12 Facts About Military Spending That Will Make Your Head Explode

reply to post by MIDNIGHTSUN


It got a D? I would give it an F- , No points for EFFORT at all, and I'd want to put it behind another grade!

reply to post by Maxmars


I think you're reading too deep into this...I think the main point is that our government spends our hard earned money on war when it could be spending it on education and healthcare. That alone is all you need to take from the article in my opinion.

We can nitpick the inaccuracies of this piece from here to eternity but it will not change the fact that Mr.and Mrs Average live in practical thralldom to a military dictatorship masquerading itself as a Democratically representative Republic.

We spend way too much on defense appropriations, period!

America, land of the free, home of the brave makes for nice mythology and plenty of dead and mangled kids.

To paraphrase Dick Cheney "to defeat evil you sometimes have to use the dark side".

Too bad we got stuck in that methodology.

reply to post by MIDNIGHTSUN


And this is the stuff that you know about.
This doesn't account for the black budget stuff.

The military spending does go (by a large measure) to Americans though. We lose treasure certainly, when we explode bombs and shoot bullets but... new bombs and bullets are made by Americans.

I would ask "Is the military any better at spending its money than any other part of the Government." I would argue the Government spends far to much money period. It's inefficient, slow and wasteful. I am not sure why you think it would spend money better on something else - than it currently does with the military.

I think it is naive to say adding 220,000 teachers to our current education system would do much of anything. I would rather spend the money on free college tuition to any person, who gets the grades, to go to medical school personally.

V

What could our Nation do with this money?

costofwar.com...

But America is in the business of war. Who profits?

www.businesspundit.com...

And what politicians have a vested interest in keeping the wars going?

www.americanfreepress.net...

But let's face it....Americans worship violence, war, strength and machismo. Until the over all paradigm changes culturally; American youth will continue to die for nothing except profit by those that profit in blood, lies and death.

Package war up in a Red, White and Blue package with a nice ribbon of FEAR and the masses will stand in line to buy it.

Originally posted by Screwed
....and all of it would come crashing down if parents would just educate their kids to stay the hell away from the military! But sadly, most adults in this country still buy into the notion of the land of the free and home of the brave. This entire country is one huge psy-op.
We WILL get what we deserve. It is sad to witness but it is necessary.

I was a career U.S. Army NCO. But, I have long ago told my children and my grandchildren, if they consider joining the military, I will become their worst nightmare drill sergeant and put a huge hurting on their a$$e$.

It's a waste of resources,. both wealth and human.

The same could be said about Welfare... those numbers are staggering as well. www.usgovernmentspending.com...

So, would we rather pay staggering amounts to prospering defense jobs and soldiers Or to freeloaders?

Originally posted by GhostLancer
Iraq was invaded under the doctrine of "preemptive strike."

Ye, just like Poland in 1939. There was absolutely no indications of any strike coming from Iraq in any forseeable future. Invasion was based on lie about WMD (and even they were supposed to be allegedly used against other brown people) , lie that was eventually revealed and admitted, altough as 'intelligence mistake' , no doh. But, did anything happened because of that. Nope, quite opposite, US is regularly bombing Libya, Yemen and Pakistan nowadays.

Originally posted by GhostLancer
However, while a mistake, perhaps, we will never truly know what may or may not have happened had the US not invaded.

Another no-doh. I'll tell you what would happened with great dose of propability. Tens of thousands Iraqis wouldnt die every month for last 8 years. Millions of Iraqis woudnt have to live in occupated martial-lawed country where US soldier is practically Lord of Life and Death. But then.... you would pay at gas station few bucks more every time. Well, that sorts it out.

Originally posted by GhostLancer
Again, the article, is very enlightening in its comparisons. I just found that one headline about "war" versus using "defense" a bit too slanted.

Well, im sure you know what they say is best defense. Attack. Preemptive strike if we talking orwellian.

Originally posted by GhostLancer
BEST everything, or at least ranking in the best.

Oh cmon, what you mean BEST. What is BEST, in who's ranking? Americas movies are cool, no doubt. it's matter of money pumped into industry. Techs are edgy, but then, money again and they are mostly developed by scientists bought from another countries. Coolest guns, muscle cars?
And none of my top5 novels are american . Lovecraft holds nr 6.

Even with taking MaxMars insightful comments into consideration ... those are some crazy stats.

reply to post by Maxmars


that's great and all .. but.. we're talking about 12 things the news agencies (MSM) are being quiet about, was wondering if you had an opinion on those subjects..

yes.. their on a list, standard English 101....but because their listed .. they're bad in some way?? I don't follow your point..

reply to post by MIDNIGHTSUN



from an ATS point of view, this could be the smoking gun that proves that the Government is afraid of UFOs.

it's hard to believe that our society and Government could be so corrupt that the size of the military is only due to lobbyists always pushing for more spending.
and Senators and Congressmen bringing the porc home.

no other military on Earth could justify the size of our military, so it must be to defend us against some other power.

over 500 military bases all over the World, are they expecting UFOs?

there is no credible human threat, Cuba could not invade Florida.
the cold war ended 20 years ago, yet Guantanamo is still open.
the Russians went home after the fall of the USSR, the USA expanded it's military presence.
we have bases in Spain, Italy, you could name countries around the world, that have no visible potential invaders.
so is the USA planning on taking on a UFO invasion?

it's hard to see who else our navy is being built to take on.

and i know DC is corrupt to it's core, but can it be the only reason?

