12. Defense budget reduction: Defense spending in 2008 is projected to exceed $600 billion dollars. I have to ask the question that no one is asking, why/what/where are we spending this money on, and what value does it bring, if any. We are far less secure now that America is a warring country. Along with the immediate withdrawal of all troops abroad, I call on a dramatic decrease in defense spending. We the people of America demand and require a peace time economy, not known in the prior sixty years of our history. I suggest that defense spending should be capped at no more than $30 billion a year; during years of nonaggression.
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Nearly every president in the past thirty years has propped up a villain or villain society to justify increasing defense spending. The Bush proclamation during his first year of office, pronounces Iraq, Iran and North Korea as the new “Axis of Evil,” the preverbal short list of dangerous United States hating countries, bent upon the destruction of America and our ideals. This is a device invented by a string of presidents and congressmen who are financed by aspects of private and governmental agencies to promote the domestic spending on weapons and weapons systems. Congressmen bring to their represented state, funds for defense component contracts; this is publicly viewed as a return of wealth. This system is acceptable as an instrument of job growth provided by government, but federal funds spent on tangible public benefits, such as bridges, roads, education, health, safety, energy, resources, and enforcement of the laws already on the books, would be a higher purpose of public/private funds. Defense spending does not provide wealth. Defense spending is a black hole of vague accountability. Defense recruitment does artificially reduce unemployment, but often the horrors of modern warfare returns broken or mind shattered individuals. The armed force does train people with certain skills or provides continuing education opportunities as incentives of membership.
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The media blackout of the real day-to-day operations in Iraq helps prolong this conflict. If the American media would cover and interpret the opinions of the Iraqi people regarding the occupation of their country, I think this conflict would fast resolve. Since, no media is allowed to freely report the military action taking place; this deflects from the horror that is taking place. (depending upon point of view) Bush is terrified of repeating the mistakes of Vietnam, in that the media had more rights to report the news or the media was more interested or less controlled in reporting the news; not sure which. It doesn’t help that scenes such as the toppling of Sadam Husain’s statue was staged events, this hurts the credibility of news out of this region of the world.
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I believe that the best way for America to interject world confidence in the dollar is to end all occupations/wars. These petty conflicts are draining world perception that America is the land of just laws, personal freedom, and responsible government. As it stands now, the world perceives America as a resource conquering nation, imperialist America, or misguided/irresponsible neighbors. Since Nixon took the US dollar off of the gold standard, perception is the sole value of the dollar.
Comments (6)
We need a strong Military, to weaken the Military would not be a wise move.
Strong military to guard against who? Every country in the world knows we have loads of weapons and the penchant to use them. Do you know what trinitite is? When the first exploded the first nuclear test bomb "Trinity" the heat melted rock and sand into this greenish blob type rock, called Trinitite. Every country knows we have enough nukes to turn their entire country into trinitite. The only reason to have an use a strong military is for imperialistic means, to which I am against. I would rather spend military funds on American programs rather on death machines and tools.
Right on! I see you must know Dr. Paul.
We can only have peace through strength.
Then the question begins as what constitutes strength and where does obsession starts? If you add up all of the military spending from all other countries in the world you will not come close as to what United States of Paranoia spends upon its own military.
HERE IS HOW WE COULD HAVE BETTER SPENT $122.3 BN. INSTEAD OF ON FAILED WARS SOLD WITH LIES AND FEAR.
1. 52.5 million children could have received health insurance for one year.
2. 17.3 million children could have attended a year of Head Start.
3. 2.3 million additional public school teachers could have been hired for one year.
4. 3.1 million students could have received 4-year scholarships at a public university.
5. 1.8 million additional housing units could have been built.
6. We could have funded global anti-hunger efforts for 5 years!
7. We could have funded world-wide AIDS programs for 12 years!
8. Every child in the world would have been ensured basic immunization for 40 years!
$965 BILLION Military Budget for Fiscal year 2009
Military Personnel $129 billion
• Operation & Maint. $241 billion
• Procurement $143 billion
• Research & Dev. $79 billion
• Construction $15 billion
• Family Housing $3 billion
• DoD misc. $4 billion
• Retiree Pay/Healthcare $70 billion
• DoE nuclear weapons $17 billion
• NASA (50%) $9 billion
• International Security $9 billion
• Homeland Secur. (70% military) $35 billion
• State Dept. (partial) $6 billion
• other military (non-DoD) $5 billion
• “Global War on Terror” $200 billion
We added $162 billion to the last item to
supplement the Budget’s grossly underestimated
$38 billion in “allowances” to be spent
in 2009 for the “War on Terror,” which includes
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan