U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn recently projected the cost of our military presence in the Middle East to be roughly $50 billion per year. As you have reported, many people, including President Bush, are concerned with how the military mobilization will be financed.
I share our president`s view that the costs should be shouldered by those who benefit from our involvement, but Bush seems to have overlooked the real beneficiary of all this excitement-the U.S. defense industry.
The current crisis arrived just in time to save the balance sheets of defense contractors from ”reckless” cuts in the defense budget. Republicans and Democrats have wasted no time in using events in the Middle East to justify continued spending on the military gravy train. As one Pentagon spokesman put it, ”If you`re looking for the peace dividend, it just left for Saudi Arabia.”
Since we taxpayers have been subsidizing military boondoggles for decades, the defense industry should be more than happy to express its gratitude for our generosity by footing the Mideast military bill.
Clearly, if any group can afford to pay for the mobilization, defense contractors can. To raise the money, all they`d have to do is sell a few toilet seats.
