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President Trump has proposed a $54 billion increase in defense spending, which he said would be "one of the largest increases in national defense spending in American history."
Past administrations have increased military spending, but typically to fulfil a specific mission. Jimmy Carter expanded operations in the Persian Gulf. Ronald Reagan pursued an arms race with the Soviet Union, and George W. Bush waged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mr. Trump has not articulated a new mission that would require a military spending increase. This has left analysts wondering what goals he has in mind. Erin M. Simpson, a national security consultant, called Mr. Trump's plans "a budget in search of a strategy."
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/22/us/is-americas-military-big-enough.html
Donald J. Trump - Military Readiness Remarks
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What do you think about the proposed increase in military spending ? Does USA really need more weapons ?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 25 2017, @02:25PM (3 children)
i think it's all pretty obvious what should be done. We should pull out of everywhere not absolutely necessary for defense. Audit all defense contracts and defense agencies. Drastically improve efficiency in every way and drastically reduce the military budget. Get our domestic strategic resources in order. Start teaching our kids about technology. This imperialism in un-american and most citizens should know it. I'm all for a strong military but i think it should all be like the national guard. Highly trained citizen-soldiers that live and work in country and can do other things besides kill. This huge standing army of misused/abused soldiers is disgraceful. Then, even when they get so injured they can't fight anymore, the treasonous whores don't take care of them worth a shit. Every american who votes for more military spending without drastic reform and re-prioritization is an enabler of the depleted uranium polluting the middle east, the soldiers dying by suicide every day and every other travesty committed in our name.
(Score: 1) by lonehighway on Saturday March 25 2017, @05:29PM (1 child)
This sums it up very well. Everything the U.S. military has touched since WW2 has turned to shit, and the more recent the events, the faster the turning. I hope Europe begins to route around the diseased foreign policy of the U.S. and says goodbye to NATO and the cheetoh's demand for more spending.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @06:13PM
We got nukes, we got guided bombs, and we got liberals voting.
So now we try to be "nice" about war. This drags it out. After we "finish" the war, we leave an angry foe with the same old culture. This doesn't solve anything.
To properly deal with a foe, you have to eliminate their culture. This sometimes includes language and religion. Forced conversions can get this done, as can just killing everybody. Eliminating an ethnicity is also effective, but particularly icky if you don't kill everybody: it needs rape, which is truly old-school.
So, for a random Muslim country, one might require: idol worship, eating of pork, and exclusive use of English. Those who resist are killed via blood transfusion from a pig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @01:36AM
History says you're quite wrong about that.
American expansion - 377kB animated GIF [imgur.com]
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