Recently by Simon Black: ‘Stay and Fight’: Is This Realistic?
In a recent interview with Newsweek magazine, outgoing US Defense Secretary Robert Gates lamented about not wanting to be part of a government that didn’t have the resources and gusto to support a trillion dollar military.
“I’ve spent my entire adult life with the United States as a superpower, and one that had no compunction about spending what it took to sustain that position… This is a different time. To tell you the truth, that’s one of the many reasons it’s time for me to retire, because frankly I can’t imagine being part of a government… that’s being forced to dramatically scale back our engagement with the rest of the world.”
There are some interesting conclusions to draw from this statement.
For one, Gates exemplifies the mentality of these career politicians who hold the highest positions of leadership: it’s as if they feel entitled to spend without having to deal with the inconveniences of fiscal reality. And if that’s not possible, he’ll just take his ball and go home.
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Second, like most politicians, Gates seems completely disconnected from the real world. To Gates, out of control spending beyond your means is what it takes to maintain superpower status. In the real world, invading other countries and engaging in bottomless pit defense projects is a recipe for disaster.
Defense is the single biggest line item in the US budget, and along with Medicare and Social Security, these three programs completely dwarf the rest of the budget. Congress could completely eliminate the Department of Energy (which it should…) and only save $28.9 billion. Today this is just a rounding error.
Gates recognizes that the US government is going to be forced to live within its means and that Defense is going to get the axe. Unthinkable! But with an official budget of nearly $1 trillion (not counting supplementary, off-the-books packages), there’s more than ample room.
Aside from the obvious droves of unnecessary overseas bases that cost billions, the US military maintains expensive, antiquated systems like aircraft carriers and surface to air weaponry. They might have been useful in World War II, but today represent a financial sinkhole with little tactical benefit in modern warfare.
To give you another example, military units often procure necessary resources from local suppliers – this can be anything ranging from food to print cartridges to diesel fuel to remodeling services.
