COTW: 'Merica's War Machine

The chart shows a current dollar growth rate in war mongering is 5% per year, regardless of the status of foreign relations.  Spending is clearly driven by  considerations other than national self-defense, the only morally acceptable reasons to spend public money on weapons.  Pentagon spending is ethically challenged, out of control and produces extremely expensive systems that are not fit for purpose, or meet no legitimate need. See e.g., F-20 Tigershark vs F-16 Falcon. This is the case because weapons spending is based on politico-economic factors--military Keynesianism is the predominate economic mode today:

Which explains why no Democratic candidate mentions defense spending as a problem, or as a source of cuts to an exploding federal deficit. This situation is merely accepted as the status quo, for fear of accusations of not 'supporting our troops'.  US Person thinks that is 'stinking thinking'.  The US is now spending more in inflation adjusted dollars on weapons that at any other time in its history, except for the 2010 peak reached under 'neoliberal' Barack Obama, and despite the much acclaimed, but delusional "end of the Cold War".

Four separate studies by experienced, respected authors have recommended cuts to the 'defense' budget, but have been totally ignored by the candidates.  The studies recommend Pentagon budget cuts from $1.25 trillion to $3.5 trillion over ten years.  The fact that no candidate will address the issue does not attest to the quality of the studies, but to the compromised status of the national political debate.