David Swanson: War is a Crime!!

Guess what percentage of Americans know military spending is increasing, and keep guessing some more, because pollsters are unlikely to ask that question. A year and a half ago, a poll found that Americans drastically underestimate how high US military spending is. This fits with consistent polling showing slim majority support for cutting military spending, but strong support for major military cuts when the people polled are told what the current budget is. Setting aside, however, the absolute size of the US military budget, its size in comparison to the rest of the federal budget, are people able to process the fact that it's been growing every year for the past 15 years, in the face of the steady news reports that it's shrinking. The Office of Management and Budget can be expected again this week to claim that military spending is low as a percentage of GDP, but the idea that we should spend more on war, because we can, is probably best left to psychiatrists to handle. Meanwhile, three GOP senators are touring the country, warning that 'mythical' military cuts will endanger us and hurt our socialistic jobs program. Here are some basic facts missing from the discussion: Money invested in non military programs or even in tax cuts for non billionaires creates more jobs than does military spending, enough to justify the expense of a conversion program to retrain and retool. In much of the world, spending money on killing people in order to produce jobs is viewed as sociopathic. Candidate Obama promised to increase military spending and size, and President Obama has done so: Military spending has increased dramatically in the past decade!