Is it time to trim our security blanket?

[Narmer]

I'm talking about the US Military. $700B is a lot of money for the Pentagon. Russia is importing weapons and they become less of a threat as time goes on. China is our only serious big threat. I think we would be better served to focus our existential resources on them. The arab terrorists living in caves and fucking goats can be better managed by eliminating some of their most potent reasons for existing. One is the lack of democracy in the arab world. If we lean on our 'allies' more to be more democratic, we do not have to spend so much money killing their sons.

What do you think?

 

[cubeless]

what would we do with all the unemployed soldiers, military contractors, suppliers, etc??? it's a jobs program...

hope it's us selling russia the weapons...

 

[Narmer]

what would we do with all the unemployed soldiers, military contractors, suppliers, etc??? it's a jobs program...

hope it's us selling russia the weapons...

It's France.

 

[ElFenix]

I'm talking about the US Military. $700B is a lot of money for the Pentagon. Russia is importing weapons and they become less of a threat as time goes on. China is our only serious big threat. I think we would be better served to focus our existential resources on them. The arab terrorists living in caves and fucking goats can be better managed by eliminating some of their most potent reasons for existing. One is the lack of democracy in the arab world. If we lean on our 'allies' more to be more democratic, we do not have to spend so much money killing their sons.

What do you think?

they don't need to be particularly democratic, they just need to condemn jihadiis. and they've been doing that.

 

[bamacre]

what would we do with all the unemployed soldiers, military contractors, suppliers, etc??? it's a jobs program...

link

God forbid consumers spend money on something worthwhile.

 

[Narmer]

they don't need to be particularly democratic, they just need to condemn jihadiis. and they've been doing that.

That may be satisfactory for Western ears, but it does not help our cause in the least. Do you think anyone, let alone violent jihadis, care what an autocratic government thinks? My point is, unless the government has a mandate from the people, it will be undermined by the jihadis who claim to speak for Muslims.

 

[soccerballtux]

I'm talking about the US Military. $700B is a lot of money for the Pentagon. Russia is importing weapons and they become less of a threat as time goes on. China is our only serious big threat. I think we would be better served to focus our existential resources on them. The arab terrorists living in caves and fucking goats can be better managed by eliminating some of their most potent reasons for existing. One is the lack of democracy in the arab world. If we lean on our 'allies' more to be more democratic, we do not have to spend so much money killing their sons.

What do you think?

china's not a thread, we're too economically linked to them.

 

[Schadenfroh]

I agree that given the current shape of the deficit, we likely need broad spending cuts, military included. We could likely shut down several overseas bases in nations that lack a satisfactory cost sharing agreement. Military spending is a big stimulus, plenty of students get their degrees paid for by working on military projects and many military projects have applications that do not include violence.

china's not a thread, we're too economically linked to them.

Yeh, but a show of force (carrier group sitting near Taiwan) deters PRC aggression towards the ROC and other friends in the region.

 

[Fear No Evil]

Why is it the only thing libs can cut is the military? Suggest we cut the grass every other week at a public park and they go apeshit like its the end of the world.

 

[Craig234]

Why is it the only thing libs can cut is the military? Suggest we cut the grass every other week at a public park and they go apeshit like its the end of the world.

The thing is, you lie.

Cutting grass less often has nothing to do with the actual issues.

 

[Modelworks]

How about we bring everyone home and focus all our efforts on fixing our own country instead of trying to bring 'peace, democracy, prosperity' to every country that happens to be the flavor of the week ?

I am so tired of the attitude that the USA should be the one to feed, heal, and police the world.

 

[Fear No Evil]

How about we bring everyone home and focus all our efforts on fixing our own country instead of trying to bring 'peace, democracy, prosperity' to every country that happens to be the flavor of the week ?

I am so tired of the attitude that the USA should be the one to feed, heal, and police the world.

And when China invades Taiwan, North Korea invades South Korea, Israel is wiped out and the Arabs start fighting with eachother and the oil stops flowing, Venezuala starts taking over its neighbors, Africa erupts into all out halocaust.. we shrug our shoulders and go 'Oh well, not our problem!'? Meanwhile our economy is ruined because of no free money from china, no oil from the ME, etc..

Its in our best interest to make sure the world stays relatively stable. Unless you can shit out a unicorn that will fart rainbows and bring upon world peace?

 

[lothar]

I came here thinking this was about Social Security.

