The Wondrous Ways of Washington.

The Defence Department has announced the deployment of Prompt Global Strike in 2014. According to the US government, a new conventional warhead of enormous weight, delivered at high speed with precision accuracy, will destroy its target with the destructive power of a nuclear weapon but without radiation fall out. The weapon is not ballistic, thus will be easy to control, or so the government says. Well, so are Cruise missiles and Drones. Aren’t these destructive enough for our American cousins?

As for pinpoint accuracy, we’ve heard all this before. In a famous episode of West Wing, President Bartlet is urged by his Chief of Staff to go to the Situation Room to witness the result of the latest Star Wars test.

“Intervention in fifteen seconds,” the President is told by a General.

Twenty seconds later, the President asks, “Did we hit it?”

The General pauses. “Not exactly, Mr. President, one hundred and thirty eight.”

The President leans towards his Chief of Staff, whispering, “one hundred and thirty eight feet, not bad.”  

“Actually, it was one hundred and thirty eight miles, sir,” came the response.

I suppose spending loads of taxpayers’ dollars on the latest war toy might be justified by the administration because of the huge numbers of people employed in the American munitions industry. But why is it necessary to add a new weapon of such destruction to America’s phenomenal arsenal? Don’t nuclear weapon treaties mean anything?

I wonder if the administration is playing really cool, getting the Russians to agree to disarm nuclear weapons on a one for one basis, with the Americans including GPS missiles in their tally. “You disarm a nuclear weapon and we won’t build a GPS missile,” could be the deal. If so, what a clever move it might prove to be, especially if this new American weapon system wouldn’t have been built in the first place. No money spent and missiles deleted. Obama has demonstrated more than once that he values “smart” as much or more than “tough.” 

This is the time of year when, apparently, DC closes down. The President is on holiday somewhere around Cape Cod and I assume cabinet secretaries have headed for the hills too. Congress is in recess and the Supremes left town a week ago. So, what is happening in the nation’s capital? Well, four years ago last August, the Tea Party got going with huge publicity. There wasn’t much else to report! Will there be something similar this year? Who knows but while the three branches of government are sunning themselves, the lobbyists are working.

One of these days I will fathom exactly how lobbying works in DC. I know who these people are and what they do and the results are staggering, even if often unfair. Why should big oil get tax breaks? This is the point. How do they do it? And why cannot government reduce lobbying power? Lord knows, there have been efforts to do so. Even in the summer recess, it will be business as usual in Washington.