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The overlying problem is the powers that be have forgotten it's the Department of Defense, NOT the Department of Regime Change or the World Police Department.
The overlying problem is the powers that be have forgotten it's the Department of Defense, NOT the Department of Regime Change or the World Police Department.
And realistically, WHY should it cost so much to defend a nation bordered by two friendly nations and two large oceans?
I would be perfectly happy to limit both US military and foreign policy to just that.
However, there is little consensus for that. Despite endless rhetoric from our politicians, both sides seem perfectly content with it. And despite at least 50 years of anti-Americanism abroad, few nations are eager to sever ties of alliance with the US. Indeed the vast majority of the world is allied with the USA, nominally or on paper at least.
You, desert detroiter, and myself share the same opinion, more or less. However, we three are in the minority.
This is a very interesting piece in Mother Jones about the voracious appetite of the military industrial complex and how entrenched it’s become.
Quote:
Simply put, Americans are too militaristic for their own good. Diplomacy is seen as weak in this country. We think the military is the solution to ALL of our foreign policy issues. We think we can just shoot and airstrike our way out of every dilemma despite the fact that such thinking continues to fail us time and again.
The piece also lays out other issues with the Pentagon culture that keeps leading to the defense establishment robbing the budget to pay for nonsense that we don’t even need.
Are we as taxpayers ever gonna put an end to this foolishness?
As long as there are violent people wanting to do violence, our military needs the best that technology can produce.
End the whining about the military.
Why does it need to be the "best"? We haven't been involved in a defensive war in over 70 years. Pretty much every military action since WWII has been to benefit the US's political or economic interests, not because someone attacked us. We were the attackers. it's actually quite sickening how much death our military complex has caused over the years because we couldn't keep our noses out of other countries.
Why does it need to be the "best"? We haven't been involved in a defensive war in over 70 years. Pretty much every military action since WWII has been to benefit the US's political or economic interests, not because someone attacked us. We were the attackers. it's actually quite sickening how much death our military complex has caused over the years because we couldn't keep our noses out of other countries.
You answered your own question. DETERENT. I do think we have gone overboard with projecting strength, regime change, and world policemen. However, an element is necessary to avoid conflict on our soil, and to be PROACTIVE in protecting our shores. You don't want to wait until they are here to act, but again, I think we have used that argument a bit to liberally.
Multiple reasons. First is other nations and the UN almost completely relying on USA military. Other nations felt free to greatly reduce their military spending because USA provided the bulk of their defense for them. But even hint at pulling back our military for USA defense only and those nations and others cry for our military again. We could reduce our military spending if we closed our foreign bases and opened new bases along our nation’s borders, especially our southern border. The other reason for high military spending is greed on the part of admirals, generals, and members of Congress. Companies use lobbyists to push for their big budget projects. Some of these lobbyist are former admirals, generals, and politicians. Some military equipment cost a fortune because of the quality control regulations manufacturers must meet to produce and supply the parts. Some can easily be replaced with materials bought at even a dollar store.
No argument there, but he ENTIRE world, and ALL of our allied intelligence community thought Sadam had WMD's. They ALL wanted us to invade, and we had a huge international coalition to do so. Also, Congress, including many, many Democrats VOTED to do so. Hillary, John Kerry, and many others voted for it.
No, the US intelligence community didn't think so. At the Pentagon, for instance, Rumsfeld removed the professional Iraq intel group from the problem entirely because they would not confirm stockpiles of WMD and put a hand-picked group in their place "to find what the others have missed." The Director of DIA testified to Congress, "We never no reliable evidence."
The intel group at State did not believe it. Even the CIA only bowed to direct in-person pressure from Cheney who made unprecedented trips out to Langley to "oversee" the analysis process.
I had spent the 90s looking at Iraq, and I was standing up and shouting at the television as Powell gave that UN speech, he had so much completely wrong. I called some of my colleagues, and thought they couldn't speak of any particulars on the phone, they said, "That's not what we briefed."
It should be pointed out that both France and Russia hotly denied all along that there was any evidence of stockpiles of WMD in Iran.
What makes you think the actions taken above would result in cuts in defense spending ($600 billion/year)? Far more is spent on public assistance programs (over $1 trillion/year). National defense is mandated by the Constitution. Public assistance programs are not.
So, in this scenario, the dollar is no longer in the position as the world's reserve currency, but it/we still has the ability to print - but the excess printing now represents a more concentrated form of devaluation.
And you say cut off all or most of the funding to those on public assistance so we can continue to sustain our nation- building military in it's current form?
What you call public assistance, I call paying the natives to remain apathetic and complacent.
I say -- try it and watch what happens. I think it would be quite a show.
Why military spending is what it is, in just three words - Proprietary Government Contract.
It's why everything, literally down to the nuts and bolts, has a 300-10,000% markup. A defense contractor gets the 25-50 year proprietary contract, and it is essentially a permission slip for the federal government for that contractor to print their own money, since the contract guarantees a certain level of demand, exactly zero competition, and 100% government protection for the life of the contract.
For example, the 1/4-20 x 1/2" 18-8 Stainless Steel Flat Head Socket Cap Screw, Countersunk Head, Allen Hex Drive. You can buy them at wholesalers for $0.15-$0.20 per screw. In the submarine force, that exact same screw must be purchased from a specific, single contractor, and they cost ~$3.50 per screw. When I say exact same, I mean literally, exact same SAE number, everything. That's a 1650% markup...if I use the highest wholesaler price. If you went through every nut/bolt/part used by the military and simply allowed competition among suppliers, you could cut the military budget by 40% tomorrow and not one thing other than the absurd profit margin of the preferred contractors would change one bit.
And that is Democrats and Republicans, hand in hand, who have been using the bloated DoD and proprietary contract to skim the federal revenue since before WW II. Those proprietary contracts are massive moneymakers for the contractor and whichever loyal Senator/Rep that got the contract through the system and approved. Why would a Senator (Menendez, in his first run) spend close to $10 million of his own money in an effort to land a job that officially pays $185k? The skim is soooo lucrative. I'd say $200-250 billion of the DoD budget is literally there to be divided among racketeers all in on the skim. None of us can question it of course, because "fer defense!!" and all that.
It isn't this war, or that garrison, or something else. Those are just the dog wags that keep you thinking "fer defense, fer safety, fer security!!" and all that. The bloat is all that long term proprietary contract crap.
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