Defense Resources Quotes

This quotation is noteworthy for two reasons. First, it shows the ineptness of the Continental Congress and the tendency not to want to spend money on the military even in a crisis. America really did not enthusiastically appropriate money for military until WWII and since then, military spending has dominated the American Federal budget. The second reason is that it shows the myth that Colonial America was full of men each armed with their gun and Americans were expert at using them. Most of the men joining Washington’s Army did not own a gun and had little or no skill with guns. See {613056}. Early America was not a gun culture. Guns were expensive, needed maintenance, took too long to reload, and were not as effective for most purposes as other weapons like hatchets and knives. American Colonial war was mostly hand to hand combat with relatively little shooting.

For most of the history of the United States – especially in the governments of our Founding Fathers, there was an extreme antithesis to defense spending and military preparedness a fact that conservatives who look to the Founding Fathers as models and legal precedents for everything that we do today generally do not realize as they lobby for defense spending. The change really took place after Pearl Harbor and WWII where America was totally unprepared for war.

Rumsfeld wanted Defense Department people running and controlling the civilian government of Iraq after our invasion. General Garner, who was the American appointee to run the civilian government until the Iraqis could have elections wanted State Department, Justice Department and other non military personnel run Iraq.