It's time to downsize

[AlexWA]

In my personal opinion the US military budget needs to be cut, preferably 50% or more, and all non-essential foreign bases closed. This country would seemingly rather spend hundreds of billions of dollars to maintain its war machine and global footprint then it would putting those billions of dollars into the rebuilding the infrastructure and supporting the people of this country. Think about what our domestic capabilities would be without all that military spending. In my opinion our time as world police is over, we should embrace that, and look inward now and determine how we can move this country forward into a peaceful, sustainable, and stable future. A new attack helicopter or a new military base in some foreign desert is not the future.

 

[TNHarley]

Closing the embassies? I concur. Cutting the budget 50%? Hell no! We are already looked at as weak and vulnerable. We have terrible dividness and poor leadership. That would be suicide. We need our military strong. Our reputation is no longer great.

 

[AlexWA]

Closing the embassies? I concur. Cutting the budget 50%? Hell no! We are already looked at as weak and vulnerable. We have terrible dividness and poor leadership. That would be suicide. We need our military strong. Our reputation is no longer great.

Well in my opinion embassies do not oppress or give the impression of oppression typically, but bases and soldiers do. Our military spending is huge, huge when compared to all other countries in the world. We have soldiers and bases all over the world including countries that we fought in wars over 50 years ago, yet we remain. Cutting the budget in half would still be more than a lot of countries. The only reason there is this perceived weakness is because of us spreading our defense forces across the globe.

 

[AlexWA]

For example think about what just 10 billion dollars of the military's budget would do for domestic projects in this country. We spend a billion on a new fighter jet that will rarely if ever be used, why? One billion dollars of the military budget towards river and beach clean up for example would benefit our future more than that jet would in my opinion.

 

[waltky]

DOD spending increased 10% adjusted for inflation...

Obama Increased Real Defense Spending by More Than 10 Percent
November 15, 2012 - President Barack Obama increased inflation-adjusted Department of Defense spending by 10 percent--even while ending the war in Iraq.

That is more than the automatic cut in defense spending that will take place in January if Obama and Congress do not agree to a new spending-and-debt-limit deal. In fiscal 2008, the year before Obama took office, real Defense Department spending was $526.9 billion in constant 2005 dollars, according to official figures published by the Office of Management and Budget. Four years later, in fiscal 2012, which ended on Sept. 30, real Defense Department spending was $582.5 billion in constant 2005 dollars. The $55.6 billion jump in real Defense Department spending from 2008 to 2012 was a 10.5 percent increase.

In August 2011, House Speaker John Boehner made a deal with Obama to enact legislation lifting the legal limit on the federal debt by $2.4 trillion. That deal also said that if Congress and the president could not agree to significant spending cuts by Jan. 2, 2013, there would be automatic cuts in defense spending and non-defense discretionary spending. As calculated by the Congressional Research Service, those automatic cuts would equal about $54.7 billion in defense spending in 2013 and about $54.7 billion in domestic spending.

Cutting defense by $54.7 billion in 2013 would not reverse the inflation-adjusted increase of $55.6 billion in defense spending instituted under Obama. In fiscal 2003, when the United States was at war in both Iraq and Afghanistan, Defense Department spending was $426.3 billion in constant 2005 dollars. Between then and 2012, real Defense Department spending increased by $156.2 billion, or 36.6 percent.

Obama Increased Real Defense Spending by More Than 10 Percent | CNS News

See also:

Coburn Report on DOD Budget – Millions Spent on Storytelling Science, Breast Cancer Research, Chevy Volts
November 15, 2012 – In a 74-page report entitled ‘Department of Everything,’ Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) outlined how $67.8 billion dollars can be saved by cutting non-defense spending at the Department of Defense, including $6 million on researching the science behind storytelling, medical research and alternative energy.

Coburn held a press conference on Thursday to release his report. “We looked at the entire Pentagon, and this is just one section of it on areas where the Pentagon works that has nothing to do with defense,” Coburn said.

The report shows that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has spent $6 million through 12 taxpayer-funded grants, including a two-day workshop in San Francisco entitled “Neurobiology of Narratives.” “Understanding how narratives inform neurobiological processes is critical if we are to ascertain what effect narratives have on the psychology and neurobiology of human choices and behaviors,” the report quotes from a 2011 DARPA paper on the workshop.

