Bush Admin Wastes Trillions in Worthless Weapons

Bush Admin Wastes Trillions in Worthless Weapons

alternet.org

A trillion dollars here, a trillion dollars there, and soon you're talking real money. But when it comes to reporting on what the Bush war legacy has cost American taxpayers, the media have been shockingly indifferent to the highest run-up in military spending since World War II. Even the devastating defense spending audit released Monday by the Government Accountability Office documenting the enormous waste in every single U.S. advanced weapons system failed to provoke the outrage it, and five equally scathing previous annual audits, deserved.

(visit the link for the full news article)

And tack on one more reason why our cess pool-like deficit will never be able to be climbed out of...The Bush admin has been the M.I.C.'s wet-dream come true...It's no wonder these idiots keep clamoring for endless wars---Trillions of dollars involved. Unfortunately, they've bled everyone dry, so they are going to have to start generating money elsewhere---Expansion of poppy crops in Afghanistan? lol!

Doubly as laughable is how no MSM outlet has even touched this while our deficit and economy dives into Never-never Land...

This is not about the waste of taxpayer dollars -- already pushing a trillion -- in funding the Iraq war, which, while reprehensible enough, pales in comparison to the big-ticket military systems purchased in the wake of 9/11. In the horror of that moment, the floodgates were lifted and the peace dividend promised with the end of the Cold War was washed away by a doubling of spending on ultra-complex military equipment originally designed to defeat a Soviet enemy that no longer exists, equipment that has no plausible connection with fighting stateless terrorists. Example: the $81-billion submarine pushed by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, presumably to fight al-Qaida's navy.

That's the huge scandal the media and politicians from both parties have studiously avoided. But as the GAO's authoritative audit details, the costs are astronomical.

alternet.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

Didn't know our submarines cost 81 billion dollars a piece. But then I guess we should realize that we have countries that have submarines besides us. Not every country is Al Qaeda. Why do the Russians still have Flankers and MIGs built for a war that never came? Why is the Chinese building at fast pace of new submarines and other weaponry for a conflict they have not fought since Vietnam.

[edit on 3-4-2008 by deltaboy]

While a submarine might seem superfluous and useless to "fight al quaeda," I would say that it's not wasted money. There are plenty of countries with sub fleets-that aren't fighting any naval battles.

I thought the article was going to cover "useless" weapons which either would not or could not be utilized in any war...like NBC weapons.

Other than the Joint Strike Fighter, this article does not tell us why these weapons are useless, other than the absurd notion that they cannot fight al'Qaeda (I guess the writer thinks that cruise-missiles launched from subs and ships can only strike militaries deployed by nation-states). He seems to think they are useless simply because they are weapons, and does not understand our military has to be constantly upgraded.

Perhaps not "Worthless" per say, but GROSSLY OVERPRICED for what's being delivered...It seems the oversight of funneling a grotesque amount of funds is almost non-existent. Perhaps if we stopped all the war-mongering and chest pounding, we could actually scale back this idiotic free-for-all spend-fest on these things and actually work on our crumbling INFRASTRUCTURE...Just a thought.

"Of the 72 programs GAO assessed this year, none of them had proceeded through system development meeting the best-practice standards for mature technologies, stable design, or mature production processes by critical junctures of the program, each of which are essential for achieving planned cost, schedule, and performance outcomes."

That's a grade of zero for every major weapons system. Let's take just one, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a program estimated to be worth $300 billion in sales to its manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, the nation's biggest defense contractor and most generous donor to lobbyists and politicians' campaigns. The program to build what Lockheed boasts is "the most complex fighter ever built" is also the most expensive, with estimated acquisition costs having increased a whopping $55 billion in just the last three years.