Reckless force doesn’t work, as the devastating human and economic consequences of the Middle East war shows, writes William Hartung. Passing a $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget will mean endless war.
A U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon conducts aerial refueling with a KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to an air refueling squadron out of Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, August 2019. (U.S. Air Force/Keifer Bowes)
By William Hartung
Common Dreams
The Pentagon on Friday released a proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2027 of almost $1.5 trillion.
Approximately $1.15 trillion would be discretionary spending contained in the department’s regular annual budget and an additional $350 billion would be dependent on Congress including it in a separate budget reconciliation bill.
Whatever vehicles the administration chooses to promote this huge increase, it will be doubling down on a failed budgetary and national security strategy.
If passed as requested, $1.5 trillion in Pentagon spending — in a single year – will make America weaker by underwriting a misguided strategy, funding outmoded weapons programs and crowding out other essential public investments.
The current war in the Middle East is a case study in the ineffectiveness of an overreliance on military force in seeking to make America or the world a safer place.
In his first term, President Donald Trump abandoned a multilateral agreement that was effectively blocking Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon. Six years later, in his second term, the president initially justified his disastrous intervention against Iran as being motivated by fears of that very same program.
Diplomacy worked. Reckless resort to force has not, as evidenced by the devastating human, budgetary and global economic consequences of the current Middle East war. Passing a $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget would be a recipe for endless war.
Trump announcing U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, on May 8, 2018. (The White House/Wikimedia Commons/ Public Domain)
Meanwhile, other, non-military investments needed to protect the lives and livelihoods of Americans are being sharply reduced.
By one account, the first week of the war on Iran cost $11.6 billion. That’s more than the Trump administration proposed for the annual budgets of the Centers for Disease Control and the Environmental Protection Agency combined for this year. Yet addressing the climate crisis and the need to prevent future outbreaks of disease are essential to the safety and security of Americans.
The administration has also reduced the available tools of U.S. influence on the foreign policy front by decimating the Agency for International Development, laying off trained diplomats at the State Department, and withdrawing from major international agreements.
This leaves force and the threat of force as virtually the last tools standing for promoting U.S. security interests.
Diplomacy worked. Reckless resort to force does not.
The Pentagon doesn’t need more spending, it needs more spending discipline. Spending billions of dollars on a Golden Dome system that can never achieve the president’s dream of a leak proof missile defense system is sheer waste, as is continuing to lavish funds on overpriced, underperforming combat aircraft like the F-35, or multi-billion dollar aircraft carriers that are vulnerable to modern high speed missiles.
The truth is, there are not enough factories, or skilled workers, or materials to effectively spend such a huge increase. It will be a recipe for waste, fraud and abuse.
William D. Hartung is a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and the author most recently of Pathways to Pentagon Spending Reductions: Removing the Obstacles.
This article is from Common Dreams
Views expressed in this article and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
The United States must be weakened, deterred, demilitarized and disarmed. There is no alternative. other than the end of civilization as we know it.
We need to quit paying taxes to the Feds, quit funding this hell. We are not legally bound to pay taxes to the Feds. If rich people don’t pay taxes on their wealth than why should we, those who can least afford to, pay taxes. Just say no, folks and bring this administration to a stop.
Pure insanity, and a giant theft of taxpayers money.
What about the at least 2.000 billion, the pentagon has “lost” in the past?
And how about finally undertaking a thorough auditing??
Looking at the infrastructure, and social security for the people in the u.s., it already looks pretty much like a 3rd world standard.
1,5 trillion is around 4.400 dollars per capita and year/ 13.200 dollars for a family of 3.
“… will mean endless war.”
Really, and this will be different from the last 25 years exactly how? America has been involved in Endless War since the Bush/Cheney/Clinton regime began it in 2001.
And yet, we Americans are constantly told that Endless War is on the horizon? I suppose Americans in states 1 through 50 will continue to believe that the Endless War is not really real until we have to spend our nights in bomb shelters like our 51st state is currently doing.
In a capitalist system, always follow the money. When was the last time the budgets for the Department of War went down?
Yes but as the debt grows the percentage of borrowing reflects a lesser per cent in the total debt .
When will it be peanuts in comparion ?
What number , what limit ?
Will the debt be the biggest asset eventually .
Come get it , lol.
“Trump’s $1.5 Trn Pentagon Budget Will Weaken the US.”
