In the News | Samuel A. Mutch: A Blog

23 Nov 2011

Eisenhower, the Military Insustrial Complex, and today

2011 is the fiftieth anniversary of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell address to the people of the United States. Like Washington’s farewell address at the end of the eighteenth century, Eisenhower’s address in the middle of the twentieth century the people to maintain a strong military to confront the aggression of the Soviet Bloc countries.

Eisenhower warned of the need to maintain a permanent weapons industry and the dangers associated with the maintenance of such a permanent industry.

He warned of the prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money that is ever present and is to be gravely regarded.

Eisenhower implored the American people and government to avoid the impulse to live only for today, “plundering for, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.” Now we must ask ourselves, “was anyone listening to Ike over the first decade of the twenty-first century?” The American people, and in particular the American government has mortgaged our children’s future for an easy time over the past decade.

Eisenhower asked us to guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence in the councils of government, against the immense power of the military-industrial complex. If the American people were not to guard against such misuse of power Eisenhower warned “the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” This has come true with the unbridled abuses of the financial institutions which led to the default of Lehman Brothers and the bail-out of the richest businesses in the country, which again are making record profits only three years after the bail-outs.

Before President Reagan urged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall,” and before President Kennedy implored Americans to ask “what you can do for your country,” President Dwight D. Eisenhower coined his own phrase about “the military-industrial complex.”

That statement, spoken just days before Eisenhower left office on January 17, 1961, was his warning to the nation. His speech was very reminiscent of Washington’s Farewell Address, in which Washington’s advice/warning was followed and did the country well for one hundred years.

At the time of Eisenhower’s words of caution, the United States was sitting atop a huge military establishment built from its participation in three major wars. The Viet Nam War was just beginning. This buildup led Eisenhower to caution against the misplacement of power and influence of the military. Like any other soldier who has seen war, Eisenhower wanted peace for our citizens and the peoples of the world.

Fifty years later, the United States is engaged in two of the longest wars abroad in our history. Republican candidates for the presidency sound hawkish towards a war with Iran should Iran go forward with its nuclear weapons program.

America is now winding down a dreadful war in Iraq, for which there was no justification and cost over 4400 American lives. We leave with an uncertain future for Iraq, an unstable semi-democracy next door to Iran, where the theocracy is militant; Iran’s people are mostly friendly to America. Yet the theocratic government is led by a sect of Islam founded upon martyrdom, historically adverse to the Christian West since the Crusades. In many Shi’a minds the Crusades were just yesterday, instead of a millennium ago.

The war in Afghanistan is ten-years old and we are losing support for it from our NATO and coalition allies. The corruption innate in the governments of the region is most apparent in Afghanistan. That corruption seems to get worse with any additional monies are given to the Afghan government. Who knows what goes on in the Pakistani government with the money America has used to bribe Pakistan into semi-cooperation over the past ten years.

As the Iraq War winds down, the “War on Terror” continues. We find that the war is not only found coming from outside our borders, but from within our borders. We hear of disaffected Americans. Many of the disaffected are veterans such as Timothy McVeigh the Oklahoma City Federal Building bomber. On November 1, 2011, federal law enforcement agents arrested a gang of four elderly Georgia men on charges that their militia group was planning to make the potent bio toxin ricin and use it, along with automatic rifles and bombs, to kill fellow citizens and government employees, both state and federal.

Some say that Eisenhower’s warning still holds true.

While some historians have written off Eisenhower’s farewell address as an afterthought, his grandson, David Eisenhower, says it was a speech the president spent months crafting.

“He did know it was going to have an impact,” David Eisenhower told NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered host Guy Raz.

David Eisenhower, the president’s grandson, is the director of the Institute for Public Service at the Annenberg the Institute School of Communication and co-authored the book Going Home To Glory: A Memoir of Life with Dwight D. Eisenhower.
We must take to heart the 34^th President’s somber words about the military and the correlation the military-industrial complex has on peace, war, the federal deficit and politics in general.

Though most people remember Eisenhower’s speech for its warning about the growing influence of the Pentagon, David Eisenhower says the president also had another message.

“Eisenhower’s farewell address, in the final analysis, is about internal threats posed by vested interests to the democratic process,” he says. “But above all, it is addressed to citizens — and about citizenship.”

“Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals,” President Eisenhower said in his address.

During Eisenhower’s presidency, defense spending accounted for ten percent of gross domestic product, almost double today’s percentage. But for Eisenhower to pull out the scissors and make cuts to the defense budget would have been declared anathema, because at that time during the Cold War, the nation was prospering.

