Down the Rat Hole

There is something deeply wrong in this country and a very clear example of it is displayed rather clearly in the growth of the defense budget. It is absolutely staggering. When you put it up against all of the things in this country and the world that could be solved with just a bit of money it makes my blood boil. Health Insurance, hunger, education, infrastructure decay, homelessness and myriad more are just sitting there waiting for the money that is being frittered away on defense and we are not talking about the 10 billion a month being wasted in Iraq and Afghanistan either.

Lorelei Kelly of Democracy Arsenal puts it all in perspective. Again not counting the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan:

Last week, both houses of Congress approved the conference report on the Fiscal Year 2008 Defense Authorization bill, H.R. 1585. The bill includes $506.9 billion for the Department of Defense and the nuclear weapons activities of the Department of Energy....The amount of Cold War lard is truly astonishing, especially given the fact that the military itself is hollering from the hilltops that it can't be responsible for all of our national security needs and that today's problems just don't have military (read "Cold War weapons systems") answers.

....Keep in mind, today's defense spending is 14% above the height of the Korean War, 33% above the height of the Vietnam War, 25% above the height of the "Reagan Era" buildup and is 76% above the Cold War average

In fact, since the September 11, 2001 attacks, the annual defense budget — not including the costs of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan — has gone up 34%. Including war costs, defense spending has gone up 86% since 2001.

The golden question is defense against whom? Are we spending all this money trying to defend ourselves from a bunch of rag tag Muslim extremists? How much does the bill for "Homeland Security" add to the pile?


h/t Kevin at Washington Monthly