Originally Posted by
Beech Dude
C'mon man. Endless defense spending? US defense spending has been below 5% of GDP since 2010, with the peak in 2010 at 4.92%. Yes, we will always need to spend money on defense. And as of late, the little we do get in our budget isn't enough. We are in serious need of new equipment across all branches. The idea of oh F-16s and Humvees are cool and we're the best wore out 30 years ago. Our toys are old, really old. Now, has the defense budget been responsible with the less than 5%? No. I'll agree there. Pointless and wasteful spending are rampant. This is the case in the entire budget. Case in point, less than 5% of GDP isn't the reason for the dollar being devauled; rather there are many more wasteful items in the other 95% that have need of being reeled in/spent on better things. Of course, not to mention the $6T+ dollars we decided to print and just dump into the economy. Endless spending? Yes, I agree with you. Our govt and budget have been off the rails for 25+ years. It's not an us vs. Them or what party, blah blah blah. Its on everyone. The tax and spend machine is continuing to run us to the cliff in a burning dumpster. Too much spending on defense? Nope.
The best trained and equipped military is useless when there is incompetent leadership. I've lived through my share of good and bad leadership in the military and the poorly executed Afghanistan withdrawal put the world on notice that the US has idiots telling the military what to do. I am very confident that there were more than a few field grade officers in the five sided puzzle palace strongly advising that there was a plan that should be employed for the withdrawal. They were obviously ignored.
The rest of the world has seen this and other military responses over the past year and the Ukraine situation is due to our poor execution.
The odds of US leadership becoming more competent in military and diplomatic actions in the next 3 years is miniscule and for that reason it would be best if the US military disengaged from all foreign engagement until we have competent leadership at the helm.