Quote:
Originally Posted by Rochard
I don't believe the military is a racketeering thing....
The military spends money if we go to war or not. No one says "Hey, we need to go to war with Iraq in six months so we need to order another hundred jets". Those jets are ordered, made, and paid for long before then.
I was reading about the Osprey aircraft last night, and it's stunning how much we've spent on this - The first year year we spent $8 billion, the following year $27 billion, and had yet to produce anything other than two prototypes. Keep in mind the Osprey program started in the late 1970s after the Iranian hostage crisis, and these planes weren't deployed until 2002.
Do we spend more money when we go to war? We sure do. But we spend most of that on gas costs, food, and ammo. Not big ticket items like planes and ships.
|
That gas, food, ammo etc is all bought from or contracted out to other companies. A company like Haliburton can make tens, if not hundreds of millions just supplying food, toilets and basic services to soldiers who are deployed in a war zone.