Over the last few years, state comptrollers' reports have shown the ebb and flow of what is important to the public. For far too long, the underlying impression has been that things are done in secret. In recent years, every time a so-called "budget war" has erupted the government, and by extension the public, tries harder and harder to find out exactly how defense funds are spent. The military always goes on the defensive and promises to streamline processes, but from what the state comptroller wrote in his report, these promises have so far not been kept. Too much information remains obscure. Making the defense budget more transparent is of the utmost importance. We cannot continue telling stories or hiding in bunkers -- literally -- every time those responsible for public funds make a legitimate demand for accountability, whether it is by Finance Ministry or by state comptroller inspectors. When the truth is discovered, we are left feeling deceived, which can be even worse than the current state of affairs. This report illustrates a situation where career officers' pensions are generously subsidized by taxpayers. And if that is not enough, taxpayers themselves are made to save their accumulative pensions in risky financial instruments, the returns on which may very well suffer in a time of near zero interest rates. In short, whoever does not have a state budget-based pension gets short changed multiple times. This is why transparency in the management of military pensions is necessary -- to prevent us from getting into a serious financial crisis down the road. Despite the criticism, however, it is important to remember the obvious: We need an outstanding military to protect us. We do not have the luxury of having a mediocre army because we live in a terrible neighborhood, and we cannot download a national defense service off the internet. To have an outstanding military, we must pay salaries worthy of outstanding people. There is something in the socialist tradition, under which the nation modeled its military in the days of first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion that apparently causes certain bodying within the system to hide the amounts they receive as compensation for their services. But as transparency is imperative, we must shift our paradigm. In the words of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants. For this reason, the military must be proud of the high salaries it pays to the best of those on active duty. This is a different direction than the one we have been going in, and we cannot expect things to change overnight, but this is better than attempts to hide details and "create difficulties for the Finance Ministry," as the comptroller's report put it. We should be able to tell our career officers -- be proud of your paychecks.
