Washington, DC of the 18th 19th centuries was geographically a swampy area demarcated by “Foggy Bottom” and “Hell’s Bottom.” The White House is located in the Foggy Bottom portion and the Pentagon, our second largest building, after the Palazzo Hotel in Las Vegas, is located in Hell’s Bottom.
Packard Manse is an ecumenical center in Massachusetts that produced “Hostages in Hells Bottom” depicting how the huge Pentagon constructed in only 18 months to defeat the Third Reich in WWII. It would be converted into a large center for healing after WWII ended. Transition to a huge medical center did not occur. Prophetic poet and peace maker Jesuit Fr. Daniel Berrigan (1921-2016), a nemesis of the Pentagon, called it “the world’s largest insane asylum.”
The total defense budget for 1945 was $1 billion. In 2018, the Pentagon budget for “defense” is over $2 billion each day. As hostages in Hell’s Bottom, the USA is spending more than the combined military budget of China, Russia and the following three nations on “defense.”
Raytheon is one of the defense contractors in which Mr. Trump holds stock. The April 13, 2018 Raytheon missile launched without congressional approval (Article I of the Constitution) against Syria by the USA which killed some innocents (“collateral damage”) while enriching the portfolio of Mr. Trump. Declaration of war or US attack must be approved by Congress. Bombing any smaller nation for whatever reason without Congressional approval is a constitutional criminal act by our Commander-in-Chief who boasts of our military prowess. “We’ve got the best weapons in the world!”
As a veteran of both Hell’s Bottom and Foggy Bottom, five star general and former president Dwight Eisenhower warned upon retiring of global entrapment by the insatiable trillion dollar enterprise he prophetically defined as the “Military Industrial Complex.” (MIC).
During his infamous meeting with Vladimir Putin at Helsinki, President Trump boasted of US leadership in military technology. The president was blatantly fulfilling his role as a promoter for Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed, and the top ten or more weapons consortium. All can be analyzed quickly in a Google search.
Fourteen nuclear weapons installations are also listed to explain why Trump and the generals surrounding him in Foggy Bottom do not want to withdraw from a multi trillion dollar enterprise. Tens of thousands are employed in the MIC and nuclear weapons enterprise.
When I asked Russell Honore’, a retired US general, why the USA adamantly opposes the July 7, 2017 UN unanimous vote (122 – 1) to abolish nuclear weapons, the forthright officer said, “probably because of the money involved.” General Honore’ is famously known for organizing New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. Like Eisenhower upon retirement, officers speak in total honesty. These two forthright military men escaped the swamp of Foggy and Hell’s Bottom. Admiral Noel Gayler after 45 years with the US Navy said on August 6, 1984: “The only defense against nuclear weapons is to stop building them.” Mr. Trump touted: “If we got them, why not use nuclear weapons?”
A former servant in the Trump administration was described by our president in vulgar terms I dare not repeat said, “This is Washington where everybody in the White House lies.”
When presidential hopeful Trump was asked by an NBC journalist if he has any favorite passages in the bible, Mr. Trump responded, “I have so many, I cannot tell you right now!.”
As Innocent children are ushered out of the television room so parents might quietly view the daily news, we can recall Gandhi’s description of God: “For me God is Truth.”
Gandhi is a Hindu who read the Beatitudes (Matthew 5/ Luke 6) every day. Therein we find: “Make your speech ‘Yes’ Or ‘No’ – anything beyond that has a taint of evil.” Lawyers hire lawyers in Washington to defend them against possible perjury. The New York Times found our president “misspoke” hundreds of times during his first year in office.
Are the swamps of Foggy and Hell’s Bottom spreading despite campaign promises? Two retired generals Eisenhower and Honore’ extricated themselves from a Military Industrial Complex now embedded in the White House of Foggy Bottom. Government servants who have retired were stripped of security clearance for criticizing the Commander-in-Chief.
Which public servant will be the next to resign – or sink deeper into the swamp?
