Michael Klare

On February 4, President Bush announced a baseline military budget of $515.4 billion for the next fiscal year, not including funds for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is the largest one-year Pentagon request in real, uninflated dollars since World War II. This Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 figure represents a 7.5% increase over the 2008 … Continue reading “The China Syndrome”

The common wisdom circulating in Washington these days is that the United States is too bogged down in Iraq to consider risky military action against Iran or – God forbid – North Korea. Policy analysts describe the U.S. military as "overburdened" or "stretched to the limit." The presumption is that the Pentagon is telling President … Continue reading “Beware Empires in Decline”