Missile defence starts construction in '04

[Rags]

Originally posted by ex RedRed
Thats right, Rags, its YOUR money. It comes from all the tax payers directly, or added to the national defecit. The % spent would have almost paid for your health system. It could have created a social service - ask Greebe or anyone who works in this area what a difference it could make to provision in some basic care for those who are neady in your society.

Personally, I am glad that we dont spend anywnere near that on defense. every dollar spent in either internal or external aid is well invested....
RedRed

The first priority is to make sure we still have a country. Without defense, the rest isn't possible.

Secure our place in the world, then the rest will come.

It is our money, and while there are some who aren't cared for under our current health care system, we still have the best facilities in the world.

Sure, changes need to be made, but these things don't happen overnight, and to just drop our defense would be irresponsible.

Rags

[K6-III]

You are indeed correct that some degree of defense is necessary, but it must also be acknowledged that the US has done more to ruin its PR with the rest of the world in the last year than in the last decade before that....

[Rags]

Originally posted by K6-III
You are indeed correct that some degree of defense is necessary, but it must also be acknowledged that the US has done more to ruin its PR with the rest of the world in the last year than in the last decade before that....

No, you think I must acknowledge that as if it were genuinely true.

A lot of reasons stand behind the poor outlook on the US. Our actions do play a role, I agree. But what else and why are the actions there is the larger picture.

Rags

[RedRed]

Rags - I could not agree more that the US needs to spend money on defense - absolutely no issue. The US does have the highest GDP in the world, and has one of the highest percentages of that GDP spent on defense.

In real cash terms is almost HALF of the ENTIRE WORLDS EXPENDITURE ON ARMS!!!

http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolit...e/Spending.asp

Total world spend (2000) Governments only!-
809 BILLION dollars

US Spend (government only!)
305 BILLION dollars

The Pentagon has asked for a further 6 billion for research into the AMS system discussed in the lead article,


2003 figures project Pentagon spend of
396.1 BILLION dollars

Thats your tax dollars....

The US military budget is more than six times larger than the Russian budget, the second largest spender.
The US military budget is more than twenty six times as large as the combined spending of the seven "rogue" states (Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria).

Thats perspective.

The US needs an adequate defense, sure. That is an offense budget - and it has been for years...

With regards to the 100 Billion dollars in 'aid' distributed -

In 1997 alone, half of USA's aid was related to military aid/trade -- and most of that was to countries that are already wealthy, like Israel, or Turkey (which has often been one of the largest recipients of US military aid and has often been criticized for its human rights violations and crackdowns). Compare that to very poor countries like Sub-Saharan African nations that received very little aid.

RedRed

[Rags]

Originally posted by ex RedRed
Rags - I could not agree more that the US needs to spend money on defense - absolutely no issue. The US does have the highest GDP in the world, and has one of the highest percentages of that GDP spent on defense.

In real cash terms is almost HALF of the ENTIRE WORLDS EXPENDITURE ON ARMS!!!

http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolit...e/Spending.asp

Total world spend (2000) Governments only!-
809 BILLION dollars

US Spend (government only!)
305 BILLION dollars

The Pentagon has asked for a further 6 billion for research into the AMS system discussed in the lead article,


2003 figures project Pentagon spend of
396.1 BILLION dollars

Thats your tax dollars....



Thats perspective.

The US needs an adequate defense, sure. That is an offense budget - and it has been for years...

With regards to the 100 Billion dollars in 'aid' distributed -



RedRed

A little something you seem to miss.

We don't HAVE to spend one dime in foreign aid. We have countries who are seriously in debt to us who we forgive the amount owed. Some of the countries are European countries as well. The thing is, we aren't obligated to spend anything in foreign aid. The fact that we spend the most says a lot.

Rags

[K6-III]

The United States does not spend the most on foreign aid. That country would be Japan.

[Dr Mordrid]

Of course while grousing about how little we spend on foreign aid and how bad it is that we choose to defend outselves those "across the pond" forget that twice last century we saved their bacon and how much that, and the Marshall plan, cost us in blood and dollars. You're welcome

If it werent' for our involvement in and after WWII they'd have ended up under either NAZI Germany or Stalins USSR with no guarantee that the eventual fates of either would be the same.

So...before you Euros hammer us too hard try figuring the value of our contribution to your continents status in current dollars before doing the calculus of how much America has given to "foreign aid".

Dr. Mordrid

[KvHagedorn]

Before talking about saving their bacon again (man, that gets old) you really have to consider that if we had not gotten involved in WWI, Imperial Germany would probably have won, there would not have been a WWII, Hitler would have remained a frustrated artist in Vienna, and Soviet Russia would have been far less powerful. The main reason we sided against Germany in WWI was that we spoke English (yeah, I know about the classic "reasons" our high school history has spouted at us, but I'm talking about the real reason.) Even then it took 3 years for us to get involved. Personally, I would have preferred German hegemony in Europe over Russian any day, but the folly of humanity continues... and it is even more warped now than it was then.