CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Pentagon Spending Spirals Out of Control

More details USS North Dakota, the first of the VPT-equipped Block III Virginia-class submarines. (Cost: $2.6 billion) Photo: U.S. Navy.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies…a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.  The world in arms is not spending money alone.  It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.  The cost of one modern bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 60 cities…two fine, fully equipped hospitals.  This is not a way of life at all….  It is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.” – President Dwight D. Eisenhower, April 16, 1956, “The Chance for Peace” delivered before the American Society of Newspaper Editors.) “Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of War!” – Pope Leo XIV, April 16, 2026

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies…a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.  The world in arms is not spending money alone.  It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.  The cost of one modern bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 60 cities…two fine, fully equipped hospitals.  This is not a way of life at all….  It is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”

– President Dwight D. Eisenhower, April 16, 1956, “The Chance for Peace” delivered before the American Society of Newspaper Editors.)

“Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of War!”

– Pope Leo XIV, April 16, 2026

Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Jimmy Carter were graduates of U.S. military academies and, perhaps as a result, understood the limits and constraints on the use of force.  They........

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