Why do we spend so much of our income on military and what does everyone think the purpose of our military is?

Originally posted by WindWip
Why do we spend so much of our income on military and what does everyone think the purpose of our military is?

we spend so much money on it becasue everyone there gets paid, no one does it for free, plus the cost of feeding the single troops (who make up the majority of the military) and so on and so on. actually, if your single and in the military, you could technicaly survive without spending one cent the whole time you are in, if you ate at the DFAC (Mess Hall) 3 meals a day, 7 days a week and only wore your uniform. Add to that the cost of weapons, bullets, airplanes, ships, sattelites, office buildings, bases and everything that goes along with it, and that adds up to a lot of money! I heard once that it costs 50,000 dollars and hour to run an aircraft carrier when it is performing operations.

The purpose of the military is to protect our nation from invasion. To protect our national interests and properties outside our borders, protect our allies, stuff like that.

I notice you did not say to eliminate dictators or otherwise bad leaders.

I heard it was something around 24% of our budget that is spent on our military. I was curious why we need such a large military rather than the individual costs.

Eliminating dictators that want us dead is in our national interests.

actually defense is 17.5% of the budget.

Raise your right hand, and repeat after me:


Enlistment Oath

In the Armed Forces of the United States EXCEPT the National Guard (Army or Air)

I, ___________________________________, do solemly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.
*****
Note: The last words, "So help me God," are optional, depending on the individual's personal religious preferences.

Dont let the ACLU see that last line, there will be an army of lawyers armed with "good intentions" at the door step of the pentagon tomorrow. I guess its a good thing these idiot lawyers never go into the military after all.

Damn, and I thought they invented the military just for us rednecks that want to play with guns, drive tanks and shoot stuff. You mean the whole time I was in I had a real purpose?

The question was not : why do we need an army. It was : is it necessary to spend so much ?

Well if we need the millitary, then I quess we need to spend, so they go hand in hand

ya, we could spend less and have a half assed military, but what good is that? we would end up like france, a weak, has been country that desperatly wants to be a player on the world stage, but really is just some old, toothless lady who trys to run everything from a chair in the corner.

Originally posted by Travh20
Eliminating dictators that want us dead is in our national interests.
actually defense is 17.5% of the budget.
Half the world wants us dead. There are even some out there who have valid reasons for hating us, but if we decided to act upon that, we would be just as bad as they are.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe defense makes up the entire military budget.

The military budget for the US in 2004 was 400 billion
The military budget of the next highest spender on military in 2004 was less than 65 billion (Russia)
It is even higher than the next TWENTY nations COMBINED

Tell me why this is needed. Are all these countries going to ban together and attack us? It is not defense, we could have a respectible defense (still the largest) with a fifth of what we spend.

where would all those people who would be unemployed if you cut the military budget work?

More *Claptravit:

"we would end up like france, a weak, has been country that desperatly wants to be a player on the world stage, but really is just some old, toothless lady who trys to run everything from a chair in the corner"


* colloquial American term for an outburst of nonsensical remarks intended to degrade people, places, and situations with which the speaker / writer disagrees; generally the result of internalized fear, loathing and ignorance of reality; often used as a desperate, final attempt to express one's hatred of a particular thing;
"It was a reasonable question that was answered with nothing more than claptravit:.

Well, the issue isn't over whether or not people are employed. The issue is over whether our government is spending our money effectively. If there are better uses for our budget, then that is what the money should be used for.
Individuals would be out of work for a little while, but if the money was instead invested in our economy then they would have little problems getting jobs.

If the market for SUVs suddenly dies, then a company who builds them will no longer buy parts for SUVs. The people who made those parts would have to diversify or get a new job. This happens, but if the worker is no longer needed then they should not be kept. The same applies for the military.

WindWip;

Are you sying we don't need the military anymore? If we do get rid of our military who will come in and take over? There are alot of folks out there that would love to see the U.S. loose its military.

ya, we could spend less and have a half assed military, but what good is that?
We wouldn't look like arrogant bastards who can conquer a country because we have thousands of nukes at red button point.

where would all those people who would be unemployed if you cut the military budget work?
Well since this is what is turning into the majority of American jobs, they could learn to say "Would you like fries with that?"

Are you sying we don't need the military anymore? If we do get rid of our military who will come in and take over? There are alot of folks out there that would love to see the U.S. loose its military.
We still would still have redknecks with shotguns.

I didn't mean to imply that we lose our military altogether, the analogy was that we do not need as large a military as we have right now. I suggested that we take the budget down to about a fifth of what it is right now. A lot of nations would like to see us lose our military altogether, but with a military 1/5 as strong we would still have the largest military on earth.
The rouge nations that wish us dead have an annual combined military spending of less than 11 billion. (Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria).
I propose we cut our military down to 80 billion. We would have absolutely no trouble with those nations even if we cut the military budget as I suggested and all the rouge nations allied together and sent everything they had at us.

We would have absolutely no trouble with those nations even if we cut the military budget as I suggested and all the rouge nations allied together and sent everything they had at us.
You do realize they don't fight the same way as us? The entire reason Che Guervera wrote Guerilla Warfare was to take down a large oppressive government with a very small budget.

Originally posted by Blibblob
We wouldn't look like arrogant bastards who can conquer a country because we have thousands of nukes at red button point.

Which is of course just as critical as defending the country.:rolleyes:

WindWip;

Our military does more then defend, or show folks how to shoot things. There are alot of different trainings that go on in the military. Doctor, dentist, communication, cooking, driving, etc....The military provides a cheap start to life for some. Before we cut maybe we should look at what we are cutting. Some folks that can't afford college get a good start thanks to the military, sure while they are in there they have a job to do, but at the same time they are preparing to become a usefull member of society.

