Change our National Security Priorities
The Politics
With little fanfare, Congress gave final approval last Saturday to a 2009 defense authorization bill with a price tag of $612 billion. That legislation includes only partial funding for the Iraq war. When the full cost of the Iraq war is included, military spending will total about $700 billion in the coming year. If we really wanted to make America more secure, we’d divert a huge amount of this money from waste, fraud and misadventure to projects that would strengthen our nation.
The Facts
The cost of our military operations is staggering. The Pentagon’s budget accounts for more than half of all “discretionary spending”— that is, half of everything the federal government spends after paying for entitlements like Social Security and Medicare, and interest on the national debt. At $700 billion, the defense budget is about equal to the combined military spending of the rest of the world. But the actual cost of our military is strewn throughout the budget. Add in the cost of caring for our veterans, arms aid in the State Department budget, homeland security measures, and more, and actual spending climbs to over $1 trillion a year. [Center for Arms Control]
The war in Iraq costs $12 billion per month. So far, the federal government has authorized $656 billion for the Iraq war. Of that total, $152 billion was appropriated to fund the Iraq war during the current fiscal year. That amounts to more than $12 billion per month and $416 million per day. [Congressional Research Service]
Much of the Iraq war funding has been wasted. Almost 20 percent of funding for operations in Iraq—about $85 billion—has been paid to private contractors who are often not held accountable for their use of the money. [Congressional Budget Office] For example, a former Iraqi official recently estimated that more than $13 billion meant for reconstruction projects in Iraq was wasted or stolen through elaborate fraud schemes. [Washington Post]
Many of our greatest national security threats can’t be solved by military might. The U.S. has more than 700 active military bases in over 30 countries. But despite their costs, these bases cannot address some of our most critical national security issues:
- America’s dependence on foreign oil. America imports about 58 percent of the oil it consumes. [Energy Information Administration] That leaves our nation vulnerable to price manipulation, speculation, and producer boycotts. We can’t drill our way to energy independence. It will take a concerted effort which must include improvements in energy conservation and energy efficiency, and expanded utilization of clean power.
- America’s global indebtedness. Every day, America has to borrow $2 billion from foreigners to finance our nation’s trade deficit. Last year’s deficit was $711 billion, up from $365 billion in 2001. [U.S. Census Bureau] In 2007, the United States’ trade deficit with China alone hit a record $256 billion. [U.S. Census Bureau] We simply can’t permit our country to become even more indebted to foreigners.
- Global warming. Catastrophic climate change, if left unchecked, could devastate our planet in a matter of decades. According to NASA scientists, 2007 tied with 1998 for the title of Earth’s second warmest year on record. In fact, the eight warmest years on record have all occurred since 1998, and the 14 warmest years have all occurred since 1990. [NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies] It’s not too late to stop the damage, but it will take a substantial change in national and worldwide priorities.
Progressive Solutions
The financial crisis and the harsh recession currently developing have sparked a debate about the fundamentals of America’s economy. But the debacle in Iraq has not had the same effect on the foreign policy debate. A challenge to America’s current global strategy will not come from Washington. It won’t come from the national security managers of either party. It can only come if citizens build a democratic movement willing and able to demand the debate that we need. For more, read today’s New York Times “op-ad” by the Institute for America’s Future by clicking here.
