Posted on May 12, 2015
Defense Spending: Are our global aspirations exceeding our available resources?
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DoD
Budget
National Security
Leadership
Edited 9 y ago
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 11
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Yep. Empires are expensive. So expensive they tend to eventually bankrupt their mother republics, and drive them into either gentle or catastrophic decline.
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Without question. Anyone who has ever served knows firsthand that fraud, waste, and abuse are rampant in every unit. The Pentagon can't account for billions of taxpayer dollars that were meant to ensure soldier safety and national security. Meanwhile, hawks on both sides of the aisle encourage more, more, more military spending on frivolous programs, redundant capabilities, crony deals, and unending global conflict. The Constitution which we swore to defend has been mocked and disregarded in favor of policies which hamper military readiness, degrade homeland security, usurp legislative authority, and expose our fighting men and women to undue harm. We need foreign policy realists in office who see the world for what it is, and are responsible and prudent when considering expending our Nation's most precious resource: the blood of her sons and daughters.
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If they stop spending on the most wasteful development project in history there might be funding for the real-warfighting. http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/04/15/first-version-of-f35s-wont-outdo-a10-in-battlefield-capabilities.html?ESRC=dod.nl#.VTGcWxqaffY.facebook
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I also love the mindset that while we are out of Iraq and wrapping up Afgan (give me some lattitude on that part), we need just as much, if not MORE, money.
we, as a military, really do not encourage efficiencies and fiscal responsibility, we really do not...
we, as a military, really do not encourage efficiencies and fiscal responsibility, we really do not...
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Oh without a doubt... we spend more than the next 10 countries combined. That would be all well and good if we had a surplus to spend, but I for one am sick of sending billions in foreign aid and then spending billions more to go slap 'em into line. That isn't even considering the "human cost".
If we would just quit pussy footing around a combat zone (ROE) and fight like we mean it (see Berlin and Tokyo post WWII) we could do a lot more with a lot less.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/military-spending-cuts/u-s-military-spending-dwarfs-rest-world-n37461
If we would just quit pussy footing around a combat zone (ROE) and fight like we mean it (see Berlin and Tokyo post WWII) we could do a lot more with a lot less.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/military-spending-cuts/u-s-military-spending-dwarfs-rest-world-n37461
The U.S. will still spend billions of dollars on its armed forces in the years to come, even with the proposed cutbacks.
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CDR Mike Kovack
If only the world was like it was 70 years ago all things would be much easier......;)
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COL Ted Mc
SPC David Hannaman - Spec; You have to remember that the vast majority of that "foreign aid" has to be spent in the United States of America buying goods and services from Americans and American companies.
If the federal government wasn't taxing you so that it could send your tax money (minus "shrinkage") to foreign countries so (1) that they could spend that money (minus "shrinkage") in the United States of America which would mean that American companies could spend that money (minus "shrinkage") to keep their doors open then you wouldn't have a job and that would mean that you wouldn't have any income so that the federal government could tax you so [return to (1)]
The problem with using Berlin and Tokyo as examples for how to deal with non-nation states and non-governments is that the situations are totally dissimilar. In the case of Germany, the German people were heartily sick of the whole mess (and the "Occupation Forces" made use of the old "bad guys" to run the country). In the case of Japan, the real "movers and shakers" of the Japanese government realized which way they had to move in order to ensure that they didn't lose their real power (and the "Occupation Forces" made use of the old "bad guys" to run the country).
If the federal government wasn't taxing you so that it could send your tax money (minus "shrinkage") to foreign countries so (1) that they could spend that money (minus "shrinkage") in the United States of America which would mean that American companies could spend that money (minus "shrinkage") to keep their doors open then you wouldn't have a job and that would mean that you wouldn't have any income so that the federal government could tax you so [return to (1)]
The problem with using Berlin and Tokyo as examples for how to deal with non-nation states and non-governments is that the situations are totally dissimilar. In the case of Germany, the German people were heartily sick of the whole mess (and the "Occupation Forces" made use of the old "bad guys" to run the country). In the case of Japan, the real "movers and shakers" of the Japanese government realized which way they had to move in order to ensure that they didn't lose their real power (and the "Occupation Forces" made use of the old "bad guys" to run the country).
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I have always found it interesting the military's inability to cut spending from a previous year.
part of what drives that, we always want to do more, more and more.
the exercise we had last year, lets make it bigger and better this year - and we will need more money to do so.
I have found that working with maneuver type guys, their mindset is dont ever let money be the reason something doesnt get done (or, any problem can be solved with money).
part of what drives that, we always want to do more, more and more.
the exercise we had last year, lets make it bigger and better this year - and we will need more money to do so.
