The US war machine...expensive

[Bigmack]

I suppose there is no hope of the Dems actually cutting the bloated "Defense" budget, but wouldn't it be nice to feed poor people and have health care and .....
shiiiiit..... I was just dreaming again!
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The U.S. war machine: shockingly, awfully expensive
Floyd J. McKay / Guest columnist

Snips..Full article at: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2003538021_floyd24.html

Moving quietly behind the screen of debate over the Iraq surge is the president's plan to substantially increase the size of our armed forces, and with it (again) the share of our national treasury going to the war machine.

The Pentagon is requesting an increase in Army and Marine troops from 687,000 authorized currently to at least 749,000. Equipping and training these added troops would cost at least $7.5 billion a year.

Our massive budget increases are driven by the military's insatiable demand for new and expensive weapons. American defense spending of about $300 billion in 2001 is expected to increase to $530 billion to $569 billion in 2007, primarily driven by military contracts, which are out of control. ......SWORDS, goes further and raises the idea of robot-on-human conflict. Another robotic program, the Army's Future Combat Systems, is pegged to cost $145 billion, the costliest weapons program in history, according to Steve Featherstone in Harper's.

We are still under the delusion that American power can make everything right, and that a strong military is the best way to protect the American way of life.

Our 2005 military budget of some $472 billion was 3.8 percent of our entire gross domestic product. Compare this to our closest allies: The other NATO nations collectively had a 2005 military budget of $266 billion, 1.9 percent of GDP.

Bloated budgets encourage leaders to look for new worlds to conquer — literally.

[kenny blankenship]

1. and built to stay that way

or get worse.

[Amonester]

2. Bloated budgets encourage leaders to look for new oil fields

to conquer by starting wars of their choices, based on fabrication, outright lies, fear, and fascist propaganda, in which they have nothing to sacrifice themselves (to the contrary, they obscenely profit from), where they send other people's family members to suffer or die in forever (because, as proven times and time again throughout history, these criminal wars can never be won).

:grr: