Throw another $100 billion on the fire

Jim Lobe of IPS reports,

If there was any doubt about the global ambitions of the Bush administration hawks, it was dispelled this weekend when a group of influential right-wing figures complained that the current military budget of almost 400 billion dollars -- greater than the world's 15 next biggest military establishments combined -- is not enough to sustain U.S. strategy abroad.

In a letter to the president released on the eve of his State of the Union address, the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), whose alumni include both figures close to Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney, as well as most of their top aides, called for increasing the defence budget by as much as 100 billion dollars next year.

''Today's military is simply too small for the missions it must perform'', said the letter whose signatories included mainly key neo-conservatives, former Reagan administration officials, and a number of individuals close to big defence manufacturers like Lockheed Martin. ''By every measure, current defence spending is inadequate for a military with global responsibilities'' . The letter, which also suggested that Washington should prepare for confrontations with North Korea, Iran, and China, is to be published Monday in the Weekly Standard, the Rupert Murdoch-financed neo-conservative journal edited by William Kristol, PNAC's co-founder and chairman.

And to think...these madmen are running the world right now.