Mike Gravel on Homeland Security Libertarian for President; Former Democratic Senator (AK)

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In Congress, personified opposition to American militarism

I picked up the battle again in the 2008 Democratic presidential debates. Most of my Democratic opponents supported militarism almost as much as the Republicans. 60 years after World War II, the military industries and the Pentagon had secured dominance over Congress, the White House, and the news media. This has never been more apparent than in the invasion of Iraq and the so-called War on Terror.

Soldiers die in vain if war serves only elite interests

President’s job since WWII is pitchman for war industry

WWII changed that. The military-industrial relationship was formalized and the economy became dependent on it. By 1949 there was a peacetime draft, a new Defense Department, a CIA and a National Security Council coordinating the national security state. Except, there was no war. So tension with Russia was exalted into a global struggle against a highly embellishe Communist “threat.” We were bathed in irrational fear during the entire Cold War to keep the military factories--and our irrational insecurities--humming. And now the phantom peril has seamlessly merged into the War on Terror.

Released full Pentagon Papers when Nixon stopped publication

Two weeks earlier, the NY Times had published excerpts, [about which] Nixon said: “Let’s get the son-of-a-bitch [who leaked it] in jail.” Publication stopped the next day. Two days later, the Washington Post published its first installment. But the government then immediately restrained them, too. No one knew if the Papers would ever be published again.

“It is my constitutional obligation to protect the security of the people by fostering the free flo of information absolutely essential to their democratic decision-making,” I began. Then I started with Chapter One, making the Pentagon Papers public. The study was classified “top secret--sensitive” to mostly cover up the screw-ups and hidden motives.

Made into Senate pariah for releasing Pentagon Papers

The day before I read the Pentagon Papers, Nixon tried to satiate Congress by making a single copy available to each House. They were locked up in two rooms in the Capitol, with guards posted outside. Members could go in and read but take no notes. Can you imagine how my colleagues viewed me when, with the press muzzled and the only available copies behind guarded doors, I made the entire study public?

One Senator called for my security clearance to be removed. Another suggested I had violated Senate Rule 36, requiring senators to keep secret all confidential information from the executive.

Boston publisher finally printed Pentagon Papers

I sought a commercial publisher for the 4,100-page subcommittee record. Americans had to know the whole story about how government lies ultimately killed more than 58,000 Americans and 3 million Southeast Asians--just as we need today to expose all the lies about Iraq.

I received many rejections that summer of 1971. Publishers knew the risk. But the publisher Beacon Press in Boston didn’t care. Like me, they felt the press was letting the public down.

Twelve days before the publication date, the Pentagon published its own paperback edition. So much for harming national security. If you can’t beat them, beat them to it. It was pure Nixonian vindictiveness to take the wind out of Beacon’s sails and sales.

Sued by Nixon in Supreme Court case

But the appeals court said third parties with knowledge of the Beacon deal were not protected and could be questioned, includin officers at Beacon itself. [Nixon appealed, and the case went to the Supreme Court]. My Supreme Court case became something of a cause c‚lŠbre among the more fashionable people of the anti-war set. I admit that I enjoyed the notoriety.

Bush & military-industrialists rule by fear-mongering

CIA NIE ignored in 1947 about Cold War; & in 2004 about Iraq

There is a direct line between leading Cold Warriors and the neocons. From 1975 to 1977, while I was in the Senate fighting the Pentagon, Rumsfeld was part of Team B, a secret group created by George H. W. Bush that disagreed with the CIA and falsely claimed a huge Soviet military advantage. Twenty-seven years later Rumsfeld assured the press that there were WMD in Iraq and he knew exactly where they were.

1969: Opposed early ABM anti-missile systems

Each new weapons system triggers development and deployment of another. We don’t want to be constantly responding to the responses we’ve ourselves induced. [The ABM vote was a tie, and V.P. Spiro Agnew broke the tie in favor of ABMs].

