Western Militaries Complain of Strained Budgets After Busy Year

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Western Militaries Complain of Strained Budgets After Busy Year

November 13th, 2014

David Schulberg

Scrambling to build up troops around Eastern Europe to defend against a Russian invasion no one really thinks is coming, mulling military deployments to the Ebola-stricken west coast of Africa, and planning for involvement in the US adventure in Iraq and Syria.

It’s an embarrassment of riches for Western military officials these days looking for an excuse to intervene someplace, and they are doubling down with the reality that there are more possible excuses than they could conceivably use at once.

With a budget crunch across the EU, it’s also a great chance for the militaries to press for dramatic increases in funding, complain they’re not ready to deal with a “changing world” and are warning that second tier excuses, like Libya or Yemen, are being ignored.

Pushing for increased budgets is a full-time job for various militaries, but its yet to be seen if there are any additional funds for EU governments to grant them, let alone if the public in those nations will be eager to throw the money at these assorted interventions.

The Pentagon is looking to use these excuses similarly to get their own massive budget increased, though unlike Europe the US seems to have a bottomless appetite for throwing money at them on virtually any pretext.