Will Obama Take On The Pentagon?

[Orwellian_Ghost]

The Pentagon Represents Astounding Excess in Spending and Firepower: Can Obama Take it on?
By Frida Berrigan, Posted November 26, 2008.

Tackling the Pentagon, with its mega-budget and its mega-power, may be the hardest task Obama faces.



Even saddled with a two-front, budget-busting war and a collapsing economy, President Barack Obama may be able to accomplish a lot. With a friendly Congress and a relieved world, he could make short work of some of the most egregious overreaches of the Bush White House -- from Guantanamo to those Presidential signing statements. For all the rolling up of sleeves and "everything is going to change" exuberance, however, taking on the Pentagon, with its mega-budget and its mega-power, may be the hardest task he faces.

The Mega-Pentagon

Under President George W. Bush, military spending increased by about 60%, and that's not including spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Eight years ago, as Bush prepared to enter the Oval Office, military spending totaled just over $300 billion. When Obama sets foot in that same office, military spending will total roughly $541 billion, including the Pentagon's basic budget and nuclear warhead work in the Department of Energy.

And remember, that's before the Global War on Terror enters the picture. The Pentagon now estimates that military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan will cost at least $170 billion in 2009, pushing total military spending for Obama's first year to about $711 billion (a number that is mind-bogglingly large and at the same time a relatively conservative estimate that does not, for example, include intelligence funding, veterans' care, or other security costs).

With such numbers, it's no surprise that the United States is, by a multiple of nearly six, the biggest military spender in the world. (China's military budget, the closest competitor, comes in at a "mere" $120 billion.) Still, it can be startling to confront the simple fact that the U.S. alone accounts for nearly half of all global military spending -- to be as exact as possible in such a murky area, 48% according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies. That's more than what the next 45 nations together spend on their militaries on an annual basis.


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http://www.alternet.org/workplace/108636/the_pentagon_represents_astounding_excess_in_spending_and_firepower%3A_can_obama_take_it_on/

[Mojambo]

1. Not if he wants to keep on breathing

The MIC will bite back.

[illuminaughty]

12. E X A C T L Y n/t

[tbyg52]

2. I hope so. Not the Pentagon, per se, but the defense contractors.

I bet there's a lot of career military that don't like the MIC any better than I do.

[Posteritatis]

3. Sure; they *asked him to* two weeks ago

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/11/10/pentagon_board_says_cuts_essential/?page=1

WASHINGTON - A senior Pentagon advisory group, in a series of bluntly worded briefings, is warning President-elect Barack Obama that the Defense Department's current budget is "not sustainable," and he must scale back or eliminate some of the military's most prized weapons programs.

The briefings were prepared by the Defense Business Board, an internal management oversight body. It contends that the nation's recent financial crisis makes it imperative that the Pentagon and Congress slash some of the nation's most costly and troubled weapons to ensure they can finance the military's most pressing priorities.

[Captain Hilts]

4. As % of GDP it's nothing near what it was in the 70s and 80s. nt

[Posteritatis]

5. What was it then? (nt)

[RC]

6. Just think of all the good uses that money could go for.

Education. Health Care. Feeding the hungry. Research into non-fossil energy sources. Putting the criminals in prison. Taking care of our elderly. Transportation: inter city and intra city. Rebuilding our manufacturing capability.

[Ichingcarpenter]

7. I believe he kept Gates for the reason of

instituting pragmatic change with someone respected in Defense.

Looking for the Eastern Europe Missile shield to go first and the Taiwan
Japanese one to go. (it just failed in a test BTW) Big ticket items will go first,
then more items will go. Don't forget he has the Military Industrial Complex
to take on and he won't do that in a sweeping movement. There are too many
people in Defense that need to be move out of positions of power and replaced
with people that honor the new president. Don't want to see a coup.

[ben_meyers]

8. Of course he will,

I'm sure the 1st priority of his new SecDef will be to start cleaning out the Pentagon and ...what? He's keeping who? Gates? Robert Gates? Never mind.

[Ichingcarpenter]

10. You want him to come in and rip it up the first year?

I'm sure revolutionary change would go over real well with them!

The military industrial complex is the most powerful institution in the US.
I give Gates a year or more to help Obama institute change, then as he
weeds out the corruption and vice he can begin to gain acceptance
with them

[stillcool]

9. Kind of like the Church Committee on steroids?

[illuminaughty]

11. Of all the sniping, fighting, name calling

that has occured on this board recently, nothing makes my blood boil more than seeing that chart.
It's fuckin' NUTS! Who the fuck can DEFEND our Defense Budget?