DARPA said the research helps in “better understanding the thoughts and feelings of others.” “As the Pentagon and Congress consider cutting active duty Army infantry brigades, it should consider whether or not keeping storytelling conferences is a good use of Department of Defense funding,” Coburn’s report states.

The report also reveals that the Department of Defense spends millions on medical research, duplicating research efforts of other federal agencies and researching diseases that do not have a direct connection to military service. “Over the past two decades, Congress has appropriated nearly $6.5 billion for Congressional Directed Medical Research Program to research a variety of diseases or medical conditions with an additional $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2012,” the report states. “Some of the CDMRP has an obvious connection to the military, such as the $463 million spent on psychological health and traumatic brain injury.

MORE

 

[usmcstinger]

In my personal opinion the US military budget needs to be cut, preferably 50% or more, and all non-essential foreign bases closed. This country would seemingly rather spend hundreds of billions of dollars to maintain its war machine and global footprint then it would putting those billions of dollars into the rebuilding the infrastructure and supporting the people of this country. Think about what our domestic capabilities would be without all that military spending. In my opinion our time as world police is over, we should embrace that, and look inward now and determine how we can move this country forward into a peaceful, sustainable, and stable future. A new attack helicopter or a new military base in some foreign desert is not the future.

Each time, our government has reduced the size of our Armed Forces, in a short period of time, they would scramble around trying to build it up again.

Reducing the size of our Military is viewed a sign of weakness by those who would do harm to us and our allies.

When the Korean War began, the USMC could only send one Regiment. Mc Arthur wanted a Division.
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

You always want be able to deal with issues from a position of strength. No President had a greater understanding of this than Ronald Reagan.

 

[Sunni Man]

If we would politically distance ourselves from Israel and quit supporting their terrorist government.

We could reduce our military spending by at least 50%

 

[Mad Scientist]

Reducing the size of our Military is viewed a sign of weakness by those who would do harm to us and our allies.

Our Military is run by the UN. Obama and Panetta said so.

Let the UN pay for it.

 

[usmcstinger]

If we would politically distance ourselves from Israel and quit supporting their terrorist government.

We could reduce our military spending by at least 50%

3'rd millennium BC : The Canaanites were the earliest known inhabitants of Palestine. They were semites speaking in semitic languages.
Brief history of Palestine - Palestine - Home of history

Now its time for you find out who the Philistines were and where they came from. They were not Semites or Arabs.

 

[Warrior102]

In my personal opinion the US military budget needs to be cut, preferably 50% or more, and all non-essential foreign bases closed. This country would seemingly rather spend hundreds of billions of dollars to maintain its war machine and global footprint then it would putting those billions of dollars into the rebuilding the infrastructure and supporting the people of this country. Think about what our domestic capabilities would be without all that military spending. In my opinion our time as world police is over, we should embrace that, and look inward now and determine how we can move this country forward into a peaceful, sustainable, and stable future. A new attack helicopter or a new military base in some foreign desert is not the future.

How would you like a 50% cut, fuckface?

What do you do for a living?

Let's see if you qualify to be "retained" or "cut."

 

[del]

In my personal opinion the US military budget needs to be cut, preferably 50% or more, and all non-essential foreign bases closed. This country would seemingly rather spend hundreds of billions of dollars to maintain its war machine and global footprint then it would putting those billions of dollars into the rebuilding the infrastructure and supporting the people of this country. Think about what our domestic capabilities would be without all that military spending. In my opinion our time as world police is over, we should embrace that, and look inward now and determine how we can move this country forward into a peaceful, sustainable, and stable future. A new attack helicopter or a new military base in some foreign desert is not the future.

How would you like a 50% cut, fuckface?

What do you do for a living?

Let's see if you qualify to be "retained" or "cut."

asswipe say what?

 

[Sunni Man]

If we would politically distance ourselves from Israel and quit supporting their terrorist government.

We could reduce our military spending by at least 50%

3'rd millennium BC : The Canaanites were the earliest known inhabitants of Palestine. They were semites speaking in semitic languages.
Brief history of Palestine - Palestine - Home of history

Now its time for you find out who the Philistines were and where they came from. They were not Semites or Arabs.

Thanks for the history lesson, but I really don't care where they came from.

My point is that backing and supporting Israel caused America all kinds of problems all over the world.

