Who says the president is failing to show leadership? In one area at
least, there’s no sign of flag or falter. If anything, the
administration’s only becoming more forthright. Sad to say, that area is
military build-up.
Last year, the White House made a big deal of cutting a weapons
program — the F-22 fighter jet — and the cuts conveniently obscured the
growth in spending on unmanned aircraft or drones (the weapons that
Pakistanis say killed a record 123 civilians in 12 attacks last month;
41 for every alleged Al Qaeda member.)
This year, the president dispensed with window dressing. No big deal
about cuts — except on the domestic side. While the administration’s
record $3.8 trillion budget shrinks or freezes spending on domestic
needs, it requests $708.3 billion for war. That’s $14.8 billion more
than we’re spending now.
The total includes $548.9 billion for “regular” war, plus $159.3
billion for special spending on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Oh
yes, the administration’s also asking Congress to increase spending on
new nuclear weapons by more than $7 billion dollars over the next five
years – despite that peace prize-winning pledge to cut the US arsenal
and seek a nuclear weapons-free world.
The quote of the day comes from the CEO of a military
contractor-funded policy group called the Lexington Institute. Loren<... >>>
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