Roger J. Wendell
Defending 3.8 Billion Years of Organic EvolutionSM
 UK tank crossing... |
Military Madness
Cost of the War in Iraq
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"'... Get your goddamned helicopters out of my backyard. The noise is driving me and my dog insane.' 'That's the sound of freedom, Mr. Lightcap.' 'No, it's the sound of tyranny, Major Fleming. The same noise you hear in Russia, Poland, Afghanistan. Tyranny, I say.'"
- Edward Abbey
The Fool's Progress, p. 67
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Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation:
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Click Here for my page on War and Terrorism... |
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Click Here for my page on Spooks, Spies, Thugs and Bureaucrats... |
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"The runaway military budget, that now stands at one trillion dollars a year, has been swelled by something called 'The War on Terror.'" p. 8
"The United States maintains over a thousand overseas military bases, most of which serve no purpose other than maintaining a megalomaniac fiction of American military superiority. They are often resupplied by private contractors whose procurement operations rely on the domestic civilian economy. As long as the economy is intact, they can bring three flavors of ice cream to an air-conditioned tent in the middle of the desert, but once the economy collapses, they will collapse with it, and the military may turn out to lack even the resources to truck in water. Overseas military bases should be dismantled and the troops repatriated." pp. 111-112
Reinventing Collapse Soviet Example and American Prospects (from his 2008galley)
The U.S. Dominates Global Military Spending "The numbers might vary a little as new reports come out, but one thing is clear. The U.S spends a ton of cash on the military. According to The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, we spend 'more than the next 45 highest spending countries in the world combined.' Wow." |
U.S. deficient against Muslim insurgents, study says
CNN - February 11, 2008
"The U.S. military is seriously deficient in meeting 'the threat of Islamist insurgencies,' says a Pentagon-commissioned study released Monday.""The Rand Corp. report characterizes 'U.S. military intervention and occupation in the Muslim world' as 'at best inadequate, at worst counter-productive, and, on the whole, infeasible.' The Pentagon asked the nonprofit research organization to review strategies to thwart insurgents."
"The United States should instead focus its priorities on improving 'civil governance' and building 'local security forces,' according to the report, referring to those steps as 'capabilities that have been lacking in Iraq and Afghanistan.'
'Violent extremism in the Muslim world is the gravest national security threat the United States faces,' said David C. Gompert, the report's lead author and a senior fellow at Rand. 'Because this threat is likely to persist and could grow, it is important to understand the United States is currently not capable of adequately addressing the challenge.'"
Patriotism
 Me and the Secretary of Defense! |
Okay, I'm a good American who has served our country, pays taxes, and observes most of the rules (My driving habits are a bit poor...). That being said, I'm growing more skeptical of our military with each passing year. Just think, President Bush proposed a 7 (seven!) percent increase in military spending for FY 2009 when more money was already being spent on our armed forces than most of the world's other countries combined - not to mention the American economy was going down the porcelain convenience at the time as well!
What the heck is going on here? Overpaid contractors, waste, fraud, abuse, and a budget so bloated it would make a king blush! It's gotten so out of hand and is not only hurting taxpayers but making America's military an aggressive threat to peace just about everywhere on the globe... So, what can we do about it? First the obvious; our so-called "representatives" need to be pressured into reigning in the military pork and insisting on efficiency as opposed to largesse. Secondly, we, as citizens, need to be more critical about the ways in which our military is being used. A thousand bases around the world, invasions of Vietnam, Grenada, Iraq, and who knows where else and the vast majority of us just sit by without question? Speak up - America's bloated military does a lot of damage, not to mention the drain on our tax dollars - it's up to the citizens to provide our government with leadership and guidance!! Golden, Colorado - winter '07/08 |
"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it."
- Mark Twain
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