What is the benefit to the US/rational of spending $1 trillion/year on the military?

[Howard_Roark]

I was reading the wikipedia article on the British Empire last night, and I was amazed at how big it was. Alot of the world from Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada, India, South Africa, Australia etc was touched by it someway 25% of the entire world area and population.

It got me thinking about the similiarities of what we do. We basically handle the foreign defense of Japan, Taiwan, Israel, South Korea, Germany just to name a few and much of the middle east either directly or through aid.

What is the piont of having a huge base in a country? Does it project our power? Is it used to maintain the status quo and if anything arises that is bad for the US we can respond?

I'm trying to understand what the benefit to the USA is of this or what the neconservative rational is, even if I disagree with it. Does it open up more trading partners economically? Certainly England benefited by having all those places to trade with and its obvious we trade alot with these places - Japan, South Korea etc. It would be simple if we went to Iraq and just took ownership of all the oil but we don't do that so I'm trying to understand the point of it all.

[Stary Hickory]

Military would say it's about rapid force projection and deployment. The old "just in case" scenario where we guard against even the most remotest of threats. The cost vs value of these bases is seriously out of whack. We could rid ourselves of all of them and Americans would never feel any difference, besides being a bit richer.

[jkr]

"cheap" gas



or so they say...

[lester1/2jr]

we could leave the UN, eliminate the dept of education and pretty much everything else besides maybe the coast guard and american wouldn't feel much difference besides being a bit richer

[furface]

The old "just in case" scenario where we guard against even the most remotest of threats.

Government works on a use it or lose it basis. In that sense a standing army is dangerous to have around in and of itself because it tends to want to create conflicts to rationalize its own existence. All government works like that, not just the military. Government is a malicious concept in general, sometimes necessary, but definitely something to be avoided when possible.

[Toureg89]

you got me...

according to the neocons, the .mil is soooooooo important, we need a dozen supercarriers, and a fleet of subpart f22s, and toilet seats and hammers that cost multiple times more than what you would buy at any big box store, not for policing the world or for offering kick backs to friends in corporate places, but for our own safety.

/fail

[TinCanToNA]

US military hegemony is closely tied to US dollar hegemony. The house of cards that is our economy will be blown away without the dollar being the universal reserve currency, and one of the reasons it is the reserve currency is beyond economic; it's the geopolitical 'certainty' that the US is and always will be strong. Now that that perception is noticeably weakened, you are starting to see the cards sway in the breeze. Ultimately, the economy and the military are strongly linked thanks to decades of policies causing that to be so. It started during the bipolar era of the Cold War and remains in effect today.

For pure strategic purposes, yes having bases and lots of supercarriers makes power projection so much faster and easier than previously was conceivable. The use of power projection, however, is the heart of the issue. Historically, we have used it to maintain dollar hegemony, and likely will in the future as well.

[nate895]

Simple: You offend the POTUS in some way bad enough, and you get bombed to the stone age in a couple of hours, and your country, which has a militarized police force and a "navy" made of some rubber speed boats for defense, is engaged in a multiple front war with the the best military force on the planet in less than 36 hours.

[Howard_Roark]

US military hegemony is closely tied to US dollar hegemony. The house of cards that is our economy will be blown away without the dollar being the universal reserve currency, and one of the reasons it is the reserve currency is beyond economic; it's the geopolitical 'certainty' that the US is and always will be strong. Now that that perception is noticeably weakened, you are starting to see the cards sway in the breeze. Ultimately, the economy and the military are strongly linked thanks to decades of policies causing that to be so. It started during the bipolar era of the Cold War and remains in effect today.

This is probably the only explanation for our massive military that actually makes logical sense. Problem is, RP is the only person I've ever heard talk about it.

[DapperDan]

For the Empire!

[Southron]

There are very few benefits for us I believe.

It seems like we have all the negatives of empire (blowback) without the benefits (new land).

[lester1/2jr]

I'd highly reccomend Ismail Kadare's "The pyramid". the whole purpose of building the pyramid was to keep the people miserable and, thus, keep themselves in power. It sounds paradoxical but it worked for Keops!

[michaelwise]

edit

[michaelwise]

It's a neo-conservative spending program they worked hard for. They brainwashed us all into waging war with the bogeyman and we fell for it. The neo-liberals count this achievement as a victory and whole heartedly support it. Any program that increases tax payer spending is acceptable to the libs. The progressives are doing one better now by simply throwing even more money in the national money hole. Good for them.

In The Know / Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole?
YouTube - Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnX-D4kkPOQ)

[ResistTemptation]

Military industrial complex. It is THAT big.

[phill4paul]

Military industrial complex. It is THAT big.

Too big to fail?

[coyote_sprit]

YouTube - Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnX-D4kkPOQ)

That has to be the worst Youtube screenshot ever.