God it's huge.
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God it's huge.
it's all spent killing mainly innocent brown people in the name of 'democracy', either directly (Vietnam / Iraq) or indirectly (Palestine). maybe if they had a huge defence budget but it was just to fund a highly-structured peace army which acted as the "arsenal of democracy" in wartime and supplied arms to the group of countries that it was allied with and wasn't composed of lebensraum-securing dictators.
i mean there's a country with a highly superior economy at this time with a functioning democracy which has worked for several years and yet its citizens continually elect people who don't plan to convert it into an operation for world peace, despite the great potential it has to secure this. and is it that great of a democracy, really? i mean the words 'filibuster' and 'gerrymandering' are everywhere in the U.S. press, there's a bigger over-representation of the main two than in U.K. politics, and yet the U.S. is the king of democracy. at least they have freedom of speech and freedom of press/association I guess!!
i'm not speaking from any political position here, these are just inevidenced thoughts.
no hicky you are factually incorrect
the vietnamese are yellow
america hardly has a highly superior economy. its really big yes, but thats more down to the fact that we have a much larger population than other western industrial nations on our level of development, and the fact that everything is so inefficient and thus costs more. america's economy is a mess.
in terms of real GDP then
Our health care costs are much higher. I saw a statistic once. 60% goes to health care 20% to military and the rest for everything else.
its nice to have a defense. sucks when officials use it so offensively though.
its funny how we turn a blind eye to Saudi Arabia even though the mosque that funded the original terrorist attacks abides there, just because we have "political ties" and we purchase oil from them.
they are buds silly ::)
derp (no seriously, their inhabitants fund our enemies heavily)
one thing is for sure: China
for a country that hated out guts 50 years ago and is now out ally is like something straight out of a comic book
allied by commerce
win
"Together we can control the world, (they climb up to the highest mountain) see all of this, it can all be yours if you sell your soul to me."
-31 AD Devil to Jesus/1970 AD Nixon to China
Chances are, if you're on a mountain in China, all you'll see is China anyway.
That thing is too freaking huge.
It's been so long and I still don't get your Iraq war. Sorry guys.
its generally to wipe out a source of social intolerance based on a sect of islam that we are after for revenge.
sparking american pride will make our country fight for the general sake of revenge pretty quick. but then again, we wouldn't have won WWII and stopped the cruel antisemitism and annexation.
china isnt our ally
.Quote:
Originally Posted by God
(we are trade allies lol)
a 'trade ally' is ... sort of a thing that doesnt exist. china and america trade(moreso america forks out money to china without much reciprocity), but their foreign relations are rather uneasy, and even their actual economic relations are uneasy as china artificially deflating the yuan to suck up the world export market is something the us has been calling predatory for years
also the us military pretty regularly runs war games based on china taking moves against US influence(specifically trying to invade taiwan) so military conflict with china is something the government and military view as a distinct plausibility
IN SHORT: not allies
I hate China so much.
http://www.whitcam.com/research/wp-c...xesgowhere.jpgQuote:
Originally Posted by Hicky
Entitlements are really our biggest problem
nope, because there are no alternatives to the entitlement programs
I know I'm new here but I'll throw in my 2 cents. I have a little experience on this.
I would agree with you there, not only China but (north) Korea as well. It's not that necessaraly we think China is going to attack us. Just covering our asses incase something does happen. Like locking the door before you go to bed, you don't anticipate anything happening, it's just incase. We definitely aren't allies, more like "weak friends" only together because at present, it benifits us both.Quote:
Originally Posted by God
Back to the main topic though, the reason the military budget is so high, quite simpily is because it's such a gigantic organization. You gotta figure wages, clothing, housing, healthcare, et cetera. For 1.5 million people (1.477 according to wiki) that adds up real quick. Not to mention fighting a war a few thousand miles away. Granted it probably dosnt need to be so high. but since we're "entitled" to protection as Americans, well that's what we get. At a cost.