The True Cost of US Military Equipment
Embed this infographic on your site! <a href=" src=" alt="Military Equipment Costs" width="500" border="0" /></a><br />From: <a href=" This infographic takes a look at the amount of tax payer money that goes into funding specific military equipment ranging from the 'small' items to the truly gargantuan in price. The graphic then compare these prices to things that the average American can relate to such as median income, cost of a college education, health insurance, or the price of buying a home.
US auditor finds taxpayer money flowing to Taliban, Al Qaeda - but Army refuses to act
The US military has been ignoring warnings that its spending in Afghanistan is funding Al Qaeda and the Taliban. And John F. Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), appears to have had enough. Skip to next paragraph
War is a racket
Written in 1935 by Major General Smedley Butler War Is A Racket WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope.
Military–industrial complex
President Dwight Eisenhower famously warned the U.S. about the "military–industrial complex" in his farewell address. The term is sometimes used more broadly to include the entire network of contracts and flows of money and resources among individuals as well as corporations and institutions of the defense contractors, The Pentagon, the Congress and executive branch. A parallel system is that of the Military–industrial–media complex, along with the more distant politico-media complex and Prison–industrial complex. A similar thesis was originally expressed by Daniel Guérin, in his 1936 book Fascism and Big Business, about the fascist government support to heavy industry.
Big Oil & Iraq War
When it was suggested the war in Iraq was about oil, Tony Blair,then the British prime minister, had this to say on February 6,2003 “Let me just deal with the oil thing because… the oil conspiracy theory is honestly one of the most absurd when you analyse it. The fact is that, if the oil that Iraq has were our concern, I mean we could probably cut a deal with Saddam tomorrow in relation to the oil. It’s not the oil that is the issue, it is the weapons…” In fact, as I and numerous others, have reported on many occasions before, both during and after the war, oil was a principal if not the principal reason, for going to war. The reason for thinking this comes from any reading of oil history in the Middle East.
Billions Wasted On Iraqi Reconstruction
WASHINGTON - Almost exactly a decade after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, Washington’s efforts to help reconstruct the country have fallen far short, according to the final report by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) released here Wednesday. The Inspector General, Stuart Bowen, has previously estimated that between six and eight billion dollars of the more than 60 billion dollars U.S. taxpayers had spent on its stabilisation and reconstruction operation (SRO) in Iraq were lost to waste, fraud or other abuses. In his final report, entitled “Learning from Iraq”, Bowen noted that at least another eight billion dollars of Iraq’s own money, which was effectively commandeered by the U.S.
War Industry Sees Profits Surge
War is unhealthy for all but the Military-Industrial Complex Global turmoil and bloody conflicts are not bad news for everyone. The defense industry has been enjoying a nice run in the stock market from armed conflict breaking out across the world from Gaza to Ukraine to Syria. Much of the upside comes from the use of weapons made by US multinational corporations in conflicts that may or may not involve the US directly. Even just a standoff or threat of armed conflict can spur defense spending by governments and enrich weaponry makers. War is highly lucrative for the defense firms as old inventory is often literally destroyed instigating the need for new purchases of older items as well as a market for new products.
U.S. Military Actions Since 1890
by Dr. Zoltan Grossman The following is a partial list of U.S. military interventions from 1890 to 2014.
Defense Contractors: Fraud, Waste & Crime
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have come at a great cost to the American people. Thousands of men and women have died in uniform in the war zones, and billions of dollars have been spent on the wars. The wars have caused the deaths of thousands of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they have arguably had a destabilizing effect on the Middle East. It seems that the only ones benefitting from the wars have been defense contractors. Over the last decade the United States has outsourced much of the wars.
Pentagon Unable To Be Audited
President Barack Obama proudly signed the law that repealed the Pentagon’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, freeing lesbian, gay, and bisexual Americans (although not trans people) to openly serve in the military four years ago. But when it comes to budgeting, the concept lingers on. “Don’t ask us how we spend money,” the Pentagon basically says. “Because we can’t really tell you.” Every taxpayer, business, and government agency in America is supposed to be able to pass a financial audit by the feds, every year. It’s the law, so we do our duty.
