The March of Folly Never Ends: A $1.8 Trillion Travesty

By Shlomo  Maital   

   Folly

 Barbara Tuchman’s book The March of Folly, about historical stupidity of leaders, starts at Troy and ends at Vietnam.  But the March continues, unabated, ever stronger.

   In 2012, according to the Stockholm Peace Research Institute,  the world spent about $1.8 trillion on weapons and defense spending.   Imagine what we could do with those resources, if the world declared peace instead of war? 

   According to TIME magazine, America’s new Ford class aircraft carriers cost $13.5 billion each!  They are outfitted with F-35 fighters, which each cost….$160 million! 

   And they are probably worthless.

     Because these carriers are built to stand against China.  China has DF-21D missiles that have a range of 1,500 km. and can easily sink a carrier.  So the carriers have to stand off China, out of range.  But that puts their F-35 aircraft out of range of China, because F-35 planes have a range of 1,100 kms. 

     So, where is the folly?   We are building very very expensive aircraft carriers, which have even more costly airplanes, that from the outset are of no use. 

     The March of Folly continues.

     And we are all culpable, because we all pay taxes, and support those leaders who see wisdom and caution in folly.