Reality of U.S. War Machine For World Domination

[JackRiddler]

Can we please dispense with the lies on behalf of the imperialist war machine that is paid for with 57% of the federal discretionary budget?

I refer especially to the laughable idea (being propagated by the war machine's PR) that we are seeing sweeping cuts in the war machine budget.



Of course, this doesn't include the costs of past wars (in increased interest payments on debt, or in increased veterans' benefits) or a variety of budget items that basically are more war machine in disguise ("homeland security," the military component of the space program).

Eight hundred bases around the world is not "defense." It is an empire.

This industry creates the enemies it purports to defend against. It does not provide security, it creates insecurity. It kills more Americans than it saves (if we are to adopt the self-centered nationalist morality). More importantly, it kills thousands and sometimes millions of human beings, period. It does so on behalf of interests that are not "American" but private and parochial and morally indefensible. It is the biggest threat to humanity. It is a racket that forces its way into every other aspect of life.

We need to dismantle this thing, a.s.a.p.

This is the reason why food stamps are cut and there's no money for energy or transportation conversion or education.

[Blue_Tires]

1. What about the military contractors and their quarterly earnings reports?

Did you ever ONCE think about them, you heartless bastard?

[fleabiscuit]

12. Ya, that would be a great concern.

And there is a bit of change going to research that increases the earning reports too.

Any government check being cut to anyone other than an individual is going to a corporation bottom line.

[L0oniX]

50. Yes ...how will they ever be able to send their kids to college?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. Pax Americana? See Pax Romana for what happens next.

[vlakitti]

19. Great observation

It's true, too. Thanks.

[WatermelonRat]

43. We'll lose superpower status but remain a prosperous great power for 1000 years?

(except for the west half of the country who get's invaded by Germans)

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

44. The Pax Romana lasted about 200 years. And, what's happening to us now more resembles

the end of the Pax Romana than the beginning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pax_Romana

Pax Romana (Latin for "Roman peace&quot was the long period of relative peace and minimal expansion by military force experienced by the Roman Empire in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. Since it was established by Augustus, it is sometimes called Pax Augusta. Its span was approximately 206 years (27 BC to 180 AD).[1]

[WatermelonRat]

45. That was just the "golden age". The Empire itself lived on as a significant power for many years.

The popular perception of the fall of the Roman Empire being a sudden, dramatic collapse is largely false.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

46. Yet, it bankrupted itself fighting to hold on to it.

Which is what we're doing...only at a faster rate.

[CrispyQ]

3. Although a bit dated, this vid can't be posted enough.

53¢ of every tax dollar goes to the military.

The graphics are outstanding. Worth the 4 minutes.

Next time someone tells you the United States is broke & our seniors have to eat dog food & we have to cut the hot lunch program for our kids, tell them to watch this 4 minute video.

The out of control military/security industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned about is sucking up 53 cents of every tax dollar & they want more. Talk about entitlement!

[bossy22]

5. that is some of the biggest crock of shit i've ever heard

We all know the military takes up a significant portion of the u.s. federal budget but it is not 53%. First off, the base budget has never never been over $550 billion- not 717 Billion as the person says. That $717 billion number includes the contigency spending- which the person in this video adds on top of the 717 billion. He then claims that the overwhelming majority of the state department's budget is military- which it's not. A cursory look at the state department records will show you the truth http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/150505.pdf

Then he goes onto say that we spend $123 billion on the VA but the VAs budget in 2011 was only $72 billion.

Lastly he goes onto say that we spend $400 billion on interest soley due to war costs- but in 2011 our interest was $499 billion in total. Are we to believe that 80% of our national debt is because of our military?

[DeSwiss]

10. ....

[grahamhgreen]

21. It is 60%. What they do to make it look like less is include Social Security, which is a seperate

insurance fund and does not come from taxes.



http://nationalpriorities.org/analysis/2013/president-obamas-fiscal-year-2014-budget/

[truedelphi]

41. You need to get yourself the book "The Six Trillion Dollar War"

That was featured on C Span not too long ago.

The first ten years of our wars on the people of Iraq and Afghanistan went onto our credit card (As a nation.) No hikes in the tax rate for rich people; just deferring it all to the next generation.

The defense budget claims some 1.2 trillions of dollars a year.

[cali]

4. thank you. this can't be posted too frequently.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

6. B-b-but...the A10!

[bossy22]

7. bigger country requires bigger military

do you really think that a military capable of only defending a country like the UK could defend a country the size of the U.S.?

Also china's military budget is far higher than what you are showing. Their official budget states only about $120 billion but it is believed that they spend closer to $200 billion. Russia's military budget is extremely small for the size of their country but that is more to do with the fact that they choose to poorly equip their forces- do you really want to emulate the russian military?

Also another thing has to be said about military parody- is it a good thing? Just remember, that WWI and WWII were partly caused by the belief of my military parody among western nations.

