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Reality

Posted by Herb7734 6 years, 2 months ago to Politics
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Today's reality is that the USA is weak with a tiny navy, and air force. Half the planes don't fly and sequestration has cut the heart out of our militaryand the men and women are sick and tired by too many tours of dutyand we're close to being driven from the western Pacific . Three Presidents have failed to do anything but lick the boots of North Korea and China permitting them to become valid nuclear nations.
And what are we concerned with? Trump's vituperation. Have we all gone soft in the head.? One too many Marvel Movies? So we fight with each other while holding back on funding the military. Do we need another Pearl Harbor to wake us up? If another Pearl happens our excuse is, "He was using swear words which offended us."I'm not sure whether to be shamed or embarrassed. Maybe both.


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  • Posted by $ blarman 6 years, 2 months ago
    There are several Realities which must be recognized here:
    1) The US military budget itself is monstrous, with hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars devoted every year.
    2) The US military is constrained by a civilian leadership which is as partisan and pork-filled as anything we see.
    3) The people in the military are becoming more and more social justice warriors than defenders of freedom.
    4) The military is being used as an international police force rather than merely a self-defense force.
    5) The military researchers can't seem to focus when it comes to developing equipment.

    All of this points to real culture issues: not only in the military but in those who deal with the military. The politicians use the military to fund pork projects rife with waste. The recruiting guidelines are open and welcoming to those who have values incompatible with military service - who want to use the military as a social justice platform rather than a self-defense force. And we are trying to maintain a wartime military under the auspices of "readiness" despite the fact that most of our existing equipment is outdated and the new replacements try to do everything (they could really learn a lesson in specialization and efficiency!).
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    • Posted by DrZarkov99 6 years, 2 months ago
      Perspective, based on 20 years active duty and 20 more supporting the military: the wasteful mindset goes farther back than just the last few presidents. Examples: the Cheyenne helicopter, cancelled after all the problems were fixed; the Bradley armored vehicle, essentially cancelled and restarted to redesign; the Stryker wheeled vehicle, so narrow for navigating streets it flops on its side from cannon recoil; the M1 Garand, selected over the far superior Johnson rifle, a result of corruption; the M16, hard to maintain, with a puny round. I sat through a DARPA announcement to hear the agency director declare he was proud that 99% of DARPA projects were failures because that showed they were pushing the technology to its limit (the reality is that DARPA projects fail because of interference from the program managers, who think they're better engineers than the contractors).

      Social engineering experiments are almost a military tradition. Woodrow Wilson imposed segregation on the military during WW I, then Harry Truman desegregated the forces in the late '40s. Women gradually overcame resistance to female service members, and misguided politicians pushed to get women into even the toughest combat roles. Gays have served in the U.S. military without public acknowledgement since the beginning of the republic, with some having very distinguished combat records, so the recent official acceptance isn't so new. The transgender experiment is a different kind of wrinkle with outcome to be seen. I suspect the robotics and Artificial Intelligence incorporation will sneak up on people who don't see it as a social issue.

      The worldwide cop role isn't new, either. The Spanish-American War, with resulting years of fostering the Philippines was probably the start of significant policing. The Boxer rebellion in China, deployments to Central America in the '20s. Technically there wasn't any good reason for us to get involved in WW I, so you could consider that well intentioned meddling in European affairs (as my German sister-in-law refers to it, as she points out how much better she thinks things would have turned out with the Kaiser victorious). We have nearly 200,000 troops deployed to 177 countries across the globe, often without a clear purpose. So, should we draw back from most of those and get more focus on the real defense issues? That certainly would retain more of the budget where it should be, on better equipment better maintained.
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  • Posted by Dobrien 6 years, 2 months ago
    Reality with regard to govt spending hmmm.
    Who the hell knows. Pallets of hundred dollar bills
    Lost, misplaced, given to Iran with just a little transparency these extractions and rip offs would probably be the tip of the iceberg if it was not all so covered up..
    https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-pen...
    The lyric from Robert Palmers song was "she's so fine there's no telling where the money went"
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  • Posted by freedomforall 6 years, 2 months ago
    As Dr Pickering said, "Oh, Counsel, I think you picked a poor example"
    The reality is that the 2017 military budget was $582 BILLION.
    That is about $4,600 stolen from every family in America.

