I Agree With This

John Stossel, Policing the World.

Still, I am uncomfortable writing about defense. I’m surrounded by smart people who say America needs to spend more on the military. Some studied war for years. I haven’t. My instinct is to believe the hawks.

Except, I covered markets. I watched government try to improve on them. Doing that, I learned that government doesn’t do anything well. Why would that be different for military policy?

It isn’t. In 2004, the U.S. military sent $12 billion in shrink-wrapped $100 bills to Iraq. That money disappeared. We don't know what happened to it. The U.S. official in charge said there was so much cash flying around his office that the staff called the packages “footballs” and threw passes to one another.

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