Throughout history, nations have needed and used armies for either protection of their borders, or for expansion. This empire building has been the downfall of most great nations. Now, in our lifetime, the USA has invented another use for armies and it has several names. "Protecting our interests", or "defending democracy", or "fighting terrorism". Many of these endeavours have to be invented or at least propped up from time to time in order to perpetuate the myth that the military, in its present state, is necessary.
When trying to assess what is really going on, I always say "follow the money". The budget for the military is about $1.4 Trillion annually and because we know that a soldier's pay is not that great, there is a lot of big money going to defense contractors. They say it takes about $1million to train, transport, pay, and insure a soldier overseas. When a Taliban takes out a US Marine with $72.00 AK47, that is a good return on investment .... for the Taliban.
Here is a novel idea. Bring all the soldiers home, and maintain an army that will be adequate for home defense, and put the entire rest of the military budget toward the deficit. There would be no more deficit and we could then leave the world to solve its own problems. Military intervention in the affairs of other nations always creates new problems and costs huge amounts of money that is needed at home.
Of course, this will never happen. There is too much at stake for too many rich and powerful people. And just when the idea would catch on, another crisis would magically appear, and wrapped in the American Flag, and in the name of homeland security, the army would go marching off to bomb another camel lot somewhere in some remote desert. Going with my idea would not only save a lot of lives, but it would save the American economy.
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