Obama: the US can no longer fight the world's battles

[JoeB131]

We built up our defense during WWII and maintained it because of the Soviet Cold War threat. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990 we were supposed to see a savings as we cut back our forces in response to a reduced threat

We have since built back up to previous levels. There is no current threat of the magnitude we faced WWII and Cold War and most major military forces are our allies. It is long over due to spread our policeman duties

I don't necessarily disagree with that. I would have no problem taking some of these older carriers and selling them to our allies, because they are vastly superior to anything they could build or have built on their own.

BUT-

10 Divisions is still way too small of an Army. I think the Iraq war demonstrated that amply. It had no problem taking out Saddam's Army but had serious issues maintaining law and order in the country afterwards.

This strikes me as a design that won't have the ability to project power, and frankly, once they know you can't do that, they will be emboldened.

 

[Cammmpbell]

The best way to insure we can't fight the world's battles is to make sure we can't fight our own either.

Hell....for the last twenty years our own was by choice. Just think how many humans would still be alive and in their homes if we had stayed out of people's business who live half a planet away from where our business should be. If it were not for big oil we wouldn't have given a good goddam about the middle east.

Tell Obama to stop his moratorium on drilling and give approval on the Pipeline. Problem solved.

I already said....it's a game all politicians play. We are not going to burn up all of our own oil. Fifty years ago all of them made up their minds to use theirs and save ours. Again....we have been pouring middle eastern oil into evacuated salt mines and in effect creating new oil fields in this country. Why wouldn't we........it would be insanity to use all of our own oil and have our military depend upon foreign oil. We are smarter than that.

When the rest of the world is running out of oil we will pump and refine our own.

 

[Wacky Quacky]

Wise move. Defense spending consumes too much of budget.

No, defense consumes about 20% of the budget. And even if you cut the DoD completely we would still be running a deficit.

Can we cut defense? Sure, but I would only agree if the cuts are targeted right. If you leave it up to the brass in the military they'll shut down domestic bases and kick out a bunch of enlisted. I think we should do the opposite, cut some brass and shut down foreign military bases. I will never agree to domestic base closures, which would decimate the towns around them, while there are foreign bases still open. And after serving four years, I think officers are a complete waste of space. All they do is walk around asking the enlisted what they should do.

 

[editec]

Much as I LIKE TO SEE a reduction in the USA's military, NOW is NOT the time to do that.

This economy needs MONEY to get into the hands of the middle class, folks.

Reducing the military will actually makes things worse in the short run.

 

[Cammmpbell]

Wise move. Defense spending consumes too much of budget.

No, defense consumes about 20% of the budget. And even if you cut the DoD completely we would still be running a deficit.

Can we cut defense? Sure, but I would only agree if the cuts are targeted right. If you leave it up to the brass in the military they'll shut down domestic bases and kick out a bunch of enlisted. I think we should do the opposite, cut some brass and shut down foreign military bases. I will never agree to domestic base closures, which would decimate the towns around them, while there are foreign bases still open. And after serving four years, I think officers are a complete waste of space. All they do is walk around asking the enlisted what they should do.

Why don't you mention the interest on the existing debt when Obama assumed office. When the last Bush budget ran out on Oct. 1, 2009 the annual interest on the existing debt was $450,000,000,000. Multiply that by three and Voila!! Move $1.350 trillion from the Obama debt to Reagan and the Bushes.

 

[rightwinger]

[
We still have ten Divisions

Obama is rolling back the increases in the Army and Marines from the Iraq/Afghanistan wars

10 Divisions isn't enough, and calling something a "division" when it doesn't have the strength a division had 20 years ago is just semantics.

When we fought Gulf War I, we had 16 Army divisions and 3 Marine divisions.

Now we are down to 10 and 1. This is a good thing, why?

But we are maintaining 11 carrier groups when our advesaries can't even feild one?

A Division today is much more diverse and powerful than it was 20 years ago. We also rely much more on independent Brigade Combat Teams that can rapidly deploy and handle smaller missions

I agree our super carrier groups are much more powerful than anything that may compete with them. We also have many more smaller carriers. It all comes down to readiness and how long can we tolerate for carriers to arrive at a site of conflict

 

[mudwhistle]

The best way to insure we can't fight the world's battles is to make sure we can't fight our own either.

Hell....for the last twenty years our own was by choice. Just think how many humans would still be alive and in their homes if we had stayed out of people's business who live half a planet away from where our business should be. If it were not for big oil we wouldn't have given a good goddam about the middle east.

Tell Obama to stop his moratorium on drilling and give approval on the Pipeline. Problem solved.

Obama doesn't want to drill in the U.S.

