The 54 Billion Dollar Waste

If one is a mental neophyte of world issues, especially defense issues, one tends to think in terms of purely military hardware. Yes, I’m taking about Mr. big, bigger and best, the Donald, (loosely referred to as President Trump).

Now experienced international adults are keenly aware that there are many complex interdependent factors relating to having a strong defense, of which great big ships, planes and tanks are but one important part.

Anything that destabilizes world peace causes the US and everyone else security problems. The greatest threat to America, and indeed all of humanity, is a political miscalculation or misunderstand or technical glitch that triggers the firing off of thousands of nuclear tipped missiles — game over.

Now stockpiling huge numbers of heavy weapons systems does nothing to protect America and the world from such an accidental nuclear catastrophe. Moreover, if a military situation reaches the point whereby world powers are flinging such heavy metal at one another it won’t be long before one side panics and pushes the nuclear button, once again — game over.

Therefore the president’s plan to carve out 54 billion dollars from other critical aspects of America’s security in order to stockpile additional military hardware when American is already stronger in this aspect of defense than the next seven nations combined is absurd. All this does is enrich the military-industrial-complex. You know, that which General Eisenhower warned us about many decades ago.

The nation — and the generals and admirals know this only too well — needs to keep that 54 billion in things like cyber security, intelligence gathering and counter intelligence work and fighting that awesome world destabilizer, climate change. But most of all you just can’t go drastically slashing the State Department’s budget, diplomacy and working with and supporting allies is our first line of defense.

Indeed without that we go straight to the heavily metal, meaning that our security has most likely already been permanently lost.