Standing armies

[The2ndWheel]

What's your view on them?

[datasuspect]

1. i like them better when they are sitting

and smoking dope.

[Warpy]

4. Or just standing around, waiting for something to happen

I'm afraid we need to have one in the present world. Perhaps that need will decrease once the oil runs out and we go back to slow travel and more difficult logistics when it comes to invading people across oceans.

I would, however, redefine its purpose to a strictly defensive one. If corporations want hired muscle around the globe, let THEM pay to recruit, train, and retain them.

We can't afford a military that fights wars of corporate convenience around the globe.

[datasuspect]

5. they are much better when they drink themselves have to death

in germany and then use their g.i. bill money to go to college when they finish their hitch.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. They are a necessity..to the arms makers and politicians.

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” H.L. Mencken

[bryant69]

3. Necessary evil.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[MadHound]

6. I see the need to have a standing army for a few reasons

I can see the need to have a standing army as a defensive force that can be deployed immediately. I can see the need for a standing army to respond to natural disasters and various crises. I can see the need for a standing army in order to help an ally who is being unjustly attacked.

However we don't need a standing army the size of what we have now. My God, the US spends more on its military forces than the next twenty-eight countries combined. Just think of what good could be done with that money.

And sadly, it appears that the US didn't learn anything from the collapse of the Soviet Union, who bankrupted themselves and destroyed their country through unchecked military spending.