BLOG POST #6

 Military Operations

June 20, 2021

The U.S. compared to the rest of the world spends more money on the military than any other country. In 2019, we spent $732 Billion dollars on defense spending. About half the annual U.S. budget is money for the military. As of 2018, we have 1.3 million active-duty servicemen and women. As of 2017, the United States has around 2,200 fighter jets, including about 1,400 operated by the Air Force. 

As of 2017, the U.S. Army possesses in total some 225,000 vehicles of all types. 

U.S. ships as of June 16, 2021.

• Aircraft Carriers: 11
• Surface Combatants: 115
• Submarines: 68
• Amphibious Warfare Ships: 31
• Mine Warfare Ships: 8
• Combat Logistics Ships: 29
• Fleet Support: 33
• Auxiliary Support: 1
• Combatant Craft: 0
• Other: 0
• Total Battle-Force Ships in Inventory: 296
• Total Active Ships in Commission: 251

The U.S. Department of Defense is the most powerful and largest organization probably in the world. Even the U.S. Department of Defense doesn't know how big the U.S. Department of Defense is. It is so big that the U.S. Department of Defense has failed three audits with the most recent audit being in 2020. An audit "is an objective examination and evaluation of the financial statements of an organization to make sure that the financial records are a fair and accurate representation of the transactions they claim to represent." There is so much we are spending on defense and so much the military has in their possession, along with being very secretive about the happenings of the military. You can see there is a reason Anti-War.com and American Conservative are so outspoken against having such a robust military.

I think there are several reasons why you never hear much about these two websites. The first reason being that so many people know people who work in the military. Another reason being we spend so much on the military we are used to it and think it is normal. We also tend to not care that much about our military's activities or we find it normal that we don’t know about our current military operations. We have gone blind to it. 

Then another reason is we try to be as respectful to the military as possible since so many people have been hurt or have died in service to this country. According to Military.com "Since the Revolutionary War ended, 646,596 American troops have died in battle and more than 539,000 died from other, non-combat related causes...In 2018, more than 18 million Americans identified themselves as veterans, the oldest being from World War II and the Korean War." We have several dedicated days to celebrate the U.S. military. We dedicate even the entire month of March as the month of the military caregiver. Another reason is that to go against the military in any way, shape, or form is like trying to go up against a giant it is nearly impossible. Then it is also a little taboo to criticize the military since so many people are involved with or were involved with the military, my family included.  According to the Pew Research Center "Overall, six-in-ten Americans (61%) have an immediate family member who has served in the military."

I live in Maryland where we are close to so many government facilities related to defense or security. There are 20 military facilities, with 12 of those being major military bases in my state alone and most are at most an hour from me. My parents and I know so many people who work for the military it is just ridiculous. Including my mother and grandfather, who both worked on a few military bases for a while. Since they used to work for Westing House, before it was bought out by Northrop Grumman. The company they worked for was contracted by the government for various projects, especially military projects. The government is also very secretive about their military operations so we get little opportunity to hear about them. They especially try to prevent any information from being leaked about their military activities. It would also make sense that the Pentagon doesn’t want many people interested in military affairs, especially combat situations.  We as a society also tend to focus on the dramatic stuff that is going on around us and if it isn’t dramatic or heart-tugging enough, we ignore it and it isn’t reported on. It is for the same reason that most of the news is filled with just negative stuff because it can get an audience. Overall, I think the main causes are just plain obliviousness and that it isn’t being reported on. We have just turned a blind eye to it. 

That is unfortunately not the only thing we are blind to about our government. We have so many military bases around the world that we lost track of some of them. If you compare other countries' military presence in other countries to ours, you can see we have way more than most. If you actually look, most countries do not have any military presence outside of their country. So for us where it is normal to have a military base you can go to if you are abroad if you want and have the clearance we wouldn’t find it to be unusual but for the rest of the world it isn’t normal.

A few months prior I was watching a very interesting video about that very topic. In the video, it talks about how not even the U.S. government knows about all of their military bases. When the Pentagon Research arm the Rand Corp was doing research on the various military bases abroad instead of using the Pentagon's list, they used David Vine’s list, who is an anthropologist and Professor who literally wrote the book on U.S. military bases abroad. Vine’s list was more authoritative than the Pentagon's own list. Can you imagine a professor knows more about the various bases that the U.S. government has than the Pentagon, who payed for, built, and maintain the U.S. military bases around the world. That is extremely terrifying and very concerning.