Obama and the Permanent War Budget

[G_j]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/23-13


Published on Wednesday, December 23, 2009 by Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF)

Obama and the Permanent War Budget
by William Hartung

It's been a good decade for the Pentagon. The most recent numbers from Capitol Hill indicate that Pentagon spending (counting Iraq and Afghanistan) will reach over $630 billion in 2010. And that doesn't even include the billions set aside for building new military facilities and sustaining the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

But even without counting the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Department of Defense budget has been moving relentlessly upward since 2001. Pentagon budget authority has jumped from $296 billion in 2001 to $513 billion in 2009, a 73% increase. And again, that's not even counting the over $1 trillion in taxpayer money that has been thrown at the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even if those wars had never happened, the Pentagon would still be racking up huge increases year after year after year.

And perhaps most disturbing of all, the Pentagon budget increased for every year of the first decade of the 21st century, an unprecedented run that didn't even happen in the World War II era, much less during Korea or Vietnam. And if the government's current plans are carried out, there will be yearly increases in military spending for at least another decade.

We have a permanent war budget, and most of it isn't even being used to fight wars - it's mostly a giveaway to the Pentagon and its favorite contractors.

What Can Be Done?

For starters, the Pentagon needs to cut unnecessary weapons systems that were designed to meet Cold War threats that no longer exist. A good place to look for these kinds of cuts is in the Unified Security Budget, an analysis provided annually by a taskforce organized by Foreign Policy In Focus. Its most recent recommendations call for over $55 billion in cuts in everything from unneeded combat aircraft to anti-missile programs to nuclear weapons spending.

To their credit, President Obama and his Secretary of Defense Robert Gates have sought to eliminate eight such programs, from the F-22 combat aircraft to the Kinetic Energy Interceptor (a leftover from the old "Star Wars" program). An analysis recently produced by Taxpayers for Common Sense indicated that six of the eight proposed program cuts stuck. This is an impressive record, given the need to fight the weapons contractors and their pork-barreling allies in Congress to get the job done. But as the analysis also notes, additional spending on other programs added up to $1 billion more than the amount saved by the cuts.

..more..

[DJ13]

1. What Democrat would un rec this?

[Bill McBlueState]

2. the 300+ in the federal government

that routinely vote for and sign the appropriations bills that make this happen?

[chill_wind]

10. Seriously good question.

eom

[Echo In Light]

3. "It's been a good decade for the Pentagon." False Flags can indeed prove to be quite lucrative.

[Don Caballero]

5. Please explain.

What is a false flag?

[Echo In Light]

7. Elements within one's own govt/military attack their own interests, pretending to be an enemy

An enemy that those govt/military elements need in order to justify implementing their pre-determined plans, but within a retaliatory framework, since within what's ostensibly a representative democracy, the public wouldn't go along with a hostile, offensive military action. So they have to fake it to get what they want. That's the real nature of America's phony war$. It's a self inflicted wound used to justify carrying out a 'response' to that 'attack,' even though it's phony bologna.

[robdogbucky]

13. Think Mafia

Think protection

From the second oldest profession, gangster tactics.

Smashes window, next day, comes around, I can stop your windows from being smashed it you pay what I want

Think most wars

Think fake war on terrorism

Connect the dots

Follow the money

Less than a couple hundred Al Ciada?

50,000+ troops, 50,000+ mercs

give me a break



Just my dos centavos

robdogbucky

[Goldstein1984]

4. The cost of empire

I doubt there is any other nation with as many of their military personnel scattered around the world.

[Divine Discontent]

6. people that don't realize they're not really democrats would unrec this, that's who.

thank you for posting this very unsexy topic that won't garner a whole lot of attention - it should have 400 recs by the morning, but won't.

thank you for posting this very unsexy topic that won't garner a whole lot of attention - it should have 400 recs by the morning, but won't.

thank you for posting this very unsexy topic that won't garner a whole lot of attention - it should have 400 recs by the morning, but won't.

thank you for posting this very unsexy topic that won't garner a whole lot of attention - it should have 400 recs by the morning, but won't.

thank you for posting this very unsexy topic that won't garner a whole lot of attention - it should have 400 recs by the morning, but won't.

thank you for posting this very unsexy topic that won't garner a whole lot of attention - it should have 400 recs by the morning, but won't.

[G_j]

8. YW

:thumbsup:

[chill_wind]

9. k and r. n/t

[G_j]

11. =

[leftstreet]

12. K&R

[G_j]

14. --