> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 9:33 AM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Re: What could $456 billion buy. > > Jim Davis wrote: > > Dude put the crack pipe down.
Boy I LOVE arguing both sides of an argument. ;^) > >> Spending on Iraq would still have occurred (nothing like this scale > of course) but at this point (assuming our original invasion never > occurred) it's very likely that we'd be militarily involved with Iraq > on > some level(very possibly with many more allies, but involved > nonetheless). > > Please provide any shred of evidence to indicate we would be at war > with > Iraq if we had not invaded Iraq. At the very best it is only > speculation. Well - yes, of course - it IS speculation and best, worst and all points in between. Without a doubt. I didn't say "we'd be at war" - I said we'd be militarily involved. At the best point that might have included just the same border control and no-fly-zone management that we had been doing for years before. At worst Saddam's efforts to stifle inspections may very well have led us into U.N. sanctioned military conflict by now. I think that it's very (VERY) unlikely that we would be completely divorced from Iraq by now had the invasion not taken place. Some military involvement would have continued for years, if not decades to come. > >>>Even with the war, our military spending is surprisingly low > compared to other militaristic nations. Our armed forces are also > relatively under-manned (as we've a volunteer army). > > In the 1990's the USA out spent the next 10 countries combined in > military spending. Let me break that down for you. We spent more than > China, Russia, France, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Italy, South > Korea and Saudi Arabia combined. In 2004 our Military spending was > about $466 billion. The rest of the world combined spent about $500 > billion. In other words over 48% of every dollar spent on the military > in 2004 was spent by the United States. Yes... and what is our GNP compared to those nations? The Iraq war represents less than 1% of our national wealth (unlike the Vietnam and Korean wars which represented much larger percentages). Our standing army is quite small compared to other militaristic states (see North Korea, Iran, etc) when judged by population and wealth. I am NOT saying that we're pacifists refusing to spend on defense: I'm saying that the picture of us as a hugely wealthy country pumping endless resources into the armed forces is wrong. American's have shown a marked distaste for any military sacrifice that would affect their lives at home and because of that our armed forces are already stretched too thin. We can barely (and in some cases can't) meet the resource requirements of dealing with the wars we've undertaken. To hear people say "we need to Iran soon!" is ludicrous when looking at our current spending and recruitment policies. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| ColdFusion MX7 and Flex 2 Build sales & marketing dashboard RIAâs for your business. Upgrade now http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2?sdid=RVJT Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:234612 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
