Hollow Defense Debate (III) - A View of General
Sullivan's Comments from a Member of the House Staff

September 1, 1998

Comment: #179

Discussion Thread:  #s 177 & 178

I received the following reaction to General Sullivan's call for higher defense budgets from a very conservative, pro-defense member of the congressional staff in the House of Representatives.

"Another point to reinforce my Senate colleague's observations: doesn't the absolute size of the supporting economy, as well as the magnitude of the presumed threat, have any bearing on the need for defense spending? In 1940, the GDP was less than $100 billion, as compared to over 80 times that today. In 1940, we had Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy, Tojo's Japan, as well as Stalin's Russia (then in quasi-alliance with the Axis). Is there anything now that remotely compares to that? What fools do the defense plutocrats take us for?"

Chuck Spinney

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QDR