To: PolitiFact
.@PolitiFact: Correct the Record on Sanders & Pentagon Spending
Just Foreign Policy
PolitiFact should acknowledge experts on Pentagon spending who say Bernie Sanders' statement that "less than 10 percent" of the Pentagon budget "actually goes into fighting ISIS and international terrorism" is "mostly true," in contrast to PolitiFact's unsubstantiated claim that Sanders' statement was "mostly false."
Why is this important?
In the fourth Democratic presidential debate, Bernie Sanders said that "less than 10 percent" of the Pentagon budget "actually goes into fighting ISIS and international terrorism." [1] The purported fact-checking site PolitiFact rated Sanders' statement as "mostly false," [2] based on the claim that the share of Pentagon spending devoted to fighting international terrorism is a fundamentally unknowable fact. [3]
But PolitiFact could have talked to experts on Pentagon spending who say Sanders' statement was "mostly true." Carl Conetta, director of the Project on Defense Alternatives [4], wrote: "MOSTLY TRUE. Website PolitiFact says 'mostly false,' but they're wrong. Got buffaloed by Pentagon flaks. I say 'mostly true' because less than 15% would be 'certainly true'... which is to say a nation with a $90 billion defense budget devoted entirely to counter-terrorism operations could surely accomplish what we have - although they'd do it differently. Another way to look at this would be to ask, How much could we cut the budget if our terrorism concerns receded to the level of 1990? DoD would almost surely say, 'less than 10 percent.'" [5]
Urge PolitiFact to correct the record by signing our petition.
References:
1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/01/17/the-4th-democratic-debate-transcript-annotated-who-said-what-and-what-it-meant/
2. http://www.PolitiFact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jan/18/bernie-s/less-10-percent-defense-budget-fighting-terrorism-/
3. http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/34491-PolitiFact-sanders-is-wrong-about-pentagon-spending-because-understanding-the-pentagon-budget-is-too-hard
4. http://www.ciponline.org/about-us/experts-staff/carl-conetta
5. https://www.facebook.com/carl.conetta/posts/10205601655948597
But PolitiFact could have talked to experts on Pentagon spending who say Sanders' statement was "mostly true." Carl Conetta, director of the Project on Defense Alternatives [4], wrote: "MOSTLY TRUE. Website PolitiFact says 'mostly false,' but they're wrong. Got buffaloed by Pentagon flaks. I say 'mostly true' because less than 15% would be 'certainly true'... which is to say a nation with a $90 billion defense budget devoted entirely to counter-terrorism operations could surely accomplish what we have - although they'd do it differently. Another way to look at this would be to ask, How much could we cut the budget if our terrorism concerns receded to the level of 1990? DoD would almost surely say, 'less than 10 percent.'" [5]
Urge PolitiFact to correct the record by signing our petition.
References:
1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/01/17/the-4th-democratic-debate-transcript-annotated-who-said-what-and-what-it-meant/
2. http://www.PolitiFact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jan/18/bernie-s/less-10-percent-defense-budget-fighting-terrorism-/
3. http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/34491-PolitiFact-sanders-is-wrong-about-pentagon-spending-because-understanding-the-pentagon-budget-is-too-hard
4. http://www.ciponline.org/about-us/experts-staff/carl-conetta
5. https://www.facebook.com/carl.conetta/posts/10205601655948597