In the 1950s, a guns-and-butter recipe seemingly had worked, the American people were safe and prosperous, so what was not to like? (Minus, of course, the lack of civil right for minorities). After all, the Great Depression in America really did not end until the beginning of World War II and the rearmament of America.

We believe that emphatically that a guns-and-butter recipe for a better economy is not what will work today. Over the two longest wars in America’s history and continuing to face a war against terrorism for the foreseeable future, the great majority of American’s have not been asked to sacrifice anything. One percent of American’s are risking their sons, daughters, husbands, wives and parents; but the remainder of Americans are hard pressed to even name a fallen American in these great challenges to our way of life.

America can no longer insist on having both guns and butter. Our economy is much more global today than it was fifty years ago. When Congress insists on guns and butter the American people are compromising the possibility of sustaining genuine prosperity both today and in the future. America needs leaders that will have the gumption to ask the American public to sacrifice while these wars continue. Americans must be willing to pay more taxes during justified wartime if they are asked. But, who wouldn’t take a tax cut if the fools in Washington think a war will not require fiscal as well as human sacrifice.

As Eisenhower warned, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense, a theft. The cost of one modern, heavy bomber is this: a modern, brick school in more than 30 cities.” Today, this is still true except the cost of weapons “systems” has grown astronomically and now that bomber may mean a new, modern school and living salaries for teachers in three hundred communities.

Just as Eisenhower had trouble convincing Congress to re-examine the role of the U.S. military five decades ago, America’s leadership has similar difficulties today. Today we are also much more conservative in our outlook to politics. The Tea Party’s platform is unsustainable. To the Tea Party members Eisenhower is a raving liberal and Regan is a moderate Republican.

Maintaining U.S. military forces in the Greater Middle East and South Asia doesn’t contribute to stability — it contributes to instability. It increases anti-Americanism around the globe. So why persist in the belief that maintaining all these U.S. forces scattered around the globe are necessary?”

If Americans could challenge that assumption, then maybe it would be possible to have a different and more modest national security posture that will be more affordable — and still keep the country safe.

Posted in In the News and tagged Eisenhower | Leave a comment

17 Aug 2011

Thinking Outside the Tent

Thinking Outside the Tent:

The Use of International Shipping Containers for Emergency Housing in Haiti

Watching the news about the 10 January 2010 Haitian earthquake and the human suffering in its wake have created various questions about how the United States and the international community will address the short-term, intermediate and long-term shelter and public health needs of the people of Haiti. It is estimated by the United Nations, as of 12 February 2010 there were three million people affected by the earthquake.[1] The Government of Haiti estimates there were 212,000 deaths, 700,000 people were displaced in Port-au-Prince and 467,000 people had departed Port-au-Prince, as of the middle of February 2010.[2]

All the people of Haiti have been affected massively by the earthquake of 12 January 2010. The lack of food, shelter, clean water, sanitation and hygiene are the most acute needs.[3] The vast majority of the people affected by the earthquake are in dire need of adequate shelter before the rainy season begins.[4] “Shelter is not just about having a building in which you can sleep, it is also about regaining your dignity after living on the streets. It’s about having a home so that you can start to rebuild your life,” explains Carmen Ferrer, a shelter expert with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) “Shelter is a pressing and complex need [outside the capital],” said Alexandre Claudon, IFRC special envoy to Haiti.[5] “Yes, it means cover, but also kitchen sets, jerry cans, buckets and even blankets for villages in the mountains.”[6]

Previous to the earthquake the vast majority of people in Haiti lived in masonry buildings. Many of the buildings were built with no plans and with only the materials that could be scraped together as the people could afford materials and their families grew. There were no building codes in effect at all in Haiti.[7] Presently, masses of people have been removed from their masonry structure homes which either collapsed or are not safe to inhabit. People are sleeping and shielding themselves from the elements in makeshift tent cities of plastic and fabric tarps, cardboard and sheet metal.

The earthquake hit in a “dry” month, January, for Haiti. Many in the international community as well as those in the Haitian government are concerned that once the rainy season begins in March, the makeshift cities in which the displaced people of Haiti are living will create muddy fields and ponding water, infested with mosquitoes. The fear is that both the standing water and the muddy fields will contain high concentrations of human fecal coliform and E. coli, due to the current lack of sanitation facilities, as well as other disease vectors which will cause epidemics of malaria, diarrhea, typhoid, upper respiratory ailments and other diseases.

