The Cost of Defense

How much is the defense of our nation worth? The truth is that, like many subject areas in the Federal government, the cost of providing the required service has become more important than the service itself. Nowhere is this idea more dangerous than in the concept of the defense of the United States.

This discussion is not one over the cost of ongoing military operations. The truth is that such operations, like the ones currently ongoing in Afghanistan and Iraq, are both expensive and bear significant scrutiny as to their cost, not in an effort to undermine them by lack of funding, but to be sure that the money being spent is justified and properly applied. This discussion is instead over a much more fundamental concept with regard to the funding of defense: how much should it cost to defend the US continually against outside threats.

Necessarily, this discussion must limit its scope, and the scope for this session is the Department of Defense itself. The question is how much is our defense worth? Is it worth more or less than social and domestic programs? If so, what is the justification?

The truth is that, in our current time of uncertainty, defense is now more important that it has ever been. During the Cold War, defense was expensive, but the cost remained controlled by a known set of enemies and a known set of threats. That reality made spending on defense justified and tolerable.

After the Cold War, the reality seemed to be that the enemies and threats had greatly diminished or ceased to be. As a result, large expenditures on defense seemed less necessary, so significant budget cuts were the result. Unfortunately, these cuts turned out to be premature in the face of a new set of enemies and a growing set of new threats.

Now, we face an idea of defense that we could have never imagined during the dark days of the Cold War. Instead of a known enemy and a defined threat, we face amorphous enemies and vague threats that are no less real. Complicating matters, these enemies and treats are geographically disbursed and able to hide themselves among the ethnic and religious groups from which they originate.

This reality immediately begs the question of funding. How can the US government, especially the Congress, continue to expect the military to cut its budget in the face of growing, undefined dangers that are hiding in the far reaches of the world and able to strike without warning? How can the military continue to perform its role in defending the US with fewer resources than ever before?

The answer is that the military cannot continue to do its job without adequate funding. The threat must define the funding, and when the threat is large then the funding must be high. Without such funding, the military cannot hope to continue its mission with the same success that it has enjoyed so far. And, what will the consequences of such a failure be?

DLK 20050127

This entry was posted in Funding. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *