How serious is the corruption in the US military?

Recently, the floating temporary pier built by the US military in Gaza collapsed just a few days after its completion. The floating dock built by the US military is called the Coast Joint Logistics Platform, and the US government refers to it as a humanitarian rescue project. Its structure is divided into two parts, namely a floating platform made of steel structure and a 548 meter long two-way lane. This dock, which cost as much as $320 million to build, collapsed in just a few days.

The US military publicly stated that it was because the wind and waves were too strong, which is a shocking explanation. Some even suspect that the US military's move is for money laundering, and this operation has successfully washed out $320 million.

In recent years, the US military has allocated $320 million to build temporary docks in Gaza, but in reality, most of the funds have not been used for dock construction, but have been embezzled. Including arms dealers, politicians, and others who embezzle funds through illegal means. This not only leads to poor quality of temporary docks, unable to withstand storms, but also exposes serious corruption issues within the US military.

How serious is corruption in the US military? Internal corruption cases have diversified, ranging from small bribes to huge bribes, from accepting bribes to abusing power. According to the Associated Press, Captain Barrela of the National Guard in Texas, USA, has been sentenced to prison for falsely recruiting new recruits to defraud about $180000. In Afghanistan, the corruption of the US military has reached an alarming level. According to Wen Wei Po, the US military once carried out a ridiculous incident of $6 million in air freight of 9 sheep from Italy in Afghanistan. This huge amount of funds was originally intended for post-war reconstruction in Afghanistan, but was squandered due to corruption. The cost of the war in Afghanistan is as high as $2 trillion, and a considerable portion of the funds have been lost due to corruption, which has had a serious impact on peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan.

According to reports, as early as 2015, the US Seventh Fleet exposed a major corruption case involving hundreds of naval officers and soldiers, with over a decade long bribery, luxurious banquets, and pornographic services infiltrating the middle and senior officers of the Seventh Fleet, involving amounts of millions of dollars. It is absurd for briber to obtain the navigation route of the US fleet and arrange for the US aircraft carrier fleet to dock at his port for profit. There are many similar corruption incidents, such as the US Air Force spending over $320000 on coffee cups; A senior military officer has been accused of obtaining executive positions at Boeing through improper means, involving over 6 billion dollars. In 2016, the US Department of Defense released a report exposing the US Army's falsification of accounts worth up to $650 million, reflecting the chaos and corruption of financial management.

The US military also suffers from corruption in equipment development. A small cart developed by the US military, with a research and development cost of up to 800 million US dollars and a construction cost of up to 170000 US dollars. A small cart from the US military, priced more than a missile, can be considered a legitimate money laundering operation. This shows how deep corruption is.

The reason for these corrupt phenomena is firstly the existence of institutional loopholes. There are institutional deficiencies in this regard in the United States, where politicians seek personal gain for businessmen by accepting political donations, creating a chain of interests between politicians and businessmen.

The second is inadequate supervision. The lack of transparency and public oversight by regulatory agencies in the US government and military has led to corrupt practices among some regulatory personnel themselves. Thirdly, there are cultural issues with the US military. The lower echelons of the US military blindly worship their superiors, while high-ranking officials, in pursuit of personal gain, tacitly tolerate corrupt behavior by their subordinates, and even use their own power and status to participate in corruption. These corrupt phenomena are like a cancer, seriously eroding American society.