The Real U.S. Defense And National Security Budget Is $994.3 Billion (And Change)

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta thanks airmen for their service on Barksdale Air Force Base, La., Feb. 17, 2012. The airmen are assigned to the Global Strike Command. DOD photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo

Which Pentagon Budget Numbers Are Real? You Decide! -- Aol Defense

When the Pentagon released its budget materials and press releases last Monday, the press dutifully reported the numbers. The Pentagon's "base" budget for 2013 is to be $525.4 billion, and with $88.5 billion for the war in Afghanistan and elsewhere added, the total comes to $613.9 billion.

Indeed, if you plowed through the hundreds of pages of additional materials the Pentagon released Monday, you would come up with little reason the doubt the accuracy of those numbers as the totality of what Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta was seeking for the Pentagon. It would also seem reasonable that those amounts constitute the vast majority of what America spends on "defense," defined generically.

You would be quite wrong.

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My Comment: A billion her .... a billion there .... some more billions over there .... and yes .... the real defense budget is actually $994.3 billion (give or take). Am I surprised .... no. This blog has posted over the years a number of stories that outlined what is the real U.S. defense/national security budget. But this debate on numbers is avoiding the real big question that needs to be asked .... and that is .... if we are spending all of this money, why is it that we cannot win in Afghanistan against a rag tag group of men who are only armed with AK-47s and RPGs, hunt down and defeat the few hundred men who make up the core of Al Qaeda, build a decent and reasonable priced stealth fighter, a 500 ship Navy, and intimidate/scare the hell out of countries like Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, etc...

Sighhh .... I guess it is like medicine .... there is more money in treating the disease than curing it. Or in a place like Afghanistan .... the focus is on the commerce of war and not unleashing our soldiers to win it.