The debt and foreign policy

[WillowTree]

well, first off, how is anything with as much collusion as our foriegn policy going to assume some sort of 'honest' approach when so many biased entites are all about their own self enlightened interests KK?

One could say the same of anything government does. The question, however, is what would you do, assuming you could do anything.

demand transparency & clarity , and publicly expose the profiteers and opportunists to the public, and allow US an informed choice

anyone who thinks we actually have that now is either dumber than a bag of hammers, or suffres from partisan delusion

Hey! Einstein.. what is this word "suffres"?

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

One could say the same of anything government does. The question, however, is what would you do, assuming you could do anything.

demand transparency & clarity , and publicly expose the profiteers and opportunists to the public, and allow US an informed choice

anyone who thinks we actually have that now is either dumber than a bag of hammers, or suffres from partisan delusion

Hey! Einstein.. what is this word "suffres"?

Willow you're a conservative, how would you change our foreign policy to address the debt?

 

[Trajan]

I don't understand how Republicans can justify keeping every foreign military base open. It costs us over 600 billion a year and serves no purpose. There is a tiny shred of validity to continuing the wars, but the foreign military bases seem like a no brainer.

I don't think it costs $600 billion a year to keep the bases open. Does it?

I don't feel like tracking down the numbers, but I thought procurement was about half the budget of ~$800 billion.

But maybe I'm wrong, I don't know.

the dod budget as you allude is approx 800 b, in short no, hes has no idea what he is speaking to or of.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

Anyone out there want to tackle this question? I mean we can't maintain our current foreign policy and realistically address the debt, so I assume some conservatives have an idea of what they would change.

 

[Trajan]

no off. but I have several times ala DOD budgeting etc....maybe I ought to start saving them all to a word file or something......

let me ask you a Q- lets say the dod budget is 800 Billion even,

how would you ask for a reduction?

lets say I am Gates- go for it.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

no off. but I have several times ala DOD budgeting etc....maybe I ought to start saving them all to a word file or something......

let me ask you a Q- lets say the dod budget is 800 Billion even,

how would you ask for a reduction?

lets say I am Gates- go for it.

I don't understand the premise of this situation. If you're Gates then who am I? Myself? The President? A member of Congress?

 

[Wiseacre]

The Obama Admin is asking for 159 billion for the Iraq and Afghan wars in FY2011. I think our cost for the Libyan "not" war is approaching 1 billion. One estimate for the 2 wars so far is 1.2 trillion. But both wars are winding down, right? We may be out of Iraq by the end of the year and begin drawing down in Afghan this July. So, those wars were very costly in more ways than one, and it may be that the total overall cost is much higher. But how much are we going to save in the future from these 2 efforts? Not much if they're going away anyway.

As a conservative, I think the defense budget has to take it's share of the hit. Fewer new weapon systems or in less numbers, draw down the troop levels a little bit, and stop putting boots on the ground in far off places unless our national security is at stake. Much as I hate to see people dying in the streets of Libya and Syria, we just don't have the money and should not be putting our troops in harms way unless absolutely necessary. And if we do, we get the job done and go home, no more nation building.

As far as foreign bases are concerned, the host countries are going to have to step up and foot more of the cost or we close it down and come home. As it is, I'd do another round of base closures here and abroad, and I'd leave the Congress out of the decision making. It needs to be based on the most effective use of defense dollars rather than politics. Same deal for new weapons systems and other contracts, somehow we need to keep the politics out of the process.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

The Obama Admin is asking for 159 billion for the Iraq and Afghan wars in FY2011. I think our cost for the Libyan "not" war is approaching 1 billion. One estimate for the 2 wars so far is 1.2 trillion. But both wars are winding down, right? We may be out of Iraq by the end of the year and begin drawing down in Afghan this July. So, those wars were very costly in more ways than one, and it may be that the total overall cost is much higher. But how much are we going to save in the future from these 2 efforts? Not much if they're going away anyway.

As a conservative, I think the defense budget has to take it's share of the hit. Fewer new weapon systems or in less numbers, draw down the troop levels a little bit, and stop putting boots on the ground in far off places unless our national security is at stake. Much as I hate to see people dying in the streets of Libya and Syria, we just don't have the money and should not be putting our troops in harms way unless absolutely necessary. And if we do, we get the job done and go home, no more nation building.

As far as foreign bases are concerned, the host countries are going to have to step up and foot more of the cost or we close it down and come home. As it is, I'd do another round of base closures here and abroad, and I'd leave the Congress out of the decision making. It needs to be based on the most effective use of defense dollars rather than politics. Same deal for new weapons systems and other contracts, somehow we need to keep the politics out of the process.

We're never going to fully leave Afghanistan or Iraq. But I appreciate your response.

 

[Wiseacre]

The Obama Admin is asking for 159 billion for the Iraq and Afghan wars in FY2011. I think our cost for the Libyan "not" war is approaching 1 billion. One estimate for the 2 wars so far is 1.2 trillion. But both wars are winding down, right? We may be out of Iraq by the end of the year and begin drawing down in Afghan this July. So, those wars were very costly in more ways than one, and it may be that the total overall cost is much higher. But how much are we going to save in the future from these 2 efforts? Not much if they're going away anyway.

