Our capacity to dominate and kill across the globe.
It has become untouchable in it rampant consumption of both our materials and wealth, it is a ravenous beast that always requires feeding.
We could be living a dust bowl yet the military [generalisation meaning the organisation to be clear about this] would have every lethal toy their mad minds could desire.
Fastest way to lose an election these days is apparently to propose a cut in this massive budget.
A $706 billion outlay, plus interest repayments for funding this madness in the first place places a trillion dollar a year burden on our economy. Oh and another mere $33 billion for the Afghan surge.
When the last Democratic President was in power the budget was cut to around $350 billion and we had a $250 billion surplus. Funny how that went up in smoke due to the Imperial aspirations of the Bush administration.
Touch anything but our guns.
Now we are apparently prepared to freeze everything but, our capability to stop ourselves being scared shitless by spending away our children's future.
How can we be so paranoid as to throw this type of wealth away, when the solution is to be less of a bully on the foreign stage.
People hate us because they fear us for what we have done and what we can do; "your country can be ours in a mere thirty days" was the clear signal that came out of Iraq.
You may say how peace loving and democratic we are, but that has always stopped at the borders.
We cannot say they have nothing to fear, since all the evidence of the last sixty years contradicts our words.
Militarily
Covertly
Then we justify why we scare by our own fear.
It the actions of a global bully.
This kind of fearmongering obliterates any distinctions between necessary investments in areas like jobs, infrastructure, education, and alternative energy; and unnecessary and wasteful tax cuts or subsidies for wealthy folks, or defense spending that is rampant with cost overruns and corruption, and way out of scale with what is truly needed for our security. These same newspapers are engaged in media malpractice when they scare people with deficit hysteria but fail to take a critical look at the defense budget.
http://www.thenation.com/...
If the US wants to convince anyone but ourselves of our peaceful intent then its time to back up the rhetoric with words.
Get out of Iraq.
Get out of Afghanistan.
Cut the damn military budget in half, then half again.
The best way of stopping us being terrified of the rest of world is to stop making it petrified of us.
The talent released from making weapons of death and destruction can be used for our own good.