Post Tagged with: "Pentagon"

Imagining a Progressive Pentagon

Imagining a Progressive Pentagon

A progressive Pentagon? Talk about an oxymoron! The Pentagon continues to grow and surge with ever larger budgets, ever more expansive missions (for example, a Space Force to dominate the heavens and yet more bases in the Pacific to encircle China), and ever greater ambitions to dominate everywhere, including if necessary through global thermonuclear warfare. No wonder it’s so hard, to the point of absurdity, to imagine a[Read More…]

by 25/09/2023 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
How A Simple USA Budget Reform Can Save A Million Human Lives in A Year

How A Simple USA Budget Reform Can Save A Million Human Lives in A Year

A simple reform of diverting some of the highly excessive and wasteful military budget to civilian and health priorities can achieve the highly desirable objective to saving about one million human lives in a year. The current USA military expenditure which is over 850 billion dollars according to official estimates and closer to 1400 billion dollars according to other reliable[Read More…]

by 13/09/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Featured image: Pentagon by Thomas Hawk is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 / Flickr

Throwing More Money at the Pentagon

by William D. Hartung and Julia Gledhill On June 3rd, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law that lifted the government’s debt ceiling and capped some categories of government spending. The big winner was — surprise, surprise! — the Pentagon. Congress spared military-related programs any cuts while freezing all other categories of discretionary spending at the fiscal year 2023 level (except support for veterans). Indeed,[Read More…]

by 21/06/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Pentagon by gregwest98 is licensed under CC BY 2.0 / Flickr

The Pentagon’s Budget from Hell

On March 13th, the Pentagon rolled out its proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2024. The results were — or at least should have been — stunning, even by the standards of a department that’s used to getting what it wants when it wants it. The new Pentagon budget would come in at $842 billion. That’s the highest level requested since World[Read More…]

by 27/03/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Pentagon by gregwest98 is licensed under CC BY 2.0 / Flickr

A Highway to Peace or a Highway to Hell? The Vast Power of the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex

In April 1953, newly elected President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a retired five-star Army general who had led the landings on D-Day in France in June 1944, gave his most powerful speech. It would become known as his “Cross of Iron” address. In it, Ike warned of the cost humanity would pay if Cold War competition led to a world dominated by[Read More…]

by 22/03/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Pentagon by gregwest98 is licensed under CC BY 2.0 / Flickr

Can the Military-Industrial Complex Be Tamed?

Cutting the Pentagon Budget in Half Would Finally Force the Generals to Think My name is Bill Astore and I’m a card-carrying member of the military-industrial complex (MIC). Sure, I hung up my military uniform for the last time in 2005. Since 2007, I’ve been writing articles for TomDispatch focused largely on critiquing that same MIC and America’s permanent war economy. I’ve written against[Read More…]

by 01/02/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Pentagon by gregwest98 is licensed under CC BY 2.0 / Flickr

The Pentagon’s National Defense Strategy Drives Record Military Spending

More than two millennia ago, in the History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides recounted a disastrous conflict Athens waged against Sparta. A masterwork on strategy and war, the book is still taught at the U.S. Army War College and many other military institutions across the world. A passage from it describing an ultimatum Athens gave a weaker power has stayed with[Read More…]

by 16/01/2023 Comments are Disabled World
What It Means for Hunger to Burn Through the Pentagon’s Ranks

What It Means for Hunger to Burn Through the Pentagon’s Ranks

By any standard, the money the United States government pours into its military is simply overwhelming. Take the $858-billion defense spending authorization that President Biden signed into law last month. Not only did that bill pass in an otherwise riven Senate by a bipartisan majority of 83-11, but this year’s budget increase of 4.3% is the second highest in inflation-adjusted terms since World[Read More…]

by 12/01/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Pentagon by gregwest98 is licensed under CC BY 2.0 / Flickr

