Dick Cheney was interviewed by Spiegel this week. While the nefarious former Vice President spent much of his interview defending the use of torture and praising the "very nice prison facility" at Guantanamo, Cheney also suggested, albeit indirectly, that the United States would be a more peaceful nation if we did not spend as much on defense. He also denied that Bush tax cuts and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq drove significantly our budget deficit.
SPIEGEL: Perhaps it is time to change priorities. In the last decade, the US has waged two expensive wars almost single-handedly and heavily burdened the country financially. Even in your book, there is very little about the economy or the rise of China. Have you not simply become obsessed with your war against terror?
Cheney: Listen. I made speeches when I was secretary of defense to our NATO friends and allies. This was back in the early 1990s. I had the strong feeling then, and I think the evidence was overwhelming over the years, that our European friends have relied upon the United States to take the lead in providing for security in the West, to be prepared to confront the Soviet Union, to deploy forces, to spend a significant portion of our national budget on the military. And it's not as though if we hadn't done it, somebody else would have. My view is we've learned by experience that over time, somebody has to provide leadership, and that's usually the United States.
The Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 during Cheney's tenure as the Secretary of Defense and credits the Reagan-Bush defense escalation during the 1980s as being key to that outcome.
SPIEGEL: That sounds as though you don't think much of your partners.
Cheney: Germany doesn't spend very much on the military. If we had to rely on you guys to spend enough to perform the role the United States has over the last several years, it wouldn't have happened. I love my German friends and allies, but the bottom line is, with few exceptions, most of our NATO allies don't meet the standard that you would expect out of somebody who is seriously trying to be a successful partner.
I think that following the Cheney's reasoning then, if the United States only spent roughly the same amount as Germany does on its national defense after the end of the Cold War, then administration of George W. Bush would not have been able to invade and occupy Afghanistan and Iraq. Military spending leads to military solutions. When you only have hammers, every problem begins to look like a nail.
Cheney, of course, doesn't think the United States has a spending problem when it comes to defense.
SPIEGEL: There is however the question of whether the US can still afford large military interventions. You write that your country is living beyond its means.
Cheney: I am concerned about our debt situation. I think most Americans are.
SPIEGEL: The Bush administration added considerably to this debt with two expensive wars, tax cuts for the wealthy and the war on terror.
Cheney: The wars you're talking about obviously contributed in terms of overall spending levels, but that's not what is driving our debt problem. What's driving our debt problem are entitlement programs. The place where there's been significant growth in the budget has to do with entitlements, with Social Security, with Medicare, and so forth. That's the prime source of our spending just as it is with yours. If you look at the percentage of the budget that goes to defense, it's lower now than it's been at just about any time since the end of World War II.
The wars added $1,469 billion and tax cuts added $1,812 billion to the more than $1.3 trillion budget shortfall. Moreover, the United States is spending more per year on defense now than the nation did during the Cold War and the most per year since the end of World War II.
Source: Center for American Progress, A Return to Responsibility (pdf)
Runaway military spending is a significant contributor to our national debt. The Pentagon "has averaged an inflation-adjusted growth rate of 7 percent a year over the last decade (nearly 12 percent a year without adjusting for inflation), including the costs of the wars," according to the NY Times in 2010.
"More than 50 cents of every dollar of discretionary federal spending now goes to the Pentagon," wrote a NY Times editorial in April. "There is no way to bring the deficit under control without making substantial and rational cuts in that budget." Plus maybe, just maybe, less defense spending may make the United States a more peaceful nation.