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

And when China invades Taiwan, North Korea invades South Korea, Israel is wiped out and the Arabs start fighting with eachother and the oil stops flowing, Venezuala starts taking over its neighbors, Africa erupts into all out halocaust.. we shrug our shoulders and go 'Oh well, not our problem!'? Meanwhile our economy is ruined because of no free money from china, no oil from the ME, etc..

Its in our best interest to make sure the world stays relatively stable. Unless you can shit out a unicorn that will fart rainbows and bring upon world peace?

So how did that "domino effect" work out in Vietnam? The whole "fight them over there so we don't fight them here" was a load of BS. We ended up losing Vietnam, and SE Asia didn't collapse (let alone the whole world).

 

[DukeN]

And when China invades Taiwan, North Korea invades South Korea, Israel is wiped out and the Arabs start fighting with eachother and the oil stops flowing, Venezuala starts taking over its neighbors, Africa erupts into all out halocaust.. we shrug our shoulders and go 'Oh well, not our problem!'? Meanwhile our economy is ruined because of no free money from china, no oil from the ME, etc..

Its in our best interest to make sure the world stays relatively stable. Unless you can shit out a unicorn that will fart rainbows and bring upon world peace?

And when Xeno's spaceships resurrect Jesus to kill all non-jews, who will supply the power to the lasers in Dr Evil's sharks? And when pimply faced teenager wins the Xbox Halo-caust tournament, who will pay for the ridiculous endorsements and make an even more ridiculous South Park episode about it? And when Bristol Palin starts giving abstinence speeches..wait..that already happened.

You're right - everyone's fucked because of all the far reaching scenarios you've listed would happen overnight if there was no US military playing policeman. I bet that works wonders for the American image around the world.

 

[shiner]

The thing is, you lie.

Cutting grass less often has nothing to do with the actual issues.

The thing is, you are wrong. As usual.

We went through something very similar where I live. The city was having budget problems and one of the proposals they put forth was to mow city owned property, including parks, half as often as they normally did. Another cost cutting measure was to close the lesser used, based on attendance numbers, recreation centers and public swimming pools the city owns Of course this outraged the councilors that are Democrats and they refused to allow such a thing. Why? Because they said it was the evil Republican mayor trying to keep the poor in the city from being able to go to the parks and rec centers. I mean everyone knows that only poor people go to the parks and rec centers.

So after weeks of fighting about it and trying to talk some sense into the Democratic council members what happened instead? The city had to lay off 35 members of the police force in order to save the same amount of $. Nice going morons....

Granted that is a local and not federal example, but the point remains. There are a lot of ways to cut expenses without chopping off your nose to spite your face.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

I came here thinking this was about Social Security.

As did I. Turns out it was just another, "Defense spending BAD!" thread.

 

[MrEgo]

The thing is, you are wrong. As usual.

We went through something very similar where I live. The city was having budget problems and one of the proposals they put forth was to mow city owned property, including parks, half as often as they normally did. Another cost cutting measure was to close the lesser used, based on attendance numbers, recreation centers and public swimming pools the city owns Of course this outraged the councilors that are Democrats and they refused to allow such a thing. Why? Because they said it was the evil Republican mayor trying to keep the poor in the city from being able to go to the parks and rec centers. I mean everyone knows that only poor people go to the parks and rec centers.

So after weeks of fighting about it and trying to talk some sense into the Democratic council members what happened instead? The city had to lay off 35 members of the police force in order to save the same amount of $. Nice going morons....

Granted that is a local and not federal example, but the point remains. There are a lot of ways to cut expenses without chopping off your nose to spite your face.

They had to lay off 35 police officers to compensate? Were they mowing the great plains? Was the rec center Cedar Point?

 

[Fear No Evil]

They had to lay off 35 police officers to compensate? Were they mowing the great plains? Was the rec center Cedar Point?

County/Local government union workers are often overpaid for their skill levels. Thus you get situations like this.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

I'm talking about the US Military. $700B is a lot of money for the Pentagon. Russia is importing weapons and they become less of a threat as time goes on. China is our only serious big threat. I think we would be better served to focus our existential resources on them. The arab terrorists living in caves and fucking goats can be better managed by eliminating some of their most potent reasons for existing. One is the lack of democracy in the arab world. If we lean on our 'allies' more to be more democratic, we do not have to spend so much money killing their sons.

