America’s Self-Serving Propaganda

The United States has to economize and that includes the military. The nation will soon be incapable of fighting two land wars simultaneously. That’s nonsense. Such warnings are nothing more than the Pentagon’s own self-serving propaganda.

The U.S. defense budget is to be slightly reduced. One would like to shout, “Finally!” The United States spends more on its military than the next twenty nations combined. America has to save: One-third the current budget is financed with borrowed money. The three largest and thus most expensive line items are the military, the Social Security system and Medicare, the healthcare program for those over 65 years of age.

And the nation can, indeed, make savings just in military spending. The Iraq war is over and the campaign in Afghanistan is gradually drawing down.

In addition, the nation spends a great deal of money on armaments that have become unnecessary. But a majority of Congressional representatives insist they be retained because they mean jobs for their constituents. One example: The Pentagon canceled plans to build spare engines for the F-35 fighter jet, but Congress keeps putting it back into the budget. The U.S. could also mothball one of its eleven aircraft carriers without seriously affecting its capabilities in the Persian Gulf or the Far East. China’s very first aircraft carrier is still in the construction stage.

But 2012 is an election year, so an absurd debate has broken out. The Republicans accuse Obama of being a wimp, no longer willing to confront America’s enemies. The Pentagon is playing its own propaganda game. On the one hand, it has to at least pretend to be making cuts. At the same time, it spreads horror stories intended to minimize cuts to its own budget. It claims the United States will supposedly be incapable of fighting two land wars simultaneously. That’s nonsense. America could easily cut one-third from its defense budget without losing one bit of its global military superiority or capability to intervene — provided the available resources are used wisely. George W. Bush increased the defense budget by 50 percent in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks. That leaves a lot of room for economizing.

The figures cited by the weapons lobby and those members of Congress it courts are misleading. If the Pentagon has to save $400 billion, that’s $40 billion per year in a budget of $700 billion on paper, but when the expenditures for Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya are included, the actual budget is closer to the $900 billion that was approved when supplemental appropriations were included.

The truth is, the Pentagon wants to block the next round of cuts. When Congress raised the debt ceiling limit last August, Democrats and Republicans alike pledged to cut a trillion dollars from the budget and agreed that automatic cuts to both social and military programs would ensue if no agreement was reached. Then another $50 billion in annual cuts would be added to the $40 billion agreed upon making a reduction in the military budget of around 10 percent. The military could handle that, but congressional Republicans will ensure that it won’t have to.