Hej
Detta har ju varit uppe många gånger förut på forumet och resultatet blir lika nedslående varje gång för Apishits anhängare på forumet, men vi kan ju ta det en gång till.
Det är en lång och läsvärd artikel i ämnet, jag kopierade bara en liten del, och budskapet är så tydligt att inte ens Rojalister bör kunna missuppfatta den.
Thai military puts up spending defenseBy Brian McCartan
Bangkok - Controversy over the accuracy of a bomb scanner used by security officials in insurgency-hit areas of southern Thailand has raised new questions about the military's procurement processes in the wake of ramped up spending since a 2006 coup.
After a steady nine-year decline in the military's budget following the 1997 financial crisis, defense spending quadrupled in the months immediately following the September 2006 coup, as the military embarked on a modernization campaign. A request for a collective long-term arms procurement program from the Thaksin Shinawatra government toppled in the coup had been denied.
After the coup and installation of a military-appointed government, the military's budget jumped 24% to US$4.6 billion by July 2007. In November that year, then defense minister Boonrawd Somtas requested $9.3 billion for new weapons over the next 10 years.
The minister proposed then to pay for the procurements by either increasing military spending from 1.58% of gross domestic product to 1.8% over a first five-year period and rising to 2% until the end of the decade, or through an increased budget allocation for the military of $3.5 billion in the first five years and $6 billion over the second.
In July 2008, a request was made for a 17.8% budget increase for 2009, a rise of $755 million over the 2008 fiscal year budget. By 2009, defense budgets had doubled from $2.4 billion in fiscal 2006 to $4.8 billion in fiscal 2009. During the same period, the budget allocation for internal security rose from $2.2 billion to $3.26 billion as the threat of anti-government street protests rose.
Since then, the economic downturn has forced the military to accept delays in its procurement plans, but not to shelve them. The government cut the defense budget for 2010 by $574 million in May last year due to crisis-induced shortfalls in revenue collection. The move froze planned purchases of an allotment of BTR3 armored personnel carriers from the Ukraine and six Gripen jet fighters from Sweden. (A $90.5 million request by the Ministry of Defense to cover already scheduled acquisitions was approved.)
This month, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva called for the military to submit its plans for arms procurement for consideration in the 2011 fiscal budget. At the heart of the rising budgets are equipment wish-lists put forward in 2006 and meant to cover procurement, upgrades and repairs for 2006-2014.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/LB26Ae01.html
Och vem är det som startade denna nyhetskälla?? Den gule gudfadern himself, demokratikämpen Sondhi Limthongkul.
