Written by Thomas Magstadt   

Every year the US spends obscene sums on weapons, war, and world supremacy. Most taxpayers go along with it because they believe it's necessary, a belief fostered by venal bested interests who, by corrupting our elected representatives, perverting the budget process, and undermining the civilian economy, are killing the goose that laid the Golden Egg.

As a nation, we've become inured to the fact we are constantly being bombarded with fear-mongering propaganda that spills from the mouths of Fox News commentators, Congress and the titans of commerce - especially, defense contractors and Big Oil. When somebody on Capitol Hill does speak truth to power, he or she is likely as not to be sent into exile.

Take Winslow Wheeler, for example. For more than three decades, Wheeler has worked in Washington, D.C. During his many years as a staffer in the US Congress, mostly in the service of Senate Republicans, he became an expert on the defense budget.

In 2002, Wheeler published a provocative essay under a pseudonym ("Spartacus") about Congress' overreaction to the 9-11 terrorists attacks ("Mr. Smith Is Dead: No One Stands in the Way as Congress Lards Post-September 11 Defense Bills with Pork"). For his efforts, Wheeler was rewarded with an invitation to resign from his position on the Republican staff of the Senate Budget Committee.

Wheeler now works at a Washington think tank called the Center for Defense Information, where he has developed a chart of the real defense budget for 2012 and 2013. It's a chart every citizen who pays taxes in this country, every veteran who has ever served in the military, every parent who has ever sent a son or daughter off to boot camp or battle ought to study closely and vow not to forget.

The Real Defense Budget 2012
(billions US$)

DOD Base Budget (Discretionary) 530.5
DOD Base Budget(Mandatory) 4.9
DOD Base Budget(Total) 535.4
Overseas Contingency Operations 115.1
DOD Subtotal (Total) 650.5
DOE (Nuclear) 18.5
"Defense-related activities" 7.8
National Defense (Total) 676.7
Net Military Retirement Costs 21.2
International Affairs (Total) 61.3
Veterans Affairs (Total) 124.6
Homeland Security (Total 46.0
Subtotal 928.7
24% of Net Interest on the
Federal Debt 57.4

Grand Total = $986.1 billion

What this chart fails to say, however, is at least as important as what it does say. According to the highly regarded Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) total world military spending in 2010 stood at a staggering $1.6 trillion. The US alone spends well over half that amount. Imagine how much good that amount of money could do to advance the cause of peace, fight illiteracy and alleviate suffering from preventable diseases, malnutrition, lack of safe drinking water, et cetera. Imagine how much good will - and soft power security - a few judiciously distributed billions (a tiny fraction of what the US spends every year on defense) would bring.

As a nation we worshipped at the altar of National Security for four decades of the Cold War. Since 9-11, our national leaders in league with powerful Washington lobbies have created a new religion around a whole new set of false idols and a new totem: Homeland Security.

Close Pentagon watchers like Winslow Wheeler have long known the government routinely lies about the size of the defense budget. Unfortunately, the general public doesn't know it, doesn't believe it, or doesn't care.

As another April 15 deadline for filing federal income approaches, every taxpayer in America ought to be outraged at: 1) the implied waste of resources; 2) the utter distortion of our public policy priorities; 3) the defense-related lobbying and revolving door culture that drives this carnival freak show; and 4) the lies and hypocrisy that underpin this corrupt system.