A variety of unimaginable examples are featured in a baffling report (“Department of Everything”) published this month by a Republican U.S. Senator, who asserts the Pentagon could easily save around $70 billion over ten years without cutting any Army brigade combat teams, Navy combat ships or Air Force fighter squadrons. It could be done simply by getting rid of the waste, according to the findings.

That’s because the DOD has a monstrous $629 billion annual budget and a chunk goes to dubious projects that are tough to justify as defense expenses. For instance, the senator’s probe reveals that the Pentagon funded $6 billion in studies that have little or nothing to do with national defense or medical needs related to military service.

Here is an example of where defense dollars are going; an anthropologist at a public California university got $681,387 to examine whether men holding pistols are viewed as taller, stronger and more masculine than those wielding objects such as saws, paint brushes and caulking guns. For the record, guys with guns do in fact appear bigger, stronger and more masculine, the study found.

Another good one involves fish. For $5.2 million researchers at an Ivy League university found that golden shiner fish could show the nation how to overcome political polarization and promote democracy. The Office of Naval Research spent $450,000 to study how babies interact with robots. The DOD also burned $700 million on “duplicative and unnecessary alternative energy” projects and $1.5 million to create its own brand of beef jerky treats.

The Pentagon also spends more than $9 billion to operate 254 grocery stores throughout the United States to benefit military retirees. Most of the stores, known as commissaries, are actually located just blocks from major chain grocery stores. The money spent on these questionable projects could fund a third of the planned fleet of new strategic Air Force bombers, according to the Oklahoma senator, Tom Coburn, who exposed the waste.

“I prepared this report because the American people expect the Pentagon’s $600 billion annual budget to go toward our nation’s defense,” Coburn said in a statement posted on his official website. “That isn’t happening. Billions of defense dollars are being spent on programs and missions that have little or nothing to do with national security, or are already being performed by other government agencies.”

Because radical Muslim groups consider Islam to be perpetually under moral, spiritual, economic, political and military attack by the “secular west” they consider military jihad a “constant necessity” and use it as a “rallying cry to resist and attack all this is un-Islamic,” according to the new Army manual.

The handbook was created to help soldiers become “culturally literate” ambassadors with sensitivity and understanding of Islamic civilization. The goal is to help them understand how vital culture is in accomplishing military missions. Military personnel who have a distorted picture of a host culture make enemies for the United States. At least that’s what the publication (“Culture Cards: Afghanistan & Islamic Culture”) says. An organization of scientists dedicated to national and international security issues discovered the new Army tool and published it on its website a few days ago.  

The manual has nearly three dozen informative chapters dedicated to subjects such as Muslim taboos, the five pillars if Islam, Jihad, the Quran and Muslim festivals. There are also sections on ethnocentrism, cultural relativism and social norms and mores. The lengthy introduction defines cultural competency—awareness and sensitivity of another group—and social norms and mores in Arab countries.

The portion on jihad is especially interesting because it’s described as a wide-ranging term that includes the everyday spiritual and moral struggle to live a life submitted to God, the attempt to spread Islam by education and example, and the communal military defense of Islam and Muslims when they are threatened or under attack. Today radical Muslim groups consider Islam to be perpetually under attack by the “secular West” – morally, spiritually, economically, politically and militarily, the Army handbook says. They thus consider military jihad as a constant necessity, and use jihad as a rallying cry to resist and attack all that is un-Islamic.

At the end of each section there is a question that’s supposed to stimulate “critical thinking.” At the end of the jihad section the question is: “How can the concept of jihad add legitimacy to the claims and aims of Al Qaeda and others? It would certainly be interesting to see how most enlisted men and women, or American civilians for that matter, would answer that particular question.

The new Army manual concludes by revealing all the things that make soldiers “culturally literate.” Among them are appreciating and accepting diverse beliefs, appearances and lifestyles, understanding the dangers of stereotyping and ethnocentrism and understanding Islamic and jihadist cultures.