"The War Party" Wants More

Niskanen Center’s Matt Fay tells readers “As we write in our piece today, this entails More Troops. More ships. And ultimately more spending.”

Matt continues, “Our military’s challenges right now have less to do with how much it spends, but how it spends. The Pentagon remains the only federal entity that has not passed a financial audit. Meanwhile, the F-35 multirole fighter aircraft and the Littoral Combat Ship remain behind schedule and billions over budget. Military compensation costs have risen by more than 50 percent (adjusted for inflation) between 2001 and 2012.”

The big question that immediately comes to mind when reading Matt’s concise analysis is how much Pentagon spending actually makes America more safe, more prosperous and more free. Perhaps Pentagon officials could detail to Congress how either the F-35 or the Littoral Combat Ship would be deployed in defending America’s shoreline rather than engaging in misguided military adventures abroad, none of which since WWII, have proven, in the final analysis, to be in the national best interest of America.