USA's Global Force for Good Needs $30 Billion More To Be Better

The USA has considerably increased its defense spending. President Barack Obama signed the new defense budget October 28. The defense budget of the United States made up $650 billion in 2009, but for 2010 it will be increased by $30 billion – to $680 billion.

Photo: USA's Global Force for Good Needs Billion More To Be Better

Obama said that the new bill would save tens of billions of dollars by cutting wasteful projects.

"I have always rejected the notion that we have to waste billions of dollars of taxpayer money to keep this nation secure," Obama said, before signing the defense authorization act at the White House.

"In fact, I think that wasting these dollars makes us less secure - and that's why we have passed a defense bill that eliminates some of the waste and inefficiency in our defense process."

Nevertheless, the new bill is $30 billion larger in spite of the fact that Obama supports non-military solutions of all disputes and conflicts. He decided to shelve missile defense plans in Eastern Europe, cut strategic arms and supported the peaceful solution of the Iranian nuclear program. To crown it all, Mr. Obama has recently been awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his “efforts” to bring peace to every nation on earth.

Here is another curious detail. A commercial has recently appeared on the internet promoting the US Navy with its new slogan – “A Global Force for Good.”

Apparently, Obama increased the nation’s defense budget to support the global force for good. The commercial clearly states that US military men are ready to appear in any part of the world even if a conflict does not infringe upon American interests.

Military expert Anatoly Utkin said in an interview with Pravda.Ru that it would not be correct to say that Barack Obama was increasing the nation’s defense spending.

“Indeed, the defense spending will be increased by $30 billion. However, America’s top military officials insisted on a much larger increase – to $815 billion. Obama has made a $135-billion cut. Thus, the bill cut the program to increase the number of F-22 fifth-generation aircraft and many other defense programs. In general, the USA’s defense spending is not that large if compared with the national budget as it is. Washington’s social spending makes up to $2 trillion. The defense of such a large country as the USA is three times less expensive,” the expert said.

Another expert, Vladislav Shurygin, believes that the reason to increase the defense budget lies in the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the USA has been very unsuccessful for years.

“In addition, one shall not forget inflation. It’s clear that the dollar will lose its value in 2010, and the USA needs to compensate these losses. The USA has scrapped the F-22 fighter jet program, but continues to develop the program of another fifth-generation fighter jet – F-35. The country works on the creation of other weapons too, which proves that the United States of America intends to own the most powerful armed forces in the world,” Mr. Shurygin said.

Serbey Balmasov
Pravda.Ru

Read the original in Russian

Russia Today: Pentagon announces major cut to weapons programs