|
Thanks for this. Any complaint about Pentagon spending – even when accurate and valid – is doomed to no more than one-third of the votes in the House or Senate if it also advocates more spending on domestic spending agendas. The big spenders love it when
the critics isolate themselves that way. Nonetheless, the advocates of those my-pet-rock-not-yours efforts don't mind the added fundraising and status upgrade they get for themselves among their own community. They seem to enjoy being feckless.
On the other hand, the best analysis I have seen in recent years of the DOD problem is from Dan Grazier and colleagues at Stimson: find it at
Current Defense Plans Require Unsustainable Future Spending • Stimson Center
__________________________
Winslow T. Wheeler
From: Salon <salon-bounces@listserve.com> on behalf of Mayraj Fahim via Salon <salon@listserve.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2024 4:27 PM To: salon@listserve.com <salon@listserve.com>; Chas Freeman <cwfresidence@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Salon] There’s No Good Reason To Be Spending Nearly $1 Trillion On Our Military Budget Better spent on building America at home through efforts like this:
Expanding Opportunity for Low-Wage Workers through Systems Alignment
Since middle class now a minority need to boost this segment of workforce.
On Wednesday, July 17, 2024 at 10:44:17 PM GMT+5, Chas Freeman via Salon <salon@listserve.com> wrote:
There’s No Good Reason To Be Spending Nearly $1 Trillion On Our Military BudgetCongress is spending on the military like it’s World War III. Diverting that money to jobs, healthcare, and the climate would make us far safer.
July 16, 2024
If you looked at the U.S. military budget without knowing otherwise, you’d probably guess we were in the midst of World War III. Our military spending is now the highest it’s been at any point since World War II — and Congress keeps adding more. The GOP-led House of Representatives just passed legislation that will increase military spending to $895 billion, while the Senate Armed Services Committee passed a bill that would total $923 billion. Those totals don’t even include the military aid to Ukraine and Israel that was included in the $95 billion war package Congress passed this spring. We’re teetering closer and closer to a $1 trillion military budget. Adjusting for inflation, the last time the U.S. national security budget topped $1 trillion was in 1945, the final year of World War II. There’s nothing happening in the world today that can justify this level of military spending. Even the war in Ukraine and the decimation of Gaza (which is being carried out with U.S.-supplied weapons) account for just a small fraction of overall spending. So what’s all this money for? It’s to keep the U.S. military machine running as it has since World War II, with the more or less explicit goal of global military domination. That goal is shared by many in Congress. But members of Congress also receive constant encouragement — and campaign funds—from for-profit, corporate military contractors who can expect to receive about half of the total military budget. But it turns out that global military dominance is pretty expensive — and not at all necessary to safeguard U.S. security. After 20 years of disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, too many in Congress and military leadership haven’t learned that having the biggest, strongest military in the history of the world costs a lot—more than $21 trillion in the first 20 years of the millennium—but doesn’t make the world any safer. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) called for adding another $55 billion to the already-gargantuan Pentagon budget — supposedly justified by competition with China. But the U.S. military budget is already more than three times higher than China’s. Many experts agree that the military threat from the Chinese has been oversold. But whatever threats the U.S. faces, it should say something more troubling about the U.S. military if we can’t achieve security by spending more than three times what an adversary spends. Anyone genuinely concerned with the security of the American people should be more concerned about that $1 trillion military budget. The obsession with China and world dominance is bleeding our public coffers. This is money that can’t be invested in infrastructure, education, healthcare or other necessities to keep our own country functioning. Meanwhile, we face growing bills this summer for disaster relief from floods and heat waves to storms and wildfires. In a world where climate change is making these disasters more frequent, we have to start budgeting for those expenses and doing more to limit the damage by transitioning to renewable energy. We need members of Congress to do three things: focus on the problems we do have, stop trying to rule the world and have the spine to say no to military contractors. Even a fraction of the $1 trillion soon to be spent on the military would go a long way to making life safer on each of these fronts. Luckily, we don’t face the same problems the world did in 1945 — and we don’t need a World-War-III-level military budget. Instead, we need members of Congress to do three things: focus on the problems we do have, stop trying to rule the world and have the spine to say no to military contractors. Only then will we have a budget designed for 2024, not 1945. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org. Salon mailing list Salon@listserve.com https://mlm2.listserve.net/mailman/listinfo/salon |