Do Not Give This Pentagon More Money!

It Will Almost Certainly Make The US Much Weaker

Hi All,

The Pentagon, actually the Trump Administration, is in the process of asking for the largest increase in defense spending in US/world history. The ask for this coming Fiscal Year (2027) is for a total budget of $1.5 trillion—an increase of $500 billion over the year before. It is being justified as a once in a generation request, to prepare the US military for the future by expanding its capabilities across the board, from front-line fighting to the supercharging of the US industrial base.

And if it is approved, and this Pentagon gets an additional $500 billion, I can assure you that it is far more likely that the exact opposite will happen than the supporters of this increase are saying. This administration, and I include the Pentagon and, sadly, the US military in this description, is know controlled by corruption and incompetence, with flattery not skill a key ability to rise up (in uniform and out). Such a culture will not only waste or steal any extra funding money, what is spends it will almost certainly do so improperly. It will in all likelihood make the US weaker not stronger.

There is a terribly mistaken notion that more defense spending equates to a better military. That is simply not true historically and in the US today. A military is not some end in and of itself, it is a creation of a system and it reflects that systems values and practices. A creative, honest and reflective system can create a military of great effectiveness with much less money than you think. A dishonest, stupid and unctuous system waste much of its funding. We have had countless examples of the latter in the last century, and let me start with two—Putin’s Russia and Mussolini’s Italy (both states to which Trump’s America bears an uncomfortable resemblance).