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BlueStreak

(8,377 posts)
12. You can derive this number.
Tue Dec 11, 2012, 12:28 PM
Dec 2012

I don't know if it is 70% or 80%to be precise, but it is certainly in that ballpark. I offer you two simple ways to get at that.

1) Compare what we spend to others. Why do we spend so much more? Is our geography particularly hard to defend? Actually, no. We have vast oceans on the east and west and friendly neighbors on the north and south. Maybe one could argue we should spend twice what the UK or France spends, but they are much closer to the biggest threats. If we spent double France or the UK, that would be about $200Bn a year. But we spend WAY more than that, and that isn't even counting the CIA budget that is secret and immense.



2) Look at HOW we use our military. When was the last time we employed our military to defend Americans in America? The Civil War, I guess. The Spanish-American war was somewhat close to home, but still was about imperialism and expansionism, largely for the benefit of a few wealthy people. I would stipulate that WWII was in defense of Americans and the existence of our country. But everything else in the last 100 years has mostly been for the benefit of the wealthy. And most recently, our force has mostly been used for the benefit of multinational corporations that have no particular connection to America and pay little or no taxes here. Why are we paying for that? Shell and BP want us to stabilize the big oil regions, they ought to pay for that.

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