Even as Obama says the troops are coming home in Iraq, we are setting up 14 new US Military bases in Iraq. Without finding enough evidence to support claims of weapons of mass destruction, we will continue to occupy Iraq for decades to come. And it's very unlikely we will leave Afghanistan as well. These new occupations will continue to ad to the United States gigantic military budget, which totals 46% of all the worlds military spending and continues to contribute the massive national debt.
Something has got to give, but Republicans heading into power are now promising more military spending and more involvement in Iraq. In other words, they aren't serious about cutting federal spending either. Considering the vast superiority of US firepower, that obviously isn't used wisely to keep these wars short like they promise when they ask for American support, its obvious there is much wasteful spending in the military budget. Even a $200 billion cut in military spending would still allow the United States to be a superior military power.
Where as the United States total military spending totals 46% of the world's total. China, which is second in military spending accounts for 6.6% of the world's total military spending. How did it become so lopsided? There is obvious room to cut part of the military budget and maintain the world's best military. That's unlikely to happen.
In the debates, Congressman elect Billy Long was asked about what he would do in Afghanistan. He said whatever it takes. Looking at the special interest money that poured into Long's campaign in the final days of the election, whatever it takes may really mean whatever it takes to please defense contractors.
There is this truth when it comes to defense contracting and the United States Congress. When a government contract is awarded, the defense contractor attempts to spread the development and production of the weapons system across as many states as possible. This ensures that when Congress looks to cut the giant military budget, they start looking at how people will be affected in their states and districts. An example of this is the B-1 bomber, a magnificent airplane, which has parts produced for it in all 50 states. This is one of the reasons the industrial military complex has such a hold on our Congress and the military budget continues to increase.
So while both Republicans and Democrats claim they want to make serious cuts in the federal government, the military is usually the last to be looked at and rarely receives cuts that could easily be justified while still providing America with a military ready to defend our great Republic.
This isn't going to change with fed up of wasteful spending Billy Long. Long has already been bought by some major defense contractors during the election. Among the list of special interest groups that donated to his campaign, military contractors Boeing, General Dynamics, Halliburton, Honeywell, Koch Industries, and KPMG. These political campaign contributions set up that Long will overlook the possibility of making defense spending cuts that will assist in tackling the greatest threat to the American way of life, the national debt, which is approaching $14 trillion very quickly.
This is one of the ways the industrial military complex works, and even though we were told Long would not be influenced by special interest groups and was fed up with how Washington works, we won't be able to count on Billy Long to make needed cuts in the military budgets for serious debt reduction. That makes him as dangerous as any other politician. Ike warned us. Long will embrace neo-con war beliefs.
