US military spending soars, security suffers

[OneBlueSky]

By Jim Lobe
Asia Times Online
May 3, 2004

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FC03Aa01.html

More than one-fifth of the proposed 2005 United States military budget could be cut and the money spent on projects that would better protect the nation's security, according to a task force report released Monday. Overall, the steep increases in US defense budgets under President George W Bush have largely failed to strengthen US security since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, adds the study, written by nine national-security experts.

The report charges that some of the most expensive items in the budget have little or nothing to do with the threats the US confronts in the world today, and calls for a much more integrated approach to determining defense priorities that would include non-military - such as economic assistance and peacekeeping - as well as strictly military programs.

The report, "A Unified Security Budget for the United States", concludes that some US$51 billion of the proposed $230 billion 2005 budget could be saved by reallocating funding within military accounts, while the savings could be used on non-military initiatives that could substantially boost overall security.

(snip)

From 2000 to 2004, the Pentagon's budget ballooned by more than 50 percent, bringing it to a level comparable to that of the world's next 25 biggest military spenders combined, according to the CACP. Moreover, its current proposal for 2005 does not include expenditures for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the Pentagon is spending nearly $70 billion this year alone.

- more . . .

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FC03Aa01.html