TheWiseOldFart

The annual budget for the Pentagon is nearing one trillion dollars. The first time I wrote this number, I was appalled. $1,000,000,000,000. That is 1,000 billion dollars. No working man could possibly imagine how much money that is. The truth is one-half of their annual budget is wasted, according to a non-profit watchdog organization. A couple examples of our military’s fiscal failures. I researched the F-35 fighter a number of years ago. The project was approved in 1995. Testing was completed in 2021. It was approved for mass production, although I cannot find any information about where or if it is in full production in 2025. [The average flyaway cost of an F-35A (the conventional takeoff and landing variant) is around $82.5 million. The F-35B (vertical takeoff and landing) has an average flyaway cost of $109 million, and the F-35C (carrier-launched) is priced at $102.1 million. These prices are for production lots 15-17, which were delivered in 2023, 2024, and 2025.] The F-35 is th...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart   America’s government loves wars. According to politicians, “they are good business.” However, since the 1950’s our military has proven that we are not very good at military confrontations. In fact, we have lost every war since WWII. The wars waged by our government have cost much more than the lives of our finest young men and women, they have prevented funding for social programs which would greatly improve the lives of all Americans. The cost of waging war has damaged the quality of life for every working class American for decades. Waging unwinnable wars has divided our nation and destroyed faith in leadership; deservedly so. Loss of life WWII until today. WWII, 405,399 Korean Conflict, 36,516 Vietnam War, 58,220 Gulf War, 294 Afghanistan, 2,325 Iraq, 4,492 If I eliminate WWII, a conflict not initiated by the United States, I ask a fair question: “what did our nation accomplish in Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan, or Iraq? The truth is, we left...