It’s time to bust the military/security taboo (NYT)

[somone]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/opinion/26kristof.html

December 25, 2010
The Big (Military) Taboo
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

We face wrenching budget cutting in the years ahead, but there’s one huge area of government spending that Democrats and Republicans alike have so far treated as sacrosanct. It’s the military/security world, and it’s time to bust that taboo. A few facts:

• The United States spends nearly as much on military power as every other country in the world combined, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. It says that we spend more than six times as much as the country with the next highest budget, China.

• The United States maintains troops at more than 560 bases and other sites abroad, many of them a legacy of a world war that ended 65 years ago. Do we fear that if we pull our bases from Germany, Russia might invade?

• The intelligence community is so vast that more people have “top secret” clearance than live in Washington, D.C.

• The U.S. will spend more on the war in Afghanistan this year, adjusting for inflation, than we spent on the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Civil War and the Spanish-American War combined.

This is the one area where elections scarcely matter. President Obama, a Democrat who symbolized new directions, requested about 6 percent more for the military this year than at the peak of the Bush administration...

[Angry Dragon]

1. But it is the only place where people can find jobs

[villager]

2. because any other publicly-funded job would be "socialist"

n/t

[swilton]

6. + 1

[mike_c]

3. I'd like to see the military budget cut by 70-80 percent AT LEAST....

Let the MIC share some of the austerity, for pete's sake!

[The Magistrate]

4. Mr. Kristoff Is Right, Sir: War Is A Luxury We Can No Longer Afford....

[grahamhgreen]

5. Will Obama ever start acting like an honest man and get us out of these scams???

[loudsue]

7. Obama is just one man, and he is controlled by awesome and mighty forces.

It's we, the people, who are going to have to make the change happen. And, yes, I know what that would/will entail....I lived through the sixties.

[eridani]

8. Indeed--not possible to end imperialism by changing presidents n/t

[underpants]

9. Just to let you know - the new talking point on military spending by RW radio is...

that Germany and England and the Canada can only afford to have socialized medicine (as if it is more expensive :eyes: ) because WE pay for their security.


I heard that three times last week flipping around the channels on the way to and from work. So if I heard it three times it is probably being hammered home in those mushy little brains of the devotees.