• reduce the budget for national defense from the current sum of about $300 billion to $185 billion (in fiscal year 2002 dollars)—in increments over five years;
• make it clear that the reduced budget must be accompanied by a more restrained national military posture that requires enough forces to fight one major theater war instead of the current posture based on the need to wage two nearly simultaneous wars;
• restructure U.S. forces to reflect the American geostrategic advantage of virtual invulnerability to invasion by deeply cutting ground forces (Army and Marines) while retaining a larger percentage of the Navy and Air Force;
• authorize a force structure of 5 active-duty Army divisions (down from 10 now), 1 active Marine division (reduced from 3 now), 14 Air Force fighter wings (down from 20 now), 200 Navy ships (down from 316), and 6 carrier battle groups with 6 Navy air wings (reduced from 12 and 11, respectively);
• require that the armed services compensate for reduced active forces by relying more on the National Guard and the reserves in any major conflict;
• terminate weapons systems that are unneeded or are relics of the Cold War and use the savings to give taxpayers a break and to beef up neglected mission areas;
• terminate all peacekeeping and overseas presence missions so that the armed services can concentrate on training to fight wars and to deploy from the U.S. homeland in an expeditionary mode should that become necessary; and
• require negotiations with Russia to mutually reduce strategic nuclear warheads below START II levels—to about 1,500 war-heads each.
• reduce tax expenditures by privatization through letters of Marque and Reprisal
• promptly eliminate the foreign aid budget devoted to developmental aid,
• withdraw all U.S. military personnel from Bosnia and Kosovo within one year,
• withdraw all U.S. troops stationed in Western Europe by 2005,
• withdraw all U.S. troops stationed in South Korea by 2005,
• withdraw all U.S. troops stationed in Japan by 2007,
• transfer some of the funding and personnel involved in the above withdrawals to units and tasks relevant to the war on terrorism, and
• demobilize all surplus forces.

These recommendations are now completely out of date. The amount of Pentagon waste in the Iraq war is unfathomable. Please listen to Sen. Byron Dorgan as he describes the tip of the iceberg:

More about the concept of a "Truman Committee" can be found at Downsize D.C.'s website. Excerpts:

Here are some of the reasons we need the same thing for Iraq . . .

• Before the invasion Halliburton executives met with the the staff of their former CEO, Vice President Dick Cheney. Did Halliburton get special consideration from their former boss? It sure looks like it. According to GlobalPolicy.org, the Government Accountability Office found that "Pentagon officials had broken competitive contracting requirements and overruled objections from an army lawyer to grant the first Iraq oil-related work order to Halliburton." Many contracts were awarded to Halliburton and other firms without competitive bidding. Details
• Halliburton and other companies were also awarded "cost-plus" contracts. This means that taxpayers cover ALL of their costs, no matter how high, plus a guaranteed profit. So if a brand-new truck gets a flat tire, they could torch the truck and have the taxpayers buy a new one for them. Such contracts provide no incentives to economize.
• KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary, provided U.S. troops with water containing fecal matter and other toxins. The troops used the water to wash clothes, shower, and brush their teeth.
• After auditors discovered that KBR over-billed the Army by $263 million on its Restore Iraqi Oil contract, the Army reimbursed KBR all but $10 million of it anyway.
• An Army Corps of Engineers official who spoke out against a no-bid contract to Halliburton, was demoted for her remarks.
• Construction firm Parsons Inc. was awarded $200 million to build 142 health clinics, but completed only twenty.
• A 22 year old CEO got a $300 million contract to supply ammunition to Afghani troops. He provided 40-year-old Chinese cartridges that were illegal, obsolete, and unusable.
• More outrages can be found here

None of the above has caused anyone to be disciplined, fired, or prosecuted.

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The Defense Budget can never be financially responsible and accountable as long as defense policy is completely unconstitutional. The entire Defense Department considers itself above the law, transcending the Constitution. "After all", they think, "the Constitution can't protect our national security."

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The links below only scratch the surface of the work that needs to be done to stop the Pentagon from wasting the money you worked so hard to earn.

• The Defense Budget Cato
• Defense Budget

• Defense Budget Tutorial #1: What is the actual size of the 2006 defense budget?
• The Great Defense Budget Black Hole

Links from Americans Against Bombing:

• Controlling Defense Costs --Excellent CATO study -waste/boondoggles
• Unaccountable Missile Defense Costs -Rumsfeld covers up losses and incestuous control by manufacturers of programs
• Military Computers Easily Accessed --major security breaches
• Crusader Corruption --The Self-Serving Military Industrial Congressional Complex
• Nuclear Weapons Industry and Bush officials--money, money
• Where the Money Will Go  listing the firms
• GAO Say Pentagon Fudged Anti-Missile Test
• No Rogue Nation Credible Missile Threat
• Civil Defense, not Fighter Planes is what we need
• The Waste in Submarines -- 42 sufficient--Carlton Meyer
• Budget firmly under military/indus. complex control -- Dougherty in WorldNetDaily
• + Military Replaces State Department   America's Pro-consuls -Wash. Post
•  Analysis of Military Waste and Reform -- new thinking on weaponry & military  
• Each soldier = 100K/yr--where to save Carlton Meyer (USMC, Ret) Magazine of Future Warfare
• Mythical N. Korea threat
• Military-Industrial Complex 40 years later
• Debate on American Empire

• Details of Washington's anti-personnel bombs

• $50+ Billion savings per year--Rudman Report on purchasing, management, sub-contracts, base closing

• North Korea--Spy Pictures Show it an Empty Threat   LONDON TIMES
• The Costs of World Empire 29 billion for CIA (+$50 Billion for the Gulf fleet) to fight enemies that we ourselves create (and now $10-20 billion for Kosovo? ed.)
• US Costs for Bombing Iraq --half a billion for 4 days, $50 Billion for fleet
• Center for Defense Information --lots of info & new thinking

• American Bombing Causes Fear of Terrorism--Col. Hackworth column read out by Rush Limbaugh (12/22/00) to explain fears;  Their Terrorism and Ours by Raimondo
• U.S. Bombing--Reason for Terrorist Threat--AP/WASH. POST, experts' quotes
• ++Buchanan's "A Republic, not an Empire"  Comments about the furor, NY TIMES, Novak, Rockwell, Raimondo, Bandow, Answering Podhoretz, CATO --also on Taiwan

• ++ George Kennan on America's World Role - America's greatest diplomat- historian views on empire, NATO, etc  More Kennan etal--American empire
• Growing Foreign Alliances Against American Hegemony -- Wash. Post by Chris Layne --consequences of bombing--"the geopolitical backlash"
• Budget Archive

We will not even begin to see substantive cuts in a bloated military budget unless we begin a national debate on the subject of "National Security: Who Ensures It?"