**The True Cost of Military Spending

My article in Benicia Herald 7/13/10

Unfortunately America’s trust in the integrity of our government is at a very low point in our country’s history. People’s mistrust of government is not unfounded, a recent Pew Research poll places American confidence in government at 22%. Examples of issues that have caused a major breech in our citizenry’s trust are “False Flag” events such as Operation Northwoods, Vietnam, Iran Contra, and the crime of the century, “911”. In addition, the complexity of the Health Care Reform issue, governments attempted roles in repairing the economy, lack of bi-partisan cooperation, and the questionable relationship between Wall Street and the Treasury Department have been realistic causes of mistrust. The biggest ongoing issue, which is the “Elephant in the Room” that has so many economic tentacles, is our vast ongoing overt and clandestine military spending.
The US Congressional Research Service has calculated that cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will be $1.08 Trillion through 2010. This cost does not include accrued interest on the debt, Department of Energy research costs, Veterans affairs, and other budget costs buried in other government departments. Adding in interest of approximately $250 Billion, Veterans benefits and medical treatment of another $350 Billion, and buried costs of another $300 Billion, the realistic total cost for the Middle East wars is approximately $2 Trillion dollars. Projecting out another twenty years these total war costs could easily reach $4 to $5 Trillion dollars. The Obama administration has just increased the budget for nuclear armaments by 13.4%, when we have far too many warheads stockpiled from the past.
The Defense Department is deeply afraid that as we withdraw from Iraq, the next administration, the new Congress and the U.S. people will want to rebalance the country's statecraft and demand accountability in defense planning and spending. To buffer itself against such a change, the Pentagon is loading up the budget beforehand, daring a new administration, Congress, and the U.S. public to bring order and reason to defense budgets. Because once loaded up, any cuts can be called an unwillingness to "support the brave men and women on the battlefield."
US defense spending during the Cold War (1946-1991) averaged $400 Billion per year in 2008 dollars, including both the Korean and Vietnam wars. By comparison, the 2008 defense budget including the Iraq War and troop surge was $676 Billion. It’s absurd enough that we defeated the Soviets with a much smaller military budget, but proposed budgets increase spending further, when the winding down of the Iraq war should enable a $100 Billion dollar decrease.
Winslow Wheeler at the Center for Defense Information notes that the military budget has doubled while the quantity of weaponry and quality of military readiness has actually declined. Department of Defense accounting is so poor (perhaps intentionally?) that the DoD has no idea how much money is really spent on its weapons programs. Rather than increasing the defense budget, President Obama should consider freezing it at the 2007 level for the balance of his presidency. This would eliminate almost $1 trillion in deficit spending, and would finally force the DoD to focus on accountability and efficiency. A $600 Billion defense budget is still triple that of our potential adversaries’ defense budgets combined, and would ensure our safety while forcing fiscal discipline on an untamed federal department.
The price tag for imperialism is over half a trillion dollars a year — not so much less than last year’s Bank Bailout, which was rejected by a near unanimity of the public-at-large. Former President Eisenhower aptly said, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the Military-Industrial Complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist”. Health care and social security have not grown at such a high annual rate as military spending, but Tea Partiers are out protesting a lot less spending for Health Care Reform.
Defense contractors spend approximately one percent of their gross contract amounts on congressional lobbying. During the Afghanistan surge, in one quarter, military contractors spent $27 million to lobby congress. For example some of the top level military contractors, included in the $27 million are(Contractor, Sales, Lockheed Martin-$31.3 billion/$13.5 million; Boeing-$20.9 billion/$16.9 million; Northrop Grumman-$16.1/$15.2 million; General Dynamics-$15.9 /$10.3 million spent; Raytheon-$15 billion/$7.3 million; United Technologies-$7.1 billion /$8.1 million; L3 Communications-$7.1 /$5.2 million; BAE Systems (UK Corp.)-$6.8 billion/$5.3 million spent; Oshkosh-$6.4 billion/$380,000; KBR (Halliburton)-$4.7 billion /$650,000. These are not advertising or marketing costs, but bribes to politicians and consultants to influence voting on defense spending issues. These military contractors would not spend money on lobbying and campaign funding if they did not deliver them a return on their investment.
I once looked up in the sky during “Fleet Week”, to see the skillful maneuvers of the “Blue Angels” screeching across the horizons, and I would get an adrenalin rush coupled with a sense of national pride. Since then I have matured as an adult and realized that the “Blue Angels” are only instruments of death and destruction, and a skillful public relations campaign to induce our sons and daughters to join the military, and us tax payers to pony up tax dollars, with pride, for military hardware.
The following are common Myths and Realities of why we normally spend money on defense. MYTH- (1)We want to bring democracy and freedom to poor people in other countries who are oppressed. (2)We have so many enemies who are envious of our American lifestyle and want threaten our security. REALITY- (1)Military spending is a major economic engine that benefits large corporations, Wall Street, semi-employable, politicians, and skilled labor unions. Unfortunately from a moral and ethical point of view war is a bankrupt concept that saps the financial and emotional capital of a nation. If we were to cutback military spending by fifty percent we would have enough left over to service the national debt, pay for health care, improve our crumbling infrastructure, renewable energy projects, improve education, and bring ourselves up to speed on much needed civilian research projects.
Unfortunately, primarily since the fifties the Military Industrial Complex has become an accepted delivery system for funneling billions of dollars into the hands of major corporations and bankers, and protecting the corporate and imperialistic interests of America in foreign countries. We have never been attacked on own soil by another nation since WW II, so why do we feel so unsafe? Anyone who believes massive defense spending is primarily about freedom and democracy is being sold a brilliant “PR” job by our leaders.
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