North Carolina: The costs of being the most "military-friendly state in America"
Facing South readers know that the South has deep military ties, and no state feels it more than North Carolina. Billboards everywhere declare the state is "the most military-friendly state in America," part of a state PR campaign to expand bases and lure more defense dollars to the state.
State officials like Gov. Mike Easley and Lt. Gov. Beverly Purdue (both Democrats) tout the economic benefits of a war economy -- but what does the state lose in the bargain?
On the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war, the Institute for Southern Studies/Southern Exposure has released a new report -- "North Carolina at War" -- that examines the social, economic and political costs of increasing the state's dependence on military dollars and becoming more entangled with foreign adventures abroad. Read the full report here (pdf); you can also read a news clip about the report from the Raleigh News & Observer here.
Here are some of the costs North Carolina leaders aren't talking about:
* North Carolinians have suffered heavily from casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2007 alone, 21 soldiers from North Carolina bases have been killed, including five members of Fort Bragg's 82 Airborne in a March 5 bomb explosion in Samarra, Iraq. 74 service members born in North Carolina have died in the wars since 2002.
* The state report claims North Carolina stands to gain economically from a state of "permanent war," but defense dollars aren't free. Two leading economists put the total price tag of the Iraq wars at $2 trillion. According to a budget watchdog group, North Carolina taxpayers alone have already paid $12.3 billion for the two wars.
* Official reports also fail to account for the instability and costs of military politics: base towns rise and fall with ever-shifting troop deployments; decisions about base sizes and defense contracts often hinge on back-room Washington deal-making; and military-dependent states are often devastated when national priorities shift to a "peacetime" economy.
* The state's international reputation has been jeopardized by mounting evidence of complicity in "extraordinary rendition" flights that ship terror suspects to countries with lax torture laws for interrogation. The Johnston County Airport is now the target of prosecutors in Germany and Italy, and a U.S. federal lawsuit, for its ties to what human rights groups call "torture taxis;" 20 state legislators have called on Gov. Mike Easley to investigate the issue.
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Chris Kromm
Chris Kromm is executive director of the Institute for Southern Studies and publisher of the Institute's online magazine, Facing South.