«——【Preamble】】 ——»
As everyone knows, as a military power, the United States can be said to rank first in the world in military spending, and it stands to reason that with such high military spending, the US military's military strength should be extremely high.
However, the strength displayed by the US military is not directly proportional to the high military spending, so some people question the high military spending of the US military.
For example, some time ago, a U.S. congressman named Walz asked the U.S. Air Force Secretary for the price with a bag of parts, but the Air Force Secretary said that he didn't know, and Walz replied that the U.S. military would need to spend $90,000 to buy such a small bag of parts, and then Walz said that the price of similar parts in China was not even 1/10,000 of the U.S. military purchase price, only 1.6 yuan.
Hearing Waltz's explanation, people are thinking of the high military spending of the US military, and they can't help but wonder whether the high annual military spending of the US military is really reasonable.
«——[A small package of parts is suspicious of the U.S. military's military spending·]——»
You must know that in order to maintain its hegemony, the United States spends ridiculously high on military spending every year, for example, 857.9 billion US dollars in 2023, and this figure is more than the total military spending of other countries in the world except the United States.
From here, it can be seen how much the United States attaches importance to the military, but in the face of such high military spending, many American people have doubts about this, because in their view, since military spending is so high, then the military strength of the United States should be extremely high, but the strength of the U.S. military today is not worthy of high military spending.
And on the 17th of this month, a U.S. congressman named Walz posted a video on his social account, and this video also attracted great attention around the world.
I saw that in the video, U.S. Congressman Waltz took a bag of things and asked U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank if he knew the price of the bag, Frank said he didn't know, and then Walz said that the purchase price of this bag of things by the U.S. military was as high as 90,000 U.S. dollars, and according to the exchange rate between Chinese and American currencies, it was 650,000 yuan.
The price of a bag of parts is as high as 650,000 yuan, which can't help but make people feel very shocked, and then sharp-eyed people pointed out that the contents of the Waltz bag are a part called a bushing, and the so-called bushing is an item used to seal parts during the operation of the machine and reduce the wear and tear of parts.
Moreover, the production process of the bushing is very simple, and it does not require much skill, and the price of the bushing is also very cheap through searching, and it can be purchased at a minimum of only 1.6 yuan in China.
Since the price of the bushing is so low, why did the US military spend $90,000 on procurement, and is it because the US military used advanced technology when making the bushing, which caused the price of the bushing to soar.
But even if the technology used in the bushing is advanced, it will not be so expensive, and the United States, as an industrial power, naturally knows that the manufacturing process of the bushing is not complicated, so when I saw the purchase price of the bushing as high as 90,000 US dollars, I was also very shocked.
Since it is not a matter of production process, such a high price can only be embezzled by someone.
For example, during the war in Afghanistan, the US military spent as much as one trillion yuan in military spending, but such high military spending did not have the desired effect.
«——[U.S. Military Corruption]——»
In fact, as far as the United States is concerned, the reason why there is a large amount of corruption in the military is because the US military is aware of its importance to the United States.
You must know that after the end of World War II, the United States established the dollar as the world's legal tender for its own hegemony, and in order to maintain the hegemony of the dollar, the United States also used the military to eliminate many enemies against the dollar.
Because of this, the military has made outstanding contributions in the defense of the dollar, so no matter what the US military needs, the United States will fully support, and the US military has begun to become excited when it sees the high annual military spending, in order to earn more benefits from the United States, and thus corruption among the US military has emerged.
As the amount of military spending is getting higher and higher, the top level of the United States is gradually realizing that it is wrong, so in 2018, the US government launched an audit of the financial affairs of the US military, but in the six consecutive years of audits, none of them were qualified.
However, as early as the 90s of the 20th century, the United States required an audit investigation of its subordinate departments, but the US Department of Defense has not been able to implement it smoothly for various reasons, and it was not successfully carried out until 2018.
The reason why the investigation was launched is because in 2017, the U.S. Seventh Fleet broke out a shocking corruption problem, when hundreds of officers and soldiers of the Seventh Fleet handed over many of their projects to unqualified contractors due to accepting bribes, but in the end the matter was exposed, and the officers and soldiers suspected of taking bribes also launched an investigation.
As we all know, much of the US military's equipment is purchased from arms dealers, and this has created conditions for the US military to collude with arms dealers, and they will both make more profits, so they will raise the price of their equipment, and they will raise the price of their equipment in normal times, which can cost tens of thousands of yuan in materials, and after their operation, several of them are very likely to reach hundreds of thousands or even higher, and the army, as the main tool for the United States to maintain its position, will choose to buy military equipment even if the price is high。
Moreover, in order to earn higher profits, arms dealers sometimes subcontract equipment manufacturing to other countries, so that the production cost alone can be greatly reduced, and after the production is completed, the arms dealers are free to replace it with the United States to obtain benefits, for example, the equipment used for bulletproof and explosion-proof on the US military was originally thought to be made in the United States, but later it was found that it was made in China, and there are many similar examples, so to speak, made in China occupies an absolute position in the US military equipment.
In fact, the problem of corruption in the United States does not only exist in the military, but also in daily life.
Many US officials are well aware of so many problems of corruption, but they have never had the choice to expose them, after all, once they are exposed, it will certainly have a very serious impact on the United States.
And Waltz's choice to expose this time is not essentially to rectify the problem of corruption, after all, the problem of corruption has been around for a long time, and there are too many interests involved.
Therefore, we should just take Waltz's behavior as an example, and there is no need to take it too seriously.
Information sources:
Beijing, April 18, 2024 -- How much did the U.S. Air Force spend on this bag of bushings? $90,000!
Huanqiu.com - Military spending has reached a new high, and the "dream of hegemony" of the United States continues to disrupt the world 2023.03.22