bright idea wrote:
To everyone on this thread talking about military personnel being overpaid: Go to Afghanistan for 6 months, leaving your wife/husband and kids at home, and then talk about how salaries should be cut. Remember, these soldiers are sacrificing themselves for you. They sacrifice even if they come home safely. Try living one day with this reality and see if your opinion changes.
Sorry Yanks, as we found, when money drains from a nation, power also drains.
A nation that loses control of its finances, loses control of its destiny.
We ran the world for a century, even occupied a quarter of the world’s surface and its peoples, because we were also the richest country in the world.
It all fell apart when we could no longer economically afford the huge cost.
The US ‘defence’ budget is 41% of the total amount the WHOLE world spends on arms.
This compared to the 8.2% the Chinese spend and the 4.1% the Russians spend.
This in a country that has a national debt of over $16 trillion and has to borrow over $1 trillion every year, just to stay afloat.
Ever heard of the Potemkin Villages?
A lot of the interest on your national debt actually goes to pay for the Chinese Red Army, as they hold so much US debt.
When was the last time the USA was actually under threat from any nation in the world that would justify such a huge military budget?
The catch-22 situation with such a huge military machine, is one is irresistibly tempted to use it in frivolous enterprises, against the vital interests of the people of the USA - as with Iraq and Afghanistan.
And at the same time, unbelievably, avert your eyes for years and years to the bona fide threat to your society - from south of your own border.