tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14162253.post8570118901071031738..comments2024-03-27T08:39:28.807-06:00Comments on Wash Park Prophet: The New Defense Budget ConsideredAndrew Oh-Willekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537151821869153861noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14162253.post-10580021108598530902011-01-07T19:13:21.402-07:002011-01-07T19:13:21.402-07:00It is still not a defense budget, but an attack bu...It is still not a defense budget, but an attack budget, an imperial and imperialist budget for an imperial and imperialist military. <br /><br />You mention Iraq "until we withdraw". Officially you withdrew in 2010 or 2009, the remaining 50,000 troops or so are just (in theory at least) standing there in their bases, like they are in Germany, for no apparent reason and with almost no practical utility. The only reason is imperialism: effective annexation of those countries: it is a garrison in a protectorate. <br /><br />A <b>defense</b> budget should be oriented to the defense of the territory of the USA, it'd be largely based on militias, like the National Guard (but wait: the NG was sabotaged by drafting all volunteers to Iraq, what caused many people not to want to join anymore). An aeronaval defense is pretty logical too, considering that (after we ignore mostly harmless Canada), most US borders are with the Ocean. Besides you have a huge nuclear deterrence arsenal. <br /><br />You could have an excellent <b>defense</b> for a small fraction of what the Imperial Army costs. But you would have to renounce to be an empire. <br /><br />So what exactly are you defending? Genocidal Israel? Theocratic Saudi Arabia? Rotten Hamid Karzai? Warmonger South Korea? The cocaine business in Colombia? The opium trade in Afghanistan? <br /><br />I think these are good questions. In any case the military black hole is the main cause of budgetary deficit, together with the undue subsidies to the big corporations.Majuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12369840391933337204noreply@blogger.com