I have found that working with maneuver type guys, their mindset is dont ever let money be the reason something doesnt get done (or, any problem can be solved with money).
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SSgt (Join to see)
The modern way of budgets is, "if you don't spend it all, they'll take some away from you next year." It is as if departments aren't allowed to save money. How ludicrous is that?!?
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Having watched a Mess Sergeant and a First Sergeant "adjust" a morning report, I would not presume to put my dog in any fight at the level where the talk is about "spending the extra billion", without a lot more clean information. 'Clean' being the key word here.
As far as the Military goes, Reagan was the last "good one". Successive administrations, including and especially this one, have fumbled the Military ball. Not just financially, although that is becoming more and more obvious today and every day moving forward. The care for the returning wounded veteran and his family have been scandalous for more than 40 years. The deprivation of the trigger-pullers is, of course, an unwritten law.
The failure of our Congress to support the South Vietnamese government with arms and ammunition, when they had a willing army in the field, and in betrayal of the Paris Peace Accords, was the highest example of duplicity and cowardice that I had ever witnessed until a seated POTUS said, "That depends on what the definition of is is."
Moving to Senior Command, too many Senior Commanders seem to lose focus on the principles of Duty, Honor, Country when they start breathing the air-conditioned air around the JCS. They lose their starch and become politicians--- new, inept politicians.
A majority of the uniformed officers of this nation knew by 1965 that our indicated course of action in Vietnam was wrong. Command failed, and we are paying to this day, across the board, for those bad decisions. In figures quoted by the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the number of suicides among Vietnam veterans was more than 100, 000, or almost twice as many as we lost in combat.
I cite these old FUBARs for clarity regarding the loss of integrity inside the Beltway, since the more recent administrative atrocities executed by the upper echelons are still too wrapped in the 'fog of war' for actual culprits and their acts, or failures to act, to be sufficiently apparent to this uneducated observer.
And, forget the media. Time does not permit me to go there.
So, in answer to the question, Are our aspirations outstripping our resources?, I would have to say, "No, not if you have men of honor and integrity running it." Until these men step up the damage will continue, the waste will go on and eventually the idiots will win.
In closing, I am told by a reliable source that the following sign was posted over the urinals in the 'O' Club at Tan Son Nhut Airbase in 1964. It read: The tiny pink candies at the bottom of the urinals are reserved for Field Grade and Above."
As far as the Military goes, Reagan was the last "good one". Successive administrations, including and especially this one, have fumbled the Military ball. Not just financially, although that is becoming more and more obvious today and every day moving forward. The care for the returning wounded veteran and his family have been scandalous for more than 40 years. The deprivation of the trigger-pullers is, of course, an unwritten law.
The failure of our Congress to support the South Vietnamese government with arms and ammunition, when they had a willing army in the field, and in betrayal of the Paris Peace Accords, was the highest example of duplicity and cowardice that I had ever witnessed until a seated POTUS said, "That depends on what the definition of is is."
Moving to Senior Command, too many Senior Commanders seem to lose focus on the principles of Duty, Honor, Country when they start breathing the air-conditioned air around the JCS. They lose their starch and become politicians--- new, inept politicians.
A majority of the uniformed officers of this nation knew by 1965 that our indicated course of action in Vietnam was wrong. Command failed, and we are paying to this day, across the board, for those bad decisions. In figures quoted by the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the number of suicides among Vietnam veterans was more than 100, 000, or almost twice as many as we lost in combat.
I cite these old FUBARs for clarity regarding the loss of integrity inside the Beltway, since the more recent administrative atrocities executed by the upper echelons are still too wrapped in the 'fog of war' for actual culprits and their acts, or failures to act, to be sufficiently apparent to this uneducated observer.
And, forget the media. Time does not permit me to go there.
So, in answer to the question, Are our aspirations outstripping our resources?, I would have to say, "No, not if you have men of honor and integrity running it." Until these men step up the damage will continue, the waste will go on and eventually the idiots will win.
In closing, I am told by a reliable source that the following sign was posted over the urinals in the 'O' Club at Tan Son Nhut Airbase in 1964. It read: The tiny pink candies at the bottom of the urinals are reserved for Field Grade and Above."
