Out-of-Control "Defense" Spending Must Be Tamed -- Here's How

Yesterday, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, put out a statement as he released his 2011 National Military Strategy. In it, he spoke words that have been rarely uttered by any high-ranking military or civilian member of the Department of Defense (DoD). He said that the "national debt poses a significant national security risk ... Both our nation and military will face increased budget pressures and we cannot assume an increase in the defense budget," and he added, "As we adjust to these pressures, we must not become a hollow force with a large force structure lacking the readiness, training, and modern equipment it needs."

This is in line with what Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has been saying for over a year, and some people are daring to be hopeful that perhaps the climate is right to finally start reforming the Pentagon. After over 30 years of working toward reforming the DoD and helping sources and whistleblowers to release information on scandal after scandal, I should feel like Sisyphus who, when he gets the rock to the top of the hill, it gets kicked back down again. But with the DoD, I feel like the rock has not been just kicked down the hill, but is at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. (I am not sure what I did in my past life to deserve this and I don't know why I won't give up, but I have also worked on other government fraud areas to good success.)

Since I have been working toward reforming the DoD from the 1980s to the present, the Pentagon has become unauditable, a word that you won't find in the dictionary, but a word that the Pentagon uses to say that they are the one main federal department that has not been able to pass an audit, even though they are required to by law, and as an excuse when they are requested to investigate fraud charges in their spending. On top of that, we are getting less and less bang for each buck, fewer and fewer planes, tanks and ships with each generation because of unrealistic and out-of-control costs and the defense budget has rocketed to such a high level that it is higher, in constant dollars, than anytime since the end of World War II, which makes it larger than all our enemies' defense budgets combined.

Truly reforming the DoD, getting control of its budget and making weapons that truly work are massive tasks that have eluded reformers for years. Many patriotic whistleblowers and internal sources have risked everything to try to change the Pentagon for the sake of the troops and the country, only to have their lives ruined or become very disillusioned as they continue to work in the Pentagon and find that their sacrifices were for naught.

The bulk of the power in this fight to reform the Pentagon is in the hands of the people who benefit from it: defense companies, high-ranking military and civilian personnel and members of Congress, among others. With an attitude of "don't bite the hand that feeds you," they will marshal their considerable force with the same excuses that are used each decade as if they are new. Some of them are:

• We will hurt national security
• If we cut, we will be cutting bone instead of fat
• This new generation of airplane, ship or tank is absolutely necessary to defeat our enemies
• Questioning costs and cutting defense money will show our enemies that we are weak
• We want the best for our boys (a favorite of some of our upper officer corps even though it has been shown that they pick money over troops year after year)
• And the final bastion, one that works very well with Congress: if we cut, we will lose a massive amount of jobs during these hard economic times

So, why is this column going to devote the next two months with entries on how to fix this mess of a government department? First, it is too important to give up because we are sending troops into harm's way without giving them the best they should have. Second, the federal treasury cannot take it anymore, and Mullen is right that we are jeopardizing our national security by ironically spending too much for our national security. And finally, to quote Lao-tzu, founder of Taoism - a journey of a thousand miles began with a single step.