Another blog post today provides info that a major portion of the Pentagon failed yet again to pass an independent audit. Here is some previous information about the Pentagon’s massive accounting fraud:
The U.S.’s post-9/11 wars have cost $5.9 TRILLION, KILLED 240,000 civilians, and DISPLACED 21 MILLION people.
After TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS and all that human suffering, the U.S. has NOT won ANY any of those wars! But Congress refuses to stop those wars. Instead, a congressional commission is urging yet more money for a bloated Pentagon.
The author of the article at the following link is William Hartung, one of the U.S.’s top experts on military spending and militarism. Read his article at this link: https://www.thenation.com/article/pentagon-military-madness/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%2011262018&utm_term=daily
We must DE-MILITARIZE the U.S.’s foreign policy!
We must interact with other nations NONVIOLENTLY instead of causing endless wars.
Half a century years BEFORE Studebaker started manufacturing automobiles, they were making wheeled vehicles from wood. During the Civil War they had a contract to provide many, many wagons for the U.S. Army. Studebaker manufactured the entire number of high quality ahead of schedule and below budget. Studebaker REFUNDED to the government the money beyond what its actual costs were. Where is that kind of competence and conscience nowadays?
STOP the CORRUPT, WASTEFUL, INCOMPETENT program to build the F-35 fighter plane!
Several non-profit organizations with highly competent reputations have been exposing this fraud. I summarized and partially reworded the following information from the Project on Governmental Oversight (www.pogo.com), a group that I financially support, and I added additional thoughts.
For many years the military-industrial-congressional complex has RIPPED OFF the taxpayers for a horrendously expensive and unworkable weapon — THE MOST EXPENSIVE WEAPONS PROGRAM IN HISTORY. The Pentagon is lying to us that the F-35 fighter jet is OK. An official document shows the Air Force recently conducted misleading battlefield tests—in secret—that were skewed to make the F-35 appear ready for combat when, in fact, it is not. Not only does trying to finalize the F-35 program without testing it in realistic combat scenario waste of taxpayer dollars, but it also puts American soldiers’ lives at risk.
The disastrous $400 billion F-35 program is typical of the Pentagon’s problem with wasteful spending. The Pentagon needs to stop worrying about lining the pockets of big contractors and instead worry about getting the American military the weapons and equipment it needs.
The military-industrial-congressional complex lobbies vigorously for wasteful, unnecessary weapons systems. Contractors sub-contract and sub-sub-contract and sub-sub-sub-contract and sub-sub-sub-sub-contract into as many congressional districts (ALL 435 in the case of the B-1 bomber) in order to convince Congress members to support those weapons contracts.
Some of the weapons — such as the F-35 fighter jet and several other airplane and helicopter projects — KEEP FAILING TO FUNCTION properly, but the remedy is always to ADD MORE OF OUR TAXPAYERS’ DOLLARS to projects that are INHERENTLY FLAWED.
ORDINARY PEOPLE MUST PUSH HARD AGAINST MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND STOP THIS CORRUPTION!
SEE THIS LINK to a one-page article on the federal budget’s funding for the military and its neglect of poor people:
A budget is a numerical way to express our values. The federal budget values military violence – and shows contempt for poor people. See the 1-page article attached here:
Moral Conversations on the Nat. Budget, Rev Bouman, 6-1-18
The huge cost of war — The huge power of military weapons corporations
Military spending keeps escalating. Weapons manufacturers keep taking more of our tax dollars and causing reductions in anti-poverty programs and other good things. Weapons manufacturers have huge economic power – and hence huge political power. They market themselves as positive forces in our communities.
Although the weapons manufacturers claim to create jobs, the same amount of money would create more jobs in other, non-military activities. By diverting money away from better job-creating activities, they actually REDUCE JOBS. We could CREATE MORE JOBS by funding non-military activities that would actually help our local communities (e.g., hire teachers, build low-income housing, rebuild infrastructure, insulate older homes, create renewable energy systems).
The article below mentions these ideas. It starts with a 1967 quotation from Martin Luther King that is still relevant today: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
https://www.afsc.org/blogs/news-and-commentary/continuing-cost-war?utm_source=weekend052618&utm_medium=email
