XPost: alt.politics.democrats, dc.politics, talk.politics   
   XPost: alt.peace   
   From: tim.howard@suddenlink.net   
      
   The House of Representatives (representing military interests primarily)   
   passed the 2012 "defense" budget--I use that term loosely since our   
   military is and has been for decades, offense--totaling an astronomical   
   amount of $690 billion.  This is far more than we spend on so-called   
   "welfare", environmental cleanup, non-military job creation, consumer   
   protections, and well I could go on all day.   
      
   Neither liberal democrats, who have always claimed to oppose such high   
   military spending, nor the new libertarian-conservatives from the "Tea   
   Party" movement, who said military spending should be cut, did anything   
   to decrease this insane spending.  I wonder if the foolish libertarians   
   who supported TP really thought those Republicans would be any different   
   than the old Republicans.  Obama sure as hell did not dare to say we   
   should cut the military.  When one of his staff said a few months ago,   
   military spending might need to be frozen at current levels, there was   
   an uproar.   
      
   The fact is military spending has remained near a certain percentage of   
   the overall budget, and near a certain percentage of the GNP, since the   
   Reagan era.  We don't spend any money building nuclear weapons anymore,   
   and we eliminated many US military bases under Clinton, yet our military   
   budget keeps growing.  $116 billion is for the Iraq and Afghan wars, but   
   don't think the military budget would have went down to $574 billion   
   (still too high) if we were not in those conflicts; in 2009 military   
   spending on those wars was $200 billion, and the military's overall   
   budget was $650 billion.  The fact is the Pentagon will always find   
   something to spend the money on, in order to justify spending increases.   
     Anyone who opposes it is labeled a traitor or a coward.   
      
   If we would lower our military spending to percentages of GNP and   
   budgets to a level similar to the world's major democracies (which would   
   probably cause them to spend more, so I am thinking of the happy medium   
   where most would meet) our military spending would be around 200 billion   
   less.  Why will our politicians not even suggest cutting or even   
   freezing the Pentagon's budget?  Because the United States, arguably   
   since Teddy Roosevelt's time, and certainly since the post WWII, has   
   been a militaristic nation.  No matter who succeeds who in the White   
   House or Congress, most of them have the mentality of keeping the US an   
   imperial power.   
      
   Obama ran on the vague slogans of "hope" and "change".  What has not   
   changed is our military spending, our imperial presence around the world   
   (over 800 foreign military bases), aggressive military recruitment of   
   our youth, and war-making.  What we should hope for is a reduction in   
   all these areas.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)