Do Dems have to pledge to spend gazillions on defense to get elected?

[yurbud]

This seems to be the drift of candidates and I even got this in a fundraising letter from Ted Kennedy.

It seems like we have two good arguments for safely spending less:

• Even if the war on terror is "real," submarines, tanks, and B-2s are less useful than Predator drones, spies and special forces in chasing around bands of stateless organizations.
  
  
• The Iraq resistance shows us how UNLIKELY we are to be invaded by someone else. If a much smaller country can hold us, the worlds only superpower, at bay, what are the chances anyone could successfully invade the United States? Even if we had NO military, every yahoo has a gun and even if they didn't, we could drop bowling balls off of overpasses and make any occuppiers life miserable.
  
  The only reason another country would attack us is in self-defense or to blunt a coming attack.
  
  At some point, we have to put this issue in perspective or soon we'll be building death stars to protect us from shoplifters.

[goddess40]

1. NO

The only reason they would promise that is if they continue to fantasize about getting those that vote republican to switch by acting like Republican light. They need to focus on the non-voters and the getting the truth out partly by not letting the right get away with their lies.

[yurbud]

5. exactly--though I think they are as much afraid of war machine as voters

[MADem]

2. Absolutely not, we just have to ACCOUNT FOR WHAT IS SPENT

How many buh buh buh BILLIONS have gone missing in Iraq?? How many no-bid contracts have been rife with fraud, waste and abuse? How many wasted items do we ship over there, how many empty trucks run the gauntlet in Iraq? It is all about fiscal oversight and competence. There IS NONE in the current misadministration.

The GOP regards the treasury as their private booty. They need to get booted in their booties, right out of the House and Senate.

[acmejack]

3. Not if you talk about that amount applied to social programs!

Relate what you could buy for the cost of a single Billion dollar submarine or the amount paid for a squadron of F22 Raptors. Over fifty percent of all our tax money for killing machines but there isn't nearly enough for health care for all?

There are so many examples we can use to paint an image of what the trades from social and infrastructure being made to the benefit of the misnamed "Defense Department".

edit for pluralization problem

[yurbud]

4. I think you do have to address fear of boogey man too

but let people know how big real threats are.

[stray cat]

6. Intelligent spending and competence

However, naively chanting give peace a chance we don't need the military may not an electable platform.

[yurbud]

7. yep--no vegetarian defense policy.