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Suggested Reading
BAKE SALES FOR BOMBERS? The Recession “Hits” the Defense Industry
Frida Berrigan, Senior Program Associate,
Arms and Security Initiative
November 5, 2008
Remember that old peace poster? It had a picture of a playground and a
line that went something like: “it would be a great day when schools
had all the money they needed, and the generals had to hold a bake
sale to buy a bomber.”
Defense Secretary Robert Gates hasn’t started mixing the brownie
batter yet. But the defense industry is starting to get anxious. There
is reason to-- the Wall Street bailout, the mud-sliding economy and
tightening budgets all raise questions about where the money for their
next billion dollar bomber is going to come from.
More...
Pentagon Expects Cuts in Military Spending
NY Times
November 3, 2008
By THOM SHANKER and CHRISTOPHER DREW
WASHINGTON — After years of unfettered growth in military budgets, Defense Department planners, top commanders and weapons manufacturers now say they are almost certain that the financial meltdown will have a serious impact on future Pentagon spending.
Across the military services, deep apprehension has led to closed-door meetings and detailed calculations in anticipation of potential cuts. Civilian and military budget planners concede that they are already analyzing worst-case contingency spending plans that would freeze or slash their overall budgets.
The obvious targets for savings would be expensive new arms programs, which have racked up cost overruns of at least $300 billion for the top 75 weapons systems, according to the Government Accountability Office. Congressional budget experts say likely targets for reductions are the Army’s plans for fielding advanced combat systems, the Air Force’s Joint Strike Fighter, the Navy’s new destroyer and the ground-based missile defense system.
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Putting the financial bailout package in perspective
By Travis Sharp
Posted on the Council for a Livable World Blog
OCT 07, 2008
The recently passed financial bailout package has drawn the ire of citizens throughout the United States. Both conservatives and liberals have condemned Congress and the White House for rescuing Wall Street titans, who caused the economic death spiral in the first place, by transferring an enormous fiscal burden to middle- and working-class taxpayers. At a time when people are losing their homes and struggling to make ends meet, many Americans find the bailout’s $700 billion price tag to be simply outrageous.
What many Americans may not realize is that the United States is likely to spend $711 billion on national defense in the fiscal year that began on October 1, 2008 (assuming fiscal year 2009 war costs are $170 billion, an estimate provided by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates). You read that correctly: the United States will spend more on defense over the next 365 days than on the $700 bailout package.
This graph compares estimated U.S. defense spending in fiscal year (FY) 2009 to the bailout, previous U.S. conflicts, and other federal spending priorities.
GEORGIA: BACKGROUND TO WAR
William D. Hartung, August 15, 2008
This is a good review of the current status of the Russia-Georgia conflict. To get more information on the author, click here.
Perhaps the most ironic statement yet in the war of words over
Russia’s military intervention in Georgia was John McCain’s assertion
that “I’m interested in good relations between the United States and
Russia, but in the 21st century, nations don’t invade other nations.”
Too bad no one told the Bush administration that before it went into
Iraq.
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