Before I gripe about Mark Shields Friday appearance on the PBS Newshour in another post, I want to point out that the same hour included the first of three segments on (gasp! choke!) war profiteering. They don't use that phrase. Too old-fashioned, I guess. But it's a good piece: Defense Department Examines Body Armor 09/21/2007.
The segment even included an interview with someone from the Center for Defense Information, a watchdog group that monitors defense spending with a critical eye for boondoggles. Of which there are plenty.
Rolling Stone magazine ran an article on Iraq War corruption called The Great Iraq Rip-off 08/23/07. The current (10/04/07) print issue has a piece called "The Truth About Missile Defense" by Jack Hitt, which is apparently not online as of this writing.
Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone appears in a recent interview on Antiwar.com talking about the massive corruption in the Pentagon's Iraq contracting, one subject that has been attracting a notable bit of press attention, if only because it was so big and blatant that it was impossible to totally ignore. (Caution: Taibbi has dissed Britney Spears pretty harshly so his judgment on some subjects is questionable.)
Let's hope this trend continues. Military spending needs to be debated in the context of redefining the overall mission of the US military. But these investigations of waste, questionable and outright corruption are a necessary part of that.
Tags: jack hitt, matt taibbi, missile defense, star wars, war profiteering
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