Like so many fat, lazy Americans. Just sits around all the time, never getting anything done. At this point though, what would happen if we fired 75% of them (bureaucrats)? I'd sure like to find out.
I don't think this is correct. And, you got to remember, our Congress won't allow us to fight a real war anymore.
A real war would cost 10x to 100x what the escapade in Iraq cost. You're talking about putting millions of boots on the ground, along with all their gear, and of course the massive Chair Force that comes along with it. It's a damn good thing we never had to fight the Soviets directly.
Your right, it is cheaper to be a policeman than to fight a war. We spent about 80 million a year policing Iraq before George Bush and Dick Cheney decided it would be a good idea to invade and go after Saddam Hussein at a total cost of between 3 and 4 trillion dollars, including veterans benefits and interest. The amount the U.S, spends every year on both defense and aggressive invasion of other countries is not 700B$/year as you state, but actually closer to nine hundred billion. When you add in veterans benefits and interest on the money borrowed to pay for this, it's even more! The total tab amounts to 4 thousand per man women and child per year. Of course only a fraction of the population pays the bill, and they don't pay entirely in cash. They pay much of it via inflation. It's more than all other countries on Earth combined spend on defense and aggression. This will, of course , bankrupt the U.S.A. It is only a matter of time. And it won't be long now. Of course you can argue that this money is not spent just for defense, because in recent years a portion of this money has been spent on preemptive wars of aggression. And therefore it's a real bargain.
Definitely we should go ahead and invade China NOW, because they have weapons of mass destruction and may have recently bought some aluminum tubes. These could be used for almost anything! If we wait, they will be only stronger, and then we will have to nuke them for sure. I figure, if we act now, we can turn the entire country into smouldering cinders for less than 100 trillion. Possibly that can be cut to say half, or 50 trillion, by employing Nixon's neutron bomb which will only kills people and leaves the buildings intact, just mildly radioactive is all. We can then turn the entire country, the buildings anyway, over to American corporations, who as we know, can always run things more efficiently than any government. Under the leadership of Coca Cola's board, China can become a great tourist destination. Frito-Lay can have all the snack concessions and install Little Debbie vending machines everywhere! Comcast can be in charge of making sure all tourist venues have twenty four seven access to shopping channels, and Mister Coffee can be in charge of making sure that all appliances are beautiful.