We Say to the Military Industrial Complex We Will Not Continue to Spend $700 Billion Per Year on War

By Tim Hains, RealClearPolitics

28 May 19

t a campaign rally Saturday in Burlington, Vermont, Sen. Bernie Sanders outlined his anti-war foreign policy, saying: "I make no apologies for trying to do everything that I can to make sure this country does not get into another war in the Middle East."

"Recently I have been attacked in the media because of my views, actions, and votes on foreign policy issues," Sanders said. "So let me be as clear as I can be. Yes, as a young man, along with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and others, I marched against the war in Vietnam... As a member of the House of Representatives, I helped lead the opposition to the war in Iraq... As a member of the Senate recently, I am proud to have been the lead sponsor on a resolution that, for the first time in 45 years, utilized the War Powers Act to get a majority vote in the House and the Senate to get the United States out of the horrific Saudi-led intervention in Yemen... And finally, right now, this minute, I am doing everything that I can, working, by the way, with some honest conservatives in the Senate, to prevent Donald Trump and John Bolton from taking us into a war in Iran."

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: But it's not just Wall Street and the drug companies and the insurance companies. And let me say a word about something that very few people talk about. And that is we need to take on the Military Industrial Complex.

And we say to the Military Industrial Complex that we will not continue to spend $700 billion a year on the military. We want and need a strong defense. But we do not have to spend more than the next 10 nations combined.

We are going to invest in education. We are going to invest in affordable housing. We are going to invest in rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. But we are not going to invest in never-ending wars.

And while we are on military policy, let me say a word about foreign policy, because they are obviously interrelated. Now, recently I have been attacked in the media because of my views, actions and votes on foreign policy issues.

So let me be as clear as I can be. Yes, as a young man, along with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and others, I marched against the war in Vietnam.

A war which ravaged my generation, which left 59,000 brave young Americans dead, as well as killing over a million Vietnamese people. I make no apologies for having opposed that war.

As a member of the House of Representatives, I helped lead the opposition to the war in Iraq.

I did not believe Dick Cheney or John Bolton or President Bush and others when they told us that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that we had to invade that country.

The war in Iraq turned out to be the worst foreign policy blunder in the modern history of our country and has led to the destabilization of that entire region, with more war, more death, and more suffering. I make no apology for leading the effort against the war in Iraq.

As a member of the Senate recently, I am proud to have been the lead sponsor on a resolution that, for the first time in 45 years, utilized the War Powers Act to get a majority vote in the House and the Senate to get the United States out of the horrific Saudi-led intervention in Yemen.

A war that is unauthorized and a war that is unconstitutional. Frankly, if we do not end that war soon, hundreds of thousands of men, women and children, according to the U.N., will die this year in Yemen. And millions more will face starvation in years to come. I make no apologies to anyone for trying to end that horrible war.

And finally, right now, this minute, I am doing everything that I can, working, by the way, with some honest conservatives in the Senate, to prevent Donald Trump and John Bolton from taking us into a war in Iran.

A war which would be, in my view, much more destructive, if you can believe it, than the war in Iraq, and could lead us, literally, to perpetual warfare in that region, that not only this generation of members of the armed forces would be there, but their kids and their kids. So I make no apologies for trying to do everything that I can to make sure this country does not get into another war in the Middle East.

Watch the speech here.