"This is the reason why food stamps are cut and there's no money for energy or transportation conversion or education."
No it's not, the reason food stamps are cut and other things is because the republicans have hijacked the country into believing that we have a spending problem. We can have our cake and eat it too.

[fleabiscuit]

9. LOL ~ eom

[cali]

14. COMEDY GOLD! DUzy material.

and I do believe you mean "parity"- not "parody".

gadzookers.

[ChazInAz]

15. Question.

When was the last time our military defended this country against invaders?

[L0oniX]

49. Durring "Mars Attacks".

sorry ...just had to go sarc on that

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. So this is why the US Army is getting reduced to pre-ww II levels.

Hmm, sometimes I really got to question these assumptions.

By the way ROME, yup, ROME, made those arguments too.

[neverforget]

26. Can we cut a little bit of the military and still be safe from the

Russians and Chinese?

[eShirl]

32. I love a good military parody

Stripes, Flying Deuces, etc

[freshwest]

8. OMG! The good news is that Darth Cheney is offended at Obama over this same thing!

Dick Cheney rips Obama for defense cuts: “He would much rather spend the money on food stamps"

“Absolutely dangerous,” Cheney told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “I, obviously, have not been a strong supporter of Barack Obama but this really is over the top. It does enormous long-term damage to our military.”

“They’re basically making the decision, the Obama administration, that they no longer want to be dominant on the seas and the skies and in space,” the former vice president added. “This notion that we no longer want to have a force that’s capable of any sustained occupation of a foreign territory, that’s a basic fundamental decision that drives — supposedly justifies this. But lots of times, you don’t get to make that choice. Circumstances will make that choice for you.”

Cheney said that his “old friends” in the Middle East had told him that they no longer trusted the United States to use military power when it was necessary.

“I think the whole thing is not driven by any change in world circumstances, it’s driven by budget considerations,” he insisted. “He would much rather spend the money on food stamps than he would on a strong military or support for our troops.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/25/dick-cheney-rips-obama-for-defense-cuts-spend-on-military-not-food-stamps/

to kpete!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024561725

[blkmusclmachine]

11. ,

,

[colsohlibgal]

13. MI Complex Has Morphed.

It's out of control, not just with them military but with contractors like Blackwater.

And billions have fallen down deep dark holes. The day before 9/11/01 (curious?) Rummy says he can't find 2.3 billion of our military budget. A suitcase loaded with a small fortune later vanished over in Iraq. How much time did major media spend on any of this?

While the misguided Iraq war has caused hardship and sorrow to so many soldiers and their families, others have profited mightily from us being there, all on our dime. But to balance things out better we go after food stamps for the bottom rung among us.

It's just all so screwed up and it's hard to see a good way out.

[CFLDem]

16. Peace is expensive.

And there's always at least one cheap-o that doesn't want to pay up.

[cprise]

18. Ukranian "protesters" smell M O N E Y . n/t

[grahamhgreen]

20. 2 Billion/week for Afghanistan, and they got to cut 7 billion from food stamps??? Chart:

http://nationalpriorities.org/analysis/2013/president-obamas-fiscal-year-2014-budget/

[indepat]

22. Wish I could refute the OP's conclusions, but the seeming irrefutable is not easily refuted

[saidsimplesimon]

23. Jack, Secretary Hagel is playing the Obama game.

Tell the war mongering horde a cut in defense spending looms, then "find" the dollars to support regime change around the globe. I'm ashamed.

[swilton]

24. Thank you

JackRiddler for reminding us....

[johnnyreb]

25. In search of enemies

K&R with a song, In Search of Enemies.mp3.

[RobertEarl]

27. Empire

Hozz come we ain't proud of that?

So many warmongers I talk to seem to cut and run whenever that Truth is mentioned.

It is what it is, and what it is is Empire. The biggest, the baddest the world has ever known. It's so big and bad our last VP is sick over the fact that instead of even bigger and badder, we actually spend money on food stamps. Now that's a damn sure sign of Empire right there, eh, VP cheney?

[Enthusiast]

28. K&R! "We need to dismantle this thing, a.s.a.p."

It is imperative that we dismantle this thing as soon as possible. It is too tempting for the right wing crazies (Bush Administration). They will do anything to start a war. "All this good stuff is going to waste."

What did Dickless Cheney say? Something to the effect that there were not enough good targets of opportunity in Afghanistan like there were in Iraq. This betrayed his true identity as war mongering asshole fuck.

[malaise]

31. War is very profitable

Ask the dick of a war criminal!

[malaise]

29. That simple

Rec

[unhappycamper]

30. Here's a few of the things the MIC is currently building 0ff the top of my head:

* $5,600,000,000 destroyers
* $7,000,000,000+ Virginia-class submarines
* $16,000,000,000 ~ $40,000,000,000 Ford-class aircraft carrier
* $16,000,000,000 for 32 more Littoral Combat Ships
* $250,000,000 per not-ready-for-prime-time F-35 aircraft
* ^^^ $500,000 for the fucking pilot's helmet^^^
* $100,000,000+ per V-22 Osprey


Some of my recent 'favorites' include:

* $2,400,000,000 B-2 bomber
* $418,000,000 F-22 fighter
* $318,000,000,000 C-17 heavy lifter
* $704,000,000 Littoral Combat ship (LCS-2)


--

If we're talking about cuts to the military budget, I'll vote for 40% right off the top. These guys need ti stop building this shit.

