Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Paul Fleckenstein, a member of the Stop the F-35 Coalition.
F-35 boosters have an Orwellian concept of leadership.
Frank Cioffi, president of the Greater Burlington Industrial Corporation (GBIC), opined in the Burlington Free Press that we should applaud the “leadership” of Vermont’s political establishment for their support of the F-35 basing in Burlington. Cioffi says these politicians have recognized the economic benefits, dealt with “complex” issues, and have stood up to the “bullying,” and fear-based “emotional arguments” of “[f]orty or 50” people who oppose the basing.
Such a mischaracterization would be laughable if the stakes weren’t so high.
For the record: No one from the Vermont Air Guard (VTANG), congressional delegation, or the GBIC has commented to the Air Force contesting key findings of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), including that the F-35 is 4 times louder than the F-16, that the extreme noise zone will expand to half the houses in Winooski and a portion of Burlington, and that 8,000 people will live in homes not “suitable for residential use.”
In face of the basing’s health and crash risks, cognitive impairment of children, and possible financial hardships for thousands of average people, let’s look at what this “leadership” has been in reality.
Military spending produces a fraction of the jobs that the same tax dollars create when spent for clean energy, health care, and education.
The congressional delegation has refused every request for 3 years to meet with residents about the basing. The leaders have told us not to worry about a little noise. Some have gone on an F-35 PR junket to a Florida Air Force base. None bothered to show up to the one official hearing on the EIS in 2012 — and instead sent their public relations staff to read statements giving unconditional support to the warplane without mention of environmental effects. They have refused calls to hold genuine public hearings on the impacts. None of them shows evidence of knowing the contents of the EIS.
Faced with the thousands of Vermonters who have attended meetings and protests against the basing, testified at city meetings, and written comments to the Air Force, what have the so-called leaders done?
They have turned their backs, ridiculed, and remained willfully ignorant of the basing’s environmental impact. At the end of the day, they have done the bidding of the GBIC and the 1 percent who economically benefit from Vermont’s military economy. This concept of “leadership” has nothing to do with democracy and the public welfare.
The economic stakeholders are much bigger than the payroll of the Vt. Air Guard that Mr. Cioffi mistakenly suggests is threatened. Consider the $7 billion dollars in Pentagon contracts for 305 companies in Chittenden County alone since 2000.
Or the $1 billion annually statewide with many of the contracts sloshing through Senator Leahy’s office. Seven Days nicknamed Sen. Patrick Leahy “Paddy Warbucks” for his success in winning military pork.
For Vermont’s commercial elites, securing this basing is about more than 24 warplanes that won’t even be maintained locally. The Air Force says that the F-35 brings no new jobs and that the VTANG will continue regardless of the basing decision. For the F-35 boosters it seems that the plane is more of a marketing mascot to promote the Pentagon pipeline. A spokesperson for the Burlington Business Association recently described the Vermont Air Guard as “a magnet that attracts more investments to the state’s thriving aerospace industry.”
There is a stark choice for Vermont and the country. Military spending produces a fraction of the jobs that the same tax dollars create when spent for clean energy, health care, and education. Worse, it distorts workforce skills, technologies, and government funding away from what is really needed by people and the planet. It also dangerously feeds powerful vested interests (like the GBIC and, as President Eisenhower warned, the “military-industrial complex”) that preserve the status quo of boondoggle weapons like the F-35 that threaten such harm to ordinary people at home and abroad.
We desperately need to prioritize addressing climate change and the growing income disparities, unmet needs, and racial injustices that increasingly characterize the U.S. economy. The F-35 is irresponsible in terms of both jobs and the future of our environment. The warplane is so unnecessary and wasteful that even the Pentagon is considering scrapping the $1.45 trillion program.
In coming weeks the Burlington City Council will have the opportunity to say no to the basing at its airport. The Council must put People Before Planes and act now against the basing. Hundreds of Chittenden County residents will be testifying and making the case for action to the Council. Success depends on the genuine leadership of ordinary people. Democracy in other words. And, by the way, since the Council funds the GBIC, a first step might be to demand some accountability from its lobbyist.
