Panetta: Supercommittee failure would ‘hollow out’ military's combat force.
Really? Yet the following is also true.
"the US plowed $689 billion into defense in 2011, more than the next 16 biggest military spenders combined, and 40% of total worldwide military spending. Number two China spent $129 billion, number three Russia a measly $64 billion."
Is the entire world really our enemy? Do we want to spend that much on defence? Or might we want to invest that much in broader-based innovation, general welfare of our people, and making friends with the rest of the world?
Plus, the bulk of the DoD budget is dedicated to tactical hardware, NOT to strategy!
For comparison, do we train chessmasters to think, or do we train them to constantly ask for more and bigger and badder pawns and other pieces on the chessboard? There are times to do both, but getting out of balance either way can be fatal.
Are we way out of balance on hardware, and ignoring strategic brilliance? There is no lack of current Pentagon budget reform insiders - dating back to efforts by John Boyd, Chuck Spinney, Winslow Wheeler and even Pres. Eisenhower - who have claimed for decades that the runaway MICC spending on tactical hardware has sucked all emphasis out of strategic thinking both within and outside the DoD, and has therefore done more harm to our nation than all the hardware can possibly be worth. All the hardware in the world is useless in the hands of people lacking strategic brilliance. History has proven that repeatedly.
We're gonna see a vote on those very questions, soon.
4 comments:
The choice is clear: American empire and a free ride for "job creators" or "socialism." They are banking that they can dupe the rubes into the first alternative through fear induced by xenophobia and job loss. It's working so far. As one of my world traveler buddies used to say, "Americans are stupid."
"Sequestration is for Sissies: $6.9 Billion More for the F-22"
http://nation.time.com/2013/02/21/sequestration-is-for-sissies-6-9-billion-more-for-the-f-22/
The United States has spent nearly $80 billion to develop the most advanced stealth fighter jet in history, the F-22 Raptor,
http://news.yahoo.com/f-22-fighter-loses-79-billion-advantage-dogfights-201119575--abc-news-topstories.html
Flawed F-35 Fighter Too Big to Kill as Lockheed Hooks 45 States
... plagued by a costly redesign, bulkhead cracks, too much weight, and delays to essential software that have helped put it seven years behind schedule and 70 percent over its initial cost estimate. At almost $400 billion, it’s the most expensive weapons system in U.S. history.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-22/flawed-f-35-fighter-too-big-to-kill-as-lockheed-hooks-45-states.html
Who's hollowing out whom? Tactical spending has hollowed out both strategy and policy, within as well as outside the DoD?
480 Billion? We could have a very long list of other accomplishments with that kind of spending.
Roger - You cite good examples of military budget malinvestment which will eventually come back to haunt us in BLOWBACK. US military spending exceeds the next 13 biggest foreign defense budgets and most of them are either our allies or at least not hostile to the US.
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