[Enthusiast]

33. The average American citizen has never given this much thought.

They do not understand that the greatest naval battles of all time were fought during WWII. These sorts of battles will never take place again.

There are no great navies to oppose the USA. They do not exist. And even if some other (insane) nation aspired to build themselves into a great naval power we could then react by building up our own forces.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I understand in a 14 aircraft carrier world we have 10.

[unhappycamper]

34. I heard we live in a 15 carrier world.

When carriers are deployed, support ships are also along. A Virginia-class submarine or two, a coupla $1,800,000,000 Aegis-class destroyers, a frigate or two, perhaps a cruiser and fueling/supply ships.

Unfortunately, there's no way to pay for it.

[Savannahmann]

37. I've given it a bunch

When Hurricane Katrina showed the paucity of assets available for response, I started looking at it seriously. Realizing that any response to a Hurricane or Tsunami would have to come from the sea, and include waterborne and airborne assets. So in other words some sort of large heavy ship with helicopters and a way to launch boats on search and rescue/supply missions.

Guess what? I found a way to do it for a hell of a lot less money.

Shadow Marine had just started up converting old Oil Supply Ships into "shadow vessels". These conversions created a goodly sized sea worthy vessel for a fraction of new construction. They already are designed with large helipads for all but the largest helicopters. Also they come with a large hanger/garage that can store several watercraft.

A company on the west coast is making aluminum landing craft similiar in basic design to the classic Higgens boats of World War II. These are inexpensive, and very versitile and able to land personnel and equipment right on just about any beach. The basic design worked well across the pacific and european war invasions. They also have optional firefighting capability.

A company in Canada makes a eight wheeled ATV that is slow, but able to float, swim, and climb over many obstacles. Several have optional stretcher racks for search and rescue operations.

The total cost of all of this including a medium sized helicopter is less than half of one ultra modern helicopter like the AW 101 which we were going to buy for the President to use as Marine One.

Imagine this for a moment. For half the cost of an ultra modern helicopter, you get airborne, seaborne, search and rescue, water making capability, resupply and communications capability.

So for the cost of 20 of those ultra modern helicopters, we could literally put one of these things with all equipment and supplies pretty much all over the place.

I remember shaking my head in frustrated blind anger when I heard that NASA had spent a million dollars to develop a way for the Astronauts to make necessicary notes in space. These ball point pens that had to write in zero gravity are now sold as space pens. They cost a million dollars to develop. The Russians who were going to space and had the same problem, the need to take notes in zero G, found a more elegant and much more inexpensive answer. They still to this day use a pencil at the cost of a few cents. I'm figuring that a million dollars worth of pencils would have never run out.

But for some reason we as a people never look at things that way. We never look at a problem and figure out all the possible answers, and then pick the one that works best for us. No, we look at a problem, if there really isn't a problem we make one up, and we come up with the most complex and expensive, answer possible.

[woo me with science]

35. K&R

[woo me with science]

36. kick

[rwsanders]

38. I saw another post here or on buzzflash that showed we have bases in 110 countries and the countries

with the next highest numbers were 8 or 9.

[BrainDrain]

39. Dude....THANKS!!!

Best piece of graphics I have seen in a long time. Thanks again! (Oh and a big K&R)

[Amonester]

40. Heck, this is the reason the North Pole warms up and will soon threaten life on this planet.

This should be priority #1 on every government's list.

They think the Cold War was scary? Having thousands of Russian nukes war-heads pointing at the map?

This boiling methane threat is more like having a billion of such war-heads pointing at everybody and at life itself!

So where is that War On Extinction?

[woo me with science]

42. kick

[woo me with science]

47. kick

[JackRiddler]

48. Okay. Kick.

[Bonobo]

51. Simple truth.

Toss in incarceration rates, infant mortality rates, health care costs, education and you have a rather different picture shaping up than the one we learned as kids.

[woo me with science]

52. kick

[woo me with science]

53. "This is the reason why food stamps are cut and there's no money for energy or..."

And the drive to keep stealing from the poor continues, while the military will be fed handsomely.

White House: SS cuts remain on the table
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024603578

White House 2015 budget=$26.4 billion in extra funding for Pentagon
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024602860#post1

[woo me with science]

54. kick

[JackRiddler]

55. Okay, kick!

Can you believe a $25 billion boost has been successfully pimped out as "sweeping cuts"? Ahem. The mofos.

[JackRiddler]

56. Kick for "This is how to Sell...

a $25 Billion Increase in the Military Budget!"

[woo me with science]

57. kick