The Haitian government and some international organizations are calling for housing victims of the earthquake to be housed in tents.[8] USAID and IFRC[9] have expressed concern about the use of thousands of tents to house the refugees. USAID has called for “thinking outside of the tent.”[10]

Sitting unused in many of the world’s major ports are shipping containers which can be readily modified to act as emergency housing and semi-permanent housing for the refugees of Haiti.[11] International shipping containers are sturdy resources for building, in particular for emergency housing. The need for safe housing for the victims of the earthquake is acute and must be addressed with dispatch.[12]

With the Haitian rainy season quickly approaching it is imperative to get adequate shelter in place for the refugees. International shipping containers should be considered as an optimum answer to the short term and permanent answer to shelter by the international agencies providing aid to Haiti.

In order to facilitate the use of international shipping containers for emergency housing, initial modifications to the containers should be made by craftsmen in the port at which the containers are found. This would expedite the shipment of container housing and permit placement on site in Haiti within a short time of arrival in Haiti.

Eventually, craftsmen can be sent with the containers with the raw materials used for modification into housing to Haiti. Secure fabrication sites should be established near the place of debarkation. Modifications to the containers will initially be made by the foreign craftsmen at these fabrication sites. The foreign craftsmen would be tasked to training local craftsmen to modify the international shipping containers and make them into housing for the people of Haiti.[13]

International shipping containers have a standard dimension of 14.6 m x 2.4 m or 16.2 m x 2.4 m.[14] Containers are readily available throughout the world because of the downturn in trade because of the worldwide recession.[15] Predictions for February are expected to reach as much as 750,000 TEU’s shipping containers which are not needed at the present time and laying dormant or unused in various ports and cities throughout the world.[16]

Used international shipping containers are available at a cost that is low compared to a finished structure built by labor-intensive means such as bricks and mortar, which also require larger more expensive foundations, and are unsuitable without proper construction techniques for earthquake prone areas. Construction of shipping container housing involves very little labor. Used shipping containers require only simple modification and can be purchased from major transportation companies for as little as $1,200 USD each. Even when purchased brand new they seldom cost more than $6,000 USD.[17]

Modification of the shipping container into housing will require extra materials and welding/cutting of steel. Welding/cutting of steel is considered to be specialized labor and can increase construction costs, yet overall the costs are still lower than conventional construction. All shipping containers are made to the same standard measurements and as such they provide modular elements that can be combined into larger structures. This simplifies design, planning and transport. As containers are already designed to interlock for ease of mobility during transportation, structural construction is completed by simply emplacing them.

Wherever the containers are modified for housing there would need to be various materials used to make the shipping containers habitable. Places for doors and windows would be cut by welders working on the steel containers. Prefabricated vinyl windows and doors with screens and storm shutters could either be installed prior to shipping or after the structure is placed on site in Haiti.

The structure must meet, at the minimum, the Florida Building Code,[18] in use in the Florida counties where hurricane resistance is critical for structures. Prior to shipping, the existing wooden floor of the shipping container would be removed as this wood contains dangerous pesticides.[19] In place a recycled, fire retardant plastic raised floor would be set in place containing conduits to permit electrical wiring and simple plumbing to run between the plastic floor and the steel base. This would permit potable water and sanitary sewer service to the kitchen and bathroom areas of the container. Fire retardant insulated walls and ceilings would then be installed, again with conduits for electrical service for installed lighting fixtures illuminated by energy-efficient fluorescent lighting. Specially designed kitchens and toilet/shower/sink kits would be installed.

Steel conducts heat very well; containers used for human occupancy in an environment with extreme temperature variations will normally have to be better insulated than most brick, block or wood structures. An Australian designer has found a solution to placing steel shipping containers in hot climates.[20] Not only is insulated material applied to the walls and ceiling of the containers; but a large UV resistant fabric tent-fly is placed over the entire container by the use of poles at a distance from each corner. The fabric of the tent-fly is held in place by line. The fly has enough clearance from the roof of the container to permit the flow of air over the roof of the container. The use of the shade tent-fly over the container effectively maintains habitable temperatures during the day. The design of the shade tent-flys must be such that the tent-flys can be readily removed and stored by residents when high winds are predicted.

