U.S. Military and it's spending. *Pic heavy

personally, I would rather have too much military than too little

And thats a good point too; I never really stopped to think what it would be like if we didnt get involved or have such a large military before. I am sure we would’ve had more than one “modern” war on US soil by now and who knows what shape we’d be in.

+1

I dunno man, the most difficult part about formally attacking America is the location. Look how difficult it was to fight Japan. They would either need to be allies with canada or mexico.

there’s only one way to deter / prevent terrorist attacks… a well armed citizenship. These days everyone wants to FEEL safe, when in reality there is NO SAFETY. The more our citizenship caves and becomes a bunch of liberal fucktard pussies, the more we’re going to get attacked… and the more we’re going to deserve it.

We avoid a lot of problems (here and worldwide) by being everywhere at once. Who else would be able to/want to do that.

If only people could understand what Wayne is trying to bring up. Even though we are the protectors/world police, we still can’t assume we’ll be protected. They’re not going to send the Armed forces to your home invasion party… Make sure you don’t ever give up your right to protect yourself with some form of armament. Our police force is underfunded in the places we would need it most and some places are just to vast to police effectively. We live in a dangerous world no matter how safe you think it is.

At one time we were isolationist, and wanted to remain that way. This was during WWI and WWII until we were “attacked.” Meanwhile, we wanted this to happen so we can make bank off of other countries.

Then the “communist” and Red Scare came around threatening our “democracy” (more like capitalism and corporatism in other countires), so we became involved in the Cold War and spent billions of dollars stock piling arms and not using them. A waste of resources, but hey it boomed the economy. Guess what? That’s the Keynesian approach to economics that the Rightwingers hate.

Oh well. C’est la vie.

+rep

Yes!!

The citizens could have shot the anthrax envelopes before opening them and shot themselves during the Oklahoma city bombing.

Amen.

I don’t think we avoid any problems by being in all these other countries ruffling feathers. While I don’t think we should isolate ourselves I am very against policing the world and getting involved in every situation. Should we really have tens of thousands of troops stationed in peaceful countries?

We stage war exercises with South Korea, why? Between this and telling North Korea what they can and cant do why wouldnt they get upset with us or threaten?

Bin Laden said that he attacked our country because we were in the middle east blowing stuff up. This is the reason you don’t see them attacking Australia, Switzerland, Russia etc.

Americans can’t imagine what it’s like to be on the other side.

It’s not too far of a stretch but let’s imagine China wants to become the next world police.

Since there is no application for it, they can do it as soon as they want.

How would we feel if China had 10,000 troops stationed in Canada, was running military excersizes in Mexico, had nuclear subs by NYC coast, carrier by California while being involved in Middle East conflicts for no good reason.

We make the rest of the world feel uneasy, they just don’t dare do anything about it.

The answer is, we would feel threatened?!? noooo way

I agree with your points.

I agree we shouldn’t be ruffling feather. You’re only looking at a couple parts of where and what we actually do. If we were not in some of these locations there would be problems that may not be reconcilable. The reason we have troops stations in peaceful countries is to avoid them from being attacked. Some of these peaceful countries play an important part in the global economy as well as strategically. If we were not in Korea, would the North be less crazy? Would the peaceful south even exist? What would be the collateral damage?

You are absolutely right about us blowing stuff up in their country/other countries. On the flip side, what would happen if it wasn’t us? Will there be someone there to take our place? China, though they have come a long way, would still take the opportunity to wipe out certain groups of people if given the opportunity. Tensions between China and several places near them are still high. The reason they don’t attack is beacuse of our involvement in these peaceful countries. Do you expect Australia to jump in and have a chance against China? What about Japan? What happens when/if their efforts to protect them fail or never occur?

Everyone has a right to live. What other country has a mindset like that. We are in some cases the catalyst that allows that to happen. We are also the catalyst that causes conflict in some cases as well.

Yes, it’s a shitty job, but who else wants to or has the resources to do it and why is no one else stepping up to the plate?

I support the military spending cuts

Should probably be back at 400 bil anyway…

We are arguably the greatest super power in the world. Of all the things my tax money is wasted on, military spending is not one of the expenses I mind my tax dollars going. Is it too much? Maybe. But you wont see me complaining.

For every tank, ship, plane, etc. We fund soldiers to maintain and support. Those dollars are in turn spent on goods and services which comes back into the economy. Not to mention all of the private sector companies hired by the military and the jobs held because of that. In my opinion our troops are not compensated enough for what they do.

Agreed 100%

Repz.

Aren’t you one of the people on here that belive in fiscal conservatism?

I believe in fiscal prioritizing. Military spending is a priority in my opinion.

but, how you described the way money goes into the economy and via government spending to stimulate it in a positive manner is what I was getting at. You’re saying this government interaction is a good thing. That’s very keynesian which the antithesis of fiscal conservatism.