Comments on: Pentagon Spends More on War Than All 50 States Combined Spend To Operate

By: Sean

Sean — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 04:11:42 +0000

if you still think the figure head decides any thing you need to wake up,
and describing the legislative branch as people “we” hired you are either a fool, or maybe you are a captain of industry, but the american people aren't the ones who do the hiring. winning isn't profitable, selling the means to fight a perpetual low intensity conflict is where the real money is, as well as contracting the vastly overpriced support services. winning isnt the goal of war any more , profit is.

By: Sean

Sean — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 03:11:00 +0000

if you still think the figure head decides any thing you need to wake up,
and describing the legislative branch as people “we” hired you are either a fool, or maybe you are a captain of industry, but the american people aren’t the ones who do the hiring. winning isn’t profitable, selling the means to fight a perpetual low intensity conflict is where the real money is, as well as contracting the vastly overpriced support services. winning isnt the goal of war any more , profit is.

By: dogugotw

dogugotw — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 02:38:07 +0000

You mean those civilian lobbyists? The deal is that the Pentagon, the folks with stars on their shoulders, do NOT decide when to go to war. Some civilian we hired (voted into office) makes that call and then another bunch of civilians we hired (voted into office) allocate the money. If they boys and girls with guns made the actual decisions, we wouldn't have gone into Iraq in the first place and any place we did go into would most likely be turned into scorched earth to ensure victory.

By: Sean

Sean — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:25:40 +0000

on paper that's how it works….and on paper we live in a democracy.
but how many military officers become lobbyists and consultants for PMC's and arms companies that drive these wars

By: Bucky

Bucky — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:07:16 +0000

don't forget how much they spent to take down the twin towers.

By: growup21

growup21 — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 21:15:52 +0000

did you really quote wikipedia. thats not an acceptable source for any publication or blog. grow up and get some legitimate facts

By: mikey

mikey — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 21:15:01 +0000

“according to Wikipedia data”
Come on.

By: dogugotw

dogugotw — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:38:04 +0000

OK, so let's get this right.
The president is the commander in chief. He's the one who says WHAT gets done.
The legislative branch pays the bills.
The Pentagon does nothing except execute the will of the executive with funding from the legislative. Civilians are in charge of this thing, not the military.

By: Zack

Zack — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:42:01 +0000

Not that we don't spend too much money on defense, but the numbers are a little misleading. State and local governments get a significant portion of their budget from the federal government in addition to their own taxes. So state and local governments actually spend more than the figures quoted.

"This means Uncle Sam’s Pentagon is sopping up nearly as much money as all state, county, city, and other governmental units spend to run the country."

This is also misleading because the federal government does a lot of country running too. All in all the defense budget is still ~1/3 of the federal budget.

That said, the defense budget is hugely swollen.

By: James T.

James T. — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 01:32:10 +0000

Ridiculous… As bad as 9/11 was, it killed 1/100,000th of our population, and the Pentagon acts as if Armageddon will begin sometime this week.