Contractors Cash in as Congress Adds Billions to the Pentagon Budget

by Julia Gledhill & William D. Hartung Congress has spoken when it comes to next year’s Pentagon budget and the results, if they weren’t so in line with past practices, should astonish us all. The House of Representatives voted to add $37 billion and the Senate $45 billion to the administration’s already humongous request for “national defense,” a staggering figure that includes both the[Read More…]

by 12/09/2022 Comments are Disabled World
A Military Rich in Dollars, Poor in People

A Military Rich in Dollars, Poor in People

The American military is now having trouble recruiting enough soldiers. According to the New York Times, its ranks are short thousands of entry-level troops and it’s on track to face the worst recruitment crisis since the Vietnam War ended, not long after the draft was eliminated. Mind you, it’s not that the military doesn’t have the resources for recruitment drives. Nearly every political figure[Read More…]

by 15/08/2022 Comments are Disabled World
Pentagon by gregwest98 is licensed under CC BY 2.0 / Flickr

America’s $1.4 Trillion “National Security” Budget Makes Us Ever Less Safe

This March, when the Biden administration presented a staggering $813 billion proposal for “national defense,” it was hard to imagine a budget that could go significantly higher or be more generous to the denizens of the military-industrial complex. After all, that request represented far more than peak spending in the Korean or Vietnam War years, and well over $100 billion more than at the[Read More…]

by 08/07/2022 Comments are Disabled World
Exorbitant military spending sacrifices public well-being

Exorbitant military spending sacrifices public well-being

President Dwight Eisenhower gave his first major presidential speech, The Cross of Iron, on April 16, 1953. He laid out several important precepts guiding US conduct in world affairs as well pointing out the cost of military spending in very concrete terms. Eisenhower stated: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense,[Read More…]

by 01/07/2022 Comments are Disabled World
Top Gun: Maverick: The Pentagon Recruitment Drive

Top Gun: Maverick: The Pentagon Recruitment Drive

Hollywood, like the US press, has not been spared the influential hand of government.  Under the mask of various projects, the defence establishment has sought to influence the narrative of Freedom Land’s pursuits, buying a stake in the way exploits are marketed or, when needed, buried. The extent of such collaboration, manipulation and interference can be gathered in National Security[Read More…]

by 23/06/2022 Comments are Disabled World
World Military Expenditure Passes $2 Trillion For First Time, Finds SIPRI

World Military Expenditure Passes $2 Trillion For First Time, Finds SIPRI

The military spending of all nations combined set a new record in 2021, exceeding the $2 trillion mark for the first time ever, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) revealed in a report published on Monday. According to the report, while the U.S. defense spending slid by 1.4% compared to 2020, Washington remained the absolute global leader, having lavished[Read More…]

by 26/04/2022 Comments are Disabled World
Will the Pentagon Budget Ever Shrink?

Will the Pentagon Budget Ever Shrink?

What Would It Take for Military Spending in America to Go Down? A Thought Experiment on the Military-Industrial Complex I have a question for you: What would it take in today’s world for America’s military spending to go down?  Here’s one admittedly farfetched scenario: Vladimir Putin loses his grip on power and Russia retrenches militarily while reaching out to normalize[Read More…]

by 06/04/2022 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
What a Waste! $778 Billion for the Pentagon and Still Counting

What a Waste! $778 Billion for the Pentagon and Still Counting

2021 was another banner year for the military-industrial complex, as Congress signed off on a near-record $778 billion in spending for the Pentagon and related work on nuclear warheads at the Department of Energy. That was $25 billion more than the Pentagon had even asked for. It can’t be emphasized enough just how many taxpayer dollars are now being showered on the Pentagon. That department’s astronomical[Read More…]

by 03/02/2022 Comments are Disabled World
Why It’s Time to Make Deep Cuts at the Pentagon

Why It’s Time to Make Deep Cuts at the Pentagon

Where are you going to get the money?  That question haunts congressional proposals to help the poor, the unhoused, and those struggling to pay the mortgage or rent or medical bills, among so many other critical domestic matters.  And yet — big surprise! — there’s always plenty of money for the Pentagon. In fiscal year 2022, in fact, Congress is being especially[Read More…]

by 13/12/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Washington’s National Security Spending Follies

