Cutting the Defense Budget is Idiocy
By PhilosoGuy at 24 February, 2010, 9:24 pm
I was reading a recent CNN article in which two CNN correspondents called for the slashing of the Defense Budget in the same way that other areas of the budget are being trimmed down. Their logic is that if any area of the budget is being frozen then each area should be frozen. Furthermore, they claim that in spending money on the defense budget “[we are] depleting our wealth to build things that are going to be destroyed, while other countries use their wealth to build infrastructure: to build new rails, to build new ports.”
Their line of argument is so juvenile and devoid of any soundness in logic that I am astounded CNN would post it. First and foremost, the notion that each area of the budget should be equally trimmed regardless of the reality we face as a country is a symptom of a serious disease plaguing our society. These are the same people who will continue to promote irresponsible fiscal policy in the name of political correctness and “fairness” in the budget. The budget needs to be dealt with seriously and there will be tradeoffs: Considering we are in two wars, trimming the defense budget might not be such a good idea. And what’s more, the defense budget creates jobs…
Furthermore, anyone who would weigh the budget used in the defense of our country the same as any other part of the President’s budget needs a reality check. Agricultural subsidies, the Post Office, and the Energy Department are all important (there is no doubt about it). But, while some postmen and women might get offended by this statement, the country can go on without mail and with a smaller energy department budget. It can’t go on without a proper defense budget (and that includes new aircraft carriers, a strong airforce with F-35′s, and high tech submarines).
The most important issue our country faces is the maintenance of our military dominance, which is the main source of our international power base. The moment that we begin sacrificing the defense budget out of fairness for other departments or for the notion that building a powerful army is less important because you can’t drive on it or park a boat at it is the moment that we begin to lose this country.
In Response To: http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/24/fact.check.pentagon.irpt/index.html?hpt=T2
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No objections to your comment about it is ridiculous to reduce all budgets out of some sense of “fairness”.
But I don’t agree with
“[The USA] can’t go on without a proper defense budget…”
let alone
“Furthermore, anyone who would weigh the budget used in the defense of our country the same as any other part of the President’s budget needs a reality check.”
My objections are (and apologies for list format!)
[1]
The current generation of carriers, strike aircraft etc are already streets ahead of anything Al-Qaeda and the taleban can boast. And yet where’s Osama? Eh? EH?? You might have to sell me the idea that a newer and better generation of hardware is going to bring any real advantages that justify the expense of it.
And no major nation is in any position to mount an old-fashioned superpower war against the USA. Really. So you might have to sell me the idea that this would change dangerously even if the US military was downsized, say, 20%.
[2]
the USA is far, far stronger an entity than the sum of the ammo in it’s military’s magazines. Is totally superior firepower to keep the barbarian hoardes away REALLY the only thing preventing the downfall of the American empire? Really?? Because that would be a pretty sad view to take.
I would have thought your huge industrial base, healthy democracy and the deeply-ingrained spirit of freedom and personal responsibility that Americans (in general, i know, I know) seem to exhibit, are not nothing. And (with all due respect to your armed forces) those qualities are certainly doing more on a day-to-day basis to keep America on top than any high-tech slings and arrows are doing.
I agree that it is ridiculous to cut spending the same percentage across the board, but I’m not sure that the defense budget should be kept as it has been. I suppose, as you said, considering we are in two wars, we should keep investing in this area. Perhaps changing “what” we invest in on the defense end might be an intelligent way of approaching it. Let’s continue to make sure our military forces get what they need to fight these wars, and then let’s make sure they are treated with respect when they return to the US.