Wouldn't it be refreshingly honest if our Democratic candidates would be candid with the American people and make it clear that we have enough troops and spend too much of our national wealth on military expenditures. But the military-industrial complex propaganda pervades in both parties. When you hear the unsubstantiated fact that our Army is stretched too thin please consider....
We are spending roughly 2 billion dollars daily on our military. It is hard to grasp the vastness of our military empire but we know our closest rival spends a fraction of that amount.
There are approximately 2,685,713 men and women in the armed forces. Could it be that we are not using our armed forces effectively? How can 2.7 million be stretched too thin?
As of 2003, the United States occupied military bases in approximately 130 different countries including Germany (69,395), Japan (35,307), South Korea (32,744), Italy 12,255, and United Kingdom (11,093). The list goes on and on.
So the next time you hear how our army and marines are "overextended" and at the "breaking point" consider what they really mean. What they are saying is we can't keep 70K troops in Germany, 35K in Japan, 33K in South Korea, 12K in Italy and the list goes on and on based on some worn-out 20th century fantasy while trying to fight an illegal war in Iraq and whatever we are trying to do in Afghanistan.
A Democratic candidate that proposes a strong defense based on 21st century military realities and a realistic assessment on how best to use our military empire, could challenge conventional wisdom and provide real national security while making some sense out of our insane expenditure of 2 billion a day. We might even find we could provide a better defense for less money.
Is there anyone in the Democratic Party questioning the conventional wisdom?
The "war of terror" seems to be the new blanket rationale for massive military expenditures. There will be one after that an another after that. Russia is making a comeback, China can always provide a scare tactic.
Please keep in mind the next time you hear that our military is stretched too thin, that 2 billion a day is more than enough to buy national security. Ask yourself, could it be that the resources have already been allocated albeit ineffectively?