Written by G. Ross Stephens   

I turn 88 this month. This country has been at war or preparing for war for nearly 75 of those years—little wars/global wars; hot wars/cold wars; necessary wars/unnecessary wars; wars we won/wars we lost; on and on, ad infinitum.
In 1944, at the ripe old age of 18 years, 24 days, I received my notice of induction from my draft board and served in the Navy during that conflict. During the Korean War, I was a statistician at the Navy Department.
We have been involved in Middle-East wars going on 12 years. No end in sight. We’re always on the side of the “good guys.” But who, if anyone, are the “good guys”? It is clearly stupid to get involved in religious wars. Our fearless leaders initially put us into the Middle-East on the basis of misinformation and greed. We are on both sides in Syria. ISIS is the big thing now.
As we prepared to invade Iraq in 2003, there was a “feeding frenzy” by corporations getting a ‘piece of the action’. Since ‘03, including corporation-provided mercenaries, there were more contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan than regular military personnel. We go in, train the locals, leave unknown $billions in military equipment and cash so the locals can fight each other – or us. Incidentally, corporate-provided mercenaries cost three- to four-times as much per soldier as the regular military. It cost one million dollars per year to keep a regular soldier in Iraq.
Our economy is built on war; wars needed to justify the massive waste of national resources. Most spending for national security goes to private corporations, not to ‘our boys in uniform.’
The Defense Department maintains over 5,000 bases in the U.S. and overseas — procurement contracts and bases in every state and Congressional district. Every member wants to increase war appropriations for their constituency (2013 Defense Department Base Structure Report). It’s a lock on Congress. This doesn’t count the Coast Guard or other militarized agencies like the CIA, the Border Patrol, etc.
Vast amounts of military spending is overseas, blown up, obsolete when acquired, too exotic to work well, extremely costly, and often unnecessary. This is the reason defense spending has a much lower beneficial effect on the economy (multiplier effect) than spending for domestic public services and infrastructure. Congress famously passes appropriations for equipment not requested, like tanks and airplanes.
During World War II, nearly every member of Congress had relatives in the military; at the height of the Iraq war only four could make such a claim – “no skin in the game.”
Since 9/11, 50 to 60 percent of Defense Department spending went to private contractors, as did over 80 percent of Energy Department outlay (atomic weapons); 70 percent of intelligence spending; over half of Homeland Security; plus significant parts of NASA, NSA, and other agencies, with $100 billion plus hidden in the ‘Black Budget’ annually. War/national security accounts for over 90 percent of our national debt of $18 trillion; some going back to the Civil War (OMB 2001 and 2014 Historical Tables, U.S. Budget; Census 1961; U.S. Treasury 2014; Consolidated Federal Funds Reports 2001-2010).
The U.S. has 53.5 percent of the world’s naval tonnage with 10 or 11 aircraft carrier task forces (each costing hundreds of $billions to purchase and maintain). No other nation has more than two. Our drones fly in 70 countries.
Cable TV has a constant stream of programs glorifying war – you wouldn’t know we fought to a stalemate in Korea or lost in Viet Nam. We’re a peace-loving nation . . . until we consider our treatment of Native Americans over the last four centuries.
With $400 to $500 billion in federal procurement contracts annually, the U.S. is a corporate welfare state; corporations living on the public dole, heavily involved in our electoral process. Moreover, this sellout to corporate elites extends to state and local governments as well. We can thank the U.S. Supreme Court for placing unlimited corporate money into the 2012 and 2014 elections (Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission, 2010).
The Defense Contract Management Agency has too few people to prevent sloppy performance, corruption, and cost-overruns. At last count, on average each auditor is responsible for 45 contracts worth $80 to $100 million; many are multi-year contracts. An impossible task.
Then, there’s the ‘revolving door’ – Representatives, Senators, civil and military officers involved in appropriations or procurement contracts hired by contractors at extremely lucrative salaries after they leave government. Could that be a payoff?
September 2001, Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said they could not account for over $2 trillion in defense spending; other sources indicated $4 trillion. Since then, Defense spent another $8 trillion counting the ‘black budget’. How much is not accounted for today?
Unfortunately, politicians on both sides of the aisle do not want to be confused by the facts. These are things that is never put together by our conglomerate-controlled mass media. All we heard from candidates and their partisans during the 2014 election was political folklore and fairy tales promoted by untold $millions in hidden corporate donations. Our “elected leaders” no longer represent their constituencies, even their gerrymandered constituencies. As Simon Cameron, Lincoln’s Secretary of War, noted, “An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought.” We have a lot of honest politicians.
Most Americans don’t have a clue to anything that happened before the reign of Ronald Reagan and the adoption of “supply-side economics” that redistributed income and wealth to the very rich and corporate elites. According to Napoleon, “In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.” We have the best government money can buy. It’s been bought.
As our ’boys in uniform’ sang as they went off to Desert Storm, “Hi, Ho, Off we go, To save the oil for Texaco.” George H. W. Bush had sense enough to get in and get out.
But, there is always another bogyman down the pike. It's a fool's paradise.