What do you think?

thats exactly what the american war machine is--an industry, a jobs program and a bunch of thugs for americas corporations. just think how much more productive our country would have been for the last 9 years if all that money and manpower had been here at home making this country a better place. instead we blow up all our money and people and do things that are going to make those people hate and terrorize us for the next thousand years. as for democracy abroad, america should just shut its stupid mouth about that. other countries/people arent evil just because they dont have the exact same type of government that we have. besides look what democracy did to this country--we have a totally paralyzed governement that cant do anything but tax and spend into oblivion. in the long term, this country is economically terminally ill. having the rest of the world democratic isnt in our interest anyway. do you want the rest of the world living like americans, competing with us for oil and "things"? i dont. do you think that just because they could vote that that would automatically make them like us? i doubt it. they would probably vote for the type of governments they already have. why do you think people like mullah omar and bin laden have 50 million dollar prices on their heads and not a single person in the islamic world would turn either of them in in the last 10 years? all the crap about wanting to spread democracy to help people is just an excuse for these ridiculous wars. besides, they dont have to "bow down" to america--they are FOREIGN, SOVEREIGN countries!!!

 

[OBLAMA2009]

They had to lay off 35 police officers to compensate? Were they mowing the great plains? Was the rec center Cedar Point?

im all for laying off police officers and any other government workers. i live in san francisco and every damn year the highest paid employees in this bankrupt city are police officers, nurses and bus drivers working for the city who make $250,000 a year (im not joking, these moronic cops really do make that much) by scamming the taxpayers and working overtime. meanwhile all they do is sit on streetcorners doing drunk checks (not to catch drunks or improve safety, but to impound cars of people with suspended licenses so they can make money), giving out traffic tickets, towing cars and doing violent things to citizens that later cost the city money from lawsuits. theyre not contributing to society, they are leaching off it. most cities could do with a third as many cops as they have, as long as they assigned them to do what was needed, rather that what the union thugs want them to be able to do so they can loot the taxpayers wallet

 

[Zebo]

It's just going to get worse brudda. You may not have heard but now crops can donate unlimited to candidates and these tax payer funded corps like lockheed/ratheon et al will be in a positive feedback loop.

 

[Craig234]

The thing is, you are wrong. As usual.

We went through something very similar where I live. The city was having budget problems and one of the proposals they put forth was to mow city owned property, including parks, half as often as they normally did. Another cost cutting measure was to close the lesser used, based on attendance numbers, recreation centers and public swimming pools the city owns Of course this outraged the councilors that are Democrats and they refused to allow such a thing. Why? Because they said it was the evil Republican mayor trying to keep the poor in the city from being able to go to the parks and rec centers. I mean everyone knows that only poor people go to the parks and rec centers.

So after weeks of fighting about it and trying to talk some sense into the Democratic council members what happened instead? The city had to lay off 35 members of the police force in order to save the same amount of $. Nice going morons....

Granted that is a local and not federal example, but the point remains. There are a lot of ways to cut expenses without chopping off your nose to spite your face.

No, you are. The thread is about cutting military spending.

Cutting military spending isn't cutting off your nose.

 

[DucatiMonster696]

im all for laying off police officers and any other government workers. i live in san francisco and every damn year the highest paid employees in this bankrupt city are police officers, nurses and bus drivers working for the city who make $250,000 a year (im not joking, these moronic cops really do make that much) by scamming the taxpayers and working overtime. meanwhile all they do is sit on streetcorners doing drunk checks (not to catch drunks or improve safety, but to impound cars of people with suspended licenses so they can make money), giving out traffic tickets, towing cars and doing violent things to citizens that later cost the city money from lawsuits. theyre not contributing to society, they are leaching off it. most cities could do with a third as many cops as they have, as long as they assigned them to do what was needed, rather that what the union thugs want them to be able to do so they can loot the taxpayers wallet

I too live in SF and the last workers I'd want to be laid off are cops, firefighters and EMT's and those are the very same people you will need in a emergency (we do live in earthquake country).

What I could do without is with all the bloated social programs designed to feed and house cracking dealing, gang banging illegal aliens, the giving of free sex change operations to trannies working in some fraud of a "non-profit" organization for the city, enabling homeless vagrants to live in the city by providing for their every need and want etc...

SF is so screwed up because the priorities are out of whack and carpet baggers who've recently moved in believe they know better and so they yell and scream when they don't get their way.

 

[DucatiMonster696]

No, you are. The thread is about cutting military spending.

Cutting military spending isn't cutting off your nose.

The world must operate on hugs and kisses in your mind.