We've GOT to fight for a lower war budget

[Ken Burch]

And that's what we need to call it. The "War Budget". Not the "defense budget".

Almost nothing in the massive increases in Pentagon spending is actually related to defending this country. It's about developing greater capacity to kill people in other countries, and about justifying future wars simply to use that capacity.

Democratic presidents and Democratic congresses are NOT supposed to treat the world as if it needs to be beaten back with larger and larger sticks.

And they aren't supposed to piss away more and more money on death rather than life.

The Cold War is over.

The War on Terror is and always has been a myth.

And the money is almost gone.

Let's stop acting like the second coming of Scoop Jackson. Democrats are SUPPOSED to work for a less-militarized world, not just keep building up the war machine forever and ever and ever just to look "tough". "Toughness" can't be used for anything progressive or positive anyway.

And the voters, even the independents, aren't demanding massive war spending either.

Let's move on and let's make this party stand for what it's supposed to stand for.

[NoNothing]

1. I agree

People right now are very concerned about SPENDING. They are very concerned about the DEBT. There may never be more support to prune back military spending, and enact a tough PAYGO rule to keep it from being spent right back up again.

[unhappycamper]

2. Hey, we're spending only a trillion dollars a year (minimum) to keep the MIC fat.

And they are fat indeed.

[gratuitous]

3. I agree; be prepared, though

First, be prepared for all the shit the military-industrial complex can fling at you, and it's a lot. They'll raise pointed questions about your IQ, parentage, sexual history and anything else that occurs to them.

Second, recognize that you're advocating against the national religion of the United States: The Myth of Redemptive Violence. Cutting back or lowering the war budget will immediately be morphed into eliminating the war budget, and all sorts of scary scenarios will be spun out about how you want to leave the country defenseless, sing Kumbaya with terrorists, and really secretly hate America. Or at best, that you're a useful idiot, a tool, a dupe, or a stooge. If Americans can't blow the fuck out of their enemies, then life just isn't worth living.

Oh, and don't forget about jobs, jobs, jobs. There's really only one thing the U.S. manufactures anymore, and that's armaments. Jesse Jackson made the point back in 1984. He'd ask his audience to raise their hands if they owned a television. At that time, the last American television manufacturer (Zenith? Or Motorola? I forget which.) had just gone out of the business. Naturally, every hand went up, and Jackson would tell them that it was probably of foreign manufacture. But if you really wanted to buy something made in the USA? How many of you own an MX missile?

Be ready to talk about all the things government could be subsidizing if it wasn't spending a couple of billion dollars a day on the war budget: Schools, universities, roads, railroads, alternative energy sources, etc., etc. When was the last time your state built a new prison? When was the last time it built a new university?

Yeah, it's scary to talk about changing our spending priorities; so many are quite invested in the system as it is. But as you pointed out, the current system isn't sustainable, and we have damn little to show for our spending.

[Ken Burch]

4. I'm prepared for all that; so are millions of others

The real question though, is this:

Are any of us prepared for what happens if the war budget DOESN'T get cut? If it stays this high, is there any point in even trying to elect a non-reactionary president, given that current levels of death spending will make it impossible to do anything that's actually progressive or even moderate on domestic issues?

Will elections, in short matter?

Will democracy ever have a chance to exist?

[RT Atlanta]

5. bump

thank you Ken for the post

[Ken Burch]

6. Thanks for the support.

n/t.

[Greyhound]

7. K&R for the sentiment, but that absolutely will not be allowed.

There is no way that anyone suggesting we need to slash corporate welfare is going anywhere in either party.
:kick: & R

[eppur_se_muova]

8. Buckminster Fuller used the term "killingry" rather than "weaponry".

And devoted his life to developing "livingry".