Bush’s ABMs don’t work well but do enrich insiders

They are still losing. ABM systems are at the heart of the military-industrial complex. That’s why Reagan later tried to build Star Wars and the Patriot missiles and why George W. Bush pulled out of th ABM Treaty. It was just two months after 9/11 and Bush was already exploiting the new fear to resurrect the cash cow of ABMs.

The new threat was a godsend for a military-industrial complex threatened by the end of the Cold War. Bush ludicrously wants to install new ABM defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic to “protect” against Iranian missiles. ABM systems don’t shoot down incoming missiles very well, but they work wonders to enrich those in on the game.

1969: Protested nuclear bomb tests on Aleutians

I started protesting it in the Senate by May 1969. As many scientists were opposed to the test, I introduced a resolution calling for a scientific commission on nuclear testing independent of government to study the safety of tests. I wrote a letter to the New York Times in which I disputed Atomic Energy Commission’s claims that earthquakes would not result. “I have in my possession a dozen AEC documents stating the opposite,” I wrote. “We do not know very much about the effects of nuclear testing, especially in a geologically unstable area such as Alaska.”

The bomb was exploded in October 1969. A series of small earthquakes were triggered. There were massive landslides, rivers and lakes shot water fifty feet in the air, and the ground was raised six feet.

Peacetime draft militarizes the culture

[I undertook a filibuster in the Senate to end the draft]. My filibuster delayed extending the draft by a couple of months. In September my debate was cut off. I failed to bring about the immediate end to the draft that I wanted. But I believe my filibuster held Nixon to the two year extension that he had sought In 1973 Nixon stuck to his pledge not to revive the draft knowing that he would run into trouble in Congress again with my threat to renew my filibuster.

Foreign arms sales funnel money back to defense industry

Reagan’s SDI set stage for Bush’s trashing the ABM treaty

Reagan responded with a move designed to appear as a step toward nuclear disarmament. It was clearly a new cash cow for the military industries: the Strategic Defense Initiative or Star Wars. Portrayed as a defensive weapon, the Soviets pointed out that a defensive shield in space could easily be used offensively. Besides, it violated the ABM Treaty.

That set the tone in government for Bush’s later trashing of the ABM Treaty and other international laws. Reagan’s Star Wars gambit paid off--it dampened the mass movement against nuclear weapons, while SDI and other military spending delivered the biggest budget deficit in US history.

Need new 9/11 investigation on sources of Bin Laden’s power

Extremists like bin Laden would have little popular support if not for American support of repressive Arab regimes. Most Middle Eastern rulers have been American surrogates, often exchanging oil for arms.

Given Saudi, Pakistani, and US intelligence support for extremist groups in the murky world of black markets, black operations, and espionage, I’m not sure we will ever know why September 11 happened. The 9/11 Commission certainly didn’t tell us. That’s why I’ve called for a new investigation. The administration taking office in 2009 should have the guts to do it. These networks still operate inside the US.

No monitoring domestic communication; no military tribunals

A: No.

Q: Should law enforcement agencies have greater discretion to monitor domestic communications, to prevent future terrorist attacks?

A: No.

Q: Should the United States hold foreign states accountable for terrorists who operate in their country?

A: No.

Q: Do you support the creation of a federal identification card system?

A: No.

No additional homeland security funding; no missile defense

A: No.

Q: Do you support pre-emptive military strikes against countries deemed to be a threat to US national security?

A: No.

Q: Do you support long-term use of National Guard troops to supplement the armed forces in assignments overseas?

A: No.

Q: Should the US expand its missile defense shield?

A: No.

Gravel adds, “We should be decreasing our military, not increasing it.

1960s: Wept openly in Senate because US is dragged in mud

Until the debates, Gravel’s low-budget campaign may have been nearly invisible. Yet to older progressives, Gravel is hardly an unknown. During the 1960s, he was often in the news as one of Congress’s fiercest opponents of the Vietnam War. In his most famous act, Gravel helped make public the Pentagon Papers by carrying them into the Senate in two suitcases and reading them into the record--for a time, with tears streaming down his face.

