Tag: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018

War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Edwin Star sang those lyrics in 1970 on his album War & Peace. The song “War” was No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 15 weeks. In 1970, the U.S. was deeply involved in the Vietnam war. I was 19, prime age for feeding the war machine. The lyrics have influenced my life ever since. Massive spending on our military hasn’t resulted in peace. Instead, we have more war and terrorism. Funding peace-building and peace-keeping should be a top priority of every member of Congress.

My column last month reported on the vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to support HR 2810, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018. The vote was 344 Yes and 81 No. Seventy-nine percent of our elected representatives in the House voted for “nearly $30 billion more for core Pentagon operations than President Trump requested,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle, July 15, 2017.

How much of our defense budget is actually spent on defense? How many U.S. military bases, estimated to be in 150 to 170 countries, do we need to defend ourselves? How much is to protect corporate trade routes or the war for oil? It is important to note that not one other country has a military base on our soil. Since the early 1960s, 50 to 60 percent of discretionary spending has been for the military. 2018 U.S. military spending: $696 billion