Culture and Life
by Rob Gowland
Pentagon facts
I am indebted to the Editor of this newspaper for the following item. It seems Comrade Anna was researching the New York Times website for material pertaining to the US military-industrial complex when she was referred to a "related site": the Pentagon's webpage. Of course! she thought. If you want to get the US military's warped view of the world in their own words, what better place to look than on their own webpage? Anticipating a motherload of Pentagon-speak expounding on NATO's role as global peacekeeper and the purely defensive nature of weapons in space, the Guardian's editor opened the Pentagon webpage (http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/pentagon). Headed HEADQUARTERS OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, the page offered a choice of these six not exactly revelatory subject areas: * About the Pentagon * * Tour Information * * Group Tour Requests * * Facts and Figures * * Take a Virtual Tour * * Related Information * "About the Pentagon" produced a single-page information sheet which ends with the oddly-coupled statement: "We hope this information will serve to eliminate some of the myths surrounding the Pentagon and give an appreciation of the size of the building." Can you imagine a webpage on Abraham Lincoln that said "We hope this information will serve to eliminate some of the myths surrounding Abe Lincoln and give an appreciation of his height"? Accentuating the weirdness is the fact that none of the "information" provided could in any way be expected to dispel any actual myths, about anything. Did you know that the Pentagon's 23,000 employees come to work by bus, subway and car, parking approximately 8,770 cars in 16 parking lots covering a ghastly 67 acres? Neither did I. Oddly, I don't think my life has been enriched by the knowledge. The Pentagon building was begun shortly before the US entered WW2. It was completed in 1943 and brought under one roof sections of the War Department that were previously spread over 17 buildings. It contains 17.5 miles of corridors (plus 131 stairways and 19 escalators) but because of its unusual design, we are assured that "it takes only seven minutes to walk between any two points in the building". Considering the size of the staff, they seem rather poorly provided for as far as meals are concerned: there is only one dining room, plus two cafeterias and six snack bars. Nevertheless, they "consume 4,500 cups of coffee, 1,700 pints of milk and 6,800 soft drinks" although some of them "drink from 691 water fountains", after which at some stage they presumably need to utilise one of the "284 rest rooms" while watching the 4,200 clocks until it's knock-off time. Except for one unintentional sentence in the first paragraph, the whole document is intended to show us that the folk who work at the Pentagon are just that — plain folks, just like you or me, ordinary workers like any other office workers, even if they do work behind seven acres of glass, under 16,250 light fixtures (250 of which have to have a lamp replaced every day). "Facts and Figures", incidentally, turned out to be exactly the same information but this time presented as a list — e.g. Area of heating and refrigeration plant (acres) 1. The one revealing sentence in paragraph one of "About the Pentagon" is actually the second of the following two: "There are very few people throughout the United States who do not have some knowledge of the Pentagon. Many have followed news stories emanating from the defence establishment housed in this building." How true that is! What a pity then that the Pentagon sheet neglects to point out that in too many cases the people reading these "news stories" have no way of knowing that they originate within the 29 acres of the Pentagon building and would not be pleased by the discovery. For these stories have been surreptitiously planted in the media by the Pentagon's experts in moulding (misleading) public opinion: in Pentagon- speak, Psy-Ops (Psychological Operations) personnel. In fact, the Pentagon webpage is itself a small exercise in PsyOps, an attempt to dispel the "myth" that the Pentagon is US imperialism's "enforcer", bullying and bashing small countries and preparing for devastating nuclear war against powerful countries inevitably seen as "rivals", looting the wealth of the world to enrich the corporations that feed off it. The Pentagon it seems is just an office building, a big office building, but an office building nevertheless, with 672 fire hose cabinets. So that's all right then.