What's should be the optimum level of defense spending?

[Robbie3000]

Right now we are spending ~700 billion a year on the military. When we talk about cutting the deficit, the GOP completely ignores Military spending. The Dems only want to make marginal cuts. Meanwhile we are spending more than all the major industrial countries combined.

How much should we be spending on the military.

 

[Domingo Halliburton]

not half our budget. I don't get why we need 200 military bases around the world.

 

[tru_m.a.c]

not half our budget. I don't get why we need 200 military bases around the world.

Its starting to make sense to me more and more

essentially the way the military industrial complex must be thinking about it is, as long as the US is the strongest military by x amount, russia nor china will ever try to flex outside of economic means

and/or

the major catalyst for WW1 and WW2 was because you had a system of countries that all had the same military capabilities, with neither being far and away above all. Right now the US military is the don, and all these other countries essentially have to ask permission (your guess is as good as mine *wink wink*) before doing anything that would effect the world on a global scale.

I say all that to say, y'all really think the Middle East wouldn't have nuked each other if the US wasn't as powerful as it is???

 

[Robbie3000]

Its starting to make sense to me more and more

essentially the way the military industrial complex must be thinking about it is, as long as the US is the strongest military by x amount, russia nor china will ever try to flex outside of economic means

and/or

the major catalyst for WW1 and WW2 was because you had a system of countries that all had the same military capabilities, with neither being far and away above all. Right now the US military is the don, and all these other countries essentially have to ask permission (your guess is as good as mine *wink wink*) before doing anything that would effect the world on a global scale.


I say all that to say, y'all really think the Middle East wouldn't have nuked each other if the US wasn't as powerful as it is???

I can kind of see the argument that the the US feels the need to be militarily vastly superior to the rest of the world in order to keep order and avoid disastrous wars like WW1 and WW2, but in a post cold war world and an integrated Europe, is Pax Americana still a practical goal?

 

[tru_m.a.c]

I can kind of see the argument that the the US feels the need to be militarily vastly superior to the rest of the world in order to keep order and avoid disastrous wars like WW1 and WW2, but in a post cold war world and an integrated Europe, is Pax Americana still a practical goal?

I think those with access to all the secrets/money feel there is no reason to have a practical goal

Honestly, yeah....yeah I do think its practical. Just because we don't have to have a SOLID presence all ever continent. For example if we needed to have our military battle ready in asia, africa, the middle east, and south america at the same time then yeah I could see everything ending

but as long as the chinese don't ever stop extending credit, why would we stop

and if we ever went to war with them, and they tried to call their bets in, wouldn't we just and ignore them

lol this is all speculation of course cause I haven't looked too much into the details of things

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

not half our budget. I don't get why we need 200 military bases around the world.

200? We got over 700.

 

[Swagnificent]

0 dollars per year

when you have as many nukes as we have, no one is going to try and attack us by conventional means

 

[stealthbomber]

Its starting to make sense to me more and more

essentially the way the military industrial complex must be thinking about it is, as long as the US is the strongest military by x amount, russia nor china will ever try to flex outside of economic means

and/or

the major catalyst for WW1 and WW2 was because you had a system of countries that all had the same military capabilities, with neither being far and away above all. Right now the US military is the don, and all these other countries essentially have to ask permission (your guess is as good as mine *wink wink*) before doing anything that would effect the world on a global scale.

I say all that to say, y'all really think the Middle East wouldn't have nuked each other if the US wasn't as powerful as it is???

this really is the only argument for spending as much as we do and its a good one. i was watching real time last week and this guy was arguing that same thing.

and thinking about it, i feel the same way. we definitely could reduce the budget a lil bit, but we need to stay the most powerful military. as many terrible things we do to countries around the world, we would never nuke anyone (again). other countries im not so sure about.

if we lose our number 1 spot in military, or are even equal, there is a much higher chance that nuclear war could become a reality. and if that happens were all

the world is a dangerous place, idk if i want

 

[tru_m.a.c]

this really is the only argument for spending as much as we do and its a good one. i was watching real time last week and this guy was arguing that same thing.

and thinking about it, i feel the same way. we definitely could reduce the budget a lil bit, but we need to stay the most powerful military. as many terrible things we do to countries around the world, we would never nuke anyone (again). other countries im not so sure about.

if we lose our number 1 spot in military, or are even equal, there is a much higher chance that nuclear war could become a reality. and if that happens were all

the world is a dangerous place, idk if i want

I haven't checked that show out in awhile. I gotta go peep that episode

But yeah it hit me when I saw the way Libya was handled. To me that was an exhibition if you will. And the rest of the world was just watching like

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

We could cut our military budget by 2/3 and still have the largest military by a large margin

Something to consider, we spent 711B on our military. Meanwhile, privately/publicly, we have spent about 350B on college tuition. If we had to choose, which would you think would help the country more

 

[Type Username Here]

A chunk of the money from the Military budget goes to Veterans, Veterans' services, Veteran's Benefits and Health, so that leaves most of it spend on actual military.

Here are the Fiscal Yearly budgets:

US Defense Budget: US Federal Budget FY12 Estimated Spending Breakdown - Pie Chart

800 Bil on pensions, 925 billy on Defense, 866(!!) bil on Healthcare, 431 billy on Welfare.

240 Billion on Interest alone

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

A chunk of the money from the Military budget goes to Veterans, Veterans' services, Veteran's Benefits and Health, so that leaves most of it spend on actual military.

Here are the Fiscal Yearly budgets:

US Defense Budget: US Federal Budget FY12 Estimated Spending Breakdown - Pie Chart

800 Bil on pensions, 925 billy on Defense, 866(!!) bil on Healthcare, 431 billy on Welfare.

240 Billion on Interest alone

800 billion on pensions? Does that not include military pensions?

925 billion on defense lol. Defense from what? Our priorities are fukked man.

 

[Robbie3000]

We could cut our military budget by 2/3 and still have the largest military by a large margin

Something to consider, we spent 711B on our military. Meanwhile, privately/publicly, we have spent about 350B on college tuition. If we had to choose, which would you think would help the country more

I agree. Plus add to the fact that the Europeans and Japan very well due to our subsidization of their Defenses. Isn't it time for us to trust Western European allies and Japan to start sharing in the responsibilities and financing of their own defenses? Or are we opening a can of worms?

How long can the US sustain this kind of military spending? Or is this the price you pay to be an empire?

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

The way the govt is rationalizing the spending is that people are paying us to take their money, and what debt they dont take can just be hidden from the public/money supply through the Fed. So fiscally somehow this makes sense, but I agree that its a waste

 

[Silver Surfer]

Defense encapsulates alot of thing....