Ever heard of FireGuard?

 

FireGuard is a trial Pentagon program that gives firefighters access to real-time military drone imagery to spot wildfires. Last summer it rapidly pinpointed 100 hikers trapped by a brush fire, saving lives by getting rescuers to them fast.

And the Pentagon might let it expire. 

The reason? Defense lobbyists have completely co-opted this country’s budget priorities to hand taxpayer dollar after taxpayer dollar to weapons manufacturers — instead of focusing our resources where they’re needed most.

So while the West Coast burns and renters who lost their jobs during the pandemic rely on a handful of brave lawmakers holding sit-ins on the Capitol steps to protect them from eviction, defense corporations get to sit back as the Democractic-led Senate Armed Services Committee pads the Pentagon budget with an *additional* $37 BILLION.

It’s time for a fundamental reckoning and we need every one of our activists with us — and that means we need your support Antonio. Because here’s the thing: this increase won’t happen without the House of Representatives in tow. 

That’s why our team is furiously working side-by-side with a small, but powerful cohort of lawmakers to stop a rubber-stamp of one of the biggest Pentagon budgets in history. 

Defense hawks in both parties constantly dress up their support for bloated Pentagon budgets as “patriotism.” 

Well we, the PEOPLE, know there is no world in which the Pentagon needs or deserves $37 billion more. But from tackling climate change to funding public healthcare and education, we know a lot of communities that do. 

There’s a devastating contrast between Congress’ response to defense lobbyists’ quick phone calls and scientists screaming for climate legislation, even when 2021 is on path to be among the 10 hottest years ever recorded.

And the real reason we’re now in a nonsensical position of having one of the largest Pentagon budget proposals in history — at the same time as we’re ending wars like the one in Afghanistan? 

It comes down to the defense lobbyists. Luckily we’ve got game at defeating them.

Last summer, we worked closely with congressional allies to block outrageous proposals to add additional funding for the Pentagon to the COVID stimulus bill, and this year we’ve doubled down on attempts to sneak these funds into the infrastructure bills too. Now, we’re bringing this momentum to the main event to stop a rubber-stamp of one of the biggest Pentagon budgets in history.

Every dollar counts and directly fuels our advocacy and ability to mobilize grassroots activists. Can you donate $15 now to help us double-down our work at this crucial stage of our fight to cut the massively bloated Pentagon budget?

Continuing to throw money at weapons and war means continuing to neglect real security challenges like global health, climate change, and mass inequality. 

Budgets are moral documents. It’s time that we stop spending where arms lobbyists want, and start spending where we can improve peoples’ lives.

Thank you for working for peace,

Sara, Faith, Erica, and the Win Without War team

© Win Without War 2020
1 Thomas Circle NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20005
(202) 656-4999 | info@winwithoutwar.org