Senators want to dust off 'Truman Committee' to out war profiteers
Six US senators want to investigate the military industrial complex, but nothing will change as long as America seeks to dominate the world
WILLIAM HARTUNG
MAR 07, 2024
It’s a great time to be a weapons contractor. The Pentagon budget is soaring towards $1 trillion per year. President Biden has called the arms industry and its workforce “the arsenal of democracy” for their role in providing the systems Ukraine needs to defend itself from Russia’s invasion.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon and industry-boosters in Congress are talking about all manner of reforms to move money and weapons faster at the expense of human rights monitoring and adequate technical and cost evaluations. All of the above also makes it a great time for contractors to engage in fraud, waste and abuse — or, to put it another way, war profiteering.
Six members of the U.S. Senate, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), have taken note. The group — which includes Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ed Markey (D-Mass), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) — is calling onSenate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to establish a modern-day version of the “Truman Committee,” a World War II-era body known officially as “The Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program.”
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/war-profiteers/
