What could the United States government have accomplished for the security and wel-being of America if we had skipped the Iraq war, ad not spent the last 17 years at war in Afghanistan? Think in terms of "opportunity cost."
We could have used the approximately $6TRILLION (PLUS! - we are still counting as the Middle East turmoil the USA unleashed continues, the amount is still growing as we learn of waste, fraud, and abuse of dollars by stupid administrators with stupid ideas about a culture we never understood and never will understand, and still looking for lost, unaccounted for dollars?
We could have secured our NATION while allowing the Middle East to solve there own issues IN THE MIDDEL EAST,
We could have allowed all the terrorists to grow and grow and grow, and that would not be bad. Why? Because a big army is easier to SEE and KIL! We could have waited for one massive assault if it ever became necessary! WE could have killed the big army easier than the small army!!
We could have built up the border patrols, air traffic safety, Coast Guard ocean patrols, etc., rebuilt American infrastructure, offered health care for all, fixed our policing system to reduce racism, found a way to give everyone that wanted a job, a job, ensured Social Security remained viable, gotten the nuclear waste issue under control, protected America from cyber attacks, etc.
We could have done it all and remained friends with our Allies in the EU and NATO, and to our North and our South.
Americans say gov cannot manage health care, or higher level education at college and tech school levels (Charter Schools replacing public schools; privatization underway), but these same folks are happy to turn over trillions to gov run defense, and be at war SEVENTEEN YEARS! This is a silly, blind, extremely conservative zealotry ignoring the facts.
Capitalism is the rationale used to argue for small government. Gov should only do the least necessary, which, by the way, includes gov managing our defense department ironically.
As I have in an earlier blog, I insist health care and college/technical education are American rights.
Every American citizen should recognize the military-government industrial complex at work here, forever asking for bigger budgets and forever mismanaging DoD budgets.
How do countries prosper? By education and by being healthy. Countries do not prosper by war or by building huge departments of defense.
"January 17, 1961 - Eisenhower warns of military-industrial complex
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/eisenhower-warns-of-military-industrial-complex
On this day in 1961, Dwight D. Eisenhower ends his presidential term by warning the nation about the increasing power of the military-industrial complex."
"Eisenhower urged his successors to strike a balance between a strong national defense and diplomacy in dealing with the Soviet Union. He did not suggest arms reduction and in fact acknowledged that the bomb was an effective deterrent to nuclear war. However, cognizant that America’s peacetime defense policy had changed drastically since his military career, Eisenhower expressed concerns about the growing influence of what he termed the military-industrial complex."
"The Disturbing Ways We Waste Money Our Military Budget"
Phillip Francis June 22, 2018
"When it comes to military spending, our defense budget is astronomical. The United States spends as much as the next nine countries combined on the military. Part of the reason that is, is probably because we are wasting a huge amount of money in a lot of different ways. If you take a soft look at the budget and how it’s used, even you can start to see that our budget is disturbingly overinflated. That inflation is coming from massive waste."
"US lawmaker’s government waste report rips military ‘fumbles’"
By: Joe Gould November 27, 2017
"WASHINGTON — A botched U.S. Air Force network upgrade that wasted $745 million dollars. American military equipment for Iraqis lost. Buy-American laws misinterpreted.
These are a handful of government blunders targeted by Sen. Jim Lankford’s latest “Federal Fumbles” report, released Monday. Lankford, R-Olka., sits on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
“We have got to pay attention to debt and deficit,” Lankford said at a news conference Monday. “If we are going to get control of our spending, if we’re going to manage our economy and our spending better, there are specific ways to do it.”
The report ridiculed dozens of examples of government waste, most outside the military, including $30,000 for a production of Doggie Hamlet and the IRS hiring back 824 people who were previously terminated."
But DoD has the greatest potential for the greatest waste because of their HUGE, GIGANTIC budgets! I worked in DoD contracting 22 years, left the military after those 22 years, 5 years working as a gov contractor, and 17 years for Raytheon, I guarantee you there are BILLIONS wasted in DoD every year!
"How the Military Industrial Complex Controls America"
By Eric Zuesse Global Research, June 30, 2018 Global Research 26 March 2018
https://www.globalresearch.ca/how-the-military-industrial-complex-controls-america/5633549
"Unlike corporations that sell to consumers, Lockheed Martin and the other top contractors to the U.S. Government are highly if not totally dependent upon sales to governments, for their profits, especially sales to their own government, which they control — they control their home market, which is the U.S. Government, and they use it to sell to its allied governments, all of which foreign governments constitute the export markets for their products and services.
These corporations control the U.S. Government, and they control NATO. And, here is how they do it, which is essential to understand, in order to be able to make reliable sense of America’s foreign policies, such as which nations are ‘allies’ of the U.S. Government (such as Saudi Arabia and Israel), and which nations are its ‘enemies’ (such as Libya and Syria) — and are thus presumably suitable for America to invade, or else to overthrow by means of a coup. First, the nation’s head-of-state becomes demonized; then, the invasion or coup happens. And, that’s it. "
