Pentagon Budget

Nine Ways Drawing Down Overseas Bases Will Improve US Security

March 11, 2021 By Andrew J. Bacevich and David Vine, Responsible Statecraft. Educate! National Security, Pentagon Budget, US Foreign Bases, Wars and Militarism

For every State Department embassy, consulate, and mission there are nearly three U.S. military bases overseas. The disparity between the 277 U.S. diplomatic installations and the estimated 800 U.S. military bases abroad symbolizes how dangerously militarized U.S. foreign policy has become. Thankfully, across the political spectrum — and even within the U.S. military — there is growing recognition of the problem. Last month the Biden administration announced the Pentagon will conduct an urgently needed “Global Posture Review” to ensure the deployment of U.S. military forces around the world is, as President Joe Biden said, “appropriately aligned with our foreign policy and national security priorities.” This review offers a historic opportunity to close hundreds of unnecessary military bases abroad and improve national and international security in the process.

2020 Exposed The Myth Of American “Security”

December 22, 2020 Sarah Lazare, In These Times. Educate! COVID-19, Failed State, National Security, Pentagon Budget

If there’s one central lesson to take from 2020, it’s that the country with the most well-funded “security state” in the world is also one of the least secure places on Earth. Facing a deadly pandemic that ravaged the globe, the United States leads the world in overall deaths, and is fourth in deaths per 100,000 people. Our cutting-edge, top-of-the-line, trillion-dollar “national security” apparatus was not only helpless in the face of an actual danger, but repeatedly made that danger far worse by foreclosing on a more humane social response — and unleashing violence on the very people hardest hit. This horrific fact should be a wake up call that challenges the very premises of how we perceive “threats” and danger as we enter the 2020s.

In Mainstream Media, Capitalism’s Failures Are Always Your Fault

December 21, 2020 Taya Graham, The Real News. Resistance Report Congress, COVID-19, Pentagon Budget, wealth inequality

Just a quick note: This show is about an existential threat to humanity - the growing gulf between the rich and the rest of us. But why do we need a show solely about the topic of inequality? Because almost every other social ill which threatens the quality of our lives and the state of our democracy is affected by the underlying imperative of rampant inequality. Well, how do I know this? Well just consider what happened this week in the catastrophic mess also known as Washington DC. Their well-heeled politicians and their lobbyist enablers found themselves at an impasse over much-needed aid for a country reeling from a worsening pandemic.

Congress Is Deadlocked On COVID-19 Relief

December 5, 2020 Sarah Lazare, In These Times. Educate! Congress, COVID-19, NDAA, Pentagon Budget

The annual approval of the gargantuan U.S. military budget is one of the most reliable rituals in Congress. It is so ordinary and overwhelmingly bipartisan, it’s barely considered newsworthy, and few outlets follow the details of exactly how much the government is allocating to a nuclear weapons buildup, or deployments to the Asia Pacific, or the steady creep of U.S. military bases across the continent of Africa. Even under President Trump, when the Democratic leadership claims to have struck a more confrontational posture, those same leaders have repeatedly handed him bloated military budgets, as we saw Wednesday with Congress’ bicameral approval of a roughly $740 billion military budget for 2021.

Framing Climate Change as a “National Security Priority” Isn’t A Clever Maneuver To Get People To Care

November 25, 2020 Adam H. Johnson, Medium. Strategize! climate crisis, ICE, John Kerry, Pentagon Budget

On November 23, President-elect Joe Biden announced that former Senator and Secretary of State John Kerry will serve as special envoy on climate and have a seat on the National Security Council. Kerry immediately followed the news with a tweet that declared, “America will soon have a government that treats the climate crisis as the urgent national security threat it is.” As laid out in Episode 122 of Citations Needed (the podcast I co-host), this “national security” approach to climate is loaded down with contradictions, PR spin, and potential dangers.

What Does WWII Have To Do With Military Spending

September 18, 2020 David Swanson, Let's Try Democracy. Educate! Congress, Pentagon Budget, Wars and Militarism, World War II

“I’m going to perform a magic trick by reading your mind,” I tell a class of students or an auditorium or video call full of people. I write something down. “Name a war that was justified,” I say. Someone says “World War Two.” I show them what I wrote: “WWII.” Magic![i] If I insist on additional answers, they’re almost always wars even further in the past than WWII.[ii] If I ask why WWII is the answer, the response is virtually always “Hitler” or “Holocaust” or words to that effect. This predictable exchange, in which I get to pretend to have magical powers, is part of a lecture or workshop that I typically begin by asking for a show of hands in response to a pair of questions.

Ending The Pentagon’s Pandemic Of Spending

September 14, 2020 Mandy Smithberger, Tom Dispatch. Educate! Congress, COVID-19, Military contractors, Pentagon Budget

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 businesses have already closed and census data suggest that, thanks to lost wages, nearly 17% of Americans with children can’t afford to feed them enough food. In this same period, a number of defense contractors have been doing remarkably well.

Overfunding The Military Drives Climate Crisis And White Supremacist Culture

August 26, 2020 Jack Delaney, Peace Data. Educate! climate crisis, Pentagon Budget, Wars and Militarism, White Supremacy

As the U.S. now approaches the third month since protests erupted following the police murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless Black Americans calls to defund and abolish the police are resonating throughout public consciousness. While the Black Lives Matter movement rightfully pushes for the defunding and abolition of a white supremacist institution, it must be recognized that another institution — U.S. militarism — is also an overfunded structure responsible for violence, oppression, and white supremacy.

Anti-China Hysteria Drives Record 2021 US Defense Spending

July 26, 2020 the Qiao Collective. Educate! China, New Cold War, Pentagon Budget, Wars and Militarism

Anti-China hysteria has emerged as the central ‘threat’ designed to justify endless U.S. military spending and adventurism in the Asia-Pacific. The 2021 Department of Defense spending bill has become contested terrain for a progressive wing of Democrats seeking to curtail endless military spending and a Republican-led bipartisan coalition focused on increasing spending to “stay competitive” with ostensible threats from Russia and China. On July 21, the House passed its version of the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), with an increase in stipulated defense spending from 2020’s $658 billion to a $740 billion package for 2021. The Senate followed on July 23.

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