You Can’t Be Against “Forever Wars” Without Cutting the Military Budget
These days, a lot of politicians say they’re against “forever wars” — and that’s a good thing. But the acid test for genuine opposition to the national security state is support for cutting the military budget.
Armored troops from the US Army National Guard return to their base after conducting a training mission, March 4, 2020. (Lt. Col. Cindi King / US Army National Guard via Flickr)
In what’s ostensibly a uniquely polarized country, nothing is more bipartisan than lavish spending on the United States’ bloated military. Regardless of who controls Congress or which president occupies the White House, the Pentagon has become an insatiable maw into which the federal treasury is annually emptied.
On his new Substack Speaking Security, writer and researcher Stephen Semler has been meticulously tracking the corporate dollars and congressional votes that undergird the near-ironclad bipartisan consensus on increasing military spending in perpetuity.
Jacobin spoke to Semler about his work, the finer points of America’s ever-expanding military budget, and the deep corruption at its core.
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