And has almost bankrupted us because we have to maintain a huge military because of Israel's problems with it's neighbors.

We need to realize that Israel is not our 51st state and we are under no Constitutional obligation to defend it or support it's government.

 

[Mr Natural]

But,but,but . . .

furners will come here and kill us!

 

[skye]

For Obama to sacrifice national security in order to make his fiscal record look better than it is, is a bad idea!


“In an increasingly dangerous world, this strategy will result in a United States that is less secure and less able to influence the strategic landscape in the way that Americans have come to expect over the last sixty years. The president is managing decline rather than fighting to ensure that the twenty-first century remains an American one.”


The President should not be penny pinching when it comes to the US military budget.

 

[Too Tall]

For example think about what just 10 billion dollars of the military's budget would do for domestic projects in this country. We spend a billion on a new fighter jet that will rarely if ever be used, why? One billion dollars of the military budget towards river and beach clean up for example would benefit our future more than that jet would in my opinion.

All I can think about a 10 billion dollar cut in defense spending is that it would be $10 billion we don't have to borrow from China. Take 10 billion from $1,089,000,000 and this years deficit would only be $1,079,000,000. Big whoop.

 

[AmyNation]

You can't simply cut 50% of the military. It would cause a serious blow to the already weakened economy. I would like to see a 15 year bipartisan plan that draws down our military bases in foreign countries and reduces the military by 25% on the whole.

We have the largest military in the world, if today we cut that in half, we would still have the largest military in the world. However we need to be prepared for the unknown, and cognizant of what we can produce quickly if needed( guns tanks etc) and what can take much longer to get (well trained soliders).

 

[Nightson]

In my personal opinion the US military budget needs to be cut, preferably 50% or more, and all non-essential foreign bases closed. This country would seemingly rather spend hundreds of billions of dollars to maintain its war machine and global footprint then it would putting those billions of dollars into the rebuilding the infrastructure and supporting the people of this country. Think about what our domestic capabilities would be without all that military spending. In my opinion our time as world police is over, we should embrace that, and look inward now and determine how we can move this country forward into a peaceful, sustainable, and stable future. A new attack helicopter or a new military base in some foreign desert is not the future.

The essentiality of a fully manned, armed and armored United States military will never abate. Anachronistic as armor divisions intended to counter Soviet era ground supremacy seem today, those same dinosaurs must endure if even in mothballed ready state here and OCONUS as long as burgeoning superpowers grow the same capability.

The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan spawned the misconception that our armed forces were overprepared--that a hammer was deployed to kill a gnat. The subsequent years of occupation notwithstanding, a day will come when the enemy we face is much better armed than any we've faced in the last five decades. Maintenance of a globally superior force domestically and abroad is absolutely necessary to ensure the freedoms you and most all other Americans feel entitled to and exercise every day.

Warfare is never civilized but it is eventually necessary. Removing half of the ability to wage it is the first step toward voluntary relinquishment of sovereignty and freedom. I often hear the argument you've made in this post, for downsizing conventional forces. Would you prefer we settle all armed conflict with megatons and fallout?

 

[SFC Ollie]

I just love all these people who want to cut the military when they haven't a clue as to how thwe military operates and what would happen if we were to weaken it yet again........

 

[Samson]

I just love all these people who want to cut the military when they haven't a clue as to how thwe military operates and what would happen if we were to weaken it yet again........

Millions of foreigners could cross our borders at will!

 

[Grandma]

I just love all these people who want to cut the military when they haven't a clue as to how thwe military operates and what would happen if we were to weaken it yet again........

I know some things.

50% ? Seems like a random number. I'd like to see specifics on exactly what would be cut, or are we cutting everything exactly in half?

Cutting it all down the middle is not practical. We now have the drones, and theoretically we're phasing into peacetime operations, but we still need some boots on the ground. We could scale back on the nukes and get rid of the old old oldschool ordinance, but we need to develop and install the next generation of long-range missiles, build the next generation of transport vehicles, and update the personal weapons. We need to reduce the number of troops, but not all at once right away. We need to close outdated bases, but we need to build some up-to-date ones.

Maybe instead of looking for savings with extreme cuts we could go for raising revenue - open military-run army/navy stores, like every town used to have, with made in America products from MREs to tents.