All containers used within the villages would be placed on concrete slabs and fastened with steel fasteners strong enough to withstand expected hurricane winds and to maintain the structure on the slab during seismic events such as the earthquake which destroyed Port-au-Prince on 12 January 2010. Container houses need to be placed on slabs, rather than on steel legs recommended in some areas for container housing, because wind cannot be permitted to flow beneath the container. Any open space beneath the container housing would create the danger of high winds lifting and moving the container, thus negating the container housing as shelter from hurricane winds.

After foreign craftsmen certify that local labor is competent to lay concrete, local workers would be responsible for constructing the slabs. Construction of the housing slab would require excavation of the slab site, laying steel rebar, placement of water lines, sewer lines and electrical conduits in the slab, pouring of concrete and placement of stainless steel tie-bars along the sides of the slab to hold the container in place.

During fabrication the interior of each container house would be built based upon the family size; or, if for non-residential use, then for the intended purpose. Built-in furniture, a simple kitchen kit and toilet/shower/sink kit would be installed. One can envision from entry at the screen doors, with hurricane shutters, one would be led to an interior designed for functionality. A series of interior spaces would be articulated along the long axis at the container’s edge. Subtle plan shifts, depending on family size, determined by the furniture, (i.e. number of beds and size of dining space) would define different qualities of space. The toilet/shower/sink and kitchen would be housed in the thickened walls that run perpendicular to the axis. The toilet/shower/sink would be provided privacy by curtains or wooden partitions. In order to be effective for habitation of the Haitian population, good architectural design of the container housing must address the Haitian culture in design and ideals.

Various national and international organizations are searching for stable, vacant sites within the Port-au-Prince area. After site selection is made for the placement of the shipping container house village a site design must be developed by landscape architects/urban planners which would maximize the use of the terrain, existing roads and infrastructure. To be economical the construction of each container house village would need to contain at least one thousand containers for housing. Groups of containers specially fabricated for use as shops, schools, food distribution, light industrial factories, churches, police stations, fire stations and community facilities would be included in each container housing village. All of the standard land uses within a Haitian community could be made from shipping containers attached by welding, to make as many square meters of space needed for each type of use based upon urban studies of Haiti or lacking such studies then by standards set in other Caribbean countries.[21]

All container villages would be surrounded by security fencing. Limited access would be established to ensure the security of the inhabitants. Vehicular and pedestrian access would be guarded around the clock. The inhabitants of the village would have security identification to ensure that the criminal elements of the Haitian society would be kept at bay as much as possible from each container housing village.[22]

The needed infrastructure for each neighborhood could be put in place through the efforts of the various governments and NGOs providing aid to Haiti. Safe drinking water is the primary necessity for each housing unit. USAID, U. S. Army, U.S. Navy and specialists from other countries and NGOs all have experience in drilling wells and providing water treatment for potable water. This treated water would be distributed throughout each village by PVC piping. Local craftsmen would be trained by foreign craftsmen, such as those assigned to U.S. Navy Seabee, U.S. Army Engineer or Medical Service Corps sanitary engineer units[23] to drill wells, maintain community purification systems and lay pipe.

An important part of the infrastructure, and one that most Haitians lacked before the earthquake, is the provision of sanitary sewer. Again local craftsmen would be trained by foreign craftsmen to lay PVC sewer mains and laterals for residential and non-residential users. Gravity flow would take the wastewater to package treatment plants, or if warranted to a central sewer plant for Port-au-Prince. The installation of sewer facilities and potable water treatment plants is of the utmost importance for the long term health of the people of each community.

Electrical lines should be placed underground to ensure that during high wind events the electrical infrastructure for each village remains intact. Underground transmission lines from the generation site to the villages should be explored to ensure continuity during and after hurricanes or seismic events.

Roads would be laid down through each neighborhood providing roadside access to each dwelling or to each cluster of dwellings. Adequate road sub-bases could be made from concrete debris, after processing into gravel size pieces. Paving could be done either using bricks, paving block, concrete or asphalt, whichever material is most accessible in Port-au-Prince.[24]

A container can carry almost anything during its working life. Particular care should be taken that no spillages or contamination has occurred on the inside walls. The wooden decks of containers are treated to meet Australian government quarantine requirements. Most container floors are manufactured with decks treated with insecticides. Because so many people in Haiti re-use anything which is salvageable, the wood decks must be removed before shipment to Haiti and the waste wood disposed of safely. Each container should be thoroughly pressure washed and tested for contaminates before shipment.[25]

