I've just come to find out, while those of us here have been slogged down with whether or not the Senate will let any one from the House draw little hearts over the 'i's of the Health Care Reform bill, that Robert Gates has met with defense industry heads. And what did he tell them at the meeting?
Well...
(hat tip to TomDispatch.com)
Defense Secretary Robert Gates hosted a meeting with the nation's top defense company executives Wednesday, stressing the need for a closer partnership with them and pledging to work with the White House to secure steady growth in the Pentagon's budgets over time, according to his spokesman.
Peachy. Steady Growth. As opposed to what though? Unsteady and rapidly escalating growth?
Those levels of Pentagon spending do not include what we pay for foreign aid, arms sales and arms control, Veterans, Homeland Security, the Pentagon's share of interest on the national debt, and more. To tally up our entire national security budget, we can get very cozy with $1 Trillion.
Change War you can believe in.
Am I the only one that sees a problem here? I don't like feeling I'm picking on the Obama Administration. I really don't. But one of my pet peeves, along with the lack of a progressive tax policy, is bloated and down right insane defense spending. It's money in the trash as far as I'm concerned, or perhaps it's one of the few remaining home grown industries left for the Administration to invest in. I don't know, but in either case, and I've heard it said many times before, give the Pentagon more and more money, and they'll find excuses to start more and more wars.
This is a crying goddamned shame and the Administration should be called to account on it.
Can we all at least be in agreement on this? Or is there some kind of justification for that kind of promise of expanding the Pentagon budget by the Obama Administration's Secretary of Defense?