NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #20/NN_1992_20.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/6467

Text File | 1992-09-11 | 9.3 KB | 234 lines

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From: [e-mail] (Rich Winkel)
Subject: FCNL: Letter re F-15 Sales
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Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1992 01:07:47 GMT
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/** fcnl.updates: 28.0 **/
** Topic: C-226MIL No F-15 Sales, Reasons **
** Written  1:07 pm  Sep 10, 1992 by fcnl in cdp:fcnl.updates **
The following letter was sent addressed to the President, to Senators, to
Representatives, and to the Clinton Campaign...

*  FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS  *  UNION OF
AMERICAN HEBREW CONGREGATIONS  *  PROJECT ON
DEMILITARIZATION & DEMOCRACY  *  AMERICAN BAPTIST
CHURCHES USA  *  AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION
*  20/20 VISION NATIONAL PROJECT  *  UNITARIAN
UNIVERSALIST ASSOCIATION  *  WOMEN'S ACTION FOR
NEW DIRECTIONS  *  FRIENDS COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL
LEGISLATION  *  VIETNAM VETERANS OF AMERICA
FOUNDATION  *  NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR ECONOMIC
CONVERSION & DISARMAMENT  *  COUNCIL FOR A LIVABLE
WORLD EDUCATION FUND  *  JUSTICE AND PEACE OFFICE
MARYKNOLL FATHERS AND BROTHERS  *  CHURCH OF THE
BRETHREN WASHINGTON OFFICE  *  ST. LOUIS ECONOMIC
CONVERSION PROJECT  *


September 9, 1992


Dear President Bush:

You have received a number of letters requesting your support for the
sale of F-15 fighter-bombers to Saudi Arabia, and arguing that without
the sale, thousands of American jobs will be lost.  The number of lost
jobs has been variously estimated at 20,000, 40,000, and even a highly
dubious calculation supposedly including "induced" employment,
86,000.


These estimates were prepared by the F-15's manufacturer, the
McDonnell Douglas  corporation, which has coordinated its lobbying
efforts with a coalition of six military contractors and six unions, as
well as with Members of Congress whose districts supply parts for the
F-15.  These estimates are incorrect.  While some of the 7, 000
McDonnell Douglas employees who work on the F-15 would certainly
lose their jobs if the production line goes down, there is no evidence to
support such wildly inflated figures. Indeed, Bureau of Labor Statistics
estimates do not support the company's jobs claims.  We, the
undersigned members of the Arms Transfers Working Group, are
writing in an effort to balance the extensive and misleading lobbying
effort that is publicizing these estimates.


We do not believe that an arms sale should be decided on economic
grounds, especially the sale of what would be the most sophisticated
fighter the U.S. has ever exported, and especially if that sale is to a
volatile region that just suffered a devastating war -- a war in which the
invader Saddam Hussein had been supplied by sales of advanced
weaponry with the supposed objective of stabilizing the Gulf against
Iranian power.  Iranian power, as you recall, had been built up by the
U.S. during the Shah's regime for the same purposes.


Still, we understand that with reduced demand from the Pentagon,
efforts by military contractors to avoid lay-offs have unfortunately
become a major factor in arms sales.  That is why we believe that it is
important that you be given the bigger picture about the sale's impact
on U.S. employment, a bigger picture that belies the claim that this sale
would save tens of thousands of jobs at no cost to the U.S. taxpayer.

     Indeed, overstating the number of jobs involved with exporting
F-15s is the company's way of ignoring the real employment issue
associated both with this sale and with the general decline in defense
spending, namely the challenge of providing long-term employment for
McDonnell Douglas employees.  Even if this sale goes forward, the F-
15 production line will shut down in 1997.  The company's present
difficulties in the commercial aerospace market, along with top
management's previous opposition to a conversion initiative launched
by the UAW at the Douglas Long Beach CA facility in the early 1980s,
suggests a bleak future for McDonnell Douglas employees.


In addition, however many jobs the sale would save, there would
indeed be costs from the sale to the taxpayer and to the U.S. economy
as a whole that would offset the gains made in specific areas of the
country:


*  Continued foreign aid:  This sale will certainly generate the need for
improved weaponry in nearby countries to balance the increase in Saudi
capabilities.  Some of these countries, notably Israel and Turkey, will
use U.S. foreign aid to obtain their new weapons, security aid that will
be provided by the U.S. taxpayer.


