Lt. Col. Piers Wood spoke to an audience of approximately 50 in Rockefeller Center Wednesday night about wasteful military spending in the United States Government.
Wood said at the outset that while he is a supporter of the military, some serious problem-solving must be done to reduce wasteful Pentagon spending.
"In the past, mules would pull the [cannons] that made the cavalry powerful," Wood said.
Like the mule, the U.S. Government needs "the proverbial two-by-four upside the head to get its attention," Dickey said to the audience.
According to the Center for Defense Information, with which Wood is affiliated, the United States military will spend $288 billion in the coming fiscal year. "That's 8.3 billion more than the Pentagon even asked for," Wood said.
The funding above and beyond the Pentagon's wish list includes lucrative equipment contracts benefiting important congressmen's' home states, Wood said. He used an example of an unrequested aircraft carrier to be built in Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's home state of Mississippi.
The present total military budget equals 94% of the average spending level during the height of the cold war, according to CDI statistics.
"The lack of controversy [on military spending, particularly unrequested funding measures] is disconcerting, particularly in an election year," Wood said.
Wood relayed a number of statistics related to how much the United States military spends in certain areas, and comparisons to other nations.
According to his numbers, the United States and its traditional allies within NATO spend $483 billion annually on military programs. The perceived opposition forces of China, Russia and "rouge states" like Iran and Iraq spend a combined total of $117 billion.
Much of the Pentagon's excessive demands are related to unrealistic goals and standards of readiness, Wood said.
In the Quadrennial Defense Review, a Pentagon publication, a core strategy is outlined which bases Pentagon strategy on the ability to fight a war in two major theatres at once, without the assistance of any allies, with forces available for immediate deployment.
"Our analysts found that the QDR clearly overestimated the military capabilities of rogue states," said Wood. "The rouge states are not even Belgium's league... If you ask military analysts what they're really concerned about, the answer is China and Russia."
The center of Wood's argument was an appeal to demobilize unnecessary army divisions and aircraft carriers, placing them in reserve and saving tens of billions of dollars per year while keeping the equipment ready in case of an emergency.
Placing five of the ten active army divisions in reserve would save $20 billion per year since soldiers would not be paid 365 days per year, Wood said.
In addition, $10 billion could be saved by putting five of the eleven aircraft carrier battle groups in dry-dock, keeping them available for emergencies but saving the enormous costs of constant operation.
Also, $24 billion annually is earmarked for drills and preparations to use tactical nuclear weapons, which Wood said he found completely unnecessary,
"We are in an arms race with ourselves," Wood said. "Our F-15 strike fighting system is the world's best, yet we nearly replaced them all with new F-22s."
American military waste "is a systemic problem, not a problem of evil individuals... I just don't think there is a military solution for every problem," Wood said.
The speech was an installment of the War and Peace Lecture Series presented by the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding.