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COL Ted Mc
SPC Rob Robinson - Spec; Once you accept that the government of the United States of America was acting in the best interests of freedom and democracy by rejecting the national leadership of Vietnam that America's own intelligence agencies had rated as "America's best friends in Asia" and assisting the French to re-impose a Catholic dominated, European centred, colonial regime on a Buddhist, Oriental, country which had just defeated the Japanese occupiers that the former French collaborationist regime had (effectively) ceded the country to and then using a known false causus belli to justify supporting a known venal, corrupt, and dictatorial regime which acted in violation of the law to cancel national elections which both the regime and the US government knew the regime was going to lose (and the people that the US government had rejected - thus making the US government look like a bunch of competent boobs [a "competent boob" is a boob that is really good at being a boob]), the rest of your position on Vietnam makes a lot of sense.
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SPC Rob Robinson
Plans and Policy, that explains a lot.
Your view of our "supporting a ...venal, corrupt,...dictatorial regime {RVN} is short-sighted and makes NO sense, and the rest is Monday Morning Beltway Bullshit meant to divert attention from the failure of Senior Command and the Congress to effectively prosecute a war whose successful conclusion would provide an interlude wherein an election would name a government, which would have been better than what came down Route One from Hanoi. That joint failure let the VC thugs and Northern interlopers in to produce a genocidal, feudal form of government which the brave people of Vietnam [Catholic and Buddhist] are daily, busily disentangling themselves from.
I only speak for myself when I say that I was there to destroy an enemy of republican democracy so that the people I trained in the hamlets ad villages could build a democracy. The end goal was to drain the swamp and deal with what was there, but the first problem was the alligators. We had to eliminate them. I would be there today doing that work, but for two things. 1. I got hit. 2. During my recuperation, I read and I interrogated. I discovered how totally anesthetized and out-of-touch was The Chain at the top, worse than MacArthur in Korea.
Senior Command will have to cure itself, as witnessed by your position and attitude.
Read BRUTE, by Krulak, USMC General.
Your view of our "supporting a ...venal, corrupt,...dictatorial regime {RVN} is short-sighted and makes NO sense, and the rest is Monday Morning Beltway Bullshit meant to divert attention from the failure of Senior Command and the Congress to effectively prosecute a war whose successful conclusion would provide an interlude wherein an election would name a government, which would have been better than what came down Route One from Hanoi. That joint failure let the VC thugs and Northern interlopers in to produce a genocidal, feudal form of government which the brave people of Vietnam [Catholic and Buddhist] are daily, busily disentangling themselves from.
I only speak for myself when I say that I was there to destroy an enemy of republican democracy so that the people I trained in the hamlets ad villages could build a democracy. The end goal was to drain the swamp and deal with what was there, but the first problem was the alligators. We had to eliminate them. I would be there today doing that work, but for two things. 1. I got hit. 2. During my recuperation, I read and I interrogated. I discovered how totally anesthetized and out-of-touch was The Chain at the top, worse than MacArthur in Korea.
Senior Command will have to cure itself, as witnessed by your position and attitude.
Read BRUTE, by Krulak, USMC General.
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I'd say at 13 trillion plus we're way beyond our global aspirations. We should just declare bankruptcy if that is possible and start over.
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COL Ted Mc
PV2 Glen Lewis - Private; That's a mere $40,000 per person. Spread that out over ten years and it's only $4,000 per person per year. Hell, that works out to only $10.95 per day. Not only that, but that's a mere $0.46 per hour.
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PV2 Glen Lewis
Well Col. I never stopped to do the math per person; like most people I'm just aware of the total and the constant reminders that our benefits are in jeopardy because of the growth of the National Debt, the devaluation of the dollar and now even its possible replacement as the world's standard of monetary value. Like most Americans that I know of or hear of I'm tired of frivolous spending by our government. I can't for the life of me think of any reason to give the government $10.95 a day for 10 years if it's going to be used in the manner our taxes, Social Security and military expenditures have been used over the past 25 years. Last but not least I find it to so far beyond frustrating that I can't even think of a word that fits my frame of mind that we're in this position or that anyone would even think to defend it.
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Being Politics drive more of the budget than most people care to understand any response which I would have surely would be not well received. I know our most Senior Leaders understand my point and are shackled with Following The Orders of Those Appointed Above Them or GET OUT OF SERVICE.
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Suspended Profile
While there are places to trim the fat so to speak, it's NOT in our pay or benefits. I love how congress can serve one term and get paid a rediculous amount of pay for the rest of their lives. But we serve 20yrs plus and we are constantly getting the short end of the stick. And apparently the head of the military is ok with this, because they let it happen. Then the military wants to pay brand new soldiers astronomical amounts in bonuses, but they shit on their members who have all this training over their careers. They wonder why people are leaving and not staying in for 20 anymore.
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