If we shrank the U.S. military down far enough...
...would our opponents renounce IEDs and sniper rifles and agree to meet us in "stand up" fights?
We'd probably have to cut back pretty far to get them onto the field.
Of the 174 countries the CIA says has actual defense expenditures, only 5 could be called our "enemies:"
North Korea $5,217,400,000
Iran $4,300,000,000
Syria $858,000,000
Cuba $694,000,000
Somalia $22,340,000
Total military spending by America's "enemies" last year = $11,091,740,000
America spent $518,100,000,000 on its military last year.
Even if you don't count the military spending of America's 168 allies, partners, friend and protectorates, we still spent 47 times what our "enemies" spent last year...
We'd probably have to cut back pretty far to get them onto the field.
Of the 174 countries the CIA says has actual defense expenditures, only 5 could be called our "enemies:"
North Korea $5,217,400,000
Iran $4,300,000,000
Syria $858,000,000
Cuba $694,000,000
Somalia $22,340,000
Total military spending by America's "enemies" last year = $11,091,740,000
America spent $518,100,000,000 on its military last year.
Even if you don't count the military spending of America's 168 allies, partners, friend and protectorates, we still spent 47 times what our "enemies" spent last year...
posted by alphie at 3:43 PM
9 Comments:
You really have no experience in anything remotely related to defense and the military do you?
--no experience at all.
Your microwave oven you cook all your meals in?
--product of American defense spending
The internet? cell phones?
--DARPA
America has a free economy. That defense spending goes to private companies which build things that you eventually buy.
It's not lost spending to nationalized industries like it is in the other countries you cited.
Defense spending powers the economy and innovation of our country, provides retirements and cares for military dependents.
But you don't understand any of that, do you?
Gray- You left out that over half of our spending is on those who are no longer in the military and their dependants; you also left out that we are basically the 911 for the world-- tsunami in Indian Ocean, hurricane in the south, mudslide in the PI, whatever it is, we go to help rebuild.
We also provide the military for multiple countries-- Japan only just recently got back the privilege of a military.
But I think he doesn't want to be confused by facts.....
Thank you, FFS. You are entirely correct!
It's hard to calibrate just how many pearls (of knowledge) to cast before a swine (of ignorance)....
It's true defense spending has funded some innovative research in the past that had commercial applications too, but there's no guarantee that will continue to be the case.
Alphie, early man learned without benefit of formal education that if you don't have a big enough fire in the camp, the wolves will come and eat you. Prehostoric Alphie would say " What with all this wood? Daiseys look better and are easier to carry," prehistoric me would say" Well then Alphie, when (not if) the wolf comes give him a nice bouquet...I'm here building the fire and when day comes I'm gonna kill me some wolf."
Alphie,
Care to post the precentage of the GDP or dollars spent on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security & other entitlement programs? Maybe we should lower our spending on those to Iranian, North Korean or Syrian levels as well.
I think you guys missed the point of this post.
But thanks for stopping by my little hole in the wall.
I think you guys missed the point of this post.
But thanks for stopping by my little hole in the wall.
Read: This didn't quite go as planned. Would a little faux humility get you off my back? I have other useless things to compose. Because I blog.
Most defense spending, in terms of the tchnology outlays, is dead-end technology---Missiles, bombs & ordinance and the guidance systems involved---Usually top-secret, until it is obsolete.
One earlier RW-seeming poster seemed confused between the military and the *Space Program*, which has been a source of quite a lot of consumer technology.
The actual MILITARY?
Not so much anymore.
Unless you count Hummers (real useful for the
average person...uh huh.)
Why do rightwingers talk out of their anuses so much?
They are incurably ignorant and not worth listening to (or talking to either).
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