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Politics : Right Wing Extremist Thread
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To: Bilow who wrote (15954)9/11/2001 12:00:39 AM
From: TimF  Read Replies (1) of 59480
 
The proper comparison for our current military expenditures is not with the cold war, certainly not with any hot war, but with typical peace time expenditures. The problem is that the world has either been in war, or about to be in war between 1914 and 1989. Since then, our military expenditures have dropped, but nearly as much as the military threats have.

Going back to before 1914 means we are going back to a very different world, and its hard to compare the military spending levels then. At peacetime in the 19th century our military expenditures were low even as a % of our GDP but we were not the super power then and we didn't have other countries depending on us to help them out as much back then. You can argue that we shouldn't get involved and just let other countries handle things themselves but if you want to do that you should argue first for lower military responsibilities and less US involvement across the world and then for lower spending. Also in the 19th century the oceans where more of a barrier then they are now. We didn't face ICBMs then. And we were not as dependent on raw materials from other countries.

And that's not all of it. Other factors argue for higher spending now. In 1880 we could mobilize an army quicker, it was men with rifles and a few simple artillery pieces. Sure the new green troops might not fight so well at first but we would put up with more casualties. Now it could take over a decade to scale up with new modern weapons if we shrink our forces, and our country has less tolerance for casualties we can't just send green soldier with old rifles in waves against the enemy any more.

The threat to the US has greatly decreased but it has not gone away completly and we have to be prepared for possibilities 10 years or more away. Also deployments of US forces each year have increased since the end of the cold war. If we are going to cut defense we have to cut out those deployments.

Tim
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