Reply #26: There are any number of problems with your claims

[Alcibiades]

The first is that, for a number years, rebuilding Germany itself was a much higher priority than developing it into a military powerhouse. The second is that the German system of social benefits, investment in human capital and capital investment was not achieved through diversion of funds that "ought to have" gone to the military. The Germans have constructed a more sane society based, in part, upon their actually having experienced fascism: we did not, and so have let folks who are essentially fascist take over US economic policy. This is why Germany has a textile industry, with good wages and benefits, and we do not. Moreover, since the end of the SED rule in the former GDR, the Germans have cut their military expenditures by nearly half: we have not. They instituted a health care system that covers everyone at a lower cost: we have not. Much of what is right about Germany today could have been right about America, too, had we not headed down the dead-end path of Reaganomics.