https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/10/v-22-osprey-the-u-s-militarys-biggest-mistake/ https://www.military.com/daily-news...5-others-pay-new-carriers-and-submarines.html US military is a tabou subject. We don't ever say it, but I will. We are a waring nation. We don't say it like that; We use hyperbolic language instead, like we defend liberty or democracy or free enterprise. But in reality, we go to war for reasons that have nothing to do with defending our nation against aggression. In my life time, my US government sent troops to fight for our freedom in Vietnam, Korea, Cambodia, Laos, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Niger, Libya, and... Did I forget any country? I don't believe any of those countries were an actual threat to our country but we were led to believe they were. Those are only our overt fights for freedom. Because we are relentless in our fight against evil, we also fight our enemies covertly, which means we only learn about those after the peremption dates for questions about our actions have expired, like in Iran, Chile, Ukraine and probably many, many other countries. Freedom has a price and, thanks to patriot Americans, including those who think this is all bullshit, we spend nearly 30% of our hard earned tax dollars on military spending. We really don't know what 30% means because no one ever breaks down what that really is. Like, is that Osprey or Littoral really mine? Or does my money also buys me the CIA and all these acronym agencies we love so much that tv series were created tv to identify and bond with? I kind of want to know because I'm regularly reminded that we Americans spend more on defense than 3/4 of the world and a lot more than our archenemy Soviets. I mean Russia. I mean China. Seems a bit unfair of our allies who can't even agree to spend 2% of their national budget on defense, and they should really spend more or we won't defend them.. Well, don't they want to defend freedom and liberty and those other big words we like to use? Wait, why are we spending so much money on defense? Don't we have more pressing issues to address, like our substance abuse crisis that kills almost 100k people a year? Or our healthcare that stands out as the best for the wealthiest people and the worst for anyone not working in corporate and government America? How about our education system that we decided should be paid for by students, unlike any other nation in the world? Maybe our infrastructure system that regularly reminds us that lack of regular maintenance means it's going to fall, break, be unsuable? We spend so much money on defense not because we want our allies to think we're stooopid to spend so much, but because we have so much vested interests in keeping that cash flowing. Our largest corporations depend on military spending, our government financed military depends on our spending, not just to prepare for tomorrow's wars, but for today's expenses and yesterday's retirements. So, are the Osprey and Littoral programs a failure? Absolutely not. Multi millions were spent in development and production to the benefit of many corporations and millions were spent in military and government administration time. Does it matter if those instruments of war are useless? As long as the military budget grows, no one in uniform gives two shits. When was last time We the People held our military accountable for their spending? Remember the multi thousand dollars bolts and other materials scandal of the 1980's? Me neither. Do we want the best or are we gonna haggle dollars and cents? America is fkd, because we've become the cash cows of a military industrial complex that we depend on to believe we're the best. Whatever that means.
If you have time, this analysis & commentary is the first time I've seen the reason of our over spending making sense (saving lives by overwhelming). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock...=Shock and awe is a,destroy its will to fight.
We need a great Navy to guard against foreign incursions while we conduct a proper civil war. I think the Naval Research Lab has a particle beam weapon that could take out aircraft. Our war mongers actually profit from human sacrifice and genocide, so how would you persuade such people to become financially responsible.
What made sense, do we even remember why we invaded Iraq? The cool looking animation showing our overwhelming superiority forgot, out of modesty I'm sure, to show a counter with the per hour cost of the invasion. Numbers wildly differ but a thorough analysis by Brown University puts the number at over $2 trillion once it was all over. https://news.brown.edu/articles/2013/03/warcosts Of course the conflict didn't end there. It's mistaking winning a grand battle for winning the conflict. The seeds of rebellion were already planted while we were busy greasing the hands of Iraqi corruption in our attempt to get out of there asap. And as soon as we left Iraq, ISIS emerged. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/articl... State – also known,began to reemerge in 2011. My point is, there are many bad guys in the world that we could go fight and beat up. We spent 50 years in a cold war building up our military forces against the Evil (communist) Empire, and another 30 years to modify and upgrade our war machine to adapt to a post bipolar world order. The staggering financial cost is paid by US civil society which is suffering the consequences. Today, China is doing to the US what we did to the Soviet Union. We're in a new arms race with a nation 4x our size, with the capacity to build 10x faster at 30% of the cost. Just like with Soviet Russia, we may never go to war with China. But the CCP has locked in a leadership direction for the next decade or more. Xi will continue to ratchet up tension over Taiwan and modernize China's military while we will continue to increase our military budget to match or outmatch China's forces. In effect, Taiwan may simply be China's strategy to further weaken our nation without a shot being fired. China spends 5% of its annual budget on military while the US spends 10%. Who in America is going to suggest 20% is too much? How much will taxes need to increase for our military to remain leaders?
In fairness, the US did not go into AFG to get rid of Sharia, the original objective was met once AlQaea was wiped out and OBL taken out in Pakistan. We stayed there for "that reason" though.