    Yet we are told repeatedly that the military is being starved and needs more money.

    This is just as irrational as any concern about Trump's tweeting or unpleasant language.
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    • Posted by 6 years, 2 months ago
      So....all the hoo-ha about the poor military is just so much B.S.?I don't think so. In addition, our enemies know this. But, even at our weakest we are stronger than anyone else on earth. And are ability to create war machines quickly is unrivaled. To be specific, what part of the above is untrue? It would help a lot to know and to make them or you defend that position.
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      • Posted by freedomforall 6 years, 2 months ago
        "Today's reality is that the USA is weak with a tiny navy, and air force."
        The USA military is anything but weak and has the most powerful force on earth. If they can't do it on $582 B-I-L-L-I-O-N then those in charge have not earned our support. Since 1987 most of the military budget has been wasted on stupid, irrational wars that have done nothing but to destroy the reputation of the people of America and create stronger enemies. It has sapped the economic strength of the nation by stealing from current and future generations.
        Insanity is repeating the same failed action. Spending more on the military is insanity because their entire goal is in error. They are not protecting America.
        I am not saying that this is the fault of the soldiers. It is the fault of those who give them orders. It's insane to support our domestic enemies, and those who are running the military are enemies of the people.
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        • Posted by 6 years, 2 months ago
          That is the answer I was seeking!
          The only disagreement I have as far as that is concerned is maintenance and training. There is no reason for missing replacement parts unless someone's hands are in the cookie jar. Also, when it comes to training the military (especially navy) looks like a kindergarten fire drill. I am not a military person, but the Military has gotten lax in the 8 years under obamavitz.
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          • Posted by freedomforall 6 years, 2 months ago
            I agree, there are lots of hands in the cookie jar. So many expenditures are kept secret for "national security" it's a very fertile area for corruption and unnecessary spending. Developing new technology for anything is very costly when there is no profit motive as in government spending. Fear is used to justify hundreds of billions of waste. Stopping the empire building ventures that do not protect America would reduce the opportunity for corruption.
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  • Posted by $ Abaco 6 years, 2 months ago
    Herb...After realizing that Ofra will probably be the next President I stopped looking at real estate in an adjacent state because it, once again, is clear to me that it's not far enough away.

    Regarding why we are so misdirected..,I occasionally interface with elected officials. They are all whores. Sometimes I work with appointees. Same applies to them. We have granted too much power to our government. So, now everything is up for sale. Everything. Years ago I heard a guy describe America as a toothless crack whore being abused. I've since seen behind the curtain and this, I've learned, was a very astute observation.
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  • Posted by freedomforall 6 years, 2 months ago
    Historical defense spending chart
    http://dailysignal.com/wp-content/upl...
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    • Posted by 6 years, 2 months ago
      Listening to the retired Generals on FOX talk about the recent scare to Hawaii showing how unprepared we are in the event N. Korea decides to throw an ICBM loaded with a WMD at us. with any area of heavy population the result could be devastating. OK we could respond by turning N. Korea into a desert. But that won't bring back the millions dead or the future generations destroyed or deformed by radiation poisoning.
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      • Posted by freedomforall 6 years, 2 months ago
        $6 trillion unaccounted for in DOD spending in past 20 years and we don't have any missile defense? Oh, and the numbnuts couldn't stop an "airliner" (hah!) from crashing into the Pentagon. Wasn't that on their watch? What kind of idiots keep funding these incompetents? Oh, forgot they are now working for the defense contractors. Patriots all, no doubt.
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    • Posted by coaldigger 6 years, 2 months ago
      I love more is less stories almost as much as less is more stories. Regardless of the ratio to GNP, we spend a hell of a lot of money, that we don't even have. The financial collapse from the debt is more likely to do us in than a North Korea nuke.
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  • Posted by mminnick 6 years, 2 months ago
    I would say about 48% have gone off in the head.
    Obama has sais there are two different world truths. One for those that listen to the MSM and one that listens to FNC. He is most likely right in this assessment. If you only have or only listen to the MSM your world view is very out of focus. FNS, what ever its faults, does at least try to resent the news as it is rather than as they want it to be. Their Prime Time shows are clearly opinion but even there you tend to get both sides of the issue.
    Anyway, that's how I got the 49% number
    +1
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