This is proof that the military ops budget is out of control:

[The Backlash Cometh]

When you can steal more than 6 Billion dollars just by unloading a plane and get away with it, it means the military has too much money.

Missing Iraq money may have been stolen, auditors say

Reporting from Washington—
After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the George W. Bush administration flooded the conquered country with so much cash to pay for reconstruction and other projects in the first year that a new unit of measurement was born.

Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that U.S. officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time.

This month, the Pentagon and the Iraqi government are finally closing the books on the program that handled all those Benjamins. But despite years of audits and investigations, U.S. Defense officials still cannot say what happened to $6.6 billion in cash — enough to run the Los Angeles Unified School District or the Chicago Public Schools for a year, among many other things.

For the first time, federal auditors are suggesting that some or all of the cash may have been stolen, not just mislaid in an accounting error. Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, an office created by Congress, said the missing $6.6 billion may be "the largest theft of funds in national history."


http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/la-fg-missing-billions-20110613,0,6717003.story

[el_bryanto]

1. Hmmm. I'm not sure a leads to b, but I agree with both statements

I agree that this 6.6 billion being "lost" is a terrible embarrassment and a huge waste. And I think we spend to much on military spending. I'm not sure though that one leads to the other. Military spending is allocated to various programs (buying planes we don't need for example) as well as bases and troop salaries and the like. This money seems more likely to have originated in the state department, although shipping it was probably under military purview.

Bryant

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Considering that it was allocated to rebuilding Iraq, I have it down to two likely suspects:

(1) It was grease money for Bush cronies; or,

(2) the CIA.

[el_bryanto]

7. That much money; it opens a lot of potential suspects. n/t

[Maru Kitteh]

3. No, it isn't proof. Proof requres, well, actual PROOF.

This could be evidence of many things, starting with incompetence - but alone it's really only proof that the military is capable of blowing through massive sums of money.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. An audit was conducted. Generally, the audit provides the evidence

to reach a reasonable conclusion.

[Maru Kitteh]

11. It's evidence of waste, evvidence of possible corruption, evidence of shitty accounting,

it could be evidence of any multitude of things but what you have done here is a logical fallacy called questionable cause.
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/questionable-cause.html

You assert a = N without providing any actual proof, just your own feeling.

[think]

9. The bastards don't care if there is proof. They'll just deny or ignore it like this:

http://www.democracynow.org/2005/3/1/custer_battles_why_wont_the_justice

[Maru Kitteh]

12. I am absolutely 100% in favor of the abolition of all military contractor activity

outside of the continental US.

Let private contractors build the planes, make the uniforms, handle the toilet paper supplies, etc. That's it. Let them do it here, in the US, with US employees and under US law.

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. Holy shit! Did you read the article?

"For the first time, federal auditors are suggesting that some or all of the cash may have been stolen, not just mislaid in an accounting error."

[Maru Kitteh]

15. HOLY SHIT.

Yes, I did actually.

Like I said, evidence of waste, evidence of corruption, evidence of shitty accounting, proof that the military can blow through huge sums of money . . . not on the same planet as the a=N statement of the OP.

ETA, perhaps we simply misunderstand each other. My point is that the obvious gross incompetence of military accounting, particularly under Bush but really, at any time, is not necessarily proof of shadowy conspiracy theories. I DO agree that the evident waste and corruption is disgraceful.

[The Backlash Cometh]

17. Oh, I think sometimes a duck really is a duck.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1293821

[lame54]

4. did it ever actually make it to Iraq...

or was it sent straight to the Cayman Islands

[asjr]

5. Someone somewhere will not need Social

Security pension to live on.

[Ganja Ninja]

8. We need to cut the entire military by about 2/3rd's.

The whole thing is just way too big.

[think]

10. We can cut our military by 2/3 and we'll still be outspending any other country on earth

But instead we'll take food from the poor because we despise these "welfare people" who just leach off us like a military contractor on a money binge in Iraq.....

[Bandit]

14. "May have been Stolen".....Ya Think?

We knew it was the largest cash theft in history back when the planes were being unloaded...Funny how it took MSM ten years to figure it out...

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. Follow the money. Literally.

How the hell did our satellites lose sight of that beacon?

[hifiguy]

18. MAY have been stolen??

That it WAS stolen is a lead-pipe lock. :eyes: