🚀 go-pugleaf

Dave Garland <dave.g...@wizinfo.com> writes:
> "Gutting"? Last time I checked, the US military budget was the biggest
> in the world, greater than the next 9 countries *combined*. Now, it's
> true that we've chosen to fight a 30 years war in Afghanistan, and
> more in Iraq and Syria. And Trump wants to have military parades that
> will outshine Moscow and Beijing..

i know winslow ... but not a relative and since retired (this from last
administration, 2012)
https://breakingdefense.com/2012/03/the-military-imbalance-how-the-u-s-outspends-the-world/

The PPP comparison also reminds one of a bizarre analytical technique
the Cold War era intelligence community used when comparing US defense
spending to that of the Soviet Union. To size the overall Soviet defense
budget, an assumption was made, for example, to cost Soviet tanks, such
as the T-72, as the cost equivalent of American tanks, such as the M-1,
notwithstanding the fact that the American tank was far more complex and
therefore much more expensive than the T-72. Thus, with the Soviets
producing tanks in greater numbers than the US, the Soviet defense
budget was counted as far larger than it actually was. It was threat
inflation masked behind contrived budget analysis, and it was quite
notorious to all, except those who welcomed the budget/threat inflation
for bureaucratic or political reasons.

...

The last figure, “Planned Defence Expenditure by Country 2011,” shows
the proportion of US spending to all other regions and countries. The US
accounts for 45.7 percent of total spending by the world’s 171
governments and territories. While, again, there is no comparison of the
US and our allies vis-à-vis all of our “potential opponents,” the
comparison becomes so unbalanced as to be odious. With most of the top
ten on “our” side, the ratio of “us” to “them” is far more than five to
one and more like ten, or more, to one – even assuming many governments
are neutral.

... snip ...

DOD spending is only about 2/3rds of US, other third is DHS, DOE,
veterans, etc ... total over trillion/yr.

note: budget/thread inflation shows up in "Team B" ...  CIA director
Colby refuses to approve "Team B" analysis claiming huge Russian
military capability, justifying huge US military spending increase.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_B

White House Chief of Staff Rumsfeld replaces Colby with somebody (Bush1)
that will aggree with "Team B" analysis. Rumsfeld then resigns to become
SECDEF (and is replaced by his assistent Cheney).

In the 80s, Bush1 is VP and Rumsfeld is involved in supporting Iraq, US
support Iraq in the iran/iraq war
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War
including supplying WMDs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_support_for_Iraq_during_the_Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_war

In the early 90s, Bush1 is president and Cheney is SECDEF. Sat. photo
recon analyst told white house that saddam was marshaling forces to
invade Kuwait. White house said that saddam would do no such thing and
proceeded to discredit the analyst. Later the analyst informed the white
house that saddam was marshaling forces to invade Saudi Arabia, now the
white house has to choose between saddam and the Saudis.
http://www.amazon.com/Long-Strange-Journey-Intelligence-ebook/dp/B004NNV5H2/

This century, Bush2 is president, Cheney is VP, Rumsfeld is SECDEF and
one of the "Team B" members is deputy SECDEF (and major architect of
Iraq policy).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Wolfowitz
Iraq and weapons of mass destruction
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction

last decade, cousin of white house chief of staff Card ... was dealing
with the Iraqis at the UN and was given evidence that WMDs (tracing back
to US in the Iran/Iraq war) had been decommissioned. the cousin shared
it with Card, Powell and others ... then is locked up in military
hospital, book was published in 2010 (after being releaased and before
decommissioned WMDs were declassified)
http://www.amazon.com/EXTREME-PREJUDICE-Terrifying-Story-Patriot-ebook/dp/B004HYHBK2/

NY Times series from 2014, the decommission WMDs (tracing back to US
from Iran/Iraq war), had been found early in the invasion, but the
information was classified for a decade
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/14/world/middleeast/us-casualties-of-iraq-chemical-weapons.html
and military-industrial-complex wanted a war so badly that corporate
reps were telling former eastern block countries that if they voted for
IRAQ2 invasion in the UN, they would get membership in NATO and
(directed appropriation) USAID (can *ONLY* be used for purchase of
modern US arms). From the law of unintended consequences, the invaders
were told to bypass ammo dumps looking for WMDs, when they got around to
going back, over a million metric tons had evaporated.
http://www.amazon.com/Prophets-War-Lockheed-Military-Industrial-ebook/dp/B0047T86BA

perpetual war posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#perpetual.war
military-industrial(-congressional) complex posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#military.industrial.complex
team b posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#team.b
WMD posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#wmds