Weapons Insanity

The U.S. House of Representatives in Washington intends to blow $680 million on the U.S. military over the next fiscal year. That’s once again more than George W. Bush spent in his last year in office and also more than was ever spent in any year since the end of World War Two. And that doesn’t even include further expenditures for the war in Afghanistan and for nuclear weapons that are already squirreled away in other budgets. This, despite Obama’s promise to do things differently than his predecessor and also despite the fact that Obama’s party controls both houses of Congress. Obama is apparently unable (or perhaps unwilling) to put a stop to the weapons insanity.

Since the year 2000, the world’s last superpower has increased military spending by fifty percent and now accounts for half of all military expenditures globally. This year that will amount to about 4.6 percent of GDP. It gives the military more than $2,000 for every man, woman and child in the country – 100 times more than South Africa spends on its defense. Considering the global economic crisis and the crisis in the United States, that’s sheer madness. Obama has at least promised to look into alleged abuses in military procurement programs. Not even Defense Secretary Robert Gates wants the overpriced F22-A Raptor fighter plane that is, incidentally, totally unsuited to the type of warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan. But a lot of Representatives decided the weapons contractors in their districts needed help and ordered an additional 12 Raptors at a cost of $369 million anyway. It’s as if time stopped back during the Cold War.