The government should stop deceptively pretending that war costs are separate from the Pentagon's

February 10, 2007
The government should stop deceptively pretending that war costs are separate from the Pentagon's budget

Here's how the supplemental shell game works. The official defense budget for 2008 comes to $481 billion. That's a 10% increase over last year and a 62% increase over 2001. And it conveniently fails to include a supplemental request of $141.7 billion, which brings the 2008 defense total to $622.7 billion. On top of that, the president requested a 2007 supplemental in the amount of $93.4 billion, bringing this week's entire defense "budget authority request" to $716 billion (the
figure of actual outlays is even higher because it includes billions already committed to the
Pentagon).

So why abuse supplemental appropriations? Because Congress and the president have discovered
that they are an effective way to discreetly increase spending for a long and painful war. As
important, supplemental spending does not count against budget caps or automatically trigger
offsetting cuts. Thus, the Pentagon can have money for the war while keeping space available in
the regular budget for pet projects.

Wrong Weapons, Wrong Wars: The Self-Destructive Logic of War

February 7, 2007
Wrong Weapons, Wrong Wars: The Self-Destructive Logic of War

Yet the Pentagon continues to spend money on weapons that are ill suited for the fights "we are
in." As a top U.S. Air Force commander told Aviation Week and Space Technology, the most expensive fighter aircraft ever built may be ready for war but it's not ready for the war we have today in raq. The F-22 isn't "ready for Iraq" because it probably can't fulfill its core mission,
especially in the Baghdad area. In straightforward language, the F-22 would be electronically
"blind" despite having the most advanced suite of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance
devices in the U.S. Air Force.

This brings us back full circle. U.S. Air Force Gen. Ronald E. Keys is concerned that the
surveillance suite of the $350 million aircraft may not be able to operate around Baghdad.
Although nominally a fighter aircraft, the F-22 also can act as a signals intelligence
interceptor, which would be its role in Iraq. General Keys notes, however, that the electronic
spectrum around Baghdad is polluted by the myriad jamming devices that coalition forces primarily
employed to thwart remote detonations of the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that have
inflicted 70% of all U.S. fatalities in that war.

The potential problem was discovered when the first F-22s were operating near U.S. navy ships
off the Atlantic coast. Navy radars overwhelmed the F-22's automated sensors. Even now, larger,
multi-station, purpose-built electronic intelligence-gathering airplanes encounter difficulties
around the Iraqi capital because of the extreme density of jamming devices. Supporters of the F-22
propose that one headquarters should coordinate F-22 intelligence collection missions with the use
of both airborne and ground-based jammers.

Bush Budget Delivers the Bacon

February 7, 2007
Bush Budget Delivers the Bacon

At least in Iraq, we created enemies we can now fight. The bulk of the rest of the military
portion of the federal budget, $481.4 billion for the Defense Department and an additional $22.5
billion for other departments' defense programs, is intended to fight an enemy of advanced
military power that is nowhere to be found--not even among the dreaded "Axis of Evil" nations.

For example, this budget allocates billions to continue building stealth aircraft designed to
evade Soviet defenses the ex-superpower never managed to create.

The United States' military budget is greater than that of the next 14 biggest military
spenders combined. Even if not one additional dollar is allocated to the advanced weapons systems
now in the works, there is not a nation on Earth that would dare challenge U.S. dominance in the
air or on the seas for decades to come. The enormous imbalance in U.S. military spending is not
about defense but rather profit.

Bush submits $2.9 trillion budget

February 5, 2007
Bush submits $2.9 trillion budget

US President George W Bush has submitted a $2.9 trillion (£1.5 trillion) budget to Congress
including almost $700bn in new military spending.

Much of the money is earmarked for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The 2008 budget also sets out plans to curb domestic spending, including $66bn savings over
five years from Medicare.