Time to cut military spending significantly

but how else will the religious right start the next global war to bring on Armageddon?

They don't want to anything to do with planning for the future unless it ends with us all praying for a place in heaven and the coming of the end of days.

 

Praise Be

 

Buck, you are my favorite poster in the sports’ forums, but attacks on the religious right as architects to force Armageddon is one of the stupidest posts I have ever read. Why does all the evil propagated from the Middile East, Russia, China, and other atheists and Muslim extremist become less egregious in your eyes. The old its all about oil bs doesn’t hold water now, so now the left’s oratory is its all about the evil Christians. I am personally agnostic, but it is obvious that the propagation of hate and violence is from communists and theocracies like Iran that is the greatest threat to peace. No sane person wants war, but at some point you do have to stand up to terrorism and the outright disregard for human rights that these regimes hold dear.

 

The left has had plenty of opportunities to fundamentally change the course of defense spending but hasn't done f***k all either. Obama didn't. Hillary didn't project to. Biden doesn't project to.

It's not just the Republicans. The military industrial complex is strong.

 

Now that I think about it a bit it's actually Vietnam that kicked this whole thing off. Most of the top officers were junior officers about the time Vietnam ended. They were all traumatized by events and the core lesson they all learned from that war was the value of PR wrt the american public.

Maybe after this generation dies, but this generation can feel the results of bad public standing in their bones. They will fight it with everything they have.

The other thing the military has been very clever about is spreading the pork around. Any congressman voting for defense cuts is probably voting away jobs in their district. No self interested congressperson would ever put their constituents out of work.

 

Yeah, I have a major AFB in my city. They employ 25K people on base, and of course thousands of others outside the base working directly as base contractors. Every mailer we get from Austin Scott (or any other person running for National office) promises increased defense spending. My views on military spending would be quite unpopular here. The base closing would of course be devastating for the region, but certainly we could cut back some...

 

Infrastructure? Like a wall?

 

It's not happening. We have stirred up so many hornets nests the last 20 years that it is going to get worse.

Iraq and Syria are disasters. Taliban is just waiting for us to leave to take Afghanistan over again and they will be looking for revenge. Libya is a mess. Phillipines, Malyasia, and Indonesia have growing terrorism problems. Africa also has several hot spots.... including where we lost some special forces guy not long ago.

I haven't even mentioned Iran, Russia, or China who all have reasons to be pissed at us.

I expect more terrorism on our shores and retaliation invasions/attacks to follow. Rinse and repeat.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...-GgJf7TNRJCYdYwskTB5s0S-cata9fvsCQiBh34lMj1jQ

This is the **** that happens when you give them a blank check

Pentagon loses track of $500 million in weapons, equipment given to Yemen
The Pentagon is unable to account for more than $500 million in U.S. military aid given to Yemen, amid fears that the weaponry, aircraft and equipment is at risk of being seized by Iranian-backed rebels or al-Qaeda, according to U.S. officials.

With Yemen in turmoil and its government splintering, the Defense Department has lost its ability to monitor the whereabouts of small arms, ammunition, night-vision goggles, patrol boats, vehicles and other supplies donated by the United States. The situation has grown worse since the United States closed its embassy in Sanaa, the capital, last month and withdrew many of its military advisers.

In recent weeks, members of Congress have held closed-door meetings with U.S. military officials to press for an accounting of the arms and equipment. Pentagon officials have said that they have little information to go on and that there is little they can do at this point to prevent the weapons and gear from falling into the wrong hands.

“We have to assume it’s completely compromised and gone,” said a legislative aide on Capitol Hill who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

U.S. military officials declined to comment for the record. A defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon, said there was no hard evidence that U.S. arms or equipment had been looted or confiscated. But the official acknowledged that the Pentagon had lost track of the items.

Rocket River

 

I like all yall.

 

DId you just discover Buddhism? I feel like you have zenned out recently.

 

We gotta spend money on defense.
Because we have to kill bad guys.
But that creates more bad guys.
So we gotta spend more money on defense...

 

Bill did. That’s why Cheney was complaining about “barely” being able to fight two fronts while making servicemen pay for their own gear.

H.W. Could claim some credit for cutting some costs after the USSR fell, but the Clinton era base closures created the narrative Bubba and der Libs were out to make America weak despite the fact that previous big American wars had other countries offering to cover some of our costs.

You’re right that most Americans love a good feriner ass kicking, even though no one wants to pony up for the total costs.

But that’s how it is. One admin cut costs. Another drops the ball with a big attack, then shifts their incompetence into scapegoating as motive to ramp up the military, even expand an entirely new executive department.

As for Trump...the fact he doesn’t want to play world’s police while at the same time maintaining and expanding the military budget is a quintessentially American attitude to keep.

 

I'm the one who made the stupidest post you ever read... only its not that far fetched. More people have been killed in the name of God, Allah, etc than for any other reason throughout the course of history and there are plenty of the religious right who believe that time is coming so why plan for the future. My dad was one of them before he died and I saw the people he liked to associate with in the halls of his church... just waiting for the end days.... welcoming it even.

You can fight terrorism with bombs. You won't win, but we're trying. What we'll find is each bomb creates more future terrorists. Saudi Arabia is one of the most blatant in regards to outright disregard for human rights and yet we support them and pledge to protect them at the cost of American dollars and lives, even though they were behind the attacks on 9/11 because they have oil.

The religious right is what's wrong with this country. We need to separate church and state and take away the tax exempt status of churches but thats an entirely different discussion.

We need to slowly disassemble the military industrial complex we've created since Vietnam and put people to work helping others... that's WWJD.

 

Obama was trying to cut military spending. We had to start shutting off lights and our officers weren’t allowed to spend millions on wasteful “conferences” at remote locations under him. Once the Republicans took over Congress, they put a stop to the cuts and then Trump increased spending again when he got in power.

 

The military is the biggest drain of dollars on our economy. Dollars spent on expensive programs instead of improving our country