Drowning in dollars
CounterPunch
by Winslow Wheeler
05/07/08
It is now conventional wisdom to say that the Pentagon budget is higher in “real” dollars[1] than at any point since the end of World War II. The $635 billion appropriated in fiscal year 2007 is $31 billion, or 5 percent, above the previous high water mark, 1952 at $604 billion. 2008 will be higher still at about $670 billion, [2] and 2009 will likely be more again.What is not conventional wisdom - but should be - is that at today’s historic high level of spending, our military forces are smaller than they have ever been since the end of World War II; equipment is – on average – older than it ever has been before, and key elements of our most important fighting forces are not fully prepared for combat. Recently, the addition of substantial additional sums of money – separate from the additional funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – have made things not better, but worse...
http://counterpunch.org/wheeler05072008.html
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Winslow+Wheeler
by Winslow Wheeler
05/07/08
It is now conventional wisdom to say that the Pentagon budget is higher in “real” dollars[1] than at any point since the end of World War II. The $635 billion appropriated in fiscal year 2007 is $31 billion, or 5 percent, above the previous high water mark, 1952 at $604 billion. 2008 will be higher still at about $670 billion, [2] and 2009 will likely be more again.What is not conventional wisdom - but should be - is that at today’s historic high level of spending, our military forces are smaller than they have ever been since the end of World War II; equipment is – on average – older than it ever has been before, and key elements of our most important fighting forces are not fully prepared for combat. Recently, the addition of substantial additional sums of money – separate from the additional funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – have made things not better, but worse...
http://counterpunch.org/wheeler05072008.html
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Winslow+Wheeler
rudkla - 8. Mai, 12:22