Washington’s National Security Spending Follies

by Mandy Smithberger & William D. Hartung President Biden’s first Pentagon budget, released late last month, is staggering by any reasonable standard.  At more than $750 billion for the Defense Department and related work on nuclear weapons at the Department of Energy, it represents one of the highest levels of spending since World War II — far higher than the peaks of the Korean[Read More…]

by 29/06/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Games the Pentagon plays

Games the Pentagon plays

Modern warfare is waged with high-tech weapons. Each battle fought eats up loads of ammunition and modern weapons systems need spare parts and fuel. All this meaning that no military action is possible without an advanced economy and supplies. Even terrorist organizations forced to go deep into the underground have to set up laboratories and workshops to produce homemade explosives[Read More…]

by 26/06/2021 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Why the Pentagon Budget Never Goes Down

Why the Pentagon Budget Never Goes Down

Joe Biden’s First 100 Days Were a Pentagon Prize The first 100 days of President Joe Biden’s administration have come and gone. While somewhat exaggerated, that milestone is normally considered the honeymoon period for any new president. Buoyed by a recent election triumph and inauguration, he’s expected to be at the peak of his power when it comes to advancing the[Read More…]

by 11/05/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Why Pentagon Weapons Programs Rarely Get Canceled Despite Major Problems

Why Pentagon Weapons Programs Rarely Get Canceled Despite Major Problems

Cancel culture is a common, almost viral, term in political and social discourse these days. Basically, somebody expresses views considered to be outrageous or vile or racist or otherwise insensitive and inappropriate. In response, that person is “canceled,” perhaps losing a job or otherwise sidelined and silenced. In being deplatformed by Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites, for instance, this[Read More…]

by 04/03/2021 Comments are Disabled World
More Money for the Pentagon in the Pandemic Moment?

More Money for the Pentagon in the Pandemic Moment?

This country is in a crisis of the first order. More than half a million of us have died thanks to Covid-19. Food insecurity is on the rise, with nearly 24 million Americans going hungry, including 12 million children. Unemployment claims filed since the pandemic began have now reached 93 million. Given the level of damage to the less wealthy parts of this society,[Read More…]

by 02/03/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Shrinking the Pentagon

Shrinking the Pentagon

Co-Written by William D. Hartung and Mandy Smithberger Will the Biden Administration Dare Cut Military Spending? Now that Joe Biden is slated to take office as the 46th president of the United States, advice on how he should address a wide range of daunting problems is flooding in. Nowhere is there more at stake than when it comes to how he handles[Read More…]

by 30/11/2020 Comments are Disabled World
 National (In)Security and the Pentagon Budget

 National (In)Security and the Pentagon Budget

A Post-Coronavirus Economy Can No Longer Afford to Put the Pentagon First The inadequate response of both the federal and state governments to the Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the United States, creating what could only be called a national security crisis. More than 190,000 Americans are dead, approximately half of them people of color. Yelp data show that more than 132,000[Read More…]

by 14/09/2020 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Robot Generals: Will They Make Better Decisions Than Humans — Or Worse?

Robot Generals: Will They Make Better Decisions Than Humans — Or Worse?

With Covid-19 incapacitating startling numbers of U.S. service members and modern weapons proving increasingly lethal, the American military is relying ever more frequently on intelligent robots to conduct hazardous combat operations. Such devices, known in the military as “autonomous weapons systems,” include robotic sentries, battlefield-surveillance drones, and autonomous submarines. So far, in other words, robotic devices are merely replacing standard weaponry on conventional battlefields.[Read More…]

by 26/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Extraterrestrial Fascinations: The Pentagon And UFOs

Extraterrestrial Fascinations: The Pentagon And UFOs

Conspiracies in the extraterrestrial department have always constituted the residue of superstition in a secular age.  Chase away a Christ figure, or ward off God, and the mind still wanders, hoping to be bewitched.  If something cannot be explained, ignorance furnishes an often poor substitute. The concept of extraterrestrial phenomena straddles scientific probabilities, faith and the sense that governments might[Read More…]

by 27/12/2017 1 comment World
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