In a television interview he said, “I wept because it hurts to see our nation dragged in the mud... to be part of a nation that is killing innocent human beings.” Gravel is also credited with mounting filibusters and cutting legislative deals that helped stop the draft, and later with fighting nuclear testing and nuclear power.

I ended the draft; I stopped nuclear testing

A: I’m the fellow that ended the draft. I’m the one that stopped the nuclear testing in the north Pacific. I’m the one that brought about the Alaska pipeline. I’m the one that released the Pentagon Papers and had to go to the Supreme Court because Richard Nixon was trying to throw me in jail. That’s what I did 30 years ago. That was leadership then. And I was excoriated by the media at that point. I was a loose cannon. Well, right today, I’ve had the good fortune to live this long, and people look back and say, “My God, were you a courageous leader.” Well, that’s the leadership you’ll get when I become president of the United States. Now, can the American people stand that kind of leadership? That remains to be seen.

Terrorism is not a war; treat it as a criminal act

A: Well, the first thing that you would do is to realize that terrorism is not a war. Our war on terrorism makes no sense. We’ve had terrorism since the beginning of civilization, and we’ll have it to the end of civilization. It must be treated as a criminal act for what it is. The US should now interface with Interpol and with other countries to bring these people to justice, but our government has done just the opposite. We had the help of Iran to do away with the Taliban three years ago, then we called them an “Axis of Evil.” We had the help of other countries, and now they do--our government doesn’t need them. We have a database of 7 million stolen passports at Interpol and it’s headed up by an American, and not one American intelligence agency has ever accessed that database. We can’t even put the dots together here little more than can we do it globally.

We are STILL expanding our nuclear capability

EDWARDS: As president, I would not talk about hypotheticals in nuclear weapons. I think that effectively limits your options. What I would do as president, is to lead an international effort over time to eliminate nuclear weapons from the planet. That’s the way to make the planet more secure.

GRAVEL: That’s very good but, under the last 25 years, this nation has continued to expand its nuclear capability.

US has nothing to fear; fear sustains the military complex

Filibustered to end the draft; but women should register

A: Well, of course I want to take credit and admit that I’m the guy that filibustered for five months, all by myself, in the Senate to end the draft in the United States of America. And I’m very proud of that because George Bush does not have the boots on the ground to invade Iran.

Q: Should women register?

A: Of course women should go into the draft if we’re going to have a draft, and should register also.

Cut Pentagon by more than 15%; we’re squandering money

GRAVEL: Dennis, you’re a little too modest on that. I think we can cut a little more than 15%, very much so. You have heard these nostrums before. You’ve heard it 10 years ago, you’ve heard 20 years ago--why doesn’t it change? The Democratic Party hasn’t done appreciably better than the Republican Party in solving these problems. It has to be solved the people, not by your leaders. When he’s talking about the money we’re squandering--21 million Americans could have a four-year college scholarship for the money we’ve squandered in Iraq--7.6 million teachers could have been hired last year if we weren’t squandering this money. Now, how do you think we got into this problem? There is linkage!

FactCheck: Yes, Iraq money could fund 21M scholarships

Whether the money has been “squandered” is of course a matter on which opinions differ. But we calculate that the cost of covering all tuition and fees for 21 million students, based on the average charges for public colleges and universities for each of the past four years, would have come to $443 billion, which is just under what CRS says has been appropriated for the Iraq war so far.

Threatening nukes is immoral foreign policy

Fighting terrorism with a war doesn’t work

US is the greatest violator of the non-proliferation treaty

GRAVEL: With respect to Iran, we’ve sanctioned them for 26 years. We scared the bejesus out of them when the president says, “They’re evil.” Well, you know something? These things don’t work. They don’t work. We need to recognize them. And you know something? Who is the greatest violator of the non-proliferation treaty The United States of America. We signed a pledge that we would begin to disarm, and we’re not doing it. We’re expanding our nukes. Who the hell are we going to nuke? Tell me, Barack. Barack, who do you want to nuke?