He wants to drill off the coast of Libya, in Brazil, and in South Sudan.

 

[The T]

Hell....for the last twenty years our own was by choice. Just think how many humans would still be alive and in their homes if we had stayed out of people's business who live half a planet away from where our business should be. If it were not for big oil we wouldn't have given a good goddam about the middle east.

Tell Obama to stop his moratorium on drilling and give approval on the Pipeline. Problem solved.

Obama doesn't want to drill in the U.S.

He wants to drill off the coast of Libya, in Brazil, and in South Sudan.

Actually? I think he's content with funding his buddies that hold interests in other countries (Soros), and Brazil and telling them that ..."we would be thier best customers..."

 

[Big Fitz]

Wise move. Defense spending consumes too much of budget.

OK How much of the budget is "too" much?

Why with the internet do you idiots persist in these huge myths?
[/ATTACH]

Defense is the ONLY Constitutional mentioned expenditure by the way..
U.S. Federal spending on:
6% Interest (not in the Constitution!)
43% Medicare&Medicaid & Social Security (NOT in the Constitution)
31% Discretionary/Other Mandatory (again no where in the Constitution!)
20% Defense Department MENTIONED see (d) below...
We the People of the United States,
in Order to form
a) a more perfect Union,
b) establish Justice,
c) insure domestic Tranquility,
d) provide for the common defence,
e) promote the general Welfare, and
f) secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Again what is too much when the Constitution specifies "common defense" whereas none of the other 80% is enumerated as clearly??

Welll LOOKIE HERE!!

43% Of the budget is STRICTLY social spending!. And then an extra 19% is unknown, but is more than likely MOSTLY social spending. Military is tied for being the second largest single line item. How INNNNNNTERESTING....

That being said, I think we should revert to a Washingtonian military policy and get out of NATO, SEATO, and every other defensive alliance we are in, save maybe England, Israel, Japan and Australia, and those 4 are debatable for various reasons. Shut down all the foreign bases, bring the troops back home, slap them in new homes on the borders and start working on making our military even better skilled and appointed, while retasking the navy to be designed to haul troops anywhere and act as floating bases so we do not have to have permanent ground bases again.

But that's the dream for me.

 

[GoneBezerk]

The debt that Obamination bloated with his pork and green promises spending.....

The Federal Govt is supposed to build and maintain an "Army and Navy" per the Constitution....but there is nothing in there about welfare, social security, green jobs, etc....

Actually dumbass the DoD budget now is a smaller % of GDP compared to when JKF was POTUS.....

JFK wasn't staring down a $15.2 trillion debt.

 

[GoneBezerk]

Uh, dumbass....Iran could take over the supply of middle east oil or even stop the flow of it by using their military against their neighbors.

Of course, we should just let them get a nuclear bomb, so they can do all that with just threat. Right, Paulestinian?

No shit, it's ridiculous.

Now we are setting up a worldwide network of drones.

We can hit anyone, anywhere.

Sure we can....

Um, no, not really. Drones are good for assassinating individuals who are clumsy and stuff, but when it comes to taking down an army, you need an actual army.

Which Obama is gutting.

What threat is a army within the middle east, when we're surrounded by two oceans with the greatest navy on earth within them protecting us? Who cares if Iran takes over Iraq or Afigastan or what ever. Not worth it. We have our own resources! Let people on one side of our planet do what they want and we do what we want! What are we a empire? That's what we're if we don't stop acting like one.

This is the new policy Obama should adopt!

Like Ron Paul said: Why can't we mind our own damn business!

 

[GoneBezerk]

You fucking inbred liar.

We are not near Cold War manning and weapon systems levels today.

Go stand in traffic....

We built up our defense during WWII and maintained it because of the Soviet Cold War threat. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990 we were supposed to see a savings as we cut back our forces in response to a reduced threat

We have since built back up to previous levels. There is no current threat of the magnitude we faced WWII and Cold War and most major military forces are our allies. It is long over due to spread our policeman duties

 

[rightwinger]

You fucking inbred liar.

We are not near Cold War manning and weapon systems levels today.

Go stand in traffic....

We built up our defense during WWII and maintained it because of the Soviet Cold War threat. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990 we were supposed to see a savings as we cut back our forces in response to a reduced threat

We have since built back up to previous levels. There is no current threat of the magnitude we faced WWII and Cold War and most major military forces are our allies. It is long over due to spread our policeman duties

We cut back in the 90s as a result of the end of the Cold War. Since then we have allowed our military budget to creep upward.

The threat is nowhere near what it was from 1940-1990. The major military powers are our allies not our opponents

 

[rightwinger]

Uh, dumbass....Iran could take over the supply of middle east oil or even stop the flow of it by using their military against their neighbors.

