Now the continuing wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere against "Muslim extremists" are apparently bigger threats to the U.S. than international communism ever was if you judge it by the size of our "defense" spending. Of course the Bush-Cheney war regime and their corporate war economy love the excuse to spend more money! This is the "perfect storm" if I ever did see one. Count on even MORE spending next year with a failed surge and more "threats" for the Commander-in-Chief and U.S. strongman George W. Bush to muscle up to.
Remember how Afghanistan and "defense" spending helped cause the implosion of the Soviet Union. We are foolishly following in the same footsteps of that folly. George W. Bush will retire to Crawford and fuggedabout the struggle of ordinary Americans who used to be middle class but will become just more of the worlds working poor. The Decider has been allowed to decide their fate. Oh foolish Americans. Faux patriotism is folly. Bush and his super rich friends in the moneyed deciding class are laughing all the way to the bank.
Addendum: I wonder if 13% of GDP spending on the military during the Korean War was all off budget and financed by borrowing from foreign countries? I think not! All of the current spending on the war in Iraq is kep off budget and is being financed by borrowing from China and others - even if military spending is "only" 4% of our GDP.
Record $622 Billion Budget Requested for the Pentagon
quote:Bush seeks $130 billion for U.S. Army
By DAVID S. CLOUD
The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 — The Bush administration is seeking a record military budget of $622 billion for the 2008 fiscal year, Pentagon officials have said. The sum includes more than $140 billion for war-related costs.
The administration is also seeking $93 billion in the current fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30, to pay for military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, the officials said.
The requests are part of the annual budget request to Congress for all federal spending programs. The budget is to be made public on Monday, and Congress will revise it in the coming months.
Together with money for combat operations this year already approved by Congress, the new request would push spending related to Iraq and Afghanistan to $163 billion.
“It is the highest level of spending since the height of the Korean War,” said Steven Kosiak, a military budget expert with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a policy analysis organization here.
Mr. Kosiak said that in 1952 the United States spent the equivalent of $645 billion in today’s dollars, factoring in inflation, and that in the Korean War military spending exceeded 13 percent of the gross national product. The figure is now 4 percent.
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quote:
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer2 hours, 59 minutes ago
The U.S. Army, which has borne much of the weight of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, would get $130 billion under President Bush's 2008 budget — a sizable increase that would help ease the strain and meet equipment needs.
The proposal represents a 16 percent hike over this year, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. When coupled with additional tens of billions of dollars in emergency war funding, it "should go a long ways toward making the Army better," said Steven Kosiak, an analyst with the private Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
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Faire l'amour, pas la guerre
Make love not war
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