I am tired of people blaming the wars - the cost of which in total over the 10 or so years is less than the deficit we have each year right now.
4 trillion and counting:
http://costsofwar.org/
A lot of fluff in those numbers, a lot....and I think is not just for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan it includes the war on terror in overall and it includes costs for the next 10-50 years - ok. But it has not cost that in the last 10 years - so the current deficit has not been caused by this, it is simply part of it and the future costs (soft or not) will be part of future deficits, again I was talking about from the start of the wars until now, which is what most comments are about.
http://costofwar.com/http://www.cbo.gov/latest/national-security/iraq-and-afghanistanAnd I'm tired of faux fiscal conservatives who fail to acknowledge that this nation's military (i.e., waste) spending is out of control. When you spend more than the next 20 largest military forces combined, you have a "war" problem.
Ok.....please go back and remind me where I said we should increase defense spending and by under no circumstance should it be cut, please please show me. Actually, I think I said it could be cut and run more efficiently. Actually, I also think it was part of the sacred cows comment.
That said, defense is an important role of the government and we should spend more than any other nation for a number of reasons - population, geography and economically we are significantly larger than most other countries and we have been playing global police officer (although not always requested). Is this for the better or worse, I don't know, but it seems worse because any time we signal that we may sit something out the world gets mad, any time we want to get involved the world gets mad. Either way someone is pissed at us.
Should we stay the hell out of others business - again I don't know. Would I like to - yes, but what are the consequences. 9/11 happened because we didn't keep to ourselves and our support of Israel (mostly because of this) - but if we stayed out of it then Israel may not exist today. The US has muted its support of Israel under the current administration - which is fine as long as we don't hang them out to dry, I am all for letting them handle their own business for a while, but when they take actions on things we can't then tell them to back off.
Our defense helps with this - it may be schoolyard tactics but some times the fact that "I am bigger than you" is enough. The cold war was "We are both big and will both die if we fight, so lets not". I wouldn't want to be on the other side of the coin where another country is threatening us with those terms. It is not good for anybody if Iran does go nuclear - although there is no need to rush into it either, we know how that works out - can you say WMD - but you can't wait to long either. Politicians suck IMO, but for these types of decisions I am so glad I am not a politician - these are some tough f'in calls to make.
Why have we not completely exited Iraq and Afghanistan - because it is not that simple.
Somalia is a major issue and while the regime there tears apart the country and its people it really is of little consequence to the US. Diplomacy first but at some point (maybe it has passed, maybe it hasn't) there are many people there suffering that need help - and we have the resources to do that if and when the time comes.
So yes defense is important and should be heavily funded, but it doesn't mean it can't be cut.