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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (327511)	2/26/2007 8:21:56 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573876

We spend to have the capability to deter or defeat enemies, and we pay more so that if we have to defeat them we can do so a much lower loss of life. One reason we spend more is simply that we are bigger. Our economy is 1/5th of the world's economy, and many countries have to spend a larger percentage of their economy on keeping their people fed and meeting other basic needs. To a certain extent we subsidize the rest of the world, in performing activities like enforcing freedom of navigation, and having the capability to deal with contingencies that might arise. Countries like the EU countries, and Japan are able to spend less because they know if it really hits the fan, we will be likely to deal with it. I understand that you would probably end this subsidy or at least reduce it, and I see some reason to want to do it myself, but I also consider it problematic. I also understand you want to pull out of Iraq, which would save money, but the amount spent would still be very large compared to everyone else.