At 12:53 4-2-2003 -0800, Gautam Mukunda wrote:
And where exactly is all that money supposed to come from?Marvin is exactly right. Those other countries _choose_ not to be capable of fulfilling their global responsibilities. All they have to do is reform their defense establishments for power projection and increase their defense spending.
Let's take The Netherlands as an example. Income taxes are high already (up to 51%). Raising taxes really isn't an option, and even if they were raised it would have a limited effect, given that we only have approx. 16 million people living here, and not all of them pay taxes.
As it stands, the Defense Department is facing budget cuts, which will result in the loss of some 5,000 jobs. Other departments face similar problems. I can imagine that the situation is not much different in other European countries.
Give us the US Defense budget, and you'd be surprised to see what we are capable of...
We have not _chosen_ to be incapable of waging war all over the world, we simply cannot *afford* it. Europe as a whole might be able to do it, but we're still far away from a joined European defense.
And then there is the matter of public opinion to consider. Contrary to the US (or so it seems), over here the general belief is that the military is there to protect the country, not to wage war and impose our will all over the world.
Jeroen "Make love, not war" van Baardwijk
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