When it comes to spending public money, the Pentagon is clueless and seems incapable of tracking the numbers. Check this announcement that there have been significant cost blowouts in 36 US Defence Department's major weapons programs.

According to the report, no fewer than 25 programs including the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the Trident II missile system and upgrade of Black Hawk helicopters are running more than 50 per cent over budget and 11 other measures, including the Joint Strike fighter, had cost 30 per cent more than expected.

David M Walker, head of the Government Accountability Office told the Washington Post that the Pentagon's "continued inability or unwillingness to separate wants from needs, incur cost increases of tens of millions of dollars and schedule delays of years must be scrapped."

"This business-as-usual approach is inappropriate and should not be tolerated."

He better not hold his breath. The Pentagon has admitted it is several years away from getting its books in order. Officials say they have established a gross book value of $600 billion for military equipment in 600 Pentagon programs. If you can believe it.

All this is interesting light of the report from Seymour Hersh that the Bush administration is planning air attacks on Iran.

For the record, the Bush administration has allocated a Department of Defence budget of $440 billion for fiscal 2007.