How much military spending is enough for these people?

[bluestateguy]

Spend, spend, spend, spend...No matter how much, it's never enough. We must spend more because it's not enough. Spend, spend, spend. Hell, if Joe Lieberman became president and proposed a 500 billion dollar defense budget the think tank crowd and chickenhawks would still say it was not enough and call HIM weak on defense.

Bernie Ward (www.kgo.com) just dispatched with this superhawk who claimed to be a 6th generation military (dubious), who repeated the usual talking points about the Clinton Administration "cutting" the military during the 90's. Does it never occur to these people that even during the Clinton Administration when all this supposed "decimation" of the military was taking place that the United States continued to have the most powerful, sophisticated and well-armed military in the world? That even during the Clinton Administration we were spending more on defense than Britain, France, China, Russia, both Koreas, India, Israel and Iraq COMBNINED!

Perhaps it's time to ask different questions. Like why having the most well funded military in the world was not able to stop 19 goons with boxcutters that could be bought at Wal-Mart from taking over airplanes and killing 3000 people.

[cosmicaug]

1. Because

Perhaps it's time to ask different questions. Like why having the most well funded military in the world was not able to stop 19 goons with boxcutters that could be bought at Wal-Mart from taking over airplanes and killing 3000 people.

Because we need missile defense. Yeah, that's the ticket.

[izzie]

2. I am sure that could stop box cutters. Once the Reds said......

They would bury us as we would spend our self to death, they did and now we are trying to do the same.

[terryg11]

3. greed

sure our military officials like new toys but the real push for all this defense spending is from the defense contractors and their investors (Carlyle group and such). Look at the ties to this admin and that's all you need to know.

[TAH6988]

4. Because the military

is not a police force used for internal security. Do you really want that?

[Jax]

6. The appointed deserter

is currently using the military as mercenaries for Halliburton.

Do you really want that?

Jax

[bryant69]

9. That's a dumb answer

I mean it's not that TAH argued that we should have a huge military that geos out all the time, he argued that we should not have a military that polices us internally. And he's right. A military that policed the United States would make controlling us (should a leader take it into his mind that that would be a good goal) much much easier.

I would argue that we don't need to starve the military--that's not what was happening under Clinton and it's not a good strategy going forward. We do have enemies adn we do need to be able to defend ourselves.

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

[trogdor]

5. And yet, we're being asked to send A/C's to the troops.

I emailed them and told them to get their logistics shit together. $400,000,000,000.00 for defense, and the troops don't have every little thing they need? Gimme a break. With that kind of money, they should have a huge PX and Burger King in Baghdad by now.

[Q]

7. Ah...the irony....

- It was the first Bush admin that began the military 'cuts'. All was in place when Clinton took office.

[gratuitous]

8. No kidding, Why!

They take anywhere from a quarter to a third of my paycheck, inundate me with those "Army of One" commercials every time I turn on the TV, call me unpatriotic because I think it's a sin to have a standing military while citizens go hungry and die for lack of medical services, and then they want to hit me up for air conditioners, troop care packages, and even blood donations. Meanwhile, the military can't account for over $1 trillion (yes, that's "trillion" with a "t") of money and stuff we've already given them!

Dear friends and neighbors in the military: You need something? Go get it from Halliburton or McDonnell-Douglas or Boeing. They've already been paid for everything; I'm tapped out.

[G_j]

10. for visual

& dramatic effect, check out the two links in my sig below, (running clocks on spending)

[MaverickX]

11. the problem isn't the amount we spend

On defense. The problem is how it's spent.

[DoYouEverWonder]

12. Saw an interview with Casper Weinberger

awhile back. At the end, he said the thing he regretted the most was not spending more on defense. Too bad guys like him don't regret spending more on peace.