Can someone give me a reason why we should increase spending on the military?

Considering that this country and it's main allies spend 3 out of every 4 dollars spent worldwide on their military. I think its budget in part should be used to support the troops with what they need , a sensible increase in wages and the support for the vets . I'd gladly see a couple aircraft carriers sidelined for good when their working history is done, to achieve that goal.
There is no other group as political as the military and their legions of blind followers.

 

Would you agree then, that the NATO mission is over and it should be dissolved?

 

I would rather there just be a 1/2% cut across the board from EVERY department each year for the next ten.

The one major problem with cutting too much from defense is that if you really need it, it takes too long to rebuild the infrastructure to support it.

It's like the Fire Department - too late to buy a fire truck when the building is a raging inferno.

 

Even in 10 years it takes the military much longer to make personnel changes. I worked in personnel when I was enlisted stateside. Just to chapter someone out takes months. Spending cuts? Yikes. The army's motto is 'hurry up and wait' because nothing gets done.

 

This doesn't happen much. I agree. Should I feel icky?

 

I thought it was Fun Travel and Adventure!
FTA.

 

I've often agreed with his posts.

 

We armed the whole world in the second world war , at the time we had a small military. Their is nothing close to the threat of what we were looking at during the 2nd world war.If they wouldn't have attacked pearl Harbor and declared war on us .We probably wouldn't have joined in and we would still have won that war. No country could build up the needed military faster then this country. Where's the threat. There is none. At least nothing we couldn't handle with a fly swatter.
This is just another issue powered by military genius's out of their living room. It's a non issue. So what would you people consider enough, this country and it's allies spend 3 out of 4 dollars that is spent in the world on its military. It's almost hilarious if it wasn't such a waste . With over a hundred wars under this countries belt , maybe five at the most had to be fought.

 

It would be fine, to many small countries that are part of NATO, that I sure in the hell wouldn't want to go to war over. WE could get out and Europe would have to spend the money needed to arm them selves against any threat. At this point if we left , they wouldn't need to increase spending They are above par with any threat in that area.

 

So you don't see the possibility that Russia, China, North Korea or some other country with nuclear weapons and larger militaries than the U.S. might some day attack?

 

Russia and China are nuclear threat but With the capability of our nukes, we would win the battle whether they joined together or by themselves. We would end up with 100 people and Russia would have 40 people left and China would have 40 people left . So we would out number them. and in a fair fist fight we can take them. The Nuclear thing is bogus, Tell me what kind of Military can end up being one of the few dozen left to repopulate this world desert no matter what was spent on their military. . So The nuclear thing is non starter. Military to military , no combinations of countries joining together could beat us alone , add in ours Allies and it be another world war that we would win hands down. There is no way you can get around the insanity of us and our allies spending 3 out of 4 dollars that is spent on the military world wide and then clowns stepping up and saying we need to spend more on the military, Do you think Eisenhower was joking when he warned this country about the military industrial complex
What you are getting behind, in the spend more and more on the military, your simply supporting the wealth of this country being transferred to the few golden ones at the top. Eisenhower's message is more dominant now then ,then when he spoke it. There is no bigger wealth builder then a good war.
Do me a favor , look into The two companies that made the most out of the war , That would be Carlyle Group and Haliburton, that will tell you all that needs to be known about why this country got into a war that was a 100% lie.

 

Just for a point of interest who do you think will attack this country. Do you think we should prepare us for the possibility of this country in a war with the rest of the world, all of it. Where is the line in your mind.

 

deleted

 

A RWer earlier today said, so we can prepare for war with NK.
Otherwise, I see no reason to increase Defense spending.

 

There nuclear threat is none , they won't even get into the atmosphere. All we need is a fly swatter for them, we are prepare with 1/4 of our weapons we have now.

 

Look how is the CEO of benign going to upgrade his villa in Tuscany if we don't.

 

F-18's and F-16's are literally falling out of the skies because the lack of funding for maintenance and spare parts.

Over 1/2 of the Navy and Marine Corps F-18's can't fly.

1/2 of the U.S. Navy's ships can't put to sea and fight.

U.S. Navy ships can no longer safely navigate at sea without running into other ships.

