The worst part of this fraud, waste, and abuse is that our troops still aren't getting what they need. Remember the delays for the up-armor kits for the Humvees? Many troops paid with their lives for that fiasco. The Air Force can't even afford to replace its aircraft because the new ones cost way too much (partly because we love to add expensive, high-tech features that at best add marginal utility).

The irony is that there's so much waste that the Pentagon is in the process of disarming itself. Too bad we're paying such a high price for so little.

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The waste and fraud in U.S. military spending is so enormous that it's almost unbelievable. Pentagon contractors have a license to steal -- from the taxpayers. (The problem also is rife in other areas of government.)

And all of this goes on pretty much under our noses. The Pentagon and contractors are so complacent about the systematic looting of the Treasury that they don't even try very hard to hide it. Indeed, much of it is MANDATED under various laws, rules and contracts.

What's maddening is that the mainstream media virtually ignore this ongoing mugging of the public. When was the last time you saw a TV anchor waxing indignant about the countless billions being lost to unneeded and/or ill-designed weapons or programs? Don't hold your breath waiting either. The MSM know which side their bread is buttered on. And some of them -- like NBC -- are owned by the same folks who are collecting fat checks from the Pentagon.

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GWB appointed Zionist Dov Zakheim as Pentagon Comptroller in early 2001. One of his duties was to track down about a trillion dollars that was missing in Pentagon accounting at the time. While Dov was comptroller, another trillion went missing. What really happened to all this taxpayer money? Let me guess, how much would it cost to pull off a false flag operation like 9/11?

Zakheim was formerly a top executive at a corporation that produces electronic equipment for controlling multiple airliners from the ground. Before 9/11 Zakheim sent 32 767 refueling tankers to Ellis AFB in Florida for refitting. Remember one of the witnesses to the tower crashes said, "There were no windows on that plane." 767 tankers have no windows. Zakheim resigned from the Pentagon in 2005 without finding any of the missing trillions.

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If and when the corporate and Pentagon criminals have succeeded in stealing the nation blind and bankrupt, they hope there will be nothing and no one left but aristocrats like them and peasants like us. That is their long term goal, a return to imperial supremacy based on race, caste and class.

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Pretty sad that we have billions to WASTE yet so many people right here at home are suffering. Thank you Dictator Bush!

JT
Online Privacy when it Counts

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A ticket home from Iraq.

The rest is just business as usual - Clinton's defense budgets were also marvels of bloated pork, as were Bush I's, as were Reagan's, as were Carter's, as were Ford's, as were Nixon's, as were Johnson's, as were Kennedy's, as were Eisenhower's - nothing at all has changed there.

Read "House of War"(James Carroll) for the details, if you want. Better yet are "The Iron Triangle" and "The Halliburton Agenda". (Dan Briody)

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Over the last 20 years, and since the end of the Cold war, the threat from ballistic missiles has been decreasing. Agreements with Russia have reduced intermediate and long range ballistic missiles by over 50%. The threat from Iran is at least 10 years or more from ever coming to fruition, and that is even if Iran does eventually acquire a nuclear weapon. But, here we are, with Bush spending at least $6 billion a year on this technology, that even much of the Pentagon considers ineffective and not of any real value. It's a perfect example of billions and billions of dollars being wasted.

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Think of thewse two words in Connection with bloated Defense spending Carlyle Group . They are a private equity group whose members include many former heads of Government such as Bush41 and former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown .
Another reason that the Congress is reluctant to stop these boondoogle progams is that they create good jobs at home , At least that used to be true until we ordered the newest generation of refueling tanker airplanes from the European Union . For what it is worth I have read stories that the Boeing plane was actually a better deal in the long run with
lower operating and repair costs .

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I'm sorry to hear that, cwilson... I hope he's back home safe and sound very soon. Perhaps the Iraqis will kick us out at the end of the year... we can only hope so.

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My cousin just got back a few months ago... he was a chef in the National Guard, but thanks to Rumsfeld's "Transformation of the Military" projects all of those food services are taken over by for-profit companies like KBR/Halliburton, so he was sent to the front. He won a Bronze Star but does not want to tell us why. To make more money KBR gives smaller food portions, they don't leave the mess-hall open 24 hours anymore, etc. Some things should not be for profit. I hope your son makes the best of it. We're all trying to get him back to the states ASAP. I plan to vote for Obama and immediately start pushing him to bring everybody home.

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I get the sense that we're all disgusted by the waste, fraud, abuse and corruption.

Who are we? We're all individuals trying to survive. Some groups have more than others... our governments are supposed to be symbols and mechanisms that we hold up to a standard of trust defined by those that preceded us. Somewhere along the line we became distracted by that need to fulfill our desires. When one faults the media for not engaging a corrupt system what does that mean?

What is "the media" - it's a beast as any other company whose main purpose is to make money. We "The People" have to embark on a path that will reverse the corrosive dynamic that pervades the rotting fabric of the USA. When will we collectively decide that enough is enough? We are a great people and a great country that is being taken advantage of by sneaky groups. Trusting each other doesn't mean we have to trust the organization.

Have you bothered to look around while standing in line at the airport security - remember we are supposed to be "Land of the free, home of the brave". It's nothing but a stupid song lyric that portends to give rise to an idea that keep us believing in something that is no longer real. The sham continues and it breaks my heart.

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Rumsfeld's totally ignored speech of Sept 10, 2001:

http://www.defenselink.mil/speeches/speech.aspx?speechid=430

in which he makes many of these same observations. His speech was completely forgotten in the wake of the next day's events.

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Any amount spent on war,[ legalized murder] is wasteful spending. Those in favor of such actions would say i owe my "freedom" to the wars of the past. But what has war really produced? The right to pursue greedy acquisition which is at the expense of someone elses physical toil. The right to pursue religious fanaticism. The right to vote for complete power hungry morons. The right to be a monetary slave to the banking systems. the right to pay taxes that support more war. the right to engage in all of these activities which ultimately contributes to war or it's prearation, which is passed off as "peace". For all you truculent retorters, I did my stint in the military, and learned my lesson about cruelty.

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Winslow Wheeler of the Strauss Military Reform Project is a good source for understanding how this happens. The procurement process is out of control. The F-22 Raptor is a very good case study (link is an MP3, very worth listening to, to understand the context a bit).

I think that this is an issue upon which progressives and "conservatives" can find common ground... wasteful spending in the Department of Defense.

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