by Mary Ann McGivern<\/p>\n
Why Not Cut the Military?<\/p>\n
The Republicans are loathe to cut the military budget. The US already spends about as much on so-called defense as the rest of the world combined. I find it difficult to imagine what more we need.<\/p>\n
Even the assessment of the costs of war in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya include materiel replacement costs for items we don\u2019t necessarily need to replace. We have a lot of weapons stockpiled.<\/p>\n
Military spending is not a job driver. Weapons are capital-intensive. That means they are constructed by computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM). Even the material is as likely to be an epoxy-base composite as it is to be steel.<\/p>\n
And, when all is said and done, the Pacific and Atlantic oceans make it difficult invade the U.S., more difficult to control invaded territory, and for all practical purposes impossible for a victor to claim and carry away any spoils.<\/p>\n
Yes, terrorism is a threat. But it\u2019s not one that more B-1 bombers will allay. We\u2019d do better fighting terrorism by providing clean water for the world.<\/p>\n
THINK nonviolence. Talk up nonviolence. Make it a prevailing idea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Mary Ann McGivern Why Not Cut the Military? The Republicans are loathe to cut the military budget. The US already spends about as much on so-called defense as the rest of the world combined. I find it difficult to imagine what more we need. Even the assessment of the costs of war in Iraq, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t