MILITARY WE CAN AFFORD

We spent a good part of our career advising the US Navy and other military organizations on how better to manage their operations. We came away with the firm belief that we have the most dedicated, the most well trained, and the most well equipped military in the world. We also have one of the worst managed military in the world. In simple terms we pay way too much for our military. The Department of Defense gets around 43 percent of the national budget, $711B in 2008. We are so conditioned to accept these large numbers that to suggest that they are too high is considered anti-American and suicidal. Well, it is just the opposite. We are in a death spiral of spending that will soon accomplish what no other enemy has been able to do, bring our great country to defeat. Simply look at the numbers (remember, we love numbers) We spend nearly as much on our military as the whole rest of the world combined. That’s right, our military costs are an amazing 48 percent of the world total military expenditures. Now remember that includes our allies. All of Europe spends $289B, about 40 Percent of what we spend. More importantly our adversaries spend a fraction of what we do. China spends $122B, Russia spends $70B. However, any way you want to look at it, there is no rational reason for us to be spending the kind of money we do to sustain our military.

So how do we figure out what is the right amount to spend? Well, first let’s decide what it is we want to accomplish. Are we out to be Ming The Merciless and dominate the entire universe or do we simply want to protect our shores? In all seriousness, there is a legitimate debate. Recent administrations have perpetuated the belief that the only legitimate form of government is democracy and it is God’s choice that the United States install such a government in all non-believing countries. We are unsure that the former is true and certain that the latter is lunacy. There is, perhaps, some legitimacy in protecting democracy where it exists and where we have treaties and self interest. However, we feel that it should be a pay as you go proposition. We have always marveled that Germany and Japan should have been allowed to develop into global economic powers while we provided their security. Maybe it‘s because we lived in a Sicilian neighborhood in Brooklyn, but we believe you pay for security. How did we allow the rest of the world develop industries to rival our own while we paid for the military services? Along the way we had the opportunity to investigate how other governments run their military.

Once we decide on what it is we want to accomplish, then we can go about deciding how we accomplish it. Our military expenditures are focused five areas: weapons systems, non-weapons equipment, facilities, manpower, and logistics. There are substantial economies to be had in all areas. An exhaustive discussion is beyond the intent of these pages, but here are few items.

• We own too many military installations, here and overseas. The US military is one of the largest, if not the largest landlords in the world, with over 30,000,000 acres of land around the world. This does not include bases in the UK, Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Afghanistan which were built with US tax dollars, but are technically belong to the host countries.
• We have too much non-weapons equipment. A good chunk of the military’s real estate is used to warehouse giant machine tools, huge trucks, personnel carriers, and other pieces of no-ordnance equipment.
• We have too many non-combatant military personnel. Because other countries rely on global social services to support their military, they do not need separate medical services, social services, housing services to support their military.
• We have too many of the wrong kind of weapons. Our nuclear arsenal is beyond what is needed to maintain a deterrent. Discussion is futile.
  

Ronald Regan oversaw an military expansion designed to destroy the world’s second greatest superpower, the Soviet Union. The design worked, perhaps too well. Will it bring down the world’s greatest superpower as well?