“Its amazing how little you get for half a trillion per year from our military. What makes you think a full trillion a year would get us any more?”
It worked in the past. There are certain percentages of military spending relative to GNP. To put it in basic terms, when we get below 3% (1930s, late 1940s, etc.) we find ourselves getting into wars. When we’re above 5% (Cold War, Reagan Buildup, etc.) we are RESPECTED and wind up not even needing to use our military.
We’re now below 3%, AND IT SHOWS with Russia and China on the march. The “peace dividend” only works if ALL SIDES play by its rules. The other sides didn’t, and we didn’t care...and now we’re PAYING THE PRICE.
Percent of GNP has nothing to do with it.
Again, Russia has a much smaller military budget. They are able to further their national interests with that.
Our problem is that we waste our military budget. We cannot do half the job with 10 times the budget if we have widespread rent seeking, political generals, cheating contractors, and social engineering.
If you increase the military budget before fixing the military it’s money down a rathole.
500 billion plus annually ought to buy us an effective fighting force. That it doesn’t is BS.
Where does the money go that they have now? Nobody knows.