There was a time before World War II when a peacetime U.S. military was small in comparison to the rest of the world. That all changed with Pearl Harbor.
We fought a successful war and never really downsized our ambitions for the military. How has that worked? A draw in Korea. A defeat in Vietnam. Victory on the Cold War. Victory in the First Gulf War. A surprise on 9/11. A less than fully successful experience in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A mixed bag, for a lot of legitimate reasons.
Still, we hear today in the Globe that we spent $14.1 trillion in Afghanistan before things came to an unfortunate end. Half of that money went to contractors like Blackwater, DynCorp and Raytheon.
What else could we spend $14.1 trillion on? It would certainly cover the proposed infrastructure bill, child care, tuition relief, education and national health insurance.
Will we continue to reward the generals and their allies in the Military Industrial Complex for less than satisfactory results?
David Steven Parrella
Buckland