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Aye Europe is going in a mightly good direction, if only the yanks would look to Europe for guidence in these days of days.
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Those are mutually exclusive goals. I would heartily support the abolishment of the draft where it exists in Europe. But that means you are moving to a professional force, which is much more expensive.Originally posted by kronic
We shouldn't spend more than 1 % of the GDP for our military. And we should reduce our ridiculously high number of soldiers. And we should abolish the draft.I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891Comment
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Word.Originally posted by Flip McWho
Aye Europe is going in a mightly good direction, if only the yanks would look to Europe for guidence in these days of days.
It seems we have gone backwards in time.
We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution. - Abraham LincolnComment
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It was 1943 or 1944 before the US was a credible fighting force on the ground because we demilitarized after WWI.Originally posted by Spiffor
I don't see how either comes from a lack of military spending. The US didn't intervene in militaristic Germany because the US was isolationistic at the time. The US didn't "beat the iron while it was hot" with the USSR (it didn't invade the USSR in 1945), despite the arms locker being more than full at the time.
In today's world, the US can pwn any non-nuclear country. The only military weakness of the US is with peacekeeping, but there's no need for kickass technology in this job.
Perhaps the Korean War could have been avoided if we had sufficient conventional deterrent that we threw away after WWII (true, that is primarily China, not Russia).I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891Comment
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Depends on how many soldiers we'd want to keep. The Bundeswehr currently has some 250,000 soldiers. Only 50,000 of them are conscripts. I don't think we would have to spend more, if we only kept 100,000 professional soldiers.Originally posted by DanS
Those are mutually exclusive goals. I would heartily support the abolishment of the draft where it exists in Europe. But that means you are moving to a professional force, which is much more expensive.
PS: It is likely that we will have an increase in military spending though (medium/long term). The military lobbyists and all those Weltpolitik nuts are increasing their pressure.
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Isn't it harder to recruit volunteers in Europe?
Aren't soldiers looked down upon in general?We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution. - Abraham LincolnComment
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Yes, it's harder but it's not impossible. It's certainly not a big problem to find 100,000 or 200,000 people, especially considering the current economic troubles.
Yes. Military people are normally seen as losers.Aren't soldiers looked down upon in general?Comment
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Not in the UK. Not in France. AFAIK.I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891Comment
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Good point.Originally posted by kronic
Yes, it's harder but it's not impossible. It's certainly not a big problem to find 100,000 or 200,000 people, especially considering the current economic troubles.
Yes. Military people are normally seen as losers.
Most of our soldiers are recruited out of poor neighborhoods.We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution. - Abraham LincolnComment
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But in Germany.
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I think that's a shame.I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891Comment
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What's "weltpolitik"?I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891Comment
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Ted Striker
It does seem like America is going well at least no where, they aren't adjusting for an everchanging world, too busy trying to believe that everyone is kinda like them deep down somewhere. But eh, time will sort things out.
Personally I don't see the need for individual European states to have armies anymore, they might as well start decommissioning and then setting up a collective EU Army, they're heading that ways by the looks of it anyways.Comment
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This would be fine, but that would mean a more even sharing of the spending burden. Would Germany, et al. be fine with spending a lot more money on defense?Personally I don't see the need for individual European states to have armies anymore, they might as well start decommissioning and then setting up a collective EU Army, they're heading that ways by the looks of it anyways.I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891Comment
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Probably not at the moment but as time passes and individual states become less and less then they possibly willComment
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