wfn.org | Defense budget could be cut 75 percent says former military official

[PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org]

03-July-1996 
 
GA96069 
 
    Defense budget could be cut 75 percent says former military official 
 
ALBUQUERQUE - The U.S. defense budget is excessive because it is not really 
based on defending against an attack on our territory or defending national 
interests, according to a former U.S. Air Force officer who now works to 
reduce military spending worldwide. 
 
    The Rev. Dr. Robert M. Bowman told his audience at the Presbyterian 
Peace Fellowship breakfast Wednesday morning that American defense spending 
is too high because this country spends money on unnecessary "pork barrel" 
programs and to protect the profits of major corporations. 
 
    He has proposed a plan for reducing defense spending by 75 percent. 
Bowman, who worked in the then-secret "Star Wars" programs for the Air 
Force, said that the legitimate missions of the U.S. military are to deter 
nuclear attack, defend U.S. territory, and, in the short term, assist an 
ally facing aggression. 
 
    "These missions can be accomplished with moderate forces," he said. "We 
do not have a military mission to play global cop. That should be the job 
of the United Nations," he said. 
 
    He noted that the U.S. defense budget is almost as big as the rest of 
the world's put together and will continue to grow despite a lack of 
superpower enemies. 
 
    Bowman, who is also a bishop in the American Catholic Church, said the 
"just war" concept is "hogwash . . .  I cannot imagine Jesus in the cockpit 
of a B-52 with his finger on the button and pushing it." 
 
    During the breakfast program in the Albuquerque Convention Center, the 
Peacemaking Fellowship presented its annual Peaceseeker Award to Rick 
Ufford-Chase for his work with Borderlinks. Since 1987 the ecumenical 
program based in Tucson, Ariz., has offered educational seminars focused on 
the plight of Central American refugees in the border region. It now also 
focuses on the issues of free trade, the environment and economic justice. 
 
 
 John Sniffen 

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