The United States spends more money for national defense than all the nations in the world combined. Yet no other nation has sustained a terrorist attack on its land as severe as the one in America on 9/11. The attack could not have been prevented by our superior bombers, missiles or atomic warheads. As many Americans should know by now, our defense needs are not driven by strategic planning, which it should be but is instead driven by politics, a macho hawkish attitude by many in congress who never wore the uniform of their country and the Military-Industrial Complex President Eisenhower warned the country about over 50 years ago.
When any one tries to put military spending on the table we hear all the dire consequences that are going to happen to America. It took an attack such as 9/11 to prove the hawks were way off base and that our massive spending on equipment to fight a cold war that ended over 15 years ago was useless against terror tactics. It has also proved useless in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and can be attested to by our brave men and women in uniform who witnessed first hand the devastation a home made road side bomb could inflict on our military equipment and personnel.
If our defense budget was based on strategic planning there is much that could be cut that would not weaken our national security. We can start by bringing our service people home who are stationed around the world such as in Europe and South Korea. Those troops have not been there for any strategic purpose for many years. Both South Korea and Europe has an economy that would allow them to do what ever is necessary militarily to protect their own country and alliances. The U.S. can better spend its money home and at a much reduced cost.
Retired Marine General Anthony Zinni who during the Clinton administration was Commander in Chief of U.S. Central Command(CENTCOM) from 1997-2000 and was responsible for all U.S. forces in a 25 country region including the middle east said this in an interview with Semper Fidelis magazine dated March-April issue in 2009 concerning troops stationed on Guam. Zinni said, that is the stupidest idea I've ever heard. Training our forces there are not good and they will be strategically stranded. The lifts comes from the U.S. whether its ships or planes. They would be better off in the U.S. near the strategic lift and where you have places they could train such as Twentynine Palms and Camp Pendleton. So you have a highly trained force that can get there just as fast, rather than have them stuck on some Island where they can't train. Its absolutely stupid. Its a decision based on politics, not on strategic sense.
Congress and the military should end their buddy, buddy relationship with defense contractors. We have cost overruns on most all major equipment and much equipment is obsolete before it can be used. This relationship has to change so the country's needs will be based on a strategic planning process. We should remember some of the following statements President Eisenhower made about the problem.
President Eisenhower speaking about the Military-Industrial Complex said we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications and went on to say. In the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarrented influence, whether sought or unsough, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic process. We should take nothing for granted. See Note 1.
The money that is made available by the military-industrial complex to our congressmen in the form of campaign contributions is deplorable. It is only for one reason and that is to influence increased defense spending. As General Zinni said, our plans are not driven by strategic planning but politics. The bottom line is our nation can dramatically reduce our military budget without harming our national defense. We should start by bringing all our troops home from foreign soil who are not there as part of a strategic plan. Than money savings and the fact that our troops can have the proper training here along with spending the reduced cost right here in the good old USA.
President Obama needs to make sure his administration deals with the ever increasing cost of the defense budget and make sure we are in a position to handle the threats we face today and in the future and move away from a cold war defense budget that makes no sense. Those who declare we can not cut the defense budget are not thinking of America best interest. Remember our men and women in uniform were not equipped to handle the dangers in Iraq and Afghanistan at a time when our military spending was at an all time high. It is past time our country addresses the problem.
Note 1: Taken from the book, JFK and the Unspeakable, page 137.