Whilst the article may be flimsy, the US military budget is leagues above any other nations and the article's main message rings true. It truly is depressing that in a day and age when we claim to be so civilised, survival depends mainly not on improving our own civilisations but by decimating others and enjoying the spoils as evident by this article; it seems not much has changed since the discovery of the first weapon (whatever it was I leave to your imagination) by our ancestors.

The leaders of the world would rather see a young man from a deprived area of society lose a limb, become paralysed or die than receive good health and an education and perhaps better society and the surrounding area, helping reduce some of the inherit problems that have such a detrimental effect on civilised society at home. However, an educated and well kept populace (especially with the lower classes) has no place in a corporatocracy (for lack of a better word) as this would potentially lead to a rise and unity in concern for their rights and an awareness of the unfair situation as a result of good education. They however can be used as cannon fodder when they sign up under Uncle Sam as a last resort.

All the while huge profits are made as the working class and to an extent middle class populations are kept under this tight method of social control, with the corporate media holding hands all the way through reporting civilian deaths as "collateral damages" or invasions as "national security" (despite the seeming lack of any threat to security by any nation involved in the past decades of constant warfare, one may argue afghanistan but invasion has proved to only increase terrorist activity as people are willing to sign up after seeing their families charred remains, which I'm sure most would do if it was their homeland too).

Of course the economy and warfare are tightly interwoven, not only with the arms manufacturers but every aspect of industry involved. The US was largely a war economy post ww1 as many surely know, with the sharp increase of billionaires and millionaires as a result, which naturally have an influence on governmental policy. Ultimately it would be difficult for the US to escape from what can be called, without any conspiring, as the "military industrial complex". The recognised profits from war were recognised in the past (lets not forget Eisenhower claiming the middle east was "strategically important area in the world" militarily and economically hence our involvement there since) and thus war was perpetuated as a result, however I see any escape as difficult besides mass dissent (which I am certain is HIGHLY unlikely with the various forms of social control).

On the topic of american authors however, I'd have to say they are some of my preferred - Grapes of Wrath ,despite being wholly depressing, (and stenibeck as a whole) as well as The Great Gatsby are two of my favourites for sure

Not one American politician, even everyone's little darling Ron Paul, will stand up and tell the public that we need to cut defense funding.

It's political cyanide.

They will cut funding to Grandma first.

What an individual spends his money on will reflect on his desires needs and priorities, no one in the goverment has to tell us what they care about, all we have to do is look at the recipts in there shopping bags.

You know will be really fun?

Spend a tiny fraction of the money spent on the war machine and...

Spend it on healthcare reform!

Watching people freakout is priceless!

reply to post by jimnuggits


Im sure many of them want to, unfortunately they really have no power over TPTB, and based on there spending you can see who gets all the attention.

Originally posted by GhostLancer
After 9-11, what should Bush have done, just let the Taliban sit there and plot another attack?

Well, since Bush was in on the whole affair, the Taliban were supported by Us, and did NOT attack Us (that was Us, Ourselves), yeah. He should have sat there. Since the Taliban did not plot the first - that was Bush, Cheney, et al - They could hardly plan ANOTHER one.

Be that as it may, You make a rather disingenuous division between "defense" and "war..." Frankly, most of that money is poured into the war suppliers (Cheney: Haliburton) to send to Afghanistan (to keep secure the pipes and the poppies), Iraq (to keep secure the oil), Lybia (I still don't grasp why We're there except to start WWIII), and any other place in the world that is NOT Us defending Ourselves at home. Aggressive behavior can hardly be called "defense."

reply to post by MIDNIGHTSUN


Your head should explode. You have a completely biased, non-historical, illogical, and totally un-American 'understanding' of the US military.
First, in 1914 airplanes took off and flew at about 62 miles per hour and remained in the air if airspeed was kept above about 48 miles per hour. Pilots were chosen by weight, and had to choose to take a camera or a rifle with them. At the end of the war in 1918 airplanes were flying close to 300 miles per hour and were capable of carrying significant payloads of all types. Innovation and production capabilities are huge when war is in progress and your very survival is at stake. There is almost nothing in society today that you can point to that does NOT have an origin from conflict and military research - you are the product of at least 5,000 years of human strife.
Second, the US pays its military personnel real wages with benefits almost no other government can match. We have no draft, nor do we force people to serve. We contract with our military personnel and treat them with the respect (your stupid remarks aside) they richly deserve. In addition, there is no other industry in existence that has a higher education level for its employees than the US military. Virtually every single commissioned officer has a four-year degree and over 12% of the officer ranks have PhD level education credentials. Virtually every member of the armed forces has a high school diploma or GED. Plus, the education benefits for military members (better in the past) are still very good. The best of us are a part of the military - and nothing you say will ever change my mind. I've served with thousands of wonderful people and trusted my life to many. Can you name one person in your life right now (not family) who you can trust in complete faith to trust your life?
Third, without our superb military you would be a British citizen, taxed so deeply you'd never be able to own real estate, and wouldn't own any land even if you wanted to and could pay for it unless you're a member of the aristocracy. Without our American Revolution every single nation south of the current border would likely still be colonies of European powers. Not to mention the drafting of our young men and women to serve in European wars around the world to retain vast colonial empires that would not have dissolved over the last few centuries.
Fourth, while the British Empire abolished slavery before the US Civil War it likely would not have done that if the Tories in the American colonial south had prevailed and were still providing cotton and vast amounts of food stuffs to the British Empire at rock-bottom prices from the use of black slaves. Think about it.

Finally, look at the values enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, and view the US Constitution from the lens of the era and do some research into real historical facts. The American Revolution is still in process, we are living it every day because we have not fully achieved the ideals we announced upon our independence. End the US military and that revolution ends.

Your head should explode. You are a fool of the Left.