Several days ago I read a comment in a blog I follow, which is worth repeating:
The Pentagon cannot account for $8.5 trillion. The same report (from Reuters) says, “The Defense Department’s 2012 budget totaled $565.8 billion, more than the annual defence budgets of the 10 next largest military spenders combined, including Russia and China. How much of that money is spent as intended is impossible to determine.” Just so we can put this in perspective – $8.5 trillion is a lot of money. For example, Obamacare – you know, the thing that’s going to bankrupt the US – will cost $1.36 trillion by 2023. (Your Face Is Politics; 8.5 Trillion Dollars; November 20, 2013)
The Reuters report stated, in part:
In its investigation, Reuters has found that the Pentagon is largely incapable of keeping track of its vast stores of weapons, ammunition and other supplies; thus it continues to spend money on new supplies it doesn't need and on storing others long out of date. It has amassed a backlog of more than half a trillion dollars in unaudited contracts with outside vendors; how much of that money paid for actual goods and services delivered isn't known. And it repeatedly falls prey to fraud and theft that can go undiscovered for years, often eventually detected by external law enforcement agencies.
The consequences aren't only financial; bad bookkeeping can affect the nation's defence. In one example of many, the Army lost track of $5.8 billion of supplies between 2003 and 2011 as it shuffled equipment between reserve and regular units.
Because of its persistent inability to tally its accounts, the Pentagon is the only federal agency that has not complied with a law that requires annual audits of all government departments. That means that the $8.5 trillion in taxpayer money doled out by Congress to the Pentagon since 1996, the first year it was supposed to be audited, has never been accounted for. That sum exceeds the value of China's economic output last year.
In its annual report of department-wide finances for 2012, the Pentagon reported $9.22 billion in "reconciling amounts" to make its own numbers match the Treasury's, up from $7.41 billion a year earlier. It said that $585.6 million of the 2012 figure was attributable to missing records. The remaining $8 billion-plus represented what Pentagon officials say are legitimate discrepancies. However, a source with knowledge of the Pentagon's accounting processes said that because the report and others like it aren't audited, they may conceal large amounts of additional plugs and other accounting problems. (The Pentagon’s Doctored Ledgers Conceal Epic Waste; Reuters; November 18, 2013)
As a long time advocate who has demonstrated for peace, I was upset to read the Reuter’s report. Peace does not have to be elusive and it takes effort. It should be more difficult to get into war than it is to live in peace. Unfortunately, when there is a culture of militarism, with uncontrolled and unaccountable spending, there will not be lasting peace.
We have disregarded Dwight Eisenhower’s admonition in his farewell address in 1961 when he said, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.”
Just one day more...
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