Enemy Still Needed

Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's fame continues his search for an enemy to justify the massive amounts of money we spend on "defense". Interestingly, he first brought this subject up about a week before 9/11. He asks:

Were politicians using the endless "war on terrorism" to provide a direct feeding tube from the U.S. Treasury to the bank accounts of special interests, who finance their campaigns?

In a word, yes.

Even Lawrence Korb, a top defense official under Ronald Reagan, says we’re spending tens of billions of dollars on new submarines, planes, and tanks that will be just as useless at fighting terrorists as our current high tech wonders. Korb says that the Pentagon has more than enough money to fight terrorism -- even if its budget were trimmed by 15 percent or more.

In other words, the Pentagon needs to be smarter, not fatter. Why does the Defense Department need $400 billion to fight enemies armed with $5 box cutters?

For perspective, Bush’s much-hyped "axis-of-evil nations" (Iran, Iraq and North Korea) spend $12 billion annually on their militaries combined. Iraq spends less than $2 billion...

[T]errorism, horrible for sure, is not an enemy that requires the military buildup that we are witnessing in our nation. So, I still think America lacks an enemy that justifies the Pentagon budget.