You can watch our TV news for months and not have the slightest clue that we are the most militarized of global landlords and that this is the face we present to much of the world.
Contractors are hardly alone in raking in the dollars from the Pentagon's baseworld. Pentagon officials, military personnel, members of Congress, and lobbyists, among others, have all benefited -- financially, politically, and professionally -- from the giant overseas presence.
With the winding down of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States now has an opportunity to implement real defense reforms without having a serious impact on immediate battlefield needs.
WASHINGTON -- Built to dominate the enemy in combat, the Army's hulking Abrams tank is proving equally hard to beat in a budget battle. Lawmakers fro...
The NIC report indicates that we're rapidly moving towards a quadripartite world governed by the U.S., China, India, and the European Community. In such a world, it makes no sense for America to shoulder most of the responsibility for policing the world.
There is a direct connection between the massive level of U.S. military spending and belt-tightening austerity at home: most federal discretionary spending goes for war. Aren't there other, better things that Americans could be doing with their money?
Why do we continue, more so now than ever before, to exaggerate the military threats that we face? For it is undeniable that our massive national security complex has spawned its very own enemy-industrial complex. And the reason for this is simple: threat inflation makes good business sense. Just like sex, it sells.
While my husband was deployed, money was no longer tight. Yes, during that year, my husband was being compensated, and rightly so. How much would you expect someone to be paid for giving up things that can't be given back?
That is certainly the takeaway from the recent news cycle, which has identified an increase in Chinese military spending at the People's Congress and a decline in U.S. military spending due to the "sequester." But what are the broader trends and implications of these shifts in military resource allocation?
Once the politically-generated 'fiscal cliff' stalled in January with modestly raised tax revenues while cutting unemployment benefits, the first sequestration budget cut kicked in on March 1st despite a White House list of potentially horrendous cuts to education, transit, health care, housing, etc.
To be fair, the Air Force did request some C-130s. Thanks to Senator McCain, the Government Accountability Office did a study of how many more C-130s the Air Force requested between 1978 and 1998. The answer: Five. How many did Congress add on? 256.
From 24/7 Wall St.: The business of war is profitable. In 2011, the 100 largest contractors sold $410 billion in arms and military services. Just 10 o...
The fact that government devotes too much to Social Security is no argument for spending too much on the military. With the threat of runaway deficits, debts, and interest payments, the U.S. cannot afford any budget sacred cows.
Americans broadly support the overall spending cuts brought by sequestration, but are equally opposed to the reductions in military spending, accordin...
Is it really possible that the president and Congress (who are the elected representatives of the people) cannot agree on any reasonable reductions that would not imperil the health and safety of the nation?
Until a credible force--making a broad and compelling counterargument that resonates outside the beltway--comes to the negotiating table, the president won't. He doesn't have to. His job is secure, even if there rest of ours are not.
For whales, such as the great blue, who can communicate over thousands of miles, such sonic stress affects reproduction and communication so much that some whales simply stop vocalizing. What happens to our oceans when the whales stop singing?
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Congress on Wednesday that if automatic government spending cuts kick in on March 1 he may have...
While I very much enjoy blogging about China, I often feel that by addressing already popular stories, many of which I do not think were terribly subs...
Growing conflicts over water and food, refugees fleeing storm-battered regions, and other impacts of climate change-related events worldwide threaten our nation's security. They also put our soldiers in harm's way.
"Pro-life" values? Not a label that abortion-rights advocates should use for opponents of a woman's right to choose an abortion. One of the main reasons those opponents keep calling themselves "pro-life" is they want to imply that supporters of abortion rights are anti-life. Why help?
SSixty-two legislators sit on the House Armed Services Committee, the largest committee in Congress. Since January, 2011, when Republicans took contro...
We have far too many people in uniform and they will all be defending their turf, not to mention their own military careers. In this battle, there will be many casualties and few heroes.
As the debate on government spending continues, our military expenditures are a cancer that eats away at our society, economically and morally. Where are the voices of faith who question the militarization of our society and the state of endless war we now take for granted?
The charges against Hagel that have received a hearing do little more than perpetuate our inability to debate seriously issues of vital national concern.
