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Defense Chief Urges Big Cuts In Military Spending
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says the Pentagon is wasting money it will no longer get, and focused on targets as diverse as the large number of generals and admirals, the layers of bureaucracy in the Pentagon, and the cost of military health care. 'The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, opened a gusher of defense spending that nearly doubled the base budget over the last decade,' Gates says. 'Military spending on things large and small can and should expect closer, harsher scrutiny. The gusher has been turned off, and will stay off for a good period of time.' Gates, a Republican who was carried over as Defense Secretary from the Bush administration, has already canceled or trimmed 30 weapons programs with long-term savings predicted at $330 billion, but is now seeking to convert as much as 3% of spending from 'tail' to 'tooth' — military slang for converting spending from support services to combat forces. While this may not seem like a significant savings in the Pentagon's base budget, cuts of any size are certain to run hard against entrenched constituencies. Gates's critique of top-heavy headquarters overseas was underscored by the location of the speech — the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum. President Eisenhower, the supreme allied commander in Europe during World War II, warned the nation of the menacing influence of an emerging 'military-industrial complex' in his farewell address as president in 1960. 'Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals,' said Eisenhower, 'so that security and liberty may prosper together.'"
The gusher will be closed off until... Republicans get back into power.
We, the US taxpayers, pay for not only the health care of soldiers, but their families, as well. There's simply no reason for us to do so, when so many other people in the US don't have healthcare. The soldiers are great, and all that rah-rah-rah stuff, but come on. The military is the largest entitlement program in the country. We can't continue to pay for entire military families, especially when the vast majority of our military isn't even productive. It's unsutainable and a complete waste of money.
I don't respond to AC's.
It most certainly is... It is there we find most of the micromanagement we are suffering under... even when bicycling, you have to wear 50 pounds of "safety" equipment. The insurance and legal industries flourish under it. Scientific data is being used to confuse people, not enlighten them.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
They are OUR soldiers, and it's our duty as a nation to support them, regardless of whether we support the politics that brought them to the battlefield.
I disagree. Perhaps if serving in the military were mandatory (like some european states), then I might be so inclined to agree with you. But no one is forcing them to become soldiers, though I understand most people view it as good money for lack of better options. Regardless, no one is required by law to serve in the military. As such, if someone decides to join the army, which means they've agreed to fight in whatever wars the higher ups choose to, then they are as much a supporter of the politics that bring them to the battlefield as the president or congress.
If I am opposed to any and all of their actions, because I think being in the middle east is a bad ida in the first place, I don't think I should have to pay for their injuries anymore then they should have to pay for MY health care. Since I work at a full time job I'm not as much as a constructive member of society? Somehow my country does better with people manning turrets in Afghanistan as opposed to a desk back home?
If my tax dollars are taking Shrapnel out of a wounded leg, then I also want them to cover whatever medical expenses I might incur at my job. Perhaps if I could see the benefit of having soldiers over there. There's no real tangible evidence that having jarhead in harms way is doing anything for me, besides increasing my taxes. I am not concerned with terrorists in Iraq. I'd be concerned about Terrorists in my home country. And if thats not the reason they're over there, then those soldiers need to be properly informed before putting them in someone elses crosshairs.
Considering stuff like this happens, I would have to agree:
Turns out you can be secretly in the Army unbeknownst to you and you will be punished for telling secrets through sodomy while your conscious mind is forced to remain sleeping (considered a harsh slap on the wrist in the military - a pain in the ass but you will get over it).
First, they use a directed energy weapon to disable the conscious mind to make breaking and entering a piece of cake. They will also simultaneously mind rape you by sending directed energy transmissions into your subconscious forcing you to see imagery, hear noises or actually speak. So you could wake up from being raped, not realize it, and have all sorts of disgusting images, dialogs, moans and vocal accents, etc, inside the controlled and primitive region of your brain. Then all day there will be homosexual psychological operations to try to integrate the subconscious dirty psychology being played into the conscious mind. The government uses military intelligence teams to run homosexual recruitment through this disgusting mechanism too - in fact they create prostitutes using this exact sequence. Very cultish and very perverted - these criminals should be in jail as they are doing it all over in this very country. For example, at Sonoma State University, I was likely unconsciously gang-raped to punish and "make an example" out of me on April 30 at 10PM-May 1 at 2AM then again 10AM-2PM, when there was the May 1 Midnight Howl to set a Guinness Book of Records entry for most people howling at the moon - like all military intelligence phenomenon, it requires reading between the lines that the military would try to set an unofficial gang-rape record (let's say 300 in 3 hours based on eavesdropping). They were giving up on the gay POTUS script and decided they might as well try turning me into a male prostitute, a drug dealer, a bum, a male to female sex change, threats of forcing me into the Army, phony incarceration, phony institutionalization, and death yet they got caught big time. When will all the Nazi-style criminals holding security clearances be thrown in jail for trying to serf people?
They are routinely and covertly violating the laws and getting away with it to the point that people need to be informed of what is really going on despite how angry these criminals get everytime I expose their perverted secrets. The homosexual recruitment campaign was highly advanced yet ultimately dumb and now beyond defeated. It really is annoying too since you get some of the gayest men in the Army (as it is the Bay Area - unsurprisingly some are also in the CIA) surveilling you 24/7 when you are at home/work, the FBI on the roads or sidewalks, the NSA on the Internet - since the intel community works together to run psychological operations on everybody. An invasive homosexual recruitment campaign is worse than a death sentence - amounts to a horrendous human rights violation. You can even end up with PTSD while they attempt to violate your biology (as they all obviously failed or forgot to take biology and psychology).
Lucky you didn't get to experience 16 months of non-stop abuse and harassment by a highly corrupt intelligence community to the point that it degrades your physical health and you feel like absolutely tired and miserable all of the time. In truth, I think these sick idiots enjoy psychologically torturing people to death.
So I ratted out the military and other intelligence communities and still alive - quite amazing what they must think they can do with their mind control stupidity... We tested each other with secrets that neither side kept. Ultimately, these organizations are not trustworthy. They have permanently tarnished their own reputations through 16 months of inexcusable isolation, covert druggings, training skits, abuse, harassment, sabatoge, etc. And they continue to try to ruin my mind - funny that nobody else is agreeing here. Selling out seems to be in style these days...
When the entire intelligence community is largely traitors working towards aristocracy, you know things are completely messed up beyond repair - the constitution has truly become meaningless so be careful and never trust a traitor though when the system collapses hunt them down all the way to the gates of hell.
By the way, we spend far more on entitlements than defense. And defense is actually a constitutional duty of the government.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.