DoD procurement is a cesspool of fraud and generals becoming defense contractor board members and senior executives. That’s why an F22 costs 361M, for instance.
The DoD brass does NOT have Americas best interest in mind - take the F35 boondoggle. $1T aircraft program.
“Way to completely duck out of giving an answer.”
BS. I gave you a figure $500B. It’s more than enough under any rational assessment of threats. You dodged, my friend. How much is enough? A Trillion a year, Two Trillion? You don’t know - you just want “enough”. A bureaucracy NEVER has “enough”.
How much will it take to keep a vet from committing suicide? No amount of money can prevent that when you have a lack of leadership.
The problem with any failing bureaucracy (The dod is a failing bureaucracy) is not necessarily money, its leadership. No senior military official has resigned over budgets, rules of engagement, or even Benghazi when they had an opportunity to save american lives (at the sacrifice of their careers, to be sure) they all chose their careers. That bugs me a lot. this is the same mentality that pervades the DoD leadership.
You talk about “4% of GDP” like it’s a pittance. You do know that actual productive work is involved in paying for all this (and yes, the rest of the budget - entitlements, welfare and everything else).
You should have a little reverence for the poor bastard trying to eek out a living in the working class before you start talking about “only 4% of GDP”.
The DoD is a basket case as an organization. The rot is at the top, to be sure. I’m not sure that too many above the rank of O5 in todays military can lead the DoD where it needs to go at this point. Just my opinion.
$500B should be more than enough. That it’s not is reflective of leadership, not lack of money. That’s why poor sob’s get sent on multiple tours before they have time to get their feet on the ground on the home front.
That’s why we have a plethora of Admirals but a dearth of ships, for instance. Leadership.
We are the “laughing stock” as you put it, not because of a lack of budget, but because our commander in chief is an idiot, and he has “transformed” the military into a basket case of lack of capability.
I’ve been out 25 years. The corruption and leadership failures have only gotten worse in the military since then.
Money cant fix bad leadership and ethical failures of the top brass.
Start there, then figure out budget priorities. We desperately need a military that is far less bureaucratic and focused on capability, not social experimentation and “green” initiatives.
“If you really are a vet that had more than a minute in the military...you wouldn’t be talking like this.”
Listen to yourself. is your lack of skepticism reasonable? I think not.
” But you’re way off the mark in these broad sweeping general condemnations of the entire DoD that you are making.”
I don’t think I am. The leadership is broken, priorities are out-of-whack because of that.
Give a worthy military leader authority to prioritize and $500B and see what they can do with it. If they need more, then America might be more receptive. Spare us the “you get what you pay for” BS. We’re talking about real money here. Someone has to pay. That is something folks who do not have to pay for it absolutely do not understand. They should.
“Listen to yourself. is your lack of skepticism reasonable? I think not.”
Oh it’s very reasonable and very justified. Given the amount of fakes and people who claim that they are prior service just to try and give themselves street cred when they bash the DoD.
My skepticism is very warranted.
“BS. I gave you a figure $500B”
Wrong. You said the DoD budget was $800 billion and I was the one who told you it was $534 billion.
I was very detailed in what I thought would be enough.
Quit projecting.
I get it...you are anti-military anti-defense and coming on threads like this is how you get your enjoyment in life.
It won’t matter how many facts I throw at you...you’ve got your anti military talking points down and you’re not gonna budge from them...and you’ll project and move goalposts as much as you have to.
You aren’t the first one here to have ever tried that.