Zimmerman i agree with you on this one

Submitted by sonsam (United States), Sep 13, 2006 at 23:47

I've made other comments about U.S./Europe relations if your'e interested. However when it comes to how much the United States spends on its millitary its ridiculous. We still seem to be stuck in a Cold War mentallity.... which simply means lobbyists for defense contractors are doing a fantastic job.

Last year the United States spent 400 billion dollars on defense. This sum accounts for half of what the rest of the world spent for defense. As I've mentioned before. You show me a country that spends that kind of money on defense and i'll show you a country that's on the decline. To further unjustify the costs of our huge defense budget, consider that NATO with the U.S. account for 90% of any sort of advanced weaponry thats worth a crap. Just think about it....besides the U.S. and Europe( cordial relations) who has an advanced Millitary?

Russia's military is rusting, China is building, and the rest of the world is far far behind. We too, also must consider that any counrty in our now global economy that can afford to or potentially compete with the U.S. is heavily tied into the American economy and vice-versa. An all out war would mean a total ecomomic collapse. As none of these countries have a fanatical ideology a world war would be at the very least economicaly fruitless. Our money would be much wiser spent domesticly and on budding foreign democracies.

Our world view has become extemely pessimistic and I think we're missing a huge opportunity to be part of something better. Of course i'm not saying we should abandon our millitary all together. America can still has the largest millitary in the world and spends 300 billion dollars less. We as well must combat terrorism and not fool ourselves of their ultimate motive.....to destroy us. Of course Iraq was never the answer.

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