The cowardly lion and the great American freak out

[Glitch]

Originally Posted by TnHilltopper

And military veterans come from where? Would there be a need for a VA if we didn't have a military? Ipso facto, without one you don't have the other, their connection is intrinsic. As to its authority, I could care less that its authority is derived from the executive branch but that it is funded by the DOD.

Either way, this was also based upon last years budget and does not even account for the further gross begging of our pathetic commander in chief for more funds on his yet another mismanaged endeavor paid for by the sweat and blood of soldiers he could only in his wildest dream pretend to understand and the tax payer dollars from a people who hopes to never understand.

Attempting to equate the Veteran's Administration to a military organization is akin to equating the US Constitution as a religious document because it contains the phrase "In the year of our Lord". If it doesn't fall under the Department of Defense, which the VA doesn't, then it can't be military as the above definition clearly states. Which makes your twisted attempts to pad the military budget for your own political agenda very apparent.

The "short" title for H.R. 3222 is "Making appropriations for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008" That is the current fiscal year. H.R. 3222 was enacted into Public Law No: 110-116 on 11/13/2007.

[TnHilltopper]

Originally Posted by TnHilltopper

The 2006 United States military budget was slated at 441.6 billion dollars which is as much as that of the next 17 largest nations combined. This means that the United States has spent nearly as much money as the entire rest of the world on military expenditures and six times as much as Russia, which is the world's second largest military budget. Americans, despite this spending, fears threatened by terrorism to the point of paranoid neuroticism.

This spending does not include the additional "supplemental" monies requested and received by President Bush for Iraq and Afghanistan to the tune of 81 billion dollars. Nor does it include money in the budget devoted to military spending for Defense/Civil programs ($44.5 billion);, Homeland Security ($33.3 billion);, and Veterans Affairs ($68.3 billion), all pushing the total closer to 668.7 billion dollars. In addition when we add in the fact that a good deal of this money is borrowed and comes with interest, which of course is rarely considered publicly in budget requests, this adds approximately 130 billion to the bill, making a round about figure of 799 billion dollars. In essence the United States is realistically spending about 30% of its total government funding on the military, which is a little higher and more realistic than the published 17% in the budget report. Yet Americans fear being attacked or invaded like a child fears the darkness on a stormy night.

Originally Posted by Glitch

Attempting to equate the Veteran's Administration to a military organization is akin to equating the US Constitution as a religious document because it contains the phrase "In the year of our Lord". If it doesn't fall under the Department of Defense, which the VA doesn't, then it can't be military as the above definition clearly states. Which makes your twisted attempts to pad the military budget for your own political agenda very apparent.

The "short" title for H.R. 3222 is "Making appropriations for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008" That is the current fiscal year. H.R. 3222 was enacted into Public Law No: 110-116 on 11/13/2007.

I know you are smart enough to read so try actually READING the post again, this time do it slowly and from the beginning so you understand it. I haven't stated that these entire sums were all under the public law no 110-116, if I did please show me and everyone where I stated this.

Again with this diversionary argument that isn't even related to the premise of the piece but to a detail that isn't even stated, so either you are simply being argumentative for the sake of it and not addressing the clear intent of the thread or you just don't get it. I know you are smarter than this.

[Reactionary]

TnHilltopper - please state the 'clear intent' of the thread in one sentence, no commas.

The links you provided don't show that the Dept of Defense wholely funds Homeland Security - but the CBO site shows that the DoD contributes to Homeland Security, just like the Dept of Agriculture and the Dept of Justice and others.

Are you claiming that my County Cooperative Extension agent is in the 'military'?

Cooperative Extension System Offices

[TnHilltopper]

Originally Posted by Reactionary

TnHilltopper - please state the 'clear intent' of the thread in one sentence, no commas.

No matter how much the US spends on military and defense we act as though a handful of crazies will bring our civilization to its knees.

Odd that most folks seemed to have understood this. My apologies for using punctuation and elaborating on various aspects of our spending habits in order to combat a handful of thugs and crazies. In the future, I will try and be either as simplistic as possible or as vague as necessary.

[Reactionary]

'A handful of crazies' caused significant damage to the US economy ($1.2 trillion dollar impact to the US stock market because of the 9/11 attacks). The 'crazies' planned to bring our economy to its knees, hoping that our civilization would follow.

IMO you have no understanding of the threat these 'crazies' pose to the world; you certainly have no comprehension of what it takes to defeat them.

You do understand how to sling mud and move on - yellow journalism.

[TnHilltopper]

Originally Posted by Reactionary

'A handful of crazies' caused significant damage to the US economy ($1.2 trillion dollar impact to the US stock market because of the 9/11 attacks). The 'crazies' planned to bring our economy to its knees, hoping that our civilization would follow.

IMO you have no understanding of the threat these 'crazies' pose to the world; you certainly have no comprehension of what it takes to defeat them.

You do understand how to sling mud and move on - yellow journalism.

America has survived being engaged into open and declared warfare with not one but two world powers, Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany at the same time and yet we all managed to live through these fearful times and our nation didn't falter. We managed to live through the nuclear cold war with the Soviet Union who was nearly on par with the United States in its military strength. Despite tense moments and being on a brink of global Armageddon, we again survived and continued to thrive. Both of these events took place when the United States was no where near as strong militarily as it is today, so please explain this great threat to human kind you and some others see.

Today we have a group of thugs who have an ideology that the term infidel no longer means what it always has, which is a non believer in God, Yahweh, or Allah and have twisted it to mean those who don't believe in Islam's version of "God". They are most certainly a dangerous group of petty thugs who were born in part because we supported radicalized Islam as it fought against Soviet invaders in Afghanistan. When we turned our back on these people, they bit us hard and 3000 people died because of it.

Even the great and exalted supreme ruler Ronald Reagan was oft quoted as saying that the United States should refrain from engaging the nuts in the Middle East for the very reasons we see before us today. Countless generals, analyst, and even our current Vice President has so stated these very assertions that have come to pass as true.

We arrive today with the idea that a radical sect of the Islamic faith wants to become supreme rulers of the world and there are actually glue sniffing fools who believe this crap? This has about as much chance of happening as Santa Clause bringing me Sandra Bullock for Christmas.

I have heard it repeated many times that these religious nut jobs are a threat all humanity yet what I don't hear is how these people plan on pulling off something that even the United States could not pull off even if it wanted to and despite all the money we spend on our military apparatus. So to all your people who are so afraid of this happening, please give me an idea how this will all take place and how I will go from living in the bible belt to living next to a mosque if I don't support our idiot and chief?

I'm simpled amazed at the level of obedience given to an administration that no one trust, and a media that everyone claims is biased. I am amazed at just how much some of my fellow Americans will allow fear to rule and direct their manner of thinking and ultimately their lives. It brings me to the conclusion that either they are just simply overly emotional basket cases, ignorant and will swallow any flim flam, or are mentally devoid of any rational and independent thought.

I will not apologize for not being afraid of terrorist living in caves destroying the United States of America, our way of life or the obliteration of our people. I will be concerned and give them about as much fear as I do of dying under the crushing weight of frogs falling from a rainstorm. If you wish to live life under the rock of fear, then by all means, let these religious nuts be the excuse in which the rest of your life will be dictated to.

Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it. - General Douglas Macarthur