Yeah, I remember that well. Clinton did decimate our armed forces, and worse, he decimated our intelligence capabilities.
BS. He wasn't decimating our military forces; he was ratcheting them down to a more reasonable level. We still have the highest per capita spending on defense of any nation in the world. In fact, the US spends more on defense than all the world's nations combined. It's ridiculous to be spending that much when we are the only superpower:
"Isn’t it time that we cut these unneeded big ticket items from the defense budget? Defense hawks decry that defense spending has fallen to a little more than three percent of U.S. gross domestic product. But this figure represents only how much the economy’s productive capacity is used up by defense spending. For a better measure of the magnitude of defense spending, the absolute level of the defense budget should be compared with the threat environment. The amount now being spent on defense is roughly what was spent in the late 1970s during the Cold War. This spending averages about $1,000 per year for every American.
Yet, in the post-Cold War world, the threat environment is dramatically less severe. Hawks will say that the world is still a dangerous place. But there has always been some danger in the world and the eclipse of the Soviet Union removed the only credible threat to the vital interests of the United States. Furthermore, no other nation spends even close to what the United States does on defense. The United States spends more than all of its allies--some of whom are the next most potent military powers in the world--combined. At most, the Russians and Chinese each spend $70 billion to $80 billion per year, but the total could be much less. Most of that money goes to holding creaking, bloated militaries together rather than on the development and production of new weapons. Moreover, combined, the most unfriendly nations--Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Cuba, and North Korea--spend only a paltry $15 billion per year. Such bone crushing superiority should allow the United States to cut some of the “overkill” from its defense budget."
independent.org |