U.S. foreign aid for Egypt and Greece has traditionally been linked to
aid to Israel and Turkey, so it is likely that the case for continued
security aid to those countries will be strengthened as well.  A major
thrust of U.S. policy is to reduce tensions in the Middle East, which
would also reduce the need for security aid there.  The F-15 sale will
thwart that effort, and continue indefinitely taxpayer funding of a
regional arms race.

     *  Economic costs of a regional arms race:  In the Middle East,
as throughout the developing world, arms races divert resources from
the civilian economy, discourage both foreign and domestic investment,
and, in the case of war, increase destruction of infrastructure and
human life.  In an increasingly interconnected global economy, these
misfortunes are not borne only by the developing countries themselves.


Put simply, when the developing world grows, we grow, because of the
increased demand for U.S. exports that its growth brings.  Here, the
numbers of jobs we are talking about is not thousands, but millions:
the Joint Economic Committee has reported that the drop in demand for
U.S. exports caused by the recession in the developing world in the
1980s cost us $440 billion in export sales and 1.8 million jobs, a full
quarter of U.S. unemployment.  Militarization was a key factor in that
recession, and it continues to be a major barrier to growth in the
developing world today.

     When the developing world pours $200 billion into unproductive
military sectors, it is reducing investment in the civilian sector by the
same amount, an amount that is four times that of all foreign aid, from
all donors combined.  When war breaks out in developing countries, it
limits the chances of solid growth for decades to come, at their expense
and ours.  The U.S. economy needs a politically stable and
economically growing developing world, and a major arms sale that
sparks a stepped-up arms race is precisely the wrong way to achieve
that.

     Press reports indicate that the McDonnell Douglas corporation
may be facing financial trouble so serious that the F-15 sale alone will
not ameliorate it.  We are concerned about the loss of jobs that might
result, just as we are concerned about the loss of short-term jobs from
the end of the F-15 line, and any line in any industry in our country.
We support economic conversion programs for businesses and workers
to help avert job loss through developing new civilian markets; where
that is not possible, we support retraining programs for workers
affected by line and plant closings.  We hope that you will explore such
programs as a way to maintain long-term employment for McDonnell
Douglas workers, but bar the short-term solution of a sale to Saudi
Arabia that itself carries such great human and economic costs.


In closing we ask you to consider whether you would entertain
arguments in favor of selling MX missiles or chemical weapons to
developing countries to maintain short-term employment.  Conventional
arms transfers have done far more damage to the world, and to our
security and economy, than these weapons of mass destruction ever did.
The F-15 sale provides a perfect case for multilateral restraint:  the
only other potential supplier of an advanced aircraft is Great Britain,
the closest ally of the United States, and one which took part in the war
with Iraq alongside the U.S.  We urge you to promote a joint
moratorium on fighter exports to the region with Great Britain, rather
than a competition to make weapons sales that will undermine both of
our nations' security and economies.



Signed:

Lora Lumpe
Research Analyst
Federation of American Scientists

Rabbi David Saperstein
Union of American Hebrew Congregations

Caleb Rossiter
Director
Project for Demilitarization and Democracy

Robert W. Tiller
Director, Office of Governmental Relations
American Baptist Churches USA

Darryl Fagin
Legislative Director
Americans for Democratic Action

Joe Volk
Executive Secretary
Friends Committee on National Legislation

Robin Caiola
Legislative Director
20/20 Vision National Project

Robert V. Alpern
Director, Washington Office
Unitarian Universalist Association

Sima Osdoby
Legislative and Field Director
Women's Action for New Directions

Tom Cardamone
Research Director
Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation

Greg Bischak
Executive Director
National Commission for Economic Conversion & Disarmament

Tanya Domi
Arms Transfers Analyst
Council for a Livable World Education Fund

Terrence Miller
Associate for Africa/Middle East
Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers
Justice and Peace Office

Timothy A. McElwee
Director, Church of the Brethren
Washington Office

Mary Ann McGivern
St. Louis Economic Conversion Project.
** End of text from cdp:fcnl.updates **