Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who had been advocating cuts in military spending, is now counseling against significant cuts saying that reductions would leave the nation vulnerable.
Is he kidding? United States military spending accounts for 43 percent of all military spending world wide and more than the next 14 countries combined. In fact, we could cut our spending by a third and still outspend the next biggest spender by a 5-to-1 ratio, while accounting for $1 of every $3 spent on defense world wide.
The Gates comments, made at the University of Notre Dame commencement, have nothing to do with maintaining an adequate level of defensive readiness and everything to do with fear — fear on the part of the military-industrial complex that it will lose its privileged place in Washington and its access to American tax dollars, fear on the part of politicians who count on defense contractors for campaign funding and the need to sow fear among voters who otherwise would prefer to see defense spending cut and social programs left in place.
Gates’ comments unfortunately signal a likelihood that defense spending is going to be left at historically high levels even as our friends in Washington talk about shrinking government and the programs that help those of us who live in communities like South Brunswick, Princeton and New Brunswick will be gutted to make the bond markets happy.
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