Mark Shields: Our 'Best Equipped' Army? Baloney!

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A9249-2004Dec17?language=printer

In the three years immediately after Pearl Harbor, the United States, a nation of 132 million people with a gross domestic product of less than $100 billion, produced the following to win World War II:

• 296,429 aircraft.

• 102,351 tanks.

• 87,620 warships.

• 372,431 artillery pieces.

• 2,455,694 trucks.

Compare those heroic achievements with the current dismal supply record as the U.S. war in Iraq is fast approaching its third year and the United States, now a nation of nearly 300 million with defense spending in excess of half a trillion dollars:

[imenja]

1. weapons are much more expensive today

They use so many high tech weapons that cost a fortune. The advantage is that fewer soldiers lose their lives than they would otherwise. And as horrific as the civilian casualties are, the new weapons are more precise in targeting than during World War II. Obviously they aren't nearly precise enough.

I tend to think, however, that much of this stuff is invented by defense contractors to make huge profits off the tax payers. I suppose armed Humvees are just not profitable enough to compel the sort of passion the administration seems to have for missile defense.

I'd be interested in seeing the budget for weapons vs. manpower in the military. I would imagine the ratio is startling.