Follow us on social

Screen-shot-2020-07-10-at-1.49.23-pm

Now is not the time to demand bigger military budgets

The hawks are already trying to exploit the Russian invasion, saying a shortfall in spending is leaving us vulnerable. Not true.

Analysis | Military Industrial Complex

In response to Russia’s  invasion of Ukraine, a growing chorus of pundits and policy analysts have been advocating for large increases in America’s enormous budget for national defense, on top of the $778 billion Congress has authorized for Fiscal Year 2022. These calls are both misguided and counterproductive.

Before adding even more spending to the Pentagon’s already bloated budget, it’s important to understand just how large it is already and how much capability the U.S. military already has in Europe. In real, inflation-adjusted terms, the current Pentagon budget is substantially higher than the department’s budget was at the peaks of the Korean or Vietnam Wars or the height of the Cold War. And much of it is being wasted due to an outmoded, “cover the globe” military strategy and a dysfunctional budget process that favors special interests over the national interest. 

Any calls for increased U.S. troop presence in Europe should first recognize what the U.S. military already has in Europe, namely more than 90,000 U.S. service personnel stationed across the continent. This is more than enough to provide U.S. support for the defense of Europe, backed by the U.S. and NATO’s nuclear deterrent. Any proposal to increase U.S. troop levels beyond that should be subject to debate in Congress and among the general public. This must be coupled with setting clearer priorities and managing existing funds more effectively, not by blindly throwing more money at the Pentagon. And any decision to increase NATO’s troop presence should rely heavily on our European NATO allies, which together have economies more than 10 times the size of Russia’s and taken together spend three times as much on their militaries. They can afford to do more as needed.

One major problem with the Pentagon’s current budget is that it has been rationalized by reference to an unsustainable national defense strategy that refuses to make choices among competing priorities, and does not rely enough on allies to provide for their own defense. Instead, current strategy calls on the United States to be prepared to engage in great power conflict with China and Russia and major regional contingencies in the Middle East and Northeast Asia and a continuing global war on terror. This strategy is backed up by a huge global military footprint that includes over 750 overseas military bases, 200,000 troops overseas, and counterterror operations in 85 countries. The United States cannot be cast in the role of global policeman, and recent efforts to do so, like the decades-long interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, have been costly, destabilizing, and counterproductive.

Meanwhile, over 900,000 Americans have died in the current pandemic, and the climate crisis has accelerated the incidence of fires, floods, droughts and other extreme weather events. The greatest risks to human lives and livelihoods are not military in nature, yet the military continues to consume roughly half of the funds appropriated by Congress each year. 

The second driver of excessive Pentagon spending is the impact of pork barrel politics and corporate influence on budgetary decision making. Instead of being based on a realistic strategy and investments in the weapons and services needed to carry it out, the Pentagon budget is too often shaped by the desire to keep funds flowing to the states and Congressional districts where components of big ticket weapons systems are built — whether or not these systems are effective, affordable, or relevant to a needed mission. 

The continued production and development of the F-35 combat aircraft is a prime example of parochial interests overriding security imperatives. 

At $1.7 trillion to build, maintain, and operate over its lifetime, the F-35 is the most expensive weapons program ever undertaken by the Pentagon. Yet it has over 800 unresolved defects, costs $38,000 an hour to fly, and has yet to be proven superior to current generation aircraft in basic functions like close air support for troops in the field or aerial combat. A series of analyses by the Project on Government Oversight suggest that the F-35 may never be fully ready for combat. But despite all of its flaws, one thing the F-35 does have in its favor is a dedicated caucus in Congress made up of members with pieces of the plane being built in their districts, and the lobbying power of its prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest arms maker. So far this concentrated political power has kept the funds for the F-35 flowing to tune of well over $12 billion per year, even as House Armed Services Committee chair Rep. Adam Smith has said he’s “tired of pouring money” down the F-35 “rathole.”

Other systems that are being funded because of pork barrel politics and misguided strategy include new Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), which former secretary of defense William Perry has described as “some of the most dangerous weapons in the world” because the president would have only a matter of minutes to decide whether to launch them on warning of an attack, greatly increasing the risk of an accidental nuclear war; $13 billion aircraft carriers that are not yet fully capable of launching or landing aircraft, and which are vulnerable to a new generation of anti-ship missiles; and the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), which cannot defend itself in a high intensity combat environment and has no clear mission. The tens of billions saved by forgoing these systems can be invested in addressing more urgent security challenges.

The debate on whether to further increase the Pentagon budget should be grounded in an acknowledgement of how much of the department’s current spending is being wasted due to an ineffective and dangerous strategy of global primacy coupled with influence peddling and pork barrel politics that distort the budget and do nothing to make Americans safer. It’s time to rethink strategy and budgetary decision making, not heedlessly give more money to the Department of Defense.


More than 900 Sailors and Marines assigned to the amphibious assault ship Pre-Commissioning Unit (PCU) America (LHA 6) march to the ship to take custody of it, April 10, 2014. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Vladimir Ramos)
Analysis | Military Industrial Complex
Kim Jong Un
Top photo credit: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the construction site of the Ragwon County Offshore Farm, North Korea July 13, 2025. KCNA via REUTERS

Kim Jong Un is nuking up and playing hard to get

Asia-Pacific

President Donald Trump’s second term has so far been a series of “shock and awe” campaigns both at home and abroad. But so far has left North Korea untouched even as it arms for the future.

The president dramatically broke with precedent during his first term, holding two summits as well as a brief meeting at the Demilitarized Zone with the North’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. Unfortunately, engagement crashed and burned in Hanoi. The DPRK then pulled back, essentially severing contact with both the U.S. and South Korea.

keep readingShow less
Why new CENTCOM chief Brad Cooper is as wrong as the old one
Top photo credit: U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Brad Cooper speaks to guests at the IISS Manama Dialogue in Manama, Bahrain, November 17, 2023. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed

Why new CENTCOM chief Brad Cooper is as wrong as the old one

Middle East

If accounts of President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iranian nuclear facilities this past month are to be believed, the president’s initial impulse to stay out of the Israel-Iran conflict failed to survive the prodding of hawkish advisers, chiefly U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Michael Kurilla.

With Kurilla, an Iran hawk and staunch ally of both the Israeli government and erstwhile national security adviser Mike Waltz, set to leave office this summer, advocates of a more restrained foreign policy may understandably feel like they are out of the woods.

keep readingShow less
Putin Trump
Top photo credit: Vladimir Putin (Office of the President of the Russian Federation) and Donald Trump (US Southern Command photo)

How Trump's 50-day deadline threat against Putin will backfire

Europe

In the first six months of his second term, President Donald Trump has demonstrated his love for three things: deals, tariffs, and ultimatums.

He got to combine these passions during his Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Monday. Only moments after the two leaders announced a new plan to get military aid to Ukraine, Trump issued an ominous 50-day deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire. “We're going to be doing secondary tariffs if we don't have a deal within 50 days,” Trump told the assembled reporters.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.