The Bipartisan Consensus of Military Spending
QuestionGirl January 2nd, 2008 - 11:57 amGlenn Greenwald has a great post up at Salon regarding military spending:
Our military spending exceeds the rest of the world’s spending combined, and we spend almost 10 times what the second-place country, China, spends. “Only” about $150 billion of the total U.S. amount is attributable to the two active wars we’re fighting, in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thus, even if one wants to excludes those amounts, the basic picture remains the same. Nor do these amounts include the billions of dollars in military aid we give to fund the armies of other countries, such as Israel and Egypt, which alone comprise substantial portions of those countries’ defense budgets.
And this gap between us and the rest of the world has widened considerably over the last 10 years. That’s true because our own military spending, in absolute terms, has increased wildly during that time:
Continue reading at Salon.com
January 2nd, 2008 at 1:45 pm
I’m glad more folks are talking about this. I saw Chuck Spinney interviewed by Bill Moyers on Now a few years back, and never forgot it. Spinney was one of the few Pentagon insiders to criticize the waste there, and to testify about it. He mande some enemies over that!
I was at a wedding last year where a military contractor was bemoaning the waste as well - and he profits by it. But it seemed so senseless to him.
This is also why it’s such a crock when anyone says we can’t fund the arts or social programs. The Pentagon can’t account for over one trillion dollars spent, and much of what they can account for is still wasted. It’s easily possible to have a robust defense budget at a much lower cost. In most every case, the money is there, but they choose to spend it on, oh, Iraq at 2-3 billion per week.
But meanwhile, most of the GOP candidates are talking about increasing the military budget. Hello, military-industrial complex!
January 2nd, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Ben and Jerry have been harping on it for awhile now. lol It’s true….
January 2nd, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Ooh, cool! That was fun!
January 2nd, 2008 at 4:52 pm
The military-industrial complex finally found (or created) in the GWOT, global war on terror, a replacement for the cold war. The trade agreements of the 90s pretty much sealed our fate. What we do produce that is marketable outside our own country is not close to overcoming the massive and ever increasing trade deficits that are in part a result of those trade agreements. Our massive military spending is more a function of subsidizing our defense industries, ensuring they can continue to compete with those of Russia and China in the global market than it is providing security for our country. The real threat to our nation’s security (economy) is a dwindling market share of arms sales to the global market. Our government has been successful at creating the instability (GWOT) required to provide a marketplace for our defense industries to peddle their products on the global market as evidenced most recently by the acquisition of jet fighters by Pakistan amid the chaos there. Remember chaos creates opportunity but the opportunity that our govt. has created also opens up Russia and China to market their products in this marketplace. Unless the US defense industries can maintain global market share all this money we are spending subsidizing our defense industries will merely be throwing good money after bad.
January 2nd, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Ben & Jerry’s American Pie is a pretty cool tool. Now I have a good reason to show my support and bye a pint.
January 2nd, 2008 at 9:06 pm
My two best friends!