Some container vessels have cranes to load and unload containers at ports without container loading and unloading facilities on the docks. Port-au-Prince at one time had container loading facilities. The international community must make repairs to such facilities as a priority for Port-au-Prince. As a temporary solution until the port is ready to take container ships, the U. S. Navy and U. S. Army have assets to construct temporary docks and units to unload and move containers from ship to shore.[26]

A survey of trucks available to transport containers within Haiti between the port to the fabrication site and eventually to the container villages must be made. If logisticians find there are an insufficient number of tractor-trailers suitable to handle the size of international shipping containers for use as housing, the international community must supply the needed number of trucks for the efficient unloading of containers in order to transport the containers to fabrication sites and eventually to the villages.[27]

With gasoline stations running again within Port-au-Prince, the problem of traffic congestion has become an acute problem as debris blocked roads and heavy traffic make it difficult to navigate the open roads. In order for efficient delivery of containers to both fabrication sites and villages, military or international civilian police units should be used to restrict traffic on routes while being used for transporting containers from port facilities, to the fabrication site(s) and finally to the village sites.[28] The repair of roads from the port facilities, to fabricating sites and the village sites must be given priority for engineers. Local labor can clear debris. However, engineering equipment is needed to repair those routes to accommodate the heavy trucks transporting containers. Road repair and policing will also assist in transporting food and goods to established distribution centers.

At the Port, the fabrication site and the village site, security must be maintained. As Haitian police are stretched thin, it would be incumbent upon the international community through the use of military or civilian police to provide security for the containers, materials, fabrication sites and the villages. As mentioned above policing of transportation routes for the container trucks would also be needed.

The international community must decide while it is providing aid to the nation of Haiti, whether or not it intends to place a band aid on a dying patient; or, build a sustainable country that can function on its own, maintain internal security, grow its own food and manufacture competitive goods for the world market.

Some international organizations believe that the homeless of Haiti can be a housed temporarily in tents. It would be improbable for tents to survive hurricane or gale force winds. Last year Port-au-Prince was hit by four hurricanes which did extensive damage throughout the country because of heavy wind, steady rains and flash floods. Fabric tents deteriorate over time due to UV radiation from the sun. Building a sustainable country by housing people in tents may be a waste of money. Money should go for a self-reliant and sustainable Haitian society, of which sustainable housing is the first building block.

The recommendations of this paper calls for the international community, especially the United States and United Nations, take the position that permanent or semi-permanent housing through the use of international shipping containers, refurbished for residential use and placed in secure villages with the appropriate infrastructure for an urban village is the answer to temporary and semi-permanent housing. These container housing villages would not only protect people from high winds and heavy rains but could also lead to a rebirth of neighborhoods within the cities of Haiti.

The international community must insist that the national government of Haiti adopt building codes modeled on those of south Florida to address wind loads created by hurricanes. Portions of the Haitian building code should be taken from the California building codes dealing with construction in seismic affected areas. Money from the United States through the resources of USAID could be used to pay for the development of a Haitian building code. After the code is prepared and adopted, craftsmen must be trained as building inspectors. Many of the people trained in the preparation of the container residences might prove to be good candidates for such training as building inspectors.

The time is now for the United States, as the largest donor of aid to Haiti to take the lead to ensure that suitable, hurricane and semi-permanent housing is provided to the people of Haiti. The American Government, through USAID and Southern Command, should propose the use of international shipping containers as one solution to the housing crisis following the 12 January 2010 earthquake. The people of Haiti cannot wait. The people of the United States will not look kindly on any government or agency which permits the lessons of the post-Katrina fiasco to go unheeded.

[1] Press Release, Much More Help Still Needed in Haiti – UN, PORT-AU-PRINCE/NEW YORK, 12 February 2010.

[2] USAID Fact Sheet #30, Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 February 11, 2010

[3] Id. Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene

[4] http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/01/26/haiti-tents/

[5] http://www.ifrc.org/Docs/News/10/10021001/index.asp

[6] http://www.ifrc.org/docs/news/pr10/0910.asp

[7] http://haiti.radiojamaica.com/inside-haiti/no-building-codes-haiti “No Building Codes in Haiti,” RadioJamaica, 15 January 2010.

[8] http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33762&Cr=Haiti&Cr1

[9] http://www.ifrc.org/Docs/News/10/10021001/index.asp

[10] http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6123HY20100203

[11] http://www.export911.com/e911/ship/dimen.htm

[12] http://www.unicef.org/media/media_52763.html Much More Help Still Needed in Haiti – UN, PORT-AU-PRINCE/NEW YORK, 12 February 2010