The US Military: Destroying Our Society $1 Trillion At A Time

I must give credit for this post to Jim Quinn and The Burning Platform dot com for providing the color commentary, data and charts of our disgusting military spending... which continues to increase despite the collapse of the U.S. and world economies. While many of us wonder whether this country will ever recover, the military continues to rake in billions. The charts below tell the story... and remember, these are not stimulus's, nor are they one time budget allocations. This is taxpayer money that is supplied in perpetuity, robbing our country of badly needed resources in the name of building ever more expensive and sophisticated killing machines.

Quick, can you name just ONE true enemy that we have in the world?

Please note, I am freely republishing Mr. Quinn's words in "" as I could say it no better. You can also read what I am publishing and more from his original article here.

“You can't say civilizations don't advance... in every war they kill you in a new way.”

Will Rogers

THE COST OF OUR GLOBAL EMPIRE

"Any doubt that the Military Industrial Complex is as strong as ever should be removed after examining Obama’s 2010 budget just put forth. It calls for 26% more in spending on Defense than President Bush spent in 2006. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, leaving the United States as the only remaining superpower on earth. Since 1990, the United States has depleted the U.S. Treasury of $7 trillion for spending on Defense.

With no military on earth capable of challenging us why would there be a need to spend this much on the military? Over this same time frame the U.S. spent $360 billion on science, space & technology and $52 billion on energy, a mere 6% of the spending we use for building killing machines. Military expenditures benefit humanity in no way. If these trillions had been invested by the private sector or devoted to energy and scientific research, our economy might not be a hollowed out shell dependent on China and oil exporting countries.

Nationalists argue that the Defense industry employs millions and benefits the country. These companies employ brilliant engineers and scientists who spend their days developing things that kill people more efficiently. If they had been employed developing electric cars, solar power, wind power, nuclear power, an efficient electric grid, infrastructure upgrades, or finding a cure for Alzheimer’s, would the United States be better off today?"

"You would think we must be trying to keep up with our enemies by spending $765 billion per year on the Military. But one look at the following chart reveals that the United States is spending as much as the rest of the world combined. The two countries considered potential rivals, Russia and China, spent $192 billion combined in 2008. This is 27% of U.S. spending. From a foreign perspective, one must wonder why the U.S. is spending such vast quantities on our military. They can only conclude that it is for offensive intentions rather than defensive. The United States soil has not been attacked by a foreign power since December 7, 1941. Prior to that surprise attack, a foreign power hadn’t attacked the U.S. since the War of 1812. With this level of spending (see below), our leaders feel compelled to interfere in the business of sovereign nations."

"As the world spends $1.5 trillion per year on new methods of killing, millions die the old fashioned way.

• 13 million people per year die from starvation in the world.
• The FAO says that 854 million people worldwide are undernourished.
• The World Bank has estimated that there were an estimated 982 million poor people in developing countries who live on $1 a day or less.
• For the price of one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for 5 years.
• Poor nutrition plays a role in at least half of the 10.9 million child deaths each year--six million deaths.
• 1 child dies every 5 seconds as a result of hunger - 700 every hour - 16 000 each day - 6 million each year - 60% of all child deaths (2002-2008 estimates)

What kind of a civilized society allocates 44% of the taxes taken from its people to war? Only 2.5% of your taxes go to science, energy, and environment. Only 2.2% of your taxes go to education and jobs. With a population of 304 million, the U.S. spends $59 billion ($194 per person) annually on education. Saudi Arabia, with a population of 28 million, spends $33 billion ($1,179 per person) on education. You produce the results that you would expect from your investments. A full 15% of our population doesn’t have a high school diploma (20% of African Americans & 43% of Latinos) and only 27% have a college degree. How do we expect to lead the world in technology and research with these figures?"

“My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.”

George Washington

“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Sphere: Related Content