OBAMA: I’m not planning to nuke anybody right now, Mike, I promise.

GRAVEL: Good. Good. We’re safe then, for a while.

Filibustered the draft in ‘71, causing its expiration in ‘73

Raze Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib prisons to the ground

The Gravel Agenda: When elected President by the American people, I will:
• Raze Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib prisons to the ground;
• End the war against America’s veterans; and
• Organize and leading an intelligence and police organization of willing nations, similar to NATO, to root out terrorism and addressing its causes through aggressive diplomacy.

Cut US nuclear arsenal from 10,000 to a couple hundred

I propose we cut the number of our nuclear devices from the more than 10,000 we have to a couple hundred. Such a unilateral action would establish the United States’ credibility to then ask other nations, including our “enemies” who would then feel less threatened, to join our efforts in ridding the world of unneeded and dangerous nukes. This would set the stage for us to convene a global conference to write a new nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

What I propose is to jumpstart what was agreed to in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1970 and extended in 1995 by all five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the original Nuclear Club (the US, Russia, China, Great Britain, and France) -- they agreed to reduce and eventually eliminate their nuclear arsenals.

War on terror will fail like war on drugs & war on poverty

Fight terrorism with dogged global police work

Remove power to declare war from Congress-they’ve abdicated

The senator promised to place before the people an amendment to the Constitution, removing the power to declare war from Congress who, in any case, has abdicated their responsibility to the President, and making it the responsibility of the people.

Fought & beat Nixon White House on Pentagon Papers in 1971

Bush administration’s secrecy is worse than Nixon’s

After the indictment last fall of Scooter Libby, as part of the ongoing investigation of moves by the Bush-Cheney administration to punish former Ambassador Joe Wilson for revealing that the president’s arguments for going to war with Iraq were unfounded, Gravel said. “This is much more serious [than many of the fights over Nixon’s wrongdoing]. What we are talking about here is actually a conspiracy of elements of the Bush administration to lie to the American people, so that they could go to war in Iraq.”

Cut military budget in half--we don’t need such “readiness”

Those who refuse to reexamine our purposes in keeping this vast army deployed around the world must accept responsibility for the snowballing disintegration of our armed forces--disintegrating as their reason for coming together disappears. I believe our military budget need be only half as large as it is to achieve the valid purposes for which we need military force.

The actual defense of the US takes only a small portion of what is called the “defense” budget. We are in the fortunate position of requiring almost no defense at all from conventional attack on our shores. The cost of operating our strategic forces can and should be drastically reduced.

Government secrecy creates 1984-style state

In such a system, policy-makers act on the international scene to advance their own interests and those of the state, rather than those of the citizens they are supposed to represent or the people in other lands affected by their policies.

National security is no need for government secrecy

At present, the scales are tipped heavily in favor of the government. Information is systematically classified and withheld from the public for vaguely determined reasons of “national security” and denied to Congress by the imperious assertion of “executive privilege.” These two ridiculously flexible tools of secrecy provide self-appointed decision-makers with a protective shield against public accountability.

Presidential imperialism feeds the arms industry

Aided by key campaign donations, Congress has continuously facilitated spending for what might be called the military-industrial-Congressional complex, which was Ike’s speech writer’s original term.

Bush uses Patriot Act to gut international law

The Supreme Court has struck down parts of the Espionage Act over the years, but much of it remains on the books. It was just what George W. Bush needed. Under his secretive administration, the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act have given the executive unprecedented power to monitor Americans, suspend habeas corpus, and gut international law. Bush has propelled militarism and authoritarianism, long an unfortunate feature of our history, to a critically advanced stage.