I am extremely heartened by the fact that I found an article from a very Conservative magazine--The American Conservative--on how we, the US, could and should cut our very bloated defense spending.
Sure, you can always find this kind of thing from those (us) Lefties but here was one with 16 terrific ideas from Conservatives for cutting defense spending and having it all make far more sense:
The greatest threat to our national security is how much our militarism costs.
A synopsis of those 16 ideas:
1) The military is top-heavy with officers and generals;
2) If every missile and bomb hits its target—unlike in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam—why do we need so many planes, tanks, and warships?
3) Combine military medical services. Each of the armed forces has its own medical corps;
4) Former Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England urged cutting 100,000 civilian employees from the Defense Department when it had 700,000 employees, the same number as during World War 2. Now the number has grown to 800,000;
5) Tricare costs the Pentagon budget over $50 billion per year to provide almost free healthcare to all military retirees and their families for life, even if they are working in other jobs with health insurance. Former Secretary of Defense Gates tried in vain to establish reasonable co-pays and reforms;
6) Senator Coburn complained that the military schools were costing $50,000 per student. He urged reforms such as using more local civilian schools near military bases;
7) The military maintains some 4,000 bases inside the U.S. and 1,000 overseas with personnel in 140 nations; many installations have fewer than 100 troops. (see The Hidden Cost of Empire);
8) The military is paid vastly more than civilians. Officers and enlisted men earn an average cash income some 80 percent higher than civilians with similar skills and education. Their pension and medical benefits put them far beyond what any worker in the private sector earns;
9) Retirement ages were set well over a hundred years ago when life spans were under 60 years;
10) Retired generals and admirals should be prohibited for five years from working for the military-industrial complex so that they will use their skills elsewhere to help the civilian economy;
11) It’s not just Pentagon waste. The CIA and other intelligence agencies have virtual blank checks without oversight;
12) It cost half a million in Iraq and nearly a million dollars in Afghanistan to maintain each soldier per year. Obviously fewer foreign interventions would save hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of dollars. (Imagine that--fewer wars);
13) Weaponry is the greatest money sink of all. Weapons are designed to be built in key congressional districts, not to be the most efficient or cost effective, as during the Second World War;
14) Half of defense manufacturing workers are unionized, many with outdated work rules and few of the efficiencies instituted by competitive private industry, e.g., cutting out much middle management and using labor to maximum efficiency. (This one, personally, I'm staunchly against--breaking up unions but that's another matter);
15) America maintains duplicate forces: two armies (i.e., Army and Marine Corps.) and four air forces (the Air Force, Marine Corps aviation, Naval Air Forces, and the CIA’s fleet of aircraft and drones). (This is at least irresponsible, if not insanity);
16) Rand Paul has demanded that the Pentagon be audited, something Congress has so far been unable to do. The Defense Department does not even know all the cash, supplies, foreign bases, and inventory it has. Much more vast and incredible waste remains to be discovered.
A great start. This should be the beginning of an excellent, long term conversation.
And then we need to get busy.
(It's a terrific article, folks. You would do yourself--and your country--well to read it all. There isn't that much more to it beyond the above, too, but it is beyond worth it and important, I think).
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