How the U.S. Military Can Save $1 Trillion

The Cato Institute ^ | November 6, 2016 | Benjamin H. Friedman

[Vince Ferrer]

We could probably save almost all that money by doing two things. First, stop nation building in the middle east. Two, hire 50-100 accountants and auditors to find waste and keep projects on time and on budget.

Extra credit, approve and accelerate technology that will reduce headcounts, such as self driving vehicles, autonomous aerial tankers, lasers on aircraft and ships, and GPS guided artillery. Reducing the people involved reduces salaries, reduces pensions, and VA health costs.

[mrsmith]

Paradoxically, a military withdrawal requires an increase in forces.

[dsc]

Si vis pacem, para bellum.

Whatever the defense budget, the cost of weakness is higher.

Which is not to say that we do not need to deal with waste, fraud, abuse, corruption, and bribery.

[Paulie]

Simply cut out the political correctness in all of its forms.

I am hoping the Trump/Mattis team will recognize and put a stop to it all.

Easier said than done I know, but rebuilding morale and readiness in our armed forces takes more than simply increasing the defense budget.

[TomasUSMC]

Pure Crap

[alpo]

Stop wasting money trying to make females front line soldiers and Marines.
Put urinals back in surface ships and stop the coed design of new vessels.
No more recruits who can’t decide what sex they really are.
No women on subs.

[TomasUSMC]

Much better

[napscoordinator]

Just bomb every country but America to nothing and we will be able to save a bunch more then that.

[trebb]

Gosh - we have another purveyor of satire among us.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Porculus, 0bamacare, food stamps, etc.

[Gunslingr3]

This world was terribly destabilized by Obama and company. This is not the time to signal that we are going to allow the rest of the world to burn, while we count our shekels here at home.

Yes, let's borrow shekels we don't have to provide 'defense' to Israel, Ukraine, and god knows how many other States not represented on the American flag. It would be downright unpatriotic to not try and enslave Americans with more debt so we can try to keep this empire going, amirite? I mean, 25+ years of bombing the Middle East has almost produced paradise, we'd be fools to stop now! Over 26,000 bombs dropped last year. Shekels indeed!

[Gunslingr3]

Ha ha. So where is the trillion dollars saved under the period of restraint under obama?

What restraint? We were at war every day of his presidency, and bombing more nations by its end than at the beginning. The people who call that restraint are delusional.

[tet68]

Cut my Marine Corps?
We are already working with left overs.
I think not.

[DoughtyOne]

Is Trump proposing a ground war? No.

What you folks NEVER seem to grasp, is that there will be a hegemon nation on planet earth.

It will be us or someone else.

That means that we will steer the course for the planet, or another nation will.

One of the undeniable forces of nature, is that here on Earth a vacuum will be filled.

I don’t want Russia or China to be devising and implementing their global wet dream, at our expense.

If they were given the green light on that, the expenses we incur today would be peanuts compared to the fix we’d have to institute later, if would even be possible to fix no matter what we spent.

Guess who would have to pay that bill, and suffer the consequences of global non-engagement for a few decades.

[Gunslingr3]

Is Trump proposing a ground war? No.

Are you ignorant of the fact we've increased troop counts in Syria and Iraq this year? I don't care what he 'proposes', because he says whatever sounds nice at whatever time he likes. I pay attention to what he does, and he's dragging us into more "stupid wars" that at one point he realized we're of no net benefit to the U.S.

I don't want Russia and China to be devising and implementing their global wet dream, at our expense.

Russia has an economy the size of Italy, and your quaking about their global domination schemes? Please how explain how you fear China's global ambitions will cost the U.S. Taxpayer more than half a trillion dollars a year?

Your way of doing things has us at constant war, with $20 trillion in debt to show for it. Better to end it by our choice and not simply because we can't afford to do it anymore.

[DoughtyOne]

Sorry. You have disqualified yourself from this conversation.

We will remain engaged thank heaven.

Ignorant? LOL

One of us is.

