i find it ridiculous to suggest that only the pants pissing war luvin' fake christian freedom bleeding high school dropout 'merrica crowd has a grasp on what our tax dollars should go to. i mean shit.
I find it interesting because our military budget is astronomically high, but I would be interested in learning what that budget would be if we: A) Stopped paying out contracts to companies that don't deliver/are delinquent. B) Stopped wasting supplies (I have a friend who worked in supply/logistics during the Iraq War and he said they were just throwing away expensive shit as units left to return home.) C) Stopped fighting wars that don't involve us. The military industrial complex is a hell of a drug, and I don't think we should cut military by too much, but this isn't the cold war and I would love to see some legitimate reasons for why we need to be the world's police.
the disconnect really is... "why should we trust the incompetent government with our tax dollars and expect them to take care of us?" and "we should give the government our tax dollars for the military so they can take care of us" they want it both ways
Yup... but we have been brain washed from a young age that the American military stands for truth and justice and protects the weak. So we HAVE to have the strongest military. We love to watch our boys fuck up some third world military on CNN. We aren't taught about how our government helped fuck up the Middle East, or South America. We aren't taught about how our government has used our military to impose our economic and political interests throughout the world.
I agree with much of what you said. As for the bold part, the short answer is: because nobody else is stepping up to the plate. So who the fuck else is going to do it? -The Kurds are fighting ISIS....but really, they're the Kurds. Loyal and good people....but not strong enough to wipe ISIS out. France and Russia dropped a few bombs, and now they're doing half-assed crap like giving their 40 year old Surplus to beleaguered troops. And the UK is completely in debt and has the refugee problem to deal with. That, and their military funding has been cut off so much that they're really just not the military that they were 15 years ago (or so I hear). -China is bullying in major international shipping lanes in International Waters, which effects millions of people and trillions of dollars worth of the World's Goods and Imports/Exports. And they're building islands so that they have more power in that area...which violates the borders of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam; all of whom are too dirt poor to resist this or protect themselves appropriately. -Russia is bullying almost everyone it seems. They're even fucking around with skirting bombers close to our borders on spying missions. But they're also providing assistance to countries in the Middle East who don't like us very much (reasons why they don't like us are irrelevant and besides the point), and as such: effects our interest in that area. And yes, we NEED that oil, so it IS an interest of ours, like it or not. They also invaded and took over a good portion of Ukraine, and nobody said a fucking word about it. I have little doubt that Putin will probably move in the future to take the whole country. And that's just what I know of off the top of my head. We also provide a huge presence around Africa to fight Piracy. I'm under no illusions about our Military History. But nobody else is doing this shit.
The defense of the nation is so significant a duty of government that a lot of the constitution is used to spell out the government's powers in that respect. Regardless of how competent or incompetent government is, it's our best hope for defense.
Yeah, but if you point out the waste of $$ spent on the military by our government, they shout and scream that they need to make it bigger and put more control in the hands of the government by UPPING the $$. Either the government is incapable of spending $$ and is incompetent, or it's perfectly capable because thats it's "job". Can';t be be both.
As much as it pains me to admit, I agree. I want smaller government and lower taxes. But I also want a strong military. I suppose you can't ultimately have both. I'm out. Things to do. Bye folks.
First rule of government spending: why buy something when you can buy two at 4x the price? That government wastes huge sums of money should be no surprise. Think of it as a tax on getting things done. Defense costs what it costs.
Defense DOES cost what it costs...because they bloat what we need as defense. We dont need nearly as much as we have. The lack of strength of the military wasn't why 9/11 happened.
Having these huge armies are obsolete. The wave of the future is quick, reactionary forces, and owning the skies and the sea. Having a strong Navy, I understand. Having a strong Air Force, I understand. Having a big strong Army is not necessary anymore. I would rather put money into special forces and highly trained units like the Army Rangers. If we ever do trade blows with a large nation in conventional warfare, there will be plenty of cannon fodder that will immediately sign up.
We may overspend, but of anything the government spends on, this is the one thing they can't afford to underspend. I'd rather they don't overspend (or spend) on much of anything else.
From the right I hear about cutting government waste and fraud in Medicaid, welfare, etc. From the left I hear about cutting defense so we can do more to help our people at home. Personally, I'd like to put accountability in place for both defense and welfare/medicaid, etc. I know I live a dream but I think if we had an agency with teeth that could effect accountability and change (no slap on the hand or just look the other way for malfeasance), we could have more effective use of our tax dollars domestically and militarily. Personally, I'd love it if more of the government employee "grifters" were put in jail. Schools have a no tolerance policy for kids going there but it seems the government has all kinds of tolerance for misdeeds. Stupid. Treat the government employees likes kids at school. Zero tolerance for misusing funds or you are fired and potentially jailed. Gramps...
