Time to Shrink Our Footprints, Not Expand Them

 The Pentagon, via the Michigan National Guard, is attempting to get the state to offer up some additional 260 squares miles of state land near the Michigan National Guard’s Camp Grayling to expand that base for additional training capacity. Residents, local governments and environmental groups have been resisting such expansion for a variety of reasons. While U.S. Sen. Gary Peters and other state politicians are boasting about bringing home the bacon, it seems questionable that this is in the best interests of our state or nation. 

The current rules of the game of the military-industrial-congressional complex are rigged to drive boondoggles like this one, making sure most congressional districts get rewarded somehow for trading votes that benefit other Congressional districts. This is perhaps best exemplified by the money thrown at the continuing failures of the F-35 fighter jet: numerous parts of this high-tech wonder are tied to more than 400 of the 435 Congressional districts, making it difficult to vote against the ongoing slosh pit. The same congressional hawks are frequently bankrolled by those same contractors. Regardless of the gamesmanship played, the repeated failures of the F-35 are legion.

A recently released Pentagon report from the Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) office, as reported by the Project on Government Oversight, offered these criticisms: “The F-35 program continues to field immature, deficient, and insufficiently tested … software to fielded units,” the report finds. “The program has consistently failed to deliver the full set of capabilities contained in their master schedule.” New F-35 deficiencies “include those associated with new capabilities as well as some associated with previously functioning capabilities that no longer work.”

While Sen. Gary Peters, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, has been wrestling to bring home more bacon to Michigan by getting Selfridge Air Force base to become home for F-35 training, not a peep has been heard of any possible concerns he may have with the failures of the F-35 itself. I suspect to do so is tied to his hopes for more pork for Michigan.

Similarly, Rep. Elissa Slotkin, who is the lone Michigan representative on the House Armed Services Committee, was also supportive of bringing the F-35 training center to Michigan. She was joined in November 2019 in signing a letter to the Pentagon with all members of Michigan’s congressional delegation, with the exception of Reps. Justin Amash and Rashida Tlaib, to support the F-35 training center at Selfridge Air Force Base in Macomb County.

Slotkin and Rep. Jack Bergman also were among 126 representatives signing a letter by the F-35 Caucus in March 2020 to build more of these error-prone aircrafts. In fact, they requested 19 more F-35s than the Pentagon and President requested. Another letter from the Michigan delegation, authored by Rep. Lisa McClain in May 2021 supporting the Selfridge Training Center for the F-35, was not signed by Reps. Slotkin, Tlaib, Stevens or Kildee. 

But many rational concerns raised over the failures of the F-35, including those in the recent Pentagon report, are overlooked because of horse-trading advantages accrued by all the players, especially the contractors. Back to the case of Camp Grayling where a wide array of organizations have called on the DNR to reject the allocation of public land for this expansion. Opposition comes from Kalkaska County, sixteen townships in Kalkaska, Crawford, Montmorency and Roscommon counties, and the state’s largest environmental and conservation organizations including Michigan United Conservation Clubs (MUCC), the Michigan Environmental Council, Michigan League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, Trout Unlimited, and Anglers of the Au Sable. 

“All of us support the mission of our military,” said Bear Lake Township Trustee Jim Knight, whose township is one of those in Kalkaska County that have passed a resolution of opposition. “But enough is enough. This is already the largest Guard base in the nation. The Guard leadership has not justified the need to add this much acreage just to prepare for electromagnetic warfare. And Guard leaders have indicated to reporters that they may well sublet this state, public property to private companies, which is simply unacceptable.”

Amy Trotter, executive director of MUCC, said, “The DNR has a duty to ensure that it does not approve proposals that could limit access and opportunity for Michiganders without good cause and a plan for mitigation of the impacts. The militarization of our public land is not something to be taken lightly, and Michigan residents should not have to shoulder the burden for the country’s national security unless a valid and pertinent reason is proven to exist. To date, that reason has not been enunciated.” Concerns are also tied to the  PFAS pollution at the base that have not been fully addressed to the satisfaction of those living nearby. It should be noted that Rep. Slotkin has made the cleanup of the PFAS one of her leading concerns as a member of the influential House Armed Services Committee. 

It would be refreshing to think the largess of the seemingly unlimited military budget might get redirected toward our more serious challenges – climate chaos, building resilient communities, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, restoring ecological health and addressing income inequality. Until we raise our collective voices, the rigged rules of the game will continue lining the profits of makers of weapons of war.