There are collaborators in this ~ they know what they're doing.
The 14th century signaled another great change...the death of chivalry. With the advent of the English longbow (particularly at Crecy, Poitiers, and then Agincourt in the next century), the rules of engagement changed and the code of behavior of knights and “civilized” warfare with it.
Why should foreclosed mortgages be paid off? How about un-foreclosed mortgages? Why should a person who can't pay his bills be rewarded, while one who can pay his bills ends up having to pay his own bills plus the mortgage of the guy who can't?
And speaking of hospitals and schools, many times the money spent on the military has been send down their gaping maw in the past fifty years, and to what effect?
Yet Western Civilization has clearly defined enemies against which it must protect itself if it is to survive.
“In the 14th century it was the church that lived in symbiosis with the military. Nowadays it is the politicians. The US government spent a staggering $687bn on “defense” in 2010. Think what could be done with that money if it were put into hospitals, schools or to pay off foreclosed mortgages.”
I can sympathize with the thought that perhaps much of that money was wasted. I’ve worked in the defense industry for 33 years and I’ve produced equipment that went straight from receipt to the scrap heap. It was even known that was what would happen to it before it was ordered. Defense contracts, like any rent seeking behavior, generate its own constituency. It finances those constituencies and those constituencies finance campaigns and provide graft to politicians. (Free rides on the corporate jet, vacations in company owned hunting lodges, infinite golfing, to name a few.)
But when the author says, suppose we put money into hospitals, schools and paid off mortgages, he undermines his argument. These merely redirect the money to different constituencies, who then provide a different sort of graft. Michelle Obama, for example, had a well-paid position in a hospital with a vague job description. She got a million dollar award through her husband for the hospital and she got a substantial raise. Then, when she could no longer fill the role and had to leave the hospital eliminated her position. That’s just one example of how giving money away creates graft.
If there’s a choice on where to uselessly spend money, I’d prefer the graft be spent on the military. Given how rapidly wars progress today you can’t ramp up to build something after the conflict starts. As Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld famously observed, “You don’t go to war with the Army you want. You go to war with the Army you have.”
Yes!! Let’s melt the metal, hold hands, and sing Kumbaya! Peace and joy will prevail and muslims everywhere will love us!
Ron Paul forever!
/s/
Ignoring the Guardian’s silly spin on things for the moment, I want to question their axiom that this is a war somebody here wants. The truth is that nobody here wants to go to war with Iran; it’s just that the Iranians are forcing us to.
Before 1941, nobody in the US wanted war with Japan, but many people thought that such a war was increasingly likely, or even inevitable, because of unending Japanese militarism and aggression.
It took Pearl Harbor to force us into war. But today, with Iranian nuclear weapons and missile technology, we no longer can screw around until we are attacked.
And for their part, the Iranians are doing everything on their part to rattle sabres, brag and bloviate about how they are going to kick their enemies asses.
But even if you believe that this is all the US and Israeli belligerence, then why are all the Arab nations of the Gulf allied against the Iranian threat *to them*?
Saudi Arabia has announced that it *must* develop its own nuclear weapons to *counter* Iran’s nuclear weapons.
With mercenaries you get a return on your "investment".
Not to excuse the Plague Bacillus, or anything-—buttt... didn’t them Muzzies attack us?
First??
(i.e.—bobby Kennedy in ‘68?)
Mr. Jones mixes half truths with blatant lies to reach his preordained liberal conclusions.
I'm thinking you'd be banging your head on the floor 5x a day!
“War drums are beating for Iran. But who’s playing them?”
More leftist claptrap. Not one mention of the fact that 99% of the violence in the world today is caused by the Islamo-Fascists and their ilk.