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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices

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To: tejek who wrote (178208)	11/19/2003 8:41:48 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) of 1575761

Our defense budget has been huge ever since WW II and uses mass paranoia to justify its existence. The truth is that there is a lot of American wealth and income tied up in the defense industry. They use the paranoia to keep it going. Its digusting! 3 to 4% of the GDP isn't a sign of paranoia but prudence. While you argue against the invasion of Iraq, surely you must recognize that its prudent to at least have that type of capability in case it was needed. You also argue that we need more solider in Iraq. That would seem to call for a higher defense budget. At the height of the cold war the percentage was much higher (mainly because the economy was smaller) but considering the threat posed by the USSR I don't see that level as being paranoid either. In WWII military spending may have exceeded 1/3rd of the GDP but if you think that is paranoid then you've gone off the deep end. The last time American spending was lower as a percentage of the GDP then it is now was between WWI and WWII when our navy was weaker then Japans and was at a very low alert status (opening us up for Pearl Harbor) and are army was pathetically week. Fortunately there was no ICBM's in existence and we had no land border with a hostile power so we had time to build up, but now attacks can be quicker (with ICBMs) or stealthier (attacks like 9/11 or terrorism with chem and bio weapons or maybe eventually nukes). Also with today's complex weapons systems it takes longer to build up our strength. We aren't just going to grab a couple of million foot infantry with simple rifles like the M1 and throw them at the enemy. Its a good thing that we are so wealthy we can be strong without the defense budget being a huge burden. Tim

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