As a conservative, I think the defense budget has to take it's share of the hit. Fewer new weapon systems or in less numbers, draw down the troop levels a little bit, and stop putting boots on the ground in far off places unless our national security is at stake. Much as I hate to see people dying in the streets of Libya and Syria, we just don't have the money and should not be putting our troops in harms way unless absolutely necessary. And if we do, we get the job done and go home, no more nation building.

As far as foreign bases are concerned, the host countries are going to have to step up and foot more of the cost or we close it down and come home. As it is, I'd do another round of base closures here and abroad, and I'd leave the Congress out of the decision making. It needs to be based on the most effective use of defense dollars rather than politics. Same deal for new weapons systems and other contracts, somehow we need to keep the politics out of the process.

We're never going to fully leave Afghanistan or Iraq. But I appreciate your response.

I think we are, even if a Repub wins the WH. The GOP knows what happened to Bush43 for staying in Iraq, I don't think they'll make the same mistake. But maybe you're right, we'll see.

 

[Trajan]

no off. but I have several times ala DOD budgeting etc....maybe I ought to start saving them all to a word file or something......

let me ask you a Q- lets say the dod budget is 800 Billion even,

how would you ask for a reduction?

lets say I am Gates- go for it.

I don't understand the premise of this situation. If you're Gates then who am I? Myself? The President? A member of Congress?

you're "da Man...."...god, Obama, whomever, you have the authority to tell me what to do.....

so, tell me:________________________________________________

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

no off. but I have several times ala DOD budgeting etc....maybe I ought to start saving them all to a word file or something......

let me ask you a Q- lets say the dod budget is 800 Billion even,

how would you ask for a reduction?

lets say I am Gates- go for it.

I don't understand the premise of this situation. If you're Gates then who am I? Myself? The President? A member of Congress?

you're "da Man...."...god, Obama, whomever, you have the authority to tell me what to do.....

so, tell me:________________________________________________

Well if I'm the President I'm not going to ask my Secretary of Defense for a reduction, I'm simply going to tell them that the troops are all coming home immediately.

 

[Antiderivative]

True Conservatives believe in a humble foreign policy. They promote honest diplomacy and trade over aggression. However, the old right has been marginalized by current day gomers.

 

[Trajan]

I don't understand the premise of this situation. If you're Gates then who am I? Myself? The President? A member of Congress?

you're "da Man...."...god, Obama, whomever, you have the authority to tell me what to do.....

so, tell me:________________________________________________

Well if I'm the President I'm not going to ask my Secretary of Defense for a reduction, I'm simply going to tell them that the troops are all coming home immediately.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

True Conservatives believe in a humble foreign policy. They promote honest diplomacy and trade over aggression. However, the old right has been marginalized by current day gomers.

The Old Right was a blip on the history of the Republican Party and conservative movement. Republicans have always been hawkish since the days of Lincoln.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

you're "da Man...."...god, Obama, whomever, you have the authority to tell me what to do.....

so, tell me:________________________________________________

Well if I'm the President I'm not going to ask my Secretary of Defense for a reduction, I'm simply going to tell them that the troops are all coming home immediately.

The President is the Commander-in-Chief, correct?

 

[Antiderivative]

The Old Right was a blip on the history of the Republican Party and conservative movement. Republicans have always been hawkish since the days of Lincoln.

And the old right is one of the biggest critics of Lincoln.

 

[Two Thumbs]

So we know that conservatives are worried about the debt and our profligate spending, but we also know that many conservatives support our continued military involvement around the world. So my question is how can we honestly address the debt and maintain our current foreign policy? Obviously we know that conservatives would like to "reform" or end entitlement programs, but that's only one portion of the problem. So what would conservatives on USMB change about our foreign policy, if anything, to try to help reign in the debt?

We have hundreds of overseas ports and bases.

Many, if not most can be closed since the reason most are there [WW2 and the Cold War} have been resolved.

Nation building; stop this now. The only time we should be building anyting for another country to use is if we blew it up.

Dump NATO, it's just another relic of the Cold War. We still have the UN.

Dump the UN, we don't need them, and they don't do jack w/o us going in first.

 

[Two Thumbs]

True Conservatives believe in a humble foreign policy. They promote honest diplomacy and trade over aggression. However, the old right has been marginalized by current day gomers.

The Old Right was a blip on the history of the Republican Party and conservative movement. Republicans have always been hawkish since the days of Lincoln.

65% of all American wars and actions were started with a (D) in the WH.

You might want to check that hollier than thou shit at the door.

 

[Too Tall]

Anyone out there want to tackle this question? I mean we can't maintain our current foreign policy and realistically address the debt, so I assume some conservatives have an idea of what they would change.

My first choice would be to replace the current warmongering community organizer with a conservative President. Tripling the 'boots on the ground' in Afghanistan, stepping up the drone attacks in Pakistan, launching cruise missiles and daily bombing of Libya, drone attacks in Yemen and a very real chance of the same in Syria are not reasonable to a conservative. After all is said and done, foreign policy is formulated and carried out by the Executive branch of our government.

My second choice would be a Conservative Senate that would give advise against armed aggression and with hold consent as is their Constitutional duty.

My third choice would be a Conservative House that would have the courage to with hold the funding for these military adventures of a warmonger.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

The Old Right was a blip on the history of the Republican Party and conservative movement. Republicans have always been hawkish since the days of Lincoln.

And the old right is one of the biggest critics of Lincoln.

That may be, but the influence of the Old Right has been vastly exaggerated in my opinion.