Allowing Sequestration Defense Cuts May Right Our Listing Ship of State

[unhappycamper]

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/12194-allowing-sequestration-defense-cuts-may-right-our-listing-ship-of-state



A composite of figures from the World Bank, NATO and the International Institute for Strategic Studies


Allowing Sequestration Defense Cuts May Right Our Listing Ship of State
Thursday, 18 October 2012 14:34
By Charles M Smith and Dina Rasor, Truthout | Solutions

~snip~

Defense contractors have strong lobbies in Washington. They work through so-called independent "associations" which support a strong military. They have forged connections with many, if not most, members of Congress, especially those with major defense contractor employment in their states and districts. The military is generally in favor of more spending, though sometimes Congress adds on pork money for pet weapons projects that the military doesn't need and doesn't want. They also try to influence public opinion. The Navy has been running "recruitment" ads which seem a lot like ads to tell the public and Congress how necessary the Navy is to many aspects of national security. And as Dina Rasor's column last week highlighted, the US Air Force uses air shows to wow the public with their planes doing impressive stunts that don't have anything to do with real warfare.

~snip~

The United States spends more per capita than any of the top ten spenders on defense, except sparsely populated Saudi Arabia. In the 1980s we felt that we drove the Soviet Union to economic crisis as it tried to match our Reagan defense buildup. The Soviet Union is gone, yet we have continued to spend an incredible amount of our GDP on defense, as if we were immune to the same problems of defense over-spending that struck down the Soviet Union. Now we are in an economic recession, with a significant budget deficit and a large national debt. Yet we are debating mainly how to protect and increase defense spending!

It is apparent from this chart that we are still, as Phil Ochs sang, "the cops of the world." Other countries, which have a huge stake in maintaining peace and security, are, in effect, free riders on United States defense spending. Our allies in NATO spend about one seventh of our per capita defense spending. We spend more than 20 times the amount that India spends on defense. India actually has traditional concerns on its borders with China and Pakistan, while our borders are about the safest in the world.

~snip~

We can immediately see the consequences of our domestic problems. Decaying schools, infrastructure and cuts in police and fire protection are a major threat. Leaving at risk portions of our population without a minimal safety net is not in accordance with our country's moral framework and is also a threat to provoke social unrest. And our internal decay makes it hard for us to compete with the rest of the world, including Europe and other countries that are relying on us to spend the money being the cops of the world.

[MrYikes]

1. I'm going to need a couple of new shovels next year.

Some defense plant could start making those instead.