I've been doing a lot of thinking lately, about how much money we are spending per year military wise, and we could actually be doing with that money Before I start off I'd like to say this isn't an anti-government post. If anything its a pro-government post, detailing how much we could actually benefit ourselves if some sort of reform went on at the government level. As it stands now worldwide over ~1.1 Trillion is spent annually Guess how much of that is the united states? How much of that is actually iraq and the middle east? The 2008 budget request is for 141.7 billion, and the 2007 budget was 93.4 billion. Heres a graph comparing the united states against the rest of the world (this graph was in 2005 so it does not included increased budget suplements from iraq) Heres another awesome picture showing expenditure by % GDP The estimated net revenue for the United States in the 08 fiscal year is at around 2.5 trillion. That means that currently the united states is spending around 26% of its annual revenue on its military This next image skews that info a little bit, including monetary expenditures from past wars, but it puts into comparison how our budget is actually used Imagine the technological advancements that we could discover, how we could end poverty, travel in space, fix debts, and overall be a more likeable country if we didn't spend such a massive amount of our revenue on war. Now why is the united states a military state? Money. I could go into great detail about it, but this documentary pretty much sums it http://tvshack.net/documentaries/Why_We_Fight Ever since Eisenhower we have pretty much ran on war. For the past 50 years we have been at a constant state of war, pretty much every president has had to deal with some sort of military operation or invasion. As most of us all know, vietnam was started over a lie that they sunk one of our ships, and when confronted at the end of the war we knew we were all lied to. A high military budget creates jobs in the private sector for the US, and it is primarily how senators and congressman sell it. They create new jobs in their state by giving budget cuts to well known defense companies, and their voters eat that up no like other. If we shifted a good deal of our budget from military to science, it still would be as profitable with government grants, and then we'd actually accomplish something. Or perhaps we could get that universal healthcare the whole country has been asking for. Man even Hamilton knew it. This constant state of warfare in our country has gone out of control and we can see the product of it now. 9/11 was no mistake, it was from how much the world hates us for fucking around where we shouldn't be. Currently the united states deficit is around 2 trillion dollars. We are 2 trillion in the hole, thats almost as much as the entire country pulls in a year. We are quickly getting further and further in debt, and the value of the dollar is plummeting accordingly. One glance and bloom berg and you know how fucked we are as a country in the future. Not to mention the world peaked oil production in 2005-2006, and we are expecting economy killing shortages in 2011-2012 As it stands to me now, if we don't do something soon we are royally fucked. references: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/spending.htm http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/ArmsTrade/Spending.asp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1941 http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2006/d20060206slides.pdf
hell, if we stop funding isreal alone we could do alot of shit to improve our nation, isreal doesnt do a god damn thing for the US in any way shape or form
War has never saved anything. The best excuse to have a war is because somebody else started it. If nobody else is bringing it, there's absolutely no reason to have one. Imagine what the states would be like if they took 50% of that money and turned it into public works. They still would be in the lead in military capabilities, however that extra 50% could go to giving people jobs by building infrastructure, which in turn would make the economy more efficient, and allow for even greater surpluses.
Oh really? ohhh contra re. WWII the entire Ottomon Empire support Nazi Germany. However Israel allowed the US strategic use of their country for storage of tanks, aircrafts, ect. Without Israels unconditional US support, we would have a huge disadvantage in any war in the eastern hemisphere. Oh and what about Kosovo? Those guys fucking love us. Ive seen nothing but pictures of the people crowding the streets with American flags. We are supporting their independence from Serbia at the moment. With the US support they have a chance at being soverign again. Not everything we do is bad.
Look to the great depression. what got us out of it? War Israel wasn't a country until 1948....... And the "Ottoman Empire" was gone after WWI
i dunno if this has been addressed but you know a new lexus costs about 8 seconds in iraq. and the entire annual budget for new orleans is like not even a whole day in iraq
Man good to see some good discussion going here :O The ottoman empire did end after ww1, but I think na is hinting to the area the ottomans were in, especially because that leads up to whole palestinian conflict
"what we don't know keeps the contracts alive and movin' they don't need to burn the books they just remove em while arms warehouses fill as quick as a cell rally round the family, pocket full of shells" eisenhower warned us of the military industrial complex. Buzzard, sure war got us out of the great depression and it is a jumpstart for the economy, but maybe you should look over those graphs again. how much military power do we need. were miles and miles ahead of the rest of the world. theres only so much space on earth to nuke. were as powerful as we need to be, all the rest is just to satisfy all the military contracts. watch 'why we fight' a little biased but presents a pretty strait forward depiction of the military industrial complex.
War saved our country but the one we are in now really bothers me. Maybe its because 5 of my friends are in it. Shits scary.
+rep for RATM I saw them and agree we spend way too much. Part of the problem is our involvement in other peoples shit. People complain about our lack of involvement in the worlds genocides but then bitch when we remove those who do the killing. That's our problem. We need to stay out of the rest of the world. And i own the movie. Good one
Isreal has one of the best Air Force squads in the world! We need to keep them on the US side in case we ever NEED their help...
I'm sure we are the ones who will need help. Becuase ya know, if we're that badly hurt Israel will definitely still be standing.
Why? They don't help us there. They're fighting their own battles. If anything we should distance ourselves from them. They are a cause of strife between us and the Arabic world.
yeah fuck isreal! and the rest of the world! and america too! shit let's just nuke all our own major cities. then they won't get nuked by someone else.
Not to mention their large arsenal of nuclear weapons. They are a very valuable ally to have in the middle of the eastern hemisphere.
Hilarious No they arn't. God, 2 or 3 nukes could totally decimate their entire country. We don't need them as an ally nor do we need to be involved in Middle Eastern affairs
Just because Israel would act as a formidable ally in a state of war does not mean we should occupy and control their country. We should give them their sovereignty back, and allow them to make all the treaties and war they want. The fact is, any arab nation would be insane to touch Israel. The banking institution has been profiting off of war since they financed the war against Napoleon. He was an ardent opponent of the Rothschild central banking ring, and had established his own independent Bank of France. The difference between his bank and others was his refusal to borrow. After his defeat France had a credit balance. Bankers have controlled many political uprisings and coups over the centuries, for example the bolshevik revolution was completely financed through federal reserve and english bankers. The Red Cross team that stayed in Russia was primarily made up of bankers... The great depression resulted in giving the Federal Reserve more power to act as a lender of last resort. It eventually got us out of the depression, but it got us started on the track we are on today. The war did not end the depression. And notice every war since then has been undeclared, for profiting from both sides in a declared war is considered treasonous. The Federal Reserve is so reliant on the payments to debt from military industrial corporations like lockheed and GE that they have to continue influencing politics to provide them either with bailouts or continued government business. War is extremely profitable for these large corporations, but they make their money from tax payer dollars.