confuse personal success with accomplishing the mission. Thus, when forced to decide between making difficult decisions regarding allowing troubled acquisition programs to proceed, they invariably choose to paper over the problems so as to substantially enhance their own chances of getting promoted and moved to their next assignment before the deck of cards fall for their successor. The successor must then ask the contractor to help him rebuild the deck of cards, which means the military inevitably become ethically and legally compromised fellow-travelers in the nonperformance and endless technical shortcomings the contractor incurs. In short, they lose their effective management by unwitting or unethical collusion with contractors who deliberately underbid for contracts knowing they will never have to produce a contract meeting the stated competitive requirements because of the insidious and self-defeating corruption within the professional military acquisition corps. Also, Greider's take on the way in which short-term tactical thinking is endangering the long-term force readiness is illuminating. The truth of the matter is that one does much better assuming the reasons we buy certain weapon systems in various numbers has more to do with Congressional prerogatives and rampant corruption than it does with any sort of objective force structure analysis. Contractors bypass the military by influencing Congressional representatives and their staffers. Thus, even if a military program manager does attempt to steer the straight and narrow course by trying to force the contractor to conform to contract requirements, he often finds himself outgunned and outmaneuvered by Contractors influencing his superiors and other federal officials. Another way in which the current crisis manifests itself is through the militarization of civil service responsibilities, under which hundreds of thousands of Department of Defense civilians (most citizens do not realize that over ninety percent of all federal downsizing since 1990 has been accomplished within the several services comprising the DOD) have been laid off or forced out in favor of contracting the work out to contractors (read retiring military officers here) who will confor

Surprisingly lnsightful Expose of Our Military Conundrum!

As a recent refugee from a career spent as a civilian `foot soldier' in the midst of the military's war against itself that Greider describes in this book, it is interesting and surprising that someone so singularly uninvolved with this country's long-term weapon acquisition system can catch so precisely the malady that confronts us. Greider's analysis captures the horns on which the dilemma is caught quite well, although I must admit to being disappointed to notice he downplays the way in which rampant military careerism plays into this disastrous recent history of misappropriation and wasting of billions of dollars in military funding. Officers are so intent on practicing self-advancement that they confuse personal success with accomplishing the mission. Thus, when forced to decide between making difficult decisions regarding allowing troubled acquisition programs to proceed, they invariably choose to paper over the problems so as to substantially enhance their own chances of getting promoted and moved to their next assignment before the deck of cards fall for their successor. The sucessor must then ask the contractor to help him rebuild the deck of cards, which means the military inevitably become ethically and legally compromised fellow-travelers in the nonperformance and endless technical shortcomings the contractor incurs. In short, they lose thier effective management by unwitting or unethical collusion with contractors who deliberately underbid for contracts knowing they will never have to produce a contract meeting the stated competitive requirements because of the insidious and self-defeating corruption within the professional military acquisition corps. Also, Greider's take on the way in which short-term tactical thinking is endangering the long-term force readiness is illuminating. The truth of the matter is that one does much better assuming the reasons we buy certain weapon systems in various numbers has more to do with Congressional prerogatives and rampant corruption than it does with any sort of objective force structure analysis. Contractors bypass the military by influencing Congressional representatives and their staffers. Thus, even if a military program manager does attempt to steer the straight and narrow course by trying to force the contractor to conform to contract requirements, he often finds himself outgunned and outmaneuvered by Contractors influencing his superiors and other federal officials. Another way in which the current crisis manifests itself is through the militarization of civil service responsibilities, under which hundreds of thousands of Department of Defense civilians (most citizens do not realize that over ninety percent of all federal downsizing since 1990 has been accomplished within the several services comprising the DOD) have been laid off or forced out in favor of contracting the work out to contractors (read retiring military officers here) who will conform

BREAK THE IRON TRIANGLE

Congress must be made to know that this vast military spendingmust be hewn down. The current "defense" spending is notabout making us a secure nation but about keeping the corporate welfare hogs...LockMartin, Northrop-Grumman, Boeing, Raytheon, and others pacified and happy. Mr. Greider shows us the overall picture of this collision of corporate-military-legislative arena in FORTRESS AMERICA. Is there anyone else out there who feels that $300 billion dollars can be spent somewhere else?

A good book on the United States current militay

This book gives in good detail how are militay funding is being spent. This tells the stories from the army to the Air force on the military spending and budget. This is a good book to read if you are interested in the United States military and it's issues.