We Need to Talk About Military Spending

THIS SPRING, THE Biden administration announced it was pursuing a military budget for next year that exceeds $813 billion, an increase of $31 billion over last year (which saw an increase of $32.5 billion from the year before). Among the Pentagon’s priorities, according to a Reuters report, is the expenditure of billions on new and upgraded (and nuclear-equipped) ballistic missile submarines, land-based missiles, and bombers. The Reuters reporter noted, “The budget would benefit the biggest U.S. defense contractors including Lockheed, Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N), and General Dynamics Corp.” That it will. Whether it will benefit the rest of us is another matter altogether. As President Dwight Eisenhower put it in his warning about the growing influence of what he called the “military-industrial complex,” these obscene levels of military spending are “a theft from those who hunger and are not fed.”

But ... is now the time to raise questions about military spending, in the context of Putin’s brutal adventurism in Ukraine? Shouldn’t we just hold our tongues at a time like this, even if we are deeply concerned that such spending makes the United States, and the world, less secure? Even as we see our infrastructure crumble due to an alleged lack of resources, our schools struggle to reach a minimally acceptable level of support, and so many other domestic programs and activities (the kinds of things that build real security) suffer from insufficient funding—while Lockheed/Northrop et al. are doing quite well, thank you very much? Shouldn’t we remain silent, even as we see the Pentagon billions supporting not “defense” of the people of the U.S. but rather the projection of empire around the globe?

Strategic timing is a legitimate consideration in determining when to raise issues and push for change. Is there a realistic possibility of success? Is there a groundswell of public support for a new direction that even a recalcitrant Congress can’t ignore? Fair questions, as we try to be effective advocates for a better world.

But sometimes timing is irrelevant.

We cannot and should not ignore moral questions, even (especially?) when it appears clear that the zeitgeist is not “ready” for those questions to be raised. Moral analysis does not wait for the correct, acceptable, poll-tested moment. History is replete with examples of movements that insisted and persisted in their efforts, even when the time was not “right” and the cause was “impossible.” From the civil rights movement in this country to the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, and in innumerable other cases, people put their bodies on the line and cried out for justice in the face of seemingly intractable opposition and overwhelming odds. It wasn’t a matter of logic, or of trying to be strategically savvy. Often, these movements arose out of the sense that “I could do no other.”

So, yes, the timing isn’t “right” to talk about the exorbitant and destructive U.S. military budget. And yes, military spending levels won’t be reduced in this budget, or anytime soon. But some Christians, followers of the Prince of Peace, will condemn such obscenity, even if no one listens. Sometimes faithfulness calls us to stand up and say: I must speak out; I can do no other.