National Defense..

"Peace on Earth and Goodwill to all mankind" is the theme of XMass carols, Beauty Queens and Hippie communes..
These pleasant sentiments deny the reality of the hundreds of Hitlers, Gadaffis, and Pol Pots that infest "mankind".
We can't be the policeman to the whole world - but there is hardly an American patriot who isn't embarrassed that it took the USA so long to get involved in World War II - That procrastination almost guaranteed Hitlers success.

It's interesting that, in the 50s, 90% of western citizens believed it was right to jump into WWII, while today, 80% think we should avoid war at all costs - that we should leave the peoples of other nations to the mercy of despots.

We certainly have lost our eagerness to rescue the downtrodden.
The human costs and financial costs of going to war is obscene.. But so is the costs of ignoring a war.

Balanced National Defense should be affordable.

You can't make wise defense budgetary decisions while our Defense Policies and the Department of Defense itself can be summed up as totally UN-balanced.
The extreme expenditures of the last 50 years have created a culture of insane "Star Wars" projects, bloated 'National Laboratories' and Sandia itself.
Sandia is listed as a small division of of Lockheed Martin, but is responsible for..
The Plutonium stockpile; Maintenance of the entire silo-launch system for Nuclear Missiles;
The maintenance of software controlling the Nuclear Launch code system..
The legendary Los-Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories are "Sandia Facilities".
Sandia is obviously NOT just a small division of of Lockheed Martin.
The worlds best minds on super-computers are all resident at Sandia. The worlds Top 50 Super-computer list has an acknowledgment that "this list is incomplete because it cannot list the 'Top 5' Sandia units."
They own the trillion dollar "Z Machine" (and its associated super-computers) which is devoted to "understanding small (2 cm) Fusion devices" (No scientist who tours the "Z" fails to see the awesome purpose of it.. In spite of official denial, it would (by coincidence) allow 99% of the development of Fusion weapons to be done within a super-computer! (Nuclear Testing within a computer is not outlawed (covered) by the "Nuclear Testing Ban" treaty.)
It becomes painfully obvious that Sandia (not DARPA) is the zillion dollar, covert heart of National Defense research in the USA.

It is these zillion dollar institutions that are the heart of the problem with the Defense Budget.
To gain control of these issues and the multitude of power-crazy generals in the pentagon would require a "Landslide mandate"! Until such a mandate is likely - it is not even wise to discuss the following solutions..

A "Zero-Base" Budget..

The main complication with preparing a Defense Budget is the sobering fact that we and the world are already bankrupt!
When a company is bankrupt, the first thing the Administrator explains is the concept of 'Zero-Base'. "We start from nothing - and work our way back up.."  That means..
1. Every one is fired! Every project is canceled! Every asset is deemed 'for sale'! Every debt is called in.
2. Now, how much money do we have? - and what are the top few expenditure priorities to get us thru this month?
3. Which admin employees do we need to re-hire to get us thru this month?
4. After that, how much money is left? - and which Projects are vital to our survival? and which employees do we need to re-hire for them?
For a bankrupt company, the procedure is quite simple but very brutal. We will plan a Defense Budget on that same basis.

(more to follow)
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