Yuge improvements under President Trump, 5 of the Army's 33 combat brigades are now combat capable and can be deployed into combat. Under Obama it was only 3 combat brigades that were deployable.



https://www.heritage.org/military-strength/executive-summary

 

I always love the response that we spend more money on helping people then on the military , like things like SS and Medicare , What was that you said, you paid in on that yourself , you couldn't have because all these people on the right say it a expense for this country. They think paying for the old and sick and poor is bad but giving money to corporation , no I mean the military is OK. You can't make this stuff up.
Why do they believe this way. because it is the fastest way to get money to the golden few at the top and that is the only thing that counts to their party leaders. and they are all one string puppets.

 

I can't argue with that logic.

 

Nope, no reason whatsoever here.

 

Of course, the US military is also paid quite a bit more than most other nations. It has to be, because of the higher standard of living.

Did you ever look at the breakdown of the DoD budget?



Notice the largest piece there? "Operations and Maintenance". That is training, and repair of equipment. Not replacement, but repair. The new engine for an M-998, the MREs that a grunt unit uses in the field, flying a Marine Battalion from North Carolina to California for Cold Weather training, the fuel that the generators of an Air Defense uses for 2 weeks in the field, things like that.

We already cut that a lot in the last 8 years, is why so much of our equipment no longer works, and our soldiers are poorly trained.

The second largest piece, that is Personnel. In other words, pay.

Sure, we can cut that a lot. We simply follow the model of say China. Where soldiers can not get married until they make Sergeant, and are paid only $50 a month.

Or we can do what Russia does. Are you aware that a Russian Private First Class makes 5,500 rubles a month? That's less than $100. A Lieutenant makes 66,000 rubles a month, just over $1,100. So we can cut a huge chunk of our military budget, just slash our pay to about 1/10 what it is today.

Then there is the next slice, Procurement. Yes, that is what the military actually buys. Both new equipment like a new series of vehicles that are not destroyed by mines. And newer kinds of body armor. And new Fighters like the F-22 and F-35. But also things like a new HMMWV, to replace the 30 year old one that has been on it's last legs for the last decade.

How about the next one, R&D? Sure, we can save money there. We simply stop looking at things that can help keep our servicemembers alive.

The thing that many fail to realize is that pay and training are the vast majority of the military budget. And one of the reasons that Russia and China have much smaller budgets is because they pay their people crap. China outnumbers the US military by almost 2 to 1. But they pay less than a fraction of what the US does.

But let's follow the same model. But you all who want to see our budget slashed can tell the Privates that their pay is shrinking from $1,600 a month to under $100 a month.

 

I will give the OP two reason why we need to increase our spending on the military, Russia , China. China is moving to be a blue water threat and they are gaining influence in Africa.

We have worn out our aircraft with three wars in the ME. The F-14 was retired 2 years ago and the F/A-18 is being kept upgraded on life support. The AF has been using worn aging F-16's and F-15's the 15 may get a life saving upgrade. The F-117 is going to be retired. The B-1 and B-2 are getting worn. The Marines still are young the. British designed Harriers which are also getting invitations to join AARP.
The F-111 retired.
The few B-52 's we have left we have rebuilt from nose to tail from wing tip to wing tip.

The F-35 is still being shaken out.

The AF is looking at a turbo prop job small attack fighter for close ground support.

This kind of wear out occurred at the end of the Vietnam War. The Air Force wore out our century series jets F100' 101-102-104-105-106's and the F4's. The Navy wore out everything except the newest of the A6 Intruders. The Corsair II and Crusader had to fill in before the F-14's F-18's came on line.

We need to be planning the replacement for the F-35 and making bigger faster better drones. The Chinese and the Russians are not exactly sleeping !

 

The resquistration F-'d us really bad. We should not have cut spending to the military. No Inam not saying waste money but the ME wars have been zapping our equipment.

 

We will buy more toys and use them in the next useless war. It's how demand will always be created for more stuff.

Quit buying more stuff and bring the troops home

 

I was an advocate of going into Afghanistan but going into Iraq was the deadly mission of following foolish and lethal advice.

Toys you say! Those " toys" are what keeps those of us who survived serving in war alive. Those "toys" are what had prevented the Western half of our country from being renamed Toyotaland and the Eastern part to be renamed Adolfschnitzeland. Those "toys" are what told Putin's predecessors that if they attacked us we would turn Moscow, Leningrad, and Stalingrad into shinny radioactive glass parking lots for Russian Ladamobiles.

You may not want to survive as a nation, as a democratic republic, as the USA but thank God you are the minority of those who are not just raising your hands in surrender you are running away from our enemies and stabbing those of us who are serving or have served in the back.

With your defeatist attitude you may as well welcome KGB Putin and Chairman She She of Communist China to be your leaders.