Why do we need a military larger than every other countries military put together?

[NNN0LHI]

Who is going to attack us? Osama or some other criminal using a band of thugs with box cutters? Is our military going to stop that? Of course not. No more than our military could have stopped Tim McVeigh from blowing up the Murrah Federal building.

Lets look at this realistically for a minute. We don't possess a defensive military. We possess an offensive military. No country or group of countries will ever attack us. The US possesses a nuclear arsenal that is capable of completely destroying human life on earth several times over. I am not exaggerating here. This is a fact. Which country would attack us knowing that?

Hint: No country

Sure we may have some more terrorist thugs blows some stuff up here. Might be Muslim Nut Balls. Might Be Christian White Supremacists. I will give you even money.

But we don't need to be spending the kind of money we are spending to defend this country to prevent an attack from another country. Because there will not be any.

Common sense.

Who is worried that nuclear power North Korea even with their half baked goofy leader will attack us? I'm not.

Don

[EFerrari]

1. You know what else is creepy, Don?

When we get "progress" reports from Iraq, they are usually in terms of how successfully we are militarizing them.

Democracy -- on the march in jack boots. :(

[LiberalAndProud]

2. Because war is our number one export. n/t

[John Q. Citizen]

3. To answer your 1st question; Because we are an empire. The empire to be exact.

[baldguy]

4. To protect our market share.

Or rater, the corporatocracys market share.

[niceypoo]

5. We dont, its a huge welfare system

It's called the, 'military industrial complex.'

[gratuitous]

6. Because of our country's national religion

Forget God, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Vishnu (gesundheit!) and all the rest. The real national religion of the United States is an unquestioning belief in the Myth of Redemptive Violence, the idea that any problem will yield to violence.

[defendandprotect]

7. Superpower - Pax Americana --

[tabasco]

13. Yeah, it's all about peace.

LMAO.

[Rageneau]

8. Because war is a racket and we're racketeers.

[Selatius]

9. Our official policy is that we should never allow any nation to even approach our military power

This is to ensure continued American domination of the military/economic sphere worldwide. It will serve as the final bulwark to protect American worldwide business interests if all peaceful measures fail to protect business interests.

If any nation were allowed to approach our level of military capability, we would no longer be able to defend American business interests worldwide against competing world powers with the same amount of brute force that we once enjoyed.

[Kelly Rupert]

10. We're not worried about them attacking us. We're worried about them attacking each other.

As a global empire based on trade and power projection, we find ourselves in the same situation Britain found itself at the height of its own empire: war is bad for business. No, no, I don't mean wars like Iraq or Afghanistan (you'll note neither of those countries were participants in the global market), I mean wars between trading partners. You can't buy or sell in a city that's been bombed out.

Take China, for example. China possesses as a political goal reunification of Taiwan with the mainland. Our economy requires trade with both Taiwan and China. Any attempt by China at forcible reunification would result in demolition of the Taiwanese economy and possible damage to China's as well. In addition, Taiwan purchases military services from America, and we'd hate to lose that. Therefore, we keep enough of a naval and air presence in the region that a Chinese invasion is unfeasible, keeping the microchips and dollars flowing across the seas.

Let's move north a bit, to Korea. DPRK wishes to annex ROK. ROK wishes to avoid this. Seoul is within artillery range of the DMZ; even without bringing nukes into it, the first day of a second Korean war might well end in the total destruction of a regional business center. Japan and ROK have strong economic ties; it's unlikely that Japan would be able to remain completely neutral--something DPRK is aware of, which is why it occasionally launches test missiles capable of hitting Tokyo. The last thing the US wants to see is Tokyo and Seoul reduced to rubble. Therefore, we keep enough naval and air power in the region that we would be able to halt Korean advances while isolating and pacifying a potential landing site for a counter-campaign.

Let's move into the Middle East. We need oil. Sucks, but it's true; Washington hasn't summoned the willpower to make Detroit convert, so we're stuck with it. Will the Crazy Bastards attack us? Whatever. Doesn't really matter; in the long run, a few hundred Americans won't change much. If the Crazy Bastards manage to spark a war between Iran and the Sunni world, though, we're all totally fucked. The Great Neocon Plan To Secure The Middle East was to place a pro-Western democracy in the critical location occupied by the Iraq of Mr. Hussein. This was a absolute bloody failure. Still, we retain enough force projection that we would be able to silence any conventional war in the region.

In the meantime, we also worry about India/Pakistan, the Balkans and the Americas to a lesser extent, and the various natural-gas despots of central Asia.

Much as in Britain in the 1800s, our military does not exist to protect our citizens from physical harm. It exists to preserve trade routes.

[pansypoo53219]

11. to feed the

military industrial complex.
and so republikans can say we can't afford universal health care, better schools, free college, improved infrastucture. ect ect ect.

[WinkyDink]

12. $$$$$$. Next question? :)

[Greyhound]

14. Keeping the Empire's parasites satisfied is expensive. n/t

:kick: