Pentagon's stakes in aggravating America's COVID-19 crisis

Hannan Hussain is an assistant researcher at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), and an author. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

In a stunning revelation by the Washington Post on September 22, the U.S. Department of Defense reportedly diverted a major share of Congress-sanctioned COVID-19 relief funds to boost payments for defense contractors.

The billion-dollar funds – made available to the Pentagon under the CARES Actin March – were clandestinely used to manufacture equipment such as jet engine parts and body armors.

The revelation sends a powerful message about the Pentagon's demonstrated priorities regarding U.S. public safety concerns, with several Congressional Democrats condemning the move as a violation of "congressional intent."

A major enabler of the Pentagon's low-profile financial maneuvering is its inflated view of U.S. national security concerns. For instance, serving officials have justified the Pentagon's fund redirection as an attempt to "balance" between boosting American medical production and supporting its defense industry. More importantly, officials continue to single out the defense industrial growth aspect as the more "critical" element of national security.

It is ironic that the same degree of emphasis is absent on the Pentagon's decision to unilaterally blindside the Congress, and jeopardize its commitment towards thousands of taxpaying citizens who are in desperate need of COVID-19 state funding.

In stark contrast to the Pentagon's stated position, it hasn't been transparent with the Congress about plans for COVID-19 related relief funds. The Washington Post notes that firms as small as ModalAI, a little-known drone flight controller manufacturer, witnessed six digit upticks in the Pentagon's funding this April, disguised as a Paycheck Protection Program (a separate relief package created under the CARES Act).

Moreover, for several months, two elements have been critical to the Pentagon's growing disregard for pandemic-aligned taxpayer money: leadership and narrative-building.

In April, Ellen Lord – the Pentagon's Undersecretary Of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment – publicly confirmed that some 750 million U.S. dollars of the CARES Act funding would be used for "medical resources." Five months later, she moves the goalposts on the Pentagon's official narrative, arguing that the country's defense industrial base is the defining element in any American security construct.

A man walks on Times Square in New York, U.S., July 23, 2020. /Xinhua

Similarly, on the narrative-building front, the Pentagon has kept a favorable public appearance to offset potential funding scrutiny. A

Bloomberg

exclusive in June documented the Department's so-called efforts to "boost" existing programs using money provided under the CARES Act. The Pentagon promoted the idea that the funds would further AI models that rapidly screen, prioritize, and test approved COVID-19 drug therapeutics. This week, it is clear that almost none of those developments ever transpired. Instead, a metanarrative on defense nationalism was built on the back of CARES funds, while defense contractors welcomed hundreds of millions of dollars in the heat of a soaring COVID-19 case count.

Interestingly, despite calls by select House Democrats to investigate the Pentagon's coronavirus fund, there is ample reason why the Pentagon would escape tangible scrutiny.

First, the Congress has previously disputed the possibility of the Pentagon using COVID-19 relief funds for defense production purposes. Little suggests a few House Democrats will bring an ironclad Pentagon brass to account.

Second, the Department of Defense will continue to derive significant advantage from President Trump's own frictions with the Congress. Considering the fact that in the months after Trump invoked the Defense Production Act, only 15 percent of total funding was placed under contract. During this time frame, the Pentagon went a step further to deliberately spend less than one-third of its Congress-sanctioned COVID-19 relief funds in public service.

Ironically, it did succeed in lining up hundreds of millions in planned finances for items as far fetched as submarine missile tubes, space launch facilities, and golf course staffing.

For these reasons alone, one should expect the Pentagon's wild sense of public entitlement to grow even stronger under Trump's watch, especially as defense officials willingly bend America's accountability mechanisms to their favor.

(CGTN)