Of course, we should just let them get a nuclear bomb, so they can do all that with just threat. Right, Paulestinian?

Sure we can....

Um, no, not really. Drones are good for assassinating individuals who are clumsy and stuff, but when it comes to taking down an army, you need an actual army.

Which Obama is gutting.

What threat is a army within the middle east, when we're surrounded by two oceans with the greatest navy on earth within them protecting us? Who cares if Iran takes over Iraq or Afigastan or what ever. Not worth it. We have our own resources! Let people on one side of our planet do what they want and we do what we want! What are we a empire? That's what we're if we don't stop acting like one.

This is the new policy Obama should adopt!

Like Ron Paul said: Why can't we mind our own damn business!

Iran is nowhere close to being able to do that and they know it.

NATO would not allow them to even think about it

 

[GoneBezerk]

Uh, this thing called 9/11 kinda forced our hand to prop up the US military, pay attention.

China, North Korea, Iran and Russia are still a threat to us and our allies because all they need to do is cause trouble in their part of the world.

Morons like you equate problems with someone's ability to blow up your trailer park. Well, if one of those countries can damage the world economy with some military action, then your life in the trailer park won't be so cozy.

FYI....you need to tell China to quit building up their military since they are not a threat to us.

You fucking inbred liar.

We are not near Cold War manning and weapon systems levels today.

Go stand in traffic....

We built up our defense during WWII and maintained it because of the Soviet Cold War threat. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990 we were supposed to see a savings as we cut back our forces in response to a reduced threat

We have since built back up to previous levels. There is no current threat of the magnitude we faced WWII and Cold War and most major military forces are our allies. It is long over due to spread our policeman duties

We cut back in the 90s as a result of the end of the Cold War. Since then we have allowed our military budget to creep upward.

The threat is nowhere near what it was from 1940-1990. The major military powers are our allies not our opponents

 

[GoneBezerk]

Uh, we are NATO. NATO cannot do shit without us holding their hand, so see how bumbling they were in Libya while we let them do most of the work.

Uh, dumbass....Iran could take over the supply of middle east oil or even stop the flow of it by using their military against their neighbors.

Of course, we should just let them get a nuclear bomb, so they can do all that with just threat. Right, Paulestinian?

What threat is a army within the middle east, when we're surrounded by two oceans with the greatest navy on earth within them protecting us? Who cares if Iran takes over Iraq or Afigastan or what ever. Not worth it. We have our own resources! Let people on one side of our planet do what they want and we do what we want! What are we a empire? That's what we're if we don't stop acting like one.

This is the new policy Obama should adopt!

Like Ron Paul said: Why can't we mind our own damn business!

Iran is nowhere close to being able to do that and they know it.

NATO would not allow them to even think about it

 

[rightwinger]

Uh, we are NATO. NATO cannot do shit without us holding their hand, so see how bumbling they were in Libya while we let them do most of the work.

Uh, dumbass....Iran could take over the supply of middle east oil or even stop the flow of it by using their military against their neighbors.

Of course, we should just let them get a nuclear bomb, so they can do all that with just threat. Right, Paulestinian?

Iran is nowhere close to being able to do that and they know it.

NATO would not allow them to even think about it

Iran is a third rate military power and could do nothing without the western world immediately kicking their asses. And yes, the US would not have to even lift a finger

 

[The T]

Uh, we are NATO. NATO cannot do shit without us holding their hand, so see how bumbling they were in Libya while we let them do most of the work.

Iran is nowhere close to being able to do that and they know it.

NATO would not allow them to even think about it

Iran is a third rate military power and could do nothing without the western world immediately kicking their asses. And yes, the US would not have to even lift a finger

if Obama has his way with the Military? You might wish to reconsider.

 

[GoneBezerk]

Moron.....Iran has missiles that can hit their neighbors, so they don't need a huge military to cause damage.

Their Navy can cause problems for the world shipping oil out of the middle east.

They are building nukes, but you don't seem to mind.

People like you are dangerous idiots, Hiler loved you back in the 1930s.

Uh, we are NATO. NATO cannot do shit without us holding their hand, so see how bumbling they were in Libya while we let them do most of the work.

Iran is nowhere close to being able to do that and they know it.

NATO would not allow them to even think about it

Iran is a third rate military power and could do nothing without the western world immediately kicking their asses. And yes, the US would not have to even lift a finger

 

[California Girl]

We shouldn't be the worlds policemen. Let the damned UN do that job with its other member nations. We pay for it, let the others do the bleeding for once.

They do. At least the Brits certainly pull their weight... and then some. Let's try not to be totally fucking ignorant of what the rest of the world does, ok?