I honestly don’t think that most people understand how incredibly bloated the US military budget is. Even if you accept the premise that we have to have the biggest military in the world, so much money is spent on overseas military bases that don’t meaningfully contribute to our national defense. We have >750 military bases around the world so that we can intimidate other countries into doing what we want, which is both wasteful and evil. Learn more at Al Jazeera
sooooo yes you’re not wrong, but i’d argue (as not an american mind you) that also it’s a little more complicated than just national defence
overseas military bases aren’t just for intimidating other countries into doing what the US wants: they also contribute significantly to global stability… having THE world super power kinda everywhere means it’s probably much less likely that some random country is going to start shit… sure, the US gets to pick and choose to benefit itself, but it certainly contributes
and that’s not just good for the world: AS the worlds leading superpower, the US benefits enormously from global stability: from cheap trade, financing, more global budget being spent on STEM/R&D (which because of trade and financing the US almost always capitalises on somehow!)
I would argue that having only one nation in charge of policing the world’s stability is incredibly unstable. Its like having a table with only one leg. If that leg suddenly fails the whole thing topples over. The whole world would benefit more from a more distributed system than relying entirely on one nation.
Of course that also means they’d have to start getting their own hands dirty, and risking the lives of their own citizens for world stability, which doesn’t seem particularly likely at this point.
nervously watching the US go through all the stages of a collapsing empire
What other countries? The only global power that is a near peer of the US with respect to military power is China.
There are geopolitical reasons that the US is in the position it is, and while a distributed system might be nice, unless the underlying geopolitical realities change, the US is stuck at the top
The existence of those bases means we can negotiate with soft power where instead we might need to make a show of force. Intimidation, aka diplomacy, is superior to actual fights.
My friend works for L3 Harris and has been working on useless government contracts for years. The bloat is real.
The assholes at ID.ME are pushing their way into the government ID system and I hate them because they just want to market bullshit restaurants coupons to me and my vet friends.
I hate predatory government contracts that happen because shit bag politicians allow it.
Bernie Sanders, lol, wouldn’t have the first clue as to what the Pentagon needs and what it doesn’t
L take, this guy has been on more committees than most (if not all) of the current Senators. He understands well. If you have ever written him a letter and asked him direct questions you would know. Dude is a literal power house that nobody has heard of because he does his job unlike many other “popular” ones.
This is suspiciously similar to Trump’s anti-military rhetoric. And at this of all times, when that very same military is engaged in defending a sovereign nation from being conquered by an infamously brutal dictator.
Just whose side are you on, Mr Sanders?
You are suggesting Bernie is doing this as some secret team-up with Trump, which I think is just super funny. I’d watch the shit out of that cartoon
Wouldn’t be the first time Sanders did something that was awfully convenient for Trump…
What other conspiracies you got? I’m entertained. Doesn’t have to be politics
There is absolutely no argument that can be made in good faith to continue the bloated military budget. We grossly overspend. Of course the US should strive to have a strong military and national defense, but so much of the budget is used to line the pockets of political “donors”
It’s called the “Military Industrial Legislative” Iron Triangle. It works like this: Military retirees go into cushy industrial lobbying positions then lobby to the congressperson to build weapons and “create jobs”, this is an easy win for the congressperson and helps with reelection. The congressperson then passes laws that give huge military contracts to the industry.
I think it’s the abrams tank where each of the 50 states makes at least one part for the tank and then it is assembled somewhere else. It’s not just a complex any more, it’s much worse than that.
Remember on September 10th, 2001 when Donald Rumsfeld publicly announced the Pentagon couldn’t account for $2.3 trillion in transaction?
Or again in 2015 (2016?) when that number grew to $6.5 trillion with just the army alone? Yeah, no one does.
Well, if the US doesn’t need to protect their allies in Europe, Pacific, South China Sea, support Ukraine against invasion, prepare for invasion against Taiwan…Yeah, then it doesn’t need that money. But we live in this world.
Yes, but also no, imo. We absolutely need to accomplish those objectives.
But … Do we need to have a system that requires us to buy Tomahawk missiles at whatever cost Raytheon decides to charge? All the weapons we use are supplied by a single company, and the military does not own the IP for their weapons, even the ones initially invented by military research bases (e.g., sidewinder).
Our system of military contractors has, imo, failed us utterly while making a handful of companies incredibly rich
Oh I definitely agree on that part. Even the F35 is a super bloated project. The US use to have multiple competitors for each weapon categories but industry consolidation (monopoly) made everything worse.
