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America’s Post-9/11 Wars Have Cost $5.9 Trillion

William D. Hartung The Nation
240,000 civilian deaths and 21 million more have been displaced. And yet a congressional commission is urging yet more money for a bloated Pentagon. We should be spending less time figuring out how to fight wars, and how to forge partnerships...

Tidbits - Nov. 8, 2018 - Reader Comments: 2018 elections, Voter Suppression, Georgia; Racism and Anti-Semitism; Contemporary Music and Theme of Work; Military Budget; US Foreign Policies and Wars; Toward Racial Justice; Announcements...

Portside
Reader Comments: Reader Comments: 2018 elections, Voter Suppression, Georgia; Connected Fights: Racism and Anti-Semitism; Contemporary Music and Theme of Work; Military Budget; U.S. Foreign Policies and Wars; Toward Racial Justice; Announcements...

The Best Way to Honor Our Vets and Protect Americans? End the Wars

Rev. William Barber Jr. and Phyllis Bennis Inside Sources
The cost of our military is creating a national moral crisis, where our priorities are skewed, vulnerable communities are threatened, and our veterans aren’t being honored. This year, let’s honor them with action. Let’s end the wars.

The Pentagon Budget as Corporate Welfare for Weapons Makers

William D. Hartung TomDispatch
What company gets the most money from the U.S. government? Weapons maker Lockheed Martin. It took in $35.2 billion from the government, or close to what the Trump administration is proposing for the 2019 State Department budget. Boeing, in second place, with a mere $26.5 billion. When it comes to the Department of Defense, perhaps we should retire the term “budget” altogether, given its connotation of restraint. Can't we find another word entirely? Like the Pentagon cornucopia?

President’s New Budget. Stark Vision of GOP Reality. Attention Must Be Paid; Here are the Proposed Cuts; Huge Increase for Pentagon

Robert Greenstein; Ryan Koronowski; Brett Samuels; Fred Kaplan
The President's budget is a reflection of the administration's priorities. And this administration and their GOP co-horts in Congress want to slash over a trillion dollars with cuts to programs for some of the nation's most vulnerable. A massive increase in the military budget and war preparations comes at the expense of slashing all kinds of social programs.

$700 Billion For What? How Runaway Military Spending Keeps Us from Meeting Our Real Needs

Mark Haim The Indypendent
During the Cold War, the supposed threat of Communism was the justification for super-sized budgets and a continuous stream of wars and interventions-some overt, others covert or proxy-none of which had anything to do with defending the United States-and none of which ended in victory. These were sold to the American people as being fought to "defend freedom" or "support democracy." After the Cold War ended it became more difficult to justify such a massive military.
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