John Ketwig's Blog

Today, America is quietly conducting many wars. We bombed seven countries so far in 2019, and we maintain over 800 military bases around the world. Our military budget(s) now exceed a trillion dollars a year, more than the next ten nations combined! The first-ever audit of the Pentagon failed due to stonewalling and concealment, with obstruction by those being audited, but huge discrepancies were noted. It is noteworthy that Secretary of Defense and Vice President Dick Cheney declared on September 10, 2001 that "according to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," and, Rumsfeld stated, America's adversary was not Russia or China. "It's closer to home: it's the Pentagon bureaucracy." Sadly, the next day was 9-11, and the news ignored these statements. One estimate found "unsupported adjustments" in the period from 1998 to 2015 totaled $21 TRILLION! Our current national debt is $22 TRILLION. Interest on our national debt in 2019 will be more than $67 billion, which is more than Russia will spend on its military! Chapter 21 of my new book, VIETNAM RECONSIDERED: THE WAR, THE TIMES, AND WHY THEY MATTER takes a close look at these issues.