Rupert Cornwell: Out of America

[Crazy Horse]

 

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2843878

laststeamtrain (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-10-08 04:13 PM
Original message
Rupert Cornwell: Out of America
 Advertisements [?]Rupert Cornwell: Out of America

Whoever wins the presidency will most likely fail to take on the unholy trinity of arms manufacturers, the Pentagon, and Congress

That, of course, is precisely what George W Bush would like you to think of his "war on terror", even though the closest the average citizen here ever gets to it is a security line at an airport. But those commercials are part of another struggle, less violent but no less relentless. It is being fought out by companies like Lockheed over the lucrative and effectively captive US government arms market.

Obscured by the great Obama-Hillary battle and the drama of Super Tuesday, the final budget of the Bush era was published last week. It covers the 2009 financial year, and contains one startling fact. If this President has his way, the US will next year be spending more on its military (adjusted for inflation) than at any time since the Second World War.

The raw figures are mind-boggling. The official Pentagon budget for 2009 runs to $515bn (£265bn), or around 4 per cent of America's total economy (the equivalent figure for Britain is 2.5 per cent), and about the same size as the entire output of the Netherlands. Throw in an expected $150bn of supplementary outlays and you've got defence spending larger than Australia's entire gross domestic product.

Even that may be an understatement. Add in various "black items", such as military spending tucked away in other parts of government, and some claim that America's total annual spending on the military now exceeds a trillion dollars – roughly half the entire British economy.

Students of these matters claim that the wind-down of the surge in Iraq, and the likelihood that the Democrats will recapture the White House in December, mean that the latest growth cycle in Pentagon spending, that began at the end of the Clinton era, has probably peaked. But don't bet on it.

A faltering economy may be the biggest worry for voters this election year, but national security runs it close. On Thursday, Mitt Romney justified his decision to drop out of the Republican race for the White House by his party's need to set aside divisive internal squabbling "at this time of war". As for John McCain, the man now set to carry the Republican standard in November, maintaining the strength of the US military is his top priority. The economy, he freely admits, is not his strong suit. National security, however, is. If McCain wins, it will be because Americans deem him the candidate to keep them safe.

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http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/ruper...

 
Two things I never will listen to the primitives on.

1. Military
2. Economics

PassingFair  (1000+ posts)       Sun Feb-10-08 04:22 PM
Response to Original message
1. The ISLAMOFASCISTS are COMING! Sound the alarms! 
 They are gathering at the borders!
TERROR! TERROR! TERROR!

HOLY WAR!

Godlesscommieprevert  (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-10-08 04:31 PM
Response to Original message
2. And even if Joe Lunch-Pail knew how much of the economy went to 'defense' spending
 Edited on Sun Feb-10-08 04:31 PM by Godlesscommieprevert
He'd have no problem with it because the people in this country have been brainwashed by the Military-Industrial Complex to think we actually need all this war-spending. People here are completely paranoid about being attacked by some nebulous 'enemy'.
The thing is, the spending they're doing might have made sense against the USSR, but no longer. We're up against young Islamic jihadists, all the $300 million jet fighters are useless against that sort of enemy.
Europeans have none of the paranoia I see here. They've had their fair share of wars and terrorist attacks, but they don't live in fear like we do.
Why are we so scared?

Hmmm.................how much goes to social nanny projects??

laststeamtrain (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-10-08 04:41 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. "Why are we so scared?"--I don't know GCP.
 I just heard, about an hour ago, an interview with Chalmers Johnson by Rachel Maddow.

It seems he thinks we need to start dismantling the American Empire. And that we could learn from the British experience, do it better.

The permanent war economy sure does suck, for some more than others.

Sometimes I get hypnotized by the 'spectacle' of partisan politics. I forget, momentarily, that the real prize is peace & Justice.

I have to stop doing that.

damn they are stoopid

[Carl]

They are living in a utopian dream world that has never seen reality.

[BEG]

They are living in a utopian dream world that has never seen reality.

Dennis Prager says that one of Liberals many problems is that they compare the US to some Utopian dream world instead of other countries.  So of course the US can never measure up to their Utopian world.

[Chris_]

They are living in a utopian dream world that has never seen reality.

If you close your eyes and wish hard enough, 9/11 never happened.
[youtube=425,350]J0Qu6eyyr4c[/youtube]

[Uhhuh35]

"The raw figures are mind-boggling. The official Pentagon budget for 2009 runs to $515bn (£265bn), or around 4 per cent of America's total economy (the equivalent figure for Britain is 2.5 per cent), and about the same size as the entire output of the Netherlands. Throw in an expected $150bn of supplementary outlays and you've got defence spending larger than Australia's entire gross domestic product."

4% of GDP is pretty low for defense outlays. And it's not my fault that the Australian GDP is lower.

"It seems he thinks we need to start dismantling the American Empire. And that we could learn from the British experience, do it better."

What, surrender to Islam? In case you haven't noticed Britain is working toward implementing Sharia Law. They kill gays, you should be concerned.

[jukin]

Leran from the British experience of giving their country over to the third worls?

Or

Learn from the British experience of giving the heavy lifting to another country?

[dandi]

Where is all this rampant fear the DUmbasses say has been instilled into the American psyche? I'm not afraid of terrorists, don't know anyone who is. I rarely hear terrorism brought up in conversations. I've never met anyone who obsesses over it. People remember 9/11 and they demand the government do everything in their power to prevent another such assault, but that's because they love their country, not because they feel threatened on a personal level. Scared shitless fear is something that comes constantly from the Left and their paranoid fantasies about Marshall[sic] Law, detainment camps, fascism, Teh Joooooooos, and the countless boogeymen of American Evil their fevered imaginations manage to conjure up on a daily basis.

Personally, I'd like to see defense spending become an even higher percentage of the federal budget. Not because military spending has been increased, neccesarily, but because all other aspects of the budget have been cut dramatically. Also, comparing our defense spending to the budgets or GDPs of other, smaller countries might make for an entertaining bit of parlor conversation, but it's essentially meaningless.

[TheSarge]

I wish sometimes...just for a month or so...into one of these Stalinistic/Hugo Chavez utopia so that the DUmmies would get their eyes opened to what the realit of their lives would be...instead of this glorious nirvana they've built up in his head.

[DumbAss Tanker]

I wish sometimes...just for a month or so...into one of these Stalinistic/Hugo Chavez utopia so that the DUmmies would get their eyes opened to what the reality of their lives would be...instead of this glorious nirvana they've built up in his head.

For the vast majority of them, their powers of denial are too great to be overcome by any exposure to mere reality.  They are a cancer on our society, but in times of peace and plenty they are an inoperable one, a mortal threat to the rest of us protected by the very freedoms they despise. 

[Splashdown]

Another thing the DUmmies and the MSM conveniently forget is that the military "buildup" is necessary because a previous administration gutted it.