13 Comments so far

1. petercschmid March 20th, 2007 5:17 pm

   As usual, the military expense numbers are cooked. One can take the government vue that 20% of the budget goes to the military - or one can make a case for 50%, or more. The latter excludes from the budget the revenues from social security, medicare etc (which are administered in trust), thereby reducing the general fund base about $1 trillion. The true US military expense should then be corrected to include all supplements, Dept. of Veterans Affairs etc., as well as 60 to 80% of the interest we pay on the debt accumulated largely due to our excessive military spending in the past.
   It is time for us to heed Eisenhower’s warnings about the uncontrolled military-industrial-congressional complex. I am sure that if we ouselves had to pay the bills, rather than rolling them over to our grandchildren as debt, we would act quite differently.

2. Gail March 20th, 2007 5:33 pm

   “They have a responsibility to get this bill to my desk without strings and without delay,” Bush said.

   These are the brass balls of a dictator whose only “responsiblity” is to himself and his wealthy corporate base.

3. jjpeter March 20th, 2007 6:19 pm

   Dereliction of duty - is all I can come up with. A duty to the American People to be wise stewards of the public trust and its funds, paid for with OUR tax dollars and those borrowed from Asia.

   ALL of our elected officials have been derelict in the face of this arrogant corporate puppet, bush’s demands to fund and fund and fund the MIC.

   NO to this killer and his childish foot stomping and threats as he slithers around in his oval office coated with the blood my countrymen and the children of Iraq.

   In God we trust.

4. Terry Moore March 20th, 2007 7:53 pm

   The record shows that the US has been outspending every other country on military preparedness for decades. I was surprised at the suggestion that there have been no attacks on US soil since 9/11 due to the increases in military spending. Really?! Then how did 9/11 even happen in the first place with the massive, biggest/best military already in place? If 9/11 changed everything, why did this administration just do more of the same old thing? It is truly a fool’s paradise to believe that terrorism can be halted by military might.

5. ezeflyer March 20th, 2007 10:33 pm

   Progressives Unite! Join the Green Party!

6. Chuck Cliff March 21st, 2007 3:18 am

   The fateful decade was after 1890 when it was declared that the West Had Been Won — there was no longer a frontier.

   There were forces in the United States that felt that the Manifest Destiny had been fulfilled — and there were forces that felt that we now had a Destiny to fulfill in the rest of the world.

   The latter won and, from 1898, with the annexation of Hawaii and the Spanish American War, we embarked on our special form of imperialism.

   95% of extraterritorial military bases in the world are American and we are turning into a Fortress of Arrogance, “…a fortress from where the resources of our world can be sucked dry and in return the world will receive an endless supply of excrement”

   http://chuckcliff.blogspot.com/2006/10/fortress-of-arrogance.html

7. Rick March 21st, 2007 6:33 am

   The one mindedness continues.

   “We have not had any follow-up attacks to 9/11; that’s a pretty powerful success story,” he said. “On the other hand, the world’s best-equipped military is being fought to a standstill by a handful of zealots in Iraq.”

   Zealot- One who is zealous, especially excessively so.
   A fanatically committed person!
   “When you have a bigger house, you buy more insurance,” Carafano said. “When the nation is worth a lot more, we have to spend more to protect it.”
   Sounds like a Zealot to me!

   History, Thompson said, will determine whether Americans are getting a fair return on their investment in defense.
   A question that should be asked, is this what the American people want to see their
   Money spent on to begin with?

   I believe the answer would be, NO!

8. ArbeitMachtFrei March 21st, 2007 7:41 am

   It’s all going to come crashing down eventually. This is all borrowed money, and the Asians won’t finance it forever.

   China’s going to form a National Foreign Exchange Investment Company this year to start investing China’s foreign exchange surplus in assets other than US treasuries. Once they stop financing the US budget deficit, US interest rates go up…the end…US out of Iraq….

9. ezeflyer March 21st, 2007 9:41 am

   The M/I/I complex is getting the profits they wanted. Big Oil is getting the oil they wanted. The Xtians are getting the Rapture they wanted. The Zionists are getting the Middle East they wanted. Even the Islamic martyrs are getting their 72 virgins. And the rest of us are getting the shaft. Maybe I’ll take up religion so I can believe that they’ll pay for their crimes while we get to sit at the side of God.

10. dfairley March 21st, 2007 2:27 pm

    Note that the article quoted no one who said that the levels we’re spending on the military are absurd. There are a few, at least, in Congress, and millions out in the cold who believe we need to focus on peace rather than war. But for the media, we might as well not exist. Ultimately, the media presents de facto pro war, pro military propaganda.

11. anthny March 21st, 2007 5:14 pm

    I feel for Bush and his war on the United States middle class.
    With this guy who could care less about families with children and hardly making ends meet.
    I’m lucky in a way I never had children and I work part-time just enough to get by.
    This phony war to bring Democracy to Iraq is taking out our democracy. This has turned into a two party dictatorship.

12. bnnowytowyra December 10th, 2007 1:24 am

    titcyhuvehace…

    extusykehoxe…

13. bnnocynahyto December 26th, 2007 8:09 pm

    tittenuvucezi…

    exkysyxokera…

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