The U.S. spends more on defense than all other nations combined. Considering
the basic budget for the Defense Department — that covers salaries, operations,
equipment and the supplemental budget that pays for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — defense
spending bests the second military spender by nearly a factor of 10. The supplemental
itself, which funds the two wars — looms larger than the combined military
budgets of China and Russia.
In addition, the government has folded a variety of military-related expenditures
into departments other than Defense. The Department of Energy FY 2008 will spend
$23 billion on developing and maintaining nuclear warheads and the State Department
will distribute an additional $25 billion among allies as foreign military assistance.
Add in obligations with veterans’ affairs, military recruiting and homeland
security, plus military retirement, the paramilitary activities of the FBI, outer
space related security and interest for past debt-financed defense spending,
and U.S. spending on its military establishment for the current year reaches
$1.1 trillion, according to Chalmers Johnson, historian and professor emeritus
of the University of California, San Diego, in the February 2008 English edition
of Le Monde diplomatique.
In a 2006 Angus Reid poll, 65 percent of Americans said the country has been “too
quick to get American military forces involved” in conflicts. Instead,
the American public supports more preventive security measures like diplomacy,
nuclear nonproliferation, peacekeeping and foreign aid. A 2007 World Public Opinion
poll found 78 percent of Americans “believe that all countries should eliminate
their nuclear weapons” through a well-coordinated international verification
system. Yet, the military budget continues to grow and has more than doubled
since the end of the Cold War.
Behind the expanded military budget lie certain structural reasons for this aggressive
spending. Prior to World War II, the U.S. supported no arms industry. In time
of war, manufacturers would convert their facilities from producing consumer
to military goods. That changed after the war.
In his Farewell Address to the Nation in 1961, President Eisenhower confessed, “we
have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions.” Yet,
later in the speech he issued his famous warning: “In the councils of government,
we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought
or unsought, by the military-industrial-complex.”
Eisenhower recognized the need for arms manufacturers, yet emphasized their dangers.
Originally, his notable phrase read: “the military-industrial-congressional-complex,” though
he chose to drop the one term in the final draft of the speech. Yet, congressional
representatives get reelected when they bring home federal money to their districts,
and arms manufacturers make profit when they sell weapons to the government.
Killing a weapons system becomes near impossible because of the economic and
political impact. The F/A-22 “Raptor” fighter jet, for example, designed
to counter a Soviet aircraft that was never built, has 1,000 subcontractors in
42 states.
People of faith recognize morally troubling aspects of the military-industrial-congressional-complex.
Plainly, the opportunity cost — what could have been purchased instead
of military items — represents a matter of justice. The catastrophe of
a bridge collapse in Minnesota and the levee failures in New Orleans represent
essential infrastructure problems overlooked while unnecessary weapons get funded.
Morally, opportunity costs represent choices: eradicate polio worldwide or do
three tests of the missile defense system; vaccinate 10 million children worldwide
or buy six Trident II missiles; provide health coverage for 7 million children
or fund the nuclear weapons program for one year.
The words of Paul VI remain true today: “If you want peace, work for justice.” Justice
demands we rethink the military-industrial-congressional-complex that robs society
of essential goods and services while raising the threat of more and longer wars.
Fr. Rausch is a Glenmary priest who lives, writes and organizes in Appalachia.
