NYIntensity wrote:
If we made money on "global defense" it would be one thing, but we don't. We borrow trillions of dollars from nations, then pledge billions of it in aide to various nations.
WTF?
I have no problem with our nation being a mercenary resource, if that's what our national product becomes. We don't make great cars, we export goods just as a measure of good faith to the "global economy" while importing the same goods we export, again for the "global economy"...
Ah Grasshopper, but we do make money on Global Defense, and we have for many decades now.
Look at like this, the US Navy ensures the safety of commerce by sea. Granted, piracy is very limited, even by Somalia's standards of high-jackings, but it is much safer for merchants now than at any time in history.
Lets look at the shield of Japan from the Soviets post WW2 as well as the shock absorber of western Germany from Soviet expansion (bare in mind, Japan was meant to be a shield, ground that would not only absorb an attack, but repel it and be a launching ground for a counter attack, Western Europe is a far different story altogether, it is only meant as a delaying tactic as Soviet doctrine was massive armor attacks. There was never near enough forces in Western Europe to stop the onslaught and it was well known and documented. The idea was a delaying tactic, sacrificial forces as it were, to give time for NATO to build up forces in Western France or England.)
Japan will always be in our defensive fold for more than obvious reasons. Western Europe however, is a different story altogether and garners almost 22% of our foriegn defense budget.
I would most certainly like to point to a true expert and insider on the issue of Defense Spending.
Former SHAEF Commander during WW2 and the 34th President of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower.
As President, Eisenhower concluded negotiations with China to end the Korean War. He maintained pressure on the Soviet Union during the Cold War, gave priority to inexpensive nuclear weapons and reduced the other forces to save money.
On January 17, 1961, Eisenhower gave his final televised Address to the Nation from the Oval Office.[62] In his farewell speech to the nation, Eisenhower raised the issue of the Cold War and role of the U.S. armed forces. He described the Cold War saying: "We face a hostile ideology global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose and insidious in method..." and warned about what he saw as unjustified government spending proposals and continued with a warning that "we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex." Though he said that "we recognize the imperative need for this development," he cautioned that "the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist... Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
Bare in mind and keep constantly vigilant of those corporate entities that would take for granted the citizens of this nation. It is, as I stated in another thread, our sacred duty as citizens to ensure against this, and in recent history, we have failed.
An Awakening is coming, how long it will take and what form it will show itself as is still to be determined.
What once was great, shall be great again, if we, the people, do our sacred duty.
The Untied States is not nor never has been a nation of priviledge, we the citizens have had to work at it, and by the looks of it in recent times, we've neglected our work.