By How Much Should We Cut Defense Spending?

[rucky]

NOT including Iraq.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. You could call it defense spending during the revolutionary

war, and WWII, beyond that, it's pretty much been offense spending.... and it could be cut by prolly 50%, but wait, Russia and China are growing some, better double spending asap.

[Kagemusha]

2. Maybe the US should spend more money on bridges.

In the US, that is, not Iraq.

[Booster]

3. Enough to get our entire infrastructure up to par.

[Booster]

4. Enough to get our entire infrastructure up to par.

[Booster]

5. I always wondered how people did double entries - now I know.

[rucky]

6. It was worth saying twice. n/t

[Booster]

14. Thanks, rucky, for not making fun of me. Everytime I saw a double

entry I would say under my breath, "stupid shit" - I won't be saying that anymore. ha

[Solo_in_MD]

7. *sigh* What most fail to understand is that there will be NO peace dividend

1) We have used up most the the major equipment including tanks, trucks, rifles, and aircraft. It needs to be replaced and rebuilt.
2) We have a lot of wounded to care for. Many survived wounds which would have killed in Vietnam. The VA is far from ready or adequately funded for this


There is not going to be any major reductions in Defense practical until those bills are paid.

[AndyTiedye]

8. Cut It By At Least One Misbegotten War

[stillcool]

9. who's defense are we talking about?

http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/intervention/2004/01bases.htm
America's Empire of Bases
By Chalmers Johnson
TomDispatch.com
January 2004
As distinct from other peoples, most Americans do not recognize -- or do not want to recognize -- that the United States dominates the world through its military power. Due to government secrecy, our citizens are often ignorant of the fact that our garrisons encircle the planet. This vast network of American bases on every continent except Antarctica actually constitutes a new form of empire -- an empire of bases with its own geography not likely to be taught in any high school geography class. Without grasping the dimensions of this globe-girdling Baseworld, one can't begin to understand the size and nature of our imperial aspirations or the degree to which a new kind of militarism is undermining our constitutional order.

Our military deploys well over half a million soldiers, spies, technicians, teachers, dependents, and civilian contractors in other nations. To dominate the oceans and seas of the world, we are creating some thirteen naval task forces built around aircraft carriers whose names sum up our martial heritage -- Kitty Hawk, Constellation, Enterprise, John F. Kennedy, Nimitz, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Carl Vinson, Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, John C. Stennis, Harry S. Truman, and Ronald Reagan. We operate numerous secret bases outside our territory to monitor what the people of the world, including our own citizens, are saying, faxing, or e-mailing to one another.

Our installations abroad bring profits to civilian industries, which design and manufacture weapons for the armed forces or, like the now well-publicized Kellogg, Brown & Root company, a subsidiary of the Halliburton Corporation of Houston, undertake contract services to build and maintain our far-flung outposts. One task of such contractors is to keep uniformed members of the imperium housed in comfortable quarters, well fed, amused, and supplied with enjoyable, affordable vacation facilities. Whole sectors of the American economy have come to rely on the military for sales. On the eve of our second war on Iraq, for example, while the Defense Department was ordering up an extra ration of cruise missiles and depleted-uranium armor-piercing tank shells, it also acquired 273,000 bottles of Native Tan sunblock, almost triple its 1999 order and undoubtedly a boon to the supplier, Control Supply Company of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and its subcontractor, Sun Fun Products of Daytona Beach, Florida.

At Least Seven Hundred Foreign Bases

[rucky]

11. You think we'd let Turkey set up a base in Nevada? n/t

[stillcool]

12. you mean like the Dubai ports deal?......n/t

[MH1]

10. Cut spending on Iraq. Rebuild the military

for what it is meant to be used for.

Repeal the tax cuts for the wealthy.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

13. Enough so that our military is for purely defensive purposes

There's no reason why the U.S. should have bases all over the world. If other people want to have revolutions, let them. They probably need it. Let regional powers solve regional problems.

[Salviati]

15. I think we can safely cut it by 70%...

We'd still be spending as much as the next 3 countries combined (China, Russia, and the UK) I think that would be enough to keep us "safe"

:eyes:

[rucky]

16. We won't be hearing anyone run on that issue anytime soon.

however true it is. What double sucks is that if we were to starve the MIC racketeers, most of our problems would be solved.