Army
One of the reasons Battleland thinks there might be some fat yet to carve from the U.S. military’s budget are charts like this, buried in reports like this. It’s a final draft of Army Field Manual 3-13, Inform and Influence Activities. It’s a 67-page document explaining how the Army can make people think differently. Can you imagine how long the manual is for actually targeting enemies with actual weapons to like actually kill them? (Scratch that — the U.S. has always found it easier to kill than be liked.)
It’s a safe bet things like this won’t come up Thursday afternoon, when Defense Secretary Leon Panetta offers an initial peek at how he’s planning on paring $487 billion in military spending over the coming decade. That’s because this kind of stuff isn’t like the fat you get on a cut of meal at a cheap grocery store that’s easy to see and can be hacked off with a cleaver. Nope – most wasteful military spending is like that glistening hunk of steak you occasionally buy at Whole Foods. The fat is so well-marbled within the meat even your finest knife can’t cut it out. h/t Public Intelligence