cold war era nuclear budget ala bush

http://slate.msn.com/id/2099425/

"The budget is busted; American soldiers need more armor; they're running out of supplies. Yet the Department of Energy is spending an astonishing $6.5 billion on nuclear weapons this year, and President Bush is requesting $6.8 billion more for next year and a total of $30 billion over the following four years. This does not include his much-cherished missile-defense program, by the way. This is simply for the maintenance, modernization, development, and production of nuclear bombs and warheads.

Measured in "real dollars" (that is, adjusting for inflation), this year's spending on nuclear activities is equal to what Ronald Reagan spent at the height of the U.S.-Soviet standoff. It exceeds by over 50 percent the average annual sum ($4.2 billion) that the United States spent—again, in real dollars—throughout the four and a half decades of the Cold War."

do we spend too much on nuclear weapons? do we misallot our military budget? we spend many billions on single planes, but cannot spare the $650 a vest for our soldiers on duty? what kind of leader is this bush character if he makes decisions like these?

what we need in the modern military for missions like iraq and afghanistan are skilled and very well equipped commandoes on a private communications network. not a standing army of cannon-fodder. and not a multitude of nuclear weapons. it is much more appropriate to spend that missile-money on tactical non-nuclear missiles.

i also disagree with bush's first-strike policy. it is unequaled in the world and is a symptom of warlike paranoia, much to the agitation and discomfort of nations that are potential targets of america. it gives us license to attack any nation and call it excusable, when it often has been clearly otherwise, e.g. iraq. sovereign nation iraq, attacked in a first strike style assault, discovered to be innocent of WMD, 9/11, or other aggressive tactics. we made the first-strike mistake less than two years after bush proposed it in his patriot-act style post-9/11 moves. it is clear to me that we should change our stance on war.

[Impenitent]

ask the Cherokee about american first strikes

what we need in the world is more military and less social spending... what good are all the welfare programs if a terrorists kills you?

[Evil Baby]

Well here's a grand idea. Why not run the entire world like Saddam ran Iraq. That way we will never have to fear terrorist ever again.

[Impenitent]

here's a better idea, turn all the nations in the world to democratic nanny states, they'll be bitching and whining and pissing and moaning about the evil rich amongst themselves, they won't have time to attack us...

"what we need in the world is more military and less social spending... what good are all the welfare programs if a terrorists kills you? "

are you being facetious? america spends some 500-600 billion on the military every year. more than the 13 runners up combined. we have 54% of the world's military power. if america can't do it with their military no one can.

the other point is that terrorists do not usually fight the military. they are not a standing army to be found. they are sneaker than the viet-cong. the military fights over soil. terrorists fight over beliefs and broken glass. it's apples and oranges. all the military spending in the world won't kill 'all' the terrorists.

[Impenitent]

not at all... see all the socialist corpses in bread lines...

if you don't defend yourself and kill your enemies, you will be killed

" no man can produce a billion dollars of labor" ever hear of bill gates?!? he wasn't born rich, he earned it and he has produced much much more than a billion dollars of labor...

[castille]

America has high military spending because...*drum roll* - it has the world's biggest economy!

Do you know why Tuvalu has such low military spending?

Because....*drum roll* they have one of the smallest economies in the world!

Big economy equals big military. Little economy is little military.

People say the same about China's execution rate. China has the world's highest death penalties because it has the world's largest amount of citizens!


Big chief buy big club.

[Evil Baby]

Originally posted by Impenitent, not at all... see all the socialist corpses in bread lines... if you don't defend yourself and kill your enemies, you will be killed " no man can produce a billion dollars of labor" ever hear of bill gates?!? he wasn't born rich, he earned it and he has produced much much more than a billion dollars of labor...

Perhaps you should read up about Bill Gates. He was indeed born wealthy. Sure he wasn't as wealthy as he is now but he was by no means born poor. His parents had the money to send him to Harvard. In grade 7 he was sent to a private school where in Grade 8 he was introduced to the computer. One of the few schools in the country that allowed their students to play with the computer. You see he was born wealthy and because of that wealth he had a chance to attend a private school that introduced him to new technology, something he wouldn't have been in contact with in this public school system. Funny how that worked out for him.

[Evil Baby]

Originally posted by castille, America has high military spending because...*drum roll* - it has the world's biggest economy! Do you know why Tuvalu has such low military spending? Because....*drum roll* they have one of the smallest economies in the world! Big economy equals big military. Little economy is little military. People say the same about China's execution rate. China has the world's highest death penalties because it has the world's largest amount of citizens! Big chief buy big club.

I don't think anybody would argue that the U.S. should have the largest military spending in the world and for one I'm glad they do. However I do believ that there should be a limit as to how high their military spending is. I know from other research that they do not spend the most per GDP compared to other countries with much much much smaller economies but I still think the U.S. military budget is a bit of overkill, especially during times of relative peace.