took compared with the military, and by the little publicised Overseas Contingency Operations fund, which is not subject to sequestration.
Yes, military spending has gone down a bit over the last three years, but at over $600 billion (not counting veterans’ benefits and interest on the national debt from past wars), it’s around 54 percent of all US government discretionary spending and still close to 40 percent of global military spending.
All the whining in Congress and the Pentagon about how the US defence posture is undermined by sequestration and compels a leaner military is just so much theatrics – not just because the US military is bloated both in money and weapons, and continues to fight and prepare for wars on several fronts, but also because in Washington (including in the White House) the tricks are well known for giving the military everything it wants and then some. The fundamental problem isn’t budgetary, it’s US globalism.
Reporting on the ‘Pentagon slush fund’, the New York Times notes that the next military budget, as voted in the House of Representatives, will have a dozen more nuclear submarines at $8 billion apiece, a $348 billion modernisation programme for nuclear weapons over the coming decade, billions more for missile defence and faulty jet fighters, and, by the way, funding to maintain the Guantanamo prison-base in Cuba that the president had long ago promised to close down.
US military leaders have not asked for all this money, and probably would prefer that more be allocated for conventional warfare and humanitarian missions such as in Nepal. But it’s hard to rein in the military big spenders in Congress, especially when they couch their check-writing in patriotism.
It’s funny: the Pentagon is forever complaining that China has no reason to keep increasing its military spending. It needs to look in the mirror.
Originally appeared as: ‘The Pentagon slush fund’.
Courtesy: Counterpunch.org
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