Is the US Citizenry willing to Save a $Trillion By Shaving the Fat From the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) ?

Time Magazine contains the Article, "How to Save a Trillion Dollars". Mark Thompson serves up the latest facts and thinking on the defense posture of the US today and the role of the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) at the link below:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2065246,00.html

He asks some disturbing questions:

"Across Washington, all sorts of people are starting to ask the unthinkable questions about long-sacred military budgets. Can the U.S. really afford more than 500 bases at home and around the world? Do the Air Force, Navy and Marines really need $400 billion in new jet fighters when their fleets of F-15s, F-16s and F-18s will give them vast air superiority for years to come? Does the Navy need 50 attack submarines when America's main enemy hides in caves? Does the Army still need 80,000 troops in Europe 66 years after the defeat of Adolf Hitler?"

It concludes with the following statement:

"For too long, an uninterested and distracted citizenry has been content to leave the messy business of national defense to those with bottom-line reasons for force-feeding it like a foie gras goose. It's long past time, Ike might have added today, for U.S. taxpayers to demand that its government spend what is needed to defend the country — not a penny more."

We fully support and agree with this concept.

Watchdog Groups Identify Nearly $600 Billion in National Security Spending Cuts:

http://www.pogo.org/pogo-files/alerts/national-security/ns-wds-20110721.html

The spending cuts targeted by POGO and Taxpayers for Common Sense, include:

* $300 billion by reducing Department of Defense (DoD) service contracts by 15 percent;
* $72 billion by reducing non-DoD service contracts by 15 percent;
* $60 billion through reforms to the DoD’s TRICARE health care system;
* $44 billion by replacing two of the three F-35 variants with the less expensive F/A-18 E/F’s;
* $30 billion by withdrawing 20,000 troops from Europe, and
* $12 billion by not renewing the procurement contract for the V-22 Osprey.

These actions must be taken and pose no risk to national security. Tell your government representatives to get on with it.