Funding The Drone Wars
By Via Jason Sigger’s comment feed in response to Rob’s rant about progressive defense policy, Dick Destiny draws our attention to an interesting comparison:
For 2011, “[more] than $2 billion will be used to purchase unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, which the Obama administration has used increasingly over the past year to target suspected terrorist hideouts in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” stated a news report from TruthOut, published way back in February.
By contrast, the FDA — which handles food and drug consumer protections for the entire United States – is requesting $4.03 billion to “Transform Food Safety System, Invest in Medical Product Safety, [and provide] Regulatory Science.”
As a thought exercise consider that General Atomics and US manufacturing of killer drones sops up at least half, maybe more, than an important domestic US regulatory agency spends for the betterment, health and welfare of society.
General Atomics employs 5,000 people. The FDA, by contrast, employs a bit over twice that.
As another thought exercise, consider that a domestic arms manufacturer of flying killer robots and very little else is now half the size of the regulatory agency for food and drugs in allegedly the foremost of western nations.
Aside from the fact that remotely piloted drones are not actually “robots,” this does put things in perspective.