Quote Originally Posted by BanginJimmy
So instead of being militarily superior, we should downgrade to be equal with everyone else. I guess that we should drasticly reduce what we spend to pay our military personell because just their paychecks total moe than 125B yearly. That doesnt even inclue the money spent on medical and dental care, basic equipment and housing for single members. Just a rough guess, but I think those 4 things would add another 125B to our military budget. The add in the cost to repair and replace damaged equipment and you can add another 100B if not more.


Only about 15% of our military budget actually goes to purchasing new weapons systems. Maybe another 15% total goes towards R&D to make sure that we stay the most technologicly advanced military in the world. That alone is a line of defense.
How hard is it to understand that we are the biggest bulliest on the block by far. Even if we weren't at war we'd still have enough arms to take over the world. Our national security is not dependent upon nation building, nor our forceful foreign influence. We are still not much more secure than were in 2001. Make no mistake about it, we have not captured Bin Laden, and we might not. You cannot go to war with an ideology. How fucking hard is that to understand? We can't even effectively track these people down. And we're supposed to believe that your ridiculous idea of national security (see: Imperialism) is more important than providing our own citizens with affordable health care, and education. I think not, and anyone who continues to propagate that pathetic idea, stands in the way of the advancement of American society.

And quit trying to make it sound like we've got something against the men and women who serve this coutnry. You realize nearly half of the people fighting on our side in Iraq are contractors? Do you know what a contractor makes in comparison to a normal soldier? I highly doubt it, judging by the way you talk on the subject, that would just more information your conservative belief system would have you willfully ignore. But in case you give a shit, the average soldier makes around 30-40k a year, where as someone working for a company like Blackwater makes about that much a month. So if you want to talk to someone about not giving a shit about the troops, talk to scumbags who've been running the show the last eight years.