[sargon]

Are you ignorant of the fact we've increased troop counts in Syria and Iraq this year?

Precisely how much have these "troop counts" been increased?

I don't care what he 'proposes', because he says whatever sounds nice at whatever time he likes. I pay attention to what he does, and he's dragging us into more "stupid wars" that at one point he realized we're of no net benefit to the U.S.

Bullshit. That's your hysteria talking—not objective reality.

Despite your hand-wringing, the President has categorically stated that we're not going into Syria. So you need to pay a little closer attention to what he does, apparently. Your ridiculous assertion has no factual basis, and I'd wager that these "increased troop counts" you're unhinged about are not substantial.

We're not interested in your efforts to tear-down a President who is doing a superb job so far. Your unstable ramblings do not constitute cause for alarm.

So take your #NeverTrump fear-mongering over to DU or some similar community that likes to masturbate to such apocalyptic garbage...

[DoughtyOne]

I wasn't happy with how I chose to respond to you here.  LINK

After posting I thought I went too far.  I waited for your response thinking I'd agree at least in part with your criticism or name-calling.  To a degree, I would have agreed I deserved it, and I was ready to express that.

You did not respond, so I stepped back in now to do it for you, and apologize.  I should not have responded as I did.  Here is a different approach.  We will not agree, but at least I'll explain instead of attack.  I should have in post 36.

Is Trump proposing a ground war? No.

Are you ignorant of the fact we've increased troop counts in Syria and Iraq this year? I don't care what he 'proposes', because he says whatever sounds nice at whatever time he likes. I pay attention to what he does, and he's dragging us into more "stupid wars" that at one point he realized we're of no net benefit to the U.S.

Yes, we do have advisors and special forces on the ground in the Eastern Syria and Northern Iraq region.  I'm not sure of the exact numbers, but I do not think we're talking about more than a few thousand troops.

To pin this down to better numbers, I tried to verify how many of our forces were in this region.  I found THIS 11/07/16 Washington Times article that peged the numbers at five to six thousand men.  If we recall the 20,000 or so men we planned on keeping in Iraq before Obama became president, these figures are much lower.  It seems they have been quite effective too.  Iraq is in much less danger.  The government is retaking ground from ISIS.  Our troops are not always doing the heavy lifting.  Iraqis are stepping up.

Mopping up problem areas is not the same as starting new wars.  It's not unreasoned to be in the region now.  The Kurds have been a pretty stand-up group over time.  Our being in the region helps them.

If we want folks to be our allies, we have to act like an ally.  If we withdraw globally, who will be our ally?  Pretty soon people would form alliances with Russia, China, Iran...

I don't want Russia and China to be devising and implementing their global wet dream, at our expense.

Russia has an economy the size of Italy, and your quaking about their global domination schemes? Please how explain how you fear China's global ambitions will cost the U.S. Taxpayer more than half a trillion dollars a year?

China now has a presence in Africa and the Americas.  Russia now has a presence in the Middle-East and the Americas.

Foreign powers don't have to have a massive military to cause a lot of trouble.  They move into a region and advise Leftist groups how to commit terrorism and swing regions away from us.  That is not good.  We don't want every nation in South America going hard Left.  We don't want China or Russia to have a number of strong alliances down there.

Your way of doing things has us at constant war, with $20 trillion in debt to show for it. Better to end it by our choice and not simply because we can't afford to do it anymore.

My way of doing things, does keep us engaged globally.  It winds up with us developing and nurturing alliances.

When done right, it helps us avoid situations that pop up like Iran and North Korea.

If we had stayed in Iraq in 2009 on, our costs would have been quite minimal.  We didn't, and now we're having to step up to prevent trouble in the region.

Trump is not spending like drunken sailor, and then taking a pass on trying to get other costs under control.  He is making big inroads in the U.S. with jobs and cutting the budget.  It will remain to be seen how much we are spending in this region these days, but it's nowhere near half a trillion dollars per year.

[taxesareforever]

Tying the hands of your troops and letting the enemy have its way is truly restraint by the obama administration.