War money

Tim at Democratic Left Infoasis quotes Paul Krugman's latest column noting, amongst other things, that the US will soon be spending "as much on defense as the rest of the world combined," and then asks:

Can that be true? That's truly obscene. What is that money going to be used for? 'The War to Provoke and Encourage More Terrorism' (American politicians call it the 'War on Terrorism' for some reason)? Continuing the illegal and horrific occupation of Iraq? Spare me. This is complete madness.

Imagine you had a neighbor that spent over half of his paycheck every month on weapons and home security equipment. You would rightly observe that this person was insane and a danger to himself and others. Why can't we look in the mirror and see that, when it comes to so-called "defense" spending, the same thing is true of us as Americans? Our military spending is insane and dangerous to ourselves and others.

Yes, unfortunately, it's true. The news comes from an article in Jane's that references a recent publication from those notorious peaceniks at PricewaterhouseCoopers entitled, "The Defence Industry in the 21st Century - Thinking Global...or thinking American?"

Far from expressing outrage, the report mostly recommends that defense-related industries around the globe start cozying up to the fatted calf of the Western Hemisphere if they wish to thrive in the 21st century. Currently, more than 98% of all of US military expenditures go into the coffers of American companies, and PWC encourages interested parties in Europe and Asia to work to change that.

As for the Pentagon, it seems more than willing to spend itself into oblivion to counter a strategic environment full of assymetric threats. The dominant thinking emerging out of places like the DoD's Office of Force Transformation puts a premium on investments in high technology and moves to achieve "full spectrum dominance." This two-pronged approach promises to be exorbitantly expensive, dwarfing even Cold War spending.

Analysts like Chalmers Johnson and Andrew Bacevich have suggested that the history of the 21st century will be heavily influenced by whether or not America can come to grips with its militarism. Confronting and rolling back the Pentagon's budget will have to be at the forefront of any attempt to claim this country's moral conscience and pull it back from the brink of disaster.