The National Codpiece

I was interested in a recent article in asia times dotcom that speculated on whether China would emphasize aircraft carriers or anti-carrier missiles. With their satellites they know exactly where American aircraft carriers are, and to knock them out it only takes a high-tech missile that costs, what?, 0.3% as much as the aircraft carrier. The missile can be fired from anywhere -- even a fishing trawler. Of course the US Navy believes that nothing projects a country's power like the carrier battle group.

One of the most amazing features of modern American life is how much money it spends on its military, and how useless most of it is. Fred Reed is a favorite writer of mine who has a military background that has left him with a respect for military personnel and a savage disrespect for political/military policies.

Perhaps the US should recognize that it has a second-rate military at phenomenal cost – an enormous, largely useless national codpiece. It is embarrassing. The Pentagon’s preferred enemies are lightly armed, poorly equipped peasants, which makes for a long war and thus hundreds of billions of dollars in juicy contracts for military industries.

With the government that China has, does it need to buy votes by setting up a large sector of the economy as perpetual government-dependents, as American politicians have done? Will China soon embark on Perma-Wars (in the 'Stans perhaps) to keep its military parasites employed?

It's easy to look on carrier battle groups as an example of 'generals (or admirals) preparing to fight the last war.' Most people have heard of and sympathize with this old saw. So then, why do we let them do it? Is America still so rich that it can squander money without consequences?

I suppose most voters are docile about issues that sound a little complex; they prefer to leave it to the experts, even when the experts are just buttering their own bread. To even point that out makes you unpatriotic and a "negative thinker."

Or maybe the average voter is really a good-hearted and generous fellow, who doesn't mind the other fellow getting a handout -- no matter how expensive and wasteful it is -- as long as that voter gets his ethanol subsidy, college loan guarantee, housing bailout, cash for clunker, or $600,000 of Medicare coverage the last two weeks of his life at age 83, etc.