President-Elect Obama's Future Pathway--More or Less Military Actions?

Today we hear rumbles of spending hundreds of billions of our tax dollars to spur our economy. Additional hundreds of billions are being spent to salvage failing banks and investment companies. More billions will focus upon helping homeowners prevent foreclosure of their homes. Finally we are paying the piper for past corporate and individual indulgences and greed-induced behavior.

Yet, despite the social need for these expenditures we still blindly allow two wars to suck up our tax dollars at the rate of at least $500 billion dollars a year, and swallow at least another $600 billion dollars for worldwide military expenditures. Our taxes pay for about 800 to 1,000 military bases that are manned by nearly 300,000 military personnel. Many hundreds of billions of dollars are spent for CIA operations, the Pentagon and other covert purposes. Military equipment contracts for new and replacement equipment accounts for hundreds of billions of tax dollars every year spent by military contractors. Para military corporations are hired by our government as unofficial military combatants to do dirty wok in such locations as Iraq and Afghanistan. These contracts are often masked in secrecy and their costs are unknown. Adding to this gargantuan military bounty are billions if not trillions of dollars required to provide veteran benefits and health care for years to come. It is virtually impossible to value human lives lost, so the total annual cost is beyond accurate estimation. If an accurate accounting of all military-related expenses were available the estimate of the total annual tax cost would easily exceed 2,000 billion dollars (2 trillion dollars for those of you who can visualize such a large number).

How, you may ask, can we spend about 15% of the US gross national product (US GNP) on military expenses. The world's GNP is about 63 trillion dollars, so we are essentially spending about 3% of the total world's GNP for military purposes, and virtually half of the world's total military expenses. The answer is that we borrow from counties such as China and Japan with what amounts to promissory notes to pay back, with interest, in the future. Just how much debt is really incurred annually is undoubtedly a well hidden secret, and is virtually never discussed in "polite circles" unless you want to be accused of "not putting your country first".

Well risking that association, may I ask whether we are getting our bang for the bucks spent for military? Our Constitution clearly specifies that we will maintain an army for national defense. Can we possibly justify the trillions of tax dollars and lives lost during the last eight years as spent for our country's national defense? Clearly, attacking Iraq and mounting ongoing war in Iraq and Afghanistan have neither improved the defense of our country against invading enemies (the 9/11 terror attack was not an act of war against our country by either Iraq or Afghanistan, but the nation less terrorist organization, Al Queda), nor helped our stature in the world. Yet our present government seems intent upon following the same path regardless of the consequences.

I hope that the the new Obama administration will take a distinctly different track, and not only stop our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but also reduce our military presence world wide. This could demonstrate to the world that we will foster peaceful approaches to world conflict rather than knee-jerk military responses. We would be able to divert trillions of dollars to health care, education and peaceful job creation instead of the abyss of endless military actions, loss of life, and bottomless expenses.

As our country awaits the new administration, let us all contact President-Elect Obama and urge him to fundamentally change our addiction to military solutions to ameliorate world conflict.This would not only create the possibility of an era of global peace, but would also provide some of the revenue to pay off our country's debt and to fund essential health care, educational improvements, and massive job creation. These must become the cornerstones of our true national purpose, beyond the military dominance that now prevails. Let us turn back to the principles of our Constitution and rebuild our country as "One Nation Indivisible With Liberty and Justice for All". Help us regain our way, President-Elect Obama. The American people are counting on you to help create an era of peace and humanity-driven purposes.