Why is "Home of the Brave" spending over 1 trillion dollars per year on defense?

A staggering number especially for a culture that prides itself on self proclaimed bravery. Where is the bravery in spending over a trillion dollars on defense per year when millions of Americans are starving and below the poverty line? Is America so paranoid and scared completely #less that it must have this kind of yearly expenditure to feel 'safe'? So two conclusions:

1. Americans truly are scared #less

or

2. It's a monumental conspiracy to bilk the taxpayer out of trillions of dollars.

Only time can tell which it is because the only thing that can stop conclusion #2 is ...bravery

I don't think it has much to do with collective or individual bravery. But has a lot to do with economics and corporate interests. The defense industries are outsourced to some of the largest private companies in the U.S, who produce millions of jobs. I'm not saying this is a good thing, I'm sure we've all heard Eisenhower's speech a few times. Nor am I saying the American people are happy with it either.

It's just the way it has panned out.

Indeed. The US has become a neo-imperialist empire in pursuit of ever-increasing power and profit for a select group of banking and corporate moguls, using war as a primary tool for both their pursuit of power and their pursuit of profit (war is very profitable to several industries and its political consequences lead to significant power shifts)

Reply to post by PC equals Newspeak

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Because fighting several wars and maintining q military prescence in just about every country on the planet isn't cheap.

When you're policing the world "defence" is a bit more than a barking dog and a shotgun.

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Woooaaahhhhh!!! I want everyone to just sit there for 30 seconds and think about this topic.

Why does the strongest kid on the block need to keep on spending this kind of money on a machine that is aimed at other countries yet its citizens are living on the streets and 20 million starve each week there ?

I would give 50 stars for that post if possible.

War as been a US industry for most of the 20th century. But the false flag exercise on 9/11 gave these miscreants the excuse to go into overdrive. Also, we are now coming down to the finale of a long term plan to destroy our economy. So, a race is on.

What will happen first:

1) The US will overwhelm and control the world and gain new resource and funding sources

2) The US will finish implosion and the empire will dissolve

Einstein once said:

“The more a country makes military weapons, the more insecure it becomes: if you have weapons, you become a target for attack.”

I also believe that it is dangerous to do so, it's a vicious cycle.

The more you make, the more you have to make to compensate for the size of the target on your back... so you make more.... on and on...

I expect this to happen in the near future, with shift in power towards the EU. However, I also expect the same people who currently dominate US politics and economy to increase their grip on EU politics and economy, so for global geopolitics little would change. A similar shift occured in 1945, when the US replaced the British empire as the dominant power.

How could the 'Land of the Free' allow the Patriot Acts to be passed? Just becuase an entity markets itself in a way doesn't make it true. Branding is not substance.

"Why does the strongest kid on the block need to keep on spending this kind of money on a machine that is aimed at other countries yet its citizens are living on the streets and 20 million starve each week there?"

Simply put, nobody gives a damn about the 20 million who are starving. And if you even hint at trying to help the less fortunate, you are labeled a Socialist. But those same people have no problem giving billions to countries most Americans do not really give a spit about.

Besides, why would those in the Government feed their own starving people when they have their own fat greedy asses to stuff? If it was up to them, there would be 200 million starving people, which would mean even more for them to grab.

You also have to realize that without the military industry (and drugs - legal and illegal), the United States would essentially go bankrupt. The manufacturing sector is all but dead. The auto industry has destroyed itself because they haven't built a decent car in twenty years. The food industry consists of toxins which make you fat and sick. Sure, there is some tourism left, but that is mostly because the dollar is in the tank.

So what is left? Make some weapons, create some wars, get rid of the stockpile of weapons and build some more weapons and create some more wars. It's just a cycle which has been going on for a very long time.

Don't take slogans too seriously. Home of the brave, liberty and justice for all, crown thy good with brotherhood, etc. - they're all just an illusionary ideal which is filler for the history books. For example, is there anything Patriotic about the Patriot Act?

There are still some quite flourishing sectors you're forgetting, though. Corporations like Microsoft, IBM, HP, Apple, Electronic Arts (EA), Google, E-Bay and numerous other experts in the field of software or hardware are flourishing. Also, don't forget the movie industry (Hollywood) or the general electronics market (although Germany and Japan provide superior products in some of these areas). Within the area of technology, I do think there's still a future for the US.

reply to post by PC equals Newspeak

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I have to agree, don't count out the 1000 pound gorilla just because its got a few fleas.

They sure do spend a lot of money. I think they do not spend enough on Air and Missile systems, Hi tech as some call it. This week I watched WW11 in HD. What came out of that was, if we never had good air coverage we would all be speaking German or Japanese!

I saw a lot of bad military strategy in the Gulf war and now in Afghanistan as well. Lucky for us we were fighting 4th rate military in Iraq and I’d call it 6th rate in Afgan!

Terrorism is now our new war, Its been going on for years now and will continue even when we don’t have an enemy any more, if that were possible.

If the really want to fix our Budget, Pull all overseas troops back home and cut spending to maintenace costs only. Restrict all navy activity to a few 100 miles off our cost.

I really don't get the OP's connection between national defense spending and the bravery of the citizenry. I do see a solid connection between bravery and a totally volunteer military force, which we do have, though. What I do see connected to national defense spending is a lot of corruption and greed.

reply to post by reasonable

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For FY 2009, Department of Defense spending amounts to 4.8% of GDP. The U.S.The Department of Defense budget is slated to be $651 billion in 2009 so this makes it cheaper than the healthcare bill. As far as percentage of GDP this ranks the United States 27th in the world as far as military spending.

The top ten military budgets based off GDP is
1 Oman
2 Qatar
3 Saudi Arabia
4 Iraq 8.6
5 Jordan
6 Israel
7 Yemen
8 Armenia
9 Eritrea
10 Macedonia

The United States spent 4.8% of its GDP on its military which is less than Saudi Arabia's 10%.This is historically low for the United States since it peaked in 1944 at 37.8% of GDP (it reached the lowest point of 3.0% in 1999-2001). Even during the peak of the Vietnam War the percentage reached a high of 9.4% in 1968.

Bottom line is we made more we spent more now how long this will go on is any ones guess if the GDP goes down then so will military spending.

look at you now, you created another thread talking about how obama is going to us out of this mess, so my question is...when is he going to start?

[edit on 22-11-2009 by Alien Mind]

You are correct in your ideas, we here in America are scared #less and the red-necks are buying ammo like it's beef jerky. Americans would rather push a button to kill someone then get off the lazy-boy and do it. and the GOP is filling their pockets with the rest, wile the poor can't find work or food.

But be ready saying things like the truth will only get red-neck GOP trolls flaming mad, they are only happy when people are sick, hungry and brown people are dieing.

If you want to be strong, you work out with weights. If you want to be weak, you stop.

Apparently you’d rather have the USA be a weakling; for some odd reason most liberals despise the USA and cant’ wait for its demise. How sad.

Some of the bravest men I know couldn't bench press 50lbs. Kind of destroys your analogy. I'm talking about a nation of self proclaimed brave, spending a trillion dollars a year to feel safe from the boogey man.

I Find it funny how Republicans (right-wing, conservatives) don't get really that mad when their tax money is being use for wars, bombs and dead innocents...

.. But yet, they get really mad and agitated when the government wants to spend their tax money to give Health Care to Every single American...



[edit on 22-11-2009 by Polynomial C]