Ike Was Right
about the miltary industrial complex. Stephen Walt writes
Right now, the United States spends more on national defense than almost all of the rest of the world combined. We do this even though we have no enemies on our borders, thousands of nuclear weapons to deter a direct attack, and an array of wealthy and powerful allies. We do have some overseas interest and we do face some real enemies — like al Qaeda — but most of our vital interests are fairly easy to protect and our most fervent adversaries are a rag-tag band of criminals who don’t pose a genuine threat to our way of life.
Bush’s blunder (the Iraq War) has set us back terribly and the political will to cut the military budget is not there yet. We could at least spend the money in a smarter way.
Filed under: Politics