Mark Karlin at buzzflash for truthout points out the way our gargantuan military budget is sold to the public–
“From the propaganda of the US government — and its echo chamber in the corporate media — you would think that our nation is under a dire military threat, with Russia, China and other countries chomping at the bit to enter conflict with the self-proclaimed world superpower.”
And yet our military budget dwarfs all of theirs–theirs being ANY other country in the world. And remember, we the U.S. public is told over and over again it does not deserve health care, education, et. al. et. al. Apparently the fact that we ask anything but unparalleled military expenditure is a sign of our presumption.
We are as a result falling further and further behind the rest of the developed world.
Karlin quotes Lindsay Koshgarian of the National Priorities Project:
“The less we spend on Pentagon contractors that profit from fear and conflict, the more we can spend on priorities like education, climate change and infrastructure to move our country forward into the 21st first century.”