What We Need: Extravagance and Shortages in America's Military

Description

Despite the longest period in American history without a major war, the U.S. military continues obtaining extremely expensive weapon systems that it seldom if ever uses: advanced fighters, stealth bombers, "boomer " submarines, ballistic missiles, and wastes millions on unproven systems like the Star Wars Defense Initiative. Why, then, do soldiers continue to carry an often unreliable small-caliber rifle more that forty years old? Why are they sent to combat zones without body armor in tanks that do not have protection? This book examines the fakery and intellectual dishonesty that characterize the defense establishment in it's supposed efforts to outfit armed forces, all supported by testimony from soldiers on the battlefield. And, at a critical time in military history, it suggests some remedies. Appropriate to any armed forces in the current world climate - and with special resonance in the UK, with the new Trident programmed being mooted but soldiers in Iraq being supplied with machine-guns that overheat and jam - this book should be read by any one concerned with the functioning of the world's armed forces.

Barrett Tillman is the author of Whirlwind in addition to more than 40 books and 550 articles. Tillman's work has been cited in dozens of history books and has been used as course work by the air force, the navy, and Marine Corps. He lives in Arizona with his wife, Sally.