Scott Horton Interviews Winslow T. Wheeler
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Winslow T. Wheeler, Director of the Straus Military Reform Project, discusses the just-passed Defense Appropriations bill, the calculations that make the real defense budget close to $1 trillion, the accounting black hole at the un-auditable Pentagon and how a post WWII peak in spending only buys a small military with old equipment.
MP3 here. (28:24)
Winslow T. Wheeler writes regularly for Counterpunch.org. He spent 31 years working on Capitol Hill with senators from both political parties and the Government Accountability Office, specializing in national security affairs. Currently, he directs the Straus Military Reform Project of the Center for Defense Information in Washington. He is author of The Wastrels of Defense and the editor of a new anthology: America’s Defense Meltdown: Pentagon Reform for President Obama and the New Congress.
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October 10th, 2009 at 1:18 am
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JDonald
October 10th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
There are several ways to bring down a strong nation, and bankruptcy is one of them. When blind dependence on military might is your only strategy, you either pay as you go or lose at the end when you must pay up. Of course, national bankruptcy is a solution. Sorry folks, all that money we borrowed to live well above our means for all those years has been spent and we don't owe anyone a dime.
leftlib
October 10th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
What do you mean by "live above our means?" If the government takes out a loan to buy a bomb to kill our brothers and sisters in another country, and then tells us we have to pay perpetual interest on the loan for that bomb, is our living standard then above my means?
No, actually we're living BELOW our means, because we could afford a better living standard if we weren't paying the interest on that bomb.
Really, though, it's not a question of living 'above' or 'below' means. It's a question of who is living OFF our means. Well let's see, who is collecting that interest exactly?
leftlib
October 10th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
What do you mean by "live above our means?" If the government takes out a loan to buy a bomb to kill our brothers and sisters in another country, and then tells us we have to pay perpetual interest on the loan for that bomb, is our living standard then above our means?
No, actually we're living BELOW our means, because we could afford a better living standard if we weren't paying the interest on that bomb.
Really, though, it's not a question of living 'above' or 'below' means. It's a question of who is living OFF our means. Well let's see, who is collecting that interest exactly?
MikeMann
October 10th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
America needs to chit or get off the pot. It was a mistake from the gitgo like allowing slavery. What good was slavery? It was needed like a hole in the head and look at the mess it created. Either force Israel to be the 51th state so it could be controlled by DC and these 6 million jews can pay taxes to the IRS and fight in wars to be worthy of all this attention and trillions in military and eco aid OR get the hell out of Dodge and let this worthless strip of nothing fight its own wars plus pay its own way for everything.
obici
October 10th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced on
September 10, 2001 that 2 trillion dollars cannot be accounted for
in the Defense Department. Has anybody ever investigated what
happened to that \\huge amount of money?
Andy
October 10th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
They don't call it the military-industrial complex for nothing!
8Ball
October 11th, 2009 at 5:20 am
It is one thing to understand that the system is broken and it is another thing to actually fix it. There were no answers to the fixing part here… I know that some will say that we have to make people "aware" of the problem. People have been doing that for decades but nothing changes as the country continues its journey into bankruptcy. What is the definition of insanity?
SJose
October 12th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
If the military has to offer $20,000 of our money as sign up bonuses to convince otherwise reluctant young people to be shipped overseas to kill or be killed in wars of empire that don't protect us, then I'm sorry Wheeler, that is a problem. It is ONLY these lavish compensation packages the military offers to enlistees that keep the military stocked with enough cannon fodder to continue these wars. The only way to stop these wars is to de-fund them, including the massive perks for enlistees.
Glenn
October 12th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Mr. Wheeler should devote as much of his resources to supporting the troops as he wishes. I hope he knows others that feel the same way.
I owe the troops nothing. They have voluntarily chosen to submit to the State and live off of productive people.
Their job is no more honorable than anyone elses.
DavidSpero
October 12th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
Good work by Scott on challenging Wheeler on militarism as statism. Wheeler had no good answer.
Andy
October 12th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Ironically Israel probably has more influence in Washington then any of the fifty states.
Andy
October 12th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Well said. The troops expect you to pat them on the back because they are "fighting for your freedom". I never asked anybody to fight for my frreedom and they aren't anyways.