There are moments when I really don’t care.
There are moments when I think “you had it coming.”
But never do I forget that it’s the weak and vulnerable who are, always have been, and will continue to be the targets and the victims of such stupid and inhumane policies.
Hence, there are many moments when I wonder “how much more of this can we continue to take?”
“…making America or the world safer…” We should ask: for whom? And what if the point isn’t about security at all? “…a recipe for endless war.” Exactly.
Let’s not forget the D elites support the same econopathy as the Rs, doing their best to make the U.S. and the world safe for multinational corporate capitalism via treaties like the WTO and NAFTA. Furthermore, the Biden State Dept. was run by neocons trained by Dick Cheney. Neocons whose fantasy is a unipolar world, a political and economic empire militarily enforced. Israel is the excuse and a plus is its billionaire allies. It’s also a rehearsal for how to treat the many millions of climate refugees to come.
There’s not much left of the middle class to extract from and same for natural resources. But in the short term, those endless wars are profitable. Who cares about the long term? Corporations aren’t structured to consider the future. The 1/10th of 1%ers know what’s coming; they plan to escape the ecological fall out on their megayachts and private islands. Lessers who survive can become serfs for their neo-fiefdoms.
The elites of the Party of the Mega-Donors have, ever since the Great Liberal Obama, based their claims to power on the fact that they are the better managers and generals of the Endless War than foolish Repubs like Dubya and The Don. The Democrats are proud of their love of war, boast about how they were killers before they got elected, and claim that they can lead the war better.
The Killer D’s will claim that The Don made a mistake by attacking Iran, and that they are superior because they would not have made such a mistake. But the Killer D’s also say The Don made a mistake by trying to get out of the War with Russia. The claim of the Democrats is that they are the ones who can lead Wall Street to World Domination by military force under their brilliant leadership.
Notice how the 1/10th of the 1%ers are focusing on space and Mars and robots these days?
Presidential incompetence is going to run our country into the ground. When are competent leaders going to step up end this madness?
It’s not incompetence (though they are certainly that!); it’s greed, plain and simple. And last I checked, you could count the number of “competent leaders” at the national level on the fingers of one hand. Wanna really fix it? Try this: hxxps://movetoamend.org
I can’t see any competent leaders anywhere in the West. None at all. If they aren’t infected with the same ‘diseases’, then they are effectively silenced and marginalised by the political classes.
Wow, so uneasily bleak, yet virtually true, one must admit !
Seriously true. What is striking about America is how the leadership is largely incompetent across the board. Private and public sectors. Most Bosses appear to be incompetent, and the only thing they are good at is making others pay the costs of their mistakes. America’s Generals usually seem lousy at anything other than killing civilians, and that was before the Hegseth Purges. Iran looks a lot like Vietnam, so if there ever was a learning curve, it must be very flat. There is no sign of any competent leadership anywhere in the US Senate, which is a main place where traditionally one used to look for future Presidents. Elections are almost always a choice between bad and horrible and even being able to competently give a speech appears to be a negative. All the candidates are only media images cast upon the wall.
Today’s “leaders” are all picked by the ultrarich … and one gets the impression that they are not very good at it. Except, they do pick leaders who are very good at making sure the ultrarich get even ultraricher. So, maybe they are not so incompetent after all. Maybe they just have different goals than creating a successful and prosperous society where all people can find safety and happiness?
This is most appropriately revealing indeed. Totally sad to know that the USA is maturing into negativities. Only China seems to hold out a beacon of hope to humanity.
The people in DC White House are afraid of Israel and the Mossad. We don’t need leaders who fear their enemies.
America doesn’t have $1.5 Trn, where’s it coming from ?
The Pentagon hasn’t reconciled it’s ‘budget’ for nearly a decade, how is this ‘budget’ going to be managed ?
American conservatives used to say that “You can’t solve a problem by throwing money at it.” They also used to say “Trust but Verify”, and would have especially said that if a very expensive department regularly could not pass an audit. Old school conservatives were not real big on just giving away money by the trillions without any real explanation of how it was being spent. A trillion here, a trillion there, pretty soon you are talking about real money. That’s from a Sen. Proxmire, adjusted for Trump-Biden Inflation.
The military budget has never been reconciled in since the war in vietnam or possibly since 1956 when Sputnik went round and round.