The united states is the only civilized nation in the world that still believes in killing, either for pleasure or profit. We are truly a weak people, scorned, hated and laughed at by the rest of the world. Thanks for the embarassment george.

Dop

Originally posted by Lungdop Philing
The united states is the only civilized nation in the world that still believes in killing, either for pleasure or profit. We are truly a weak people, scorned, hated and laughed at by the rest of the world. Thanks for the embarassment george.

Dop

Are you really that big of an a** that you believe this? :rolleyes:

Show me another country that pre-emptively attacks a country based on flawed intel, kills thousands of innocent civilians while doing it, destroys that countries infrastructure and then sends in the religious nuts to try to convert them to christianity.

And if you don't think america is hated as a country, travel around a bit a talk to people. You'll see.

BTW: what's with the name calling -- picking up the bad habits of some of the other posters?

Have a good one dog.

Dop

Sadly that's true, DOP. A country like ours -- born from revolution, genocide, slavery, and violent "godly" manifest destiny -- has
warfare imprinted strongly in its collective consciousness. What's sad is that we have the potential for so much more than this....and few people seem to care just as long as the warfare happens to "someone else, someplace far away".

holy crap has everyone gone mad???? Thats right only Americans kill, so stay the F out of our way or your next.

My nephew's spending a semester studying in Spain right now and having a great time. So far he has yet to be beat up because everyone in Europe hates him.

A country like ours -- born from revolution, genocide, slavery, and violent "godly" manifest destiny -- has
warfare imprinted strongly in its collective consciousness.
Name one country that wasn't born from revolution, genocide, slavery and violent "godly" manifest destiny. Americans just have it in their mind that because they can't be forbidden to purchase a weapon, they have to use it.

holy crap has everyone gone mad???? Thats right only Americans kill, so stay the F out of our way or your next.
Name one other country that in the past 50 or so years has pre-emtively invaded a country far more than one tenth as strong.

My nephew's spending a semester studying in Spain right now and having a great time. So far he has yet to be beat up because everyone in Europe hates him.
What would happen if a Frenchman went to Texas? :D. You remember that story from a while ago about the guy who shot the person against the war. How about the ridicule that people from foreign countries went through? People don't hate Americans, they hate the government. Americans are the ones who hate people :D.

the purpose of militarer are to shoot persons who dont listen to gouvernement.

Try again Lionel. I didn't say anyone hated any specific american.

I said they hate AMERICA -- not americans.

Dop

Originally posted by Blibblob
Name one other country that in the past 50 or so years has pre-emtively invaded a country far more than one tenth as strong.[/B]

What exactly is a pre-emptive invasion? Either you invade or you don't.

But anyway, Iraq and Israel come immediately to mind. The Suez Canal crisis perhaps.

Just for laughs lets send the military to Washington D.C. and
root out all 'enemies of the United States both foreign and domestic" in public office.

Now you're getting somewhere! I might just write you in on the ballot.

Dan, that would be a military coup d'etat. As a candidate for Prez, is that part of your platform?

You do realize they don't fight the same way as us? The entire reason Che Guervera wrote Guerilla Warfare was to take down a large oppressive government with a very small budget. [/B]
I agree, they have a cheaper way of fighting, but there is a problem for them. We are accross a big ocean, they have to get into our country first, then they have to do their deed without being stopped. I can admit that it is not hard to do that much, but a bigger military will not prevent that.
The third thing is that in order to do it more than once, they must get away without getting caught. But they will get caught, not because of our military, but because of our police force and detectives.

No, es347fan, I am not going to run for Prez.

Just thought the idea of rooting out Washington seemed like fun thing to do. :D

US does have a rather high defense budget. Ironically it doesn't feel any safer to live in than many countries that don't put much in defense at all.

Ironically our 'defense' is being used to defend us by sending our troops overseas into other countries.

The United States has kept troops in other nations since before WWII. In South Korea, the number has been around 40,000. NATO troop strength was very high as well, and these examples are just the largest concentrations of troops outside the US.
Join the Armed Forces, see the world.

The entire purpose of the military is to attack. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." If your at the point where you need to defend, something is wrong. The Defence Department isnt really about defence, its just a sugary way of saying the War Department.

A second note: Our entire race is based on conflict and warfare. Competition is a very small war. Bigger wars are bigger competitions. In history, warfare keeps a nation united. When there is nothing left on the outside, everyone goes for what is on the inside. Great civilizations reach their peak of power when they stop conquering other nations and civilazations. Then the decline begins.

Many people think that this conflict is terrible. While it is very ugly in the short term, what with all the killing and such, in a larger sense, it keeps society stable because we can all band together against a common enemy.

The thing i fear most for the human race is World Peace. Since no one can ever get along, world peace would mean that everyone is dead, and thus the problem of not being able to be friends with everyone is solved.

Originally posted by eyeful
Sadly that's true, DOP. A country like ours -- born from revolution, genocide, slavery, and violent "godly" manifest destiny

ah yes, the forums true patriot waves the flag again :rolleyes:
how silly you people who actually love and support this country actually think YOU are the patriots. no, in this day and age of doublespeak, where 2 men can get married, the good guys get the shit while the bad guys get the sympathy, the seditious forked tounged radicals are the patriots, and people who hated the military with spit spraying hatred tout the war hero as their man, in these days, nothing is as it seems. the leftists and power hungry democrats bent on a return to their birthright make sure of that.