Sure I can agree that military spending is too high and there should be much higher efficiencies. Helping Ukraine though I think is very justified. It's pricey but allowing the Russia to just take over Ukraine and then threaten NATO countries including ones that used to be part of the USSR is going to be far more costly in the long run. And yes the PRC benefit from the US navy. They benefit a lot from the pax Americana that has been created in recent decades. In addition to helping shipping it's allowed many countries to build up economies without committing so much to military budgets. Major trading partners for the PRC like Japan, SK, Malaysia and etc... Unfortunateley XI doenst' look at things that way. He's being driven by more nationalistic concerns that are threatening several of those same trading partners that have helped build the PRC economy. In an ideal world we wouldn't need to have a military. Countries would settle their differences through multilateral institutions and respect each other's borders. We don't live in that World as February 2022 very clearly illustrated.
whenever US domestic semiconductor manufacturing boost becomes a reality, China can take over Taiwan at their convenience
It seems like you're triaging the finer points with a platoon of strawmen because you can't admit that we are already spending more than all the other government agencies combined to withstand a threat of force that hasn't even happened yet. The 800 Billion budget does not even include spending on Ukraine aid packages. Not sure why you're maintaining that point except to cover the part where we restock our bombs and missiles in order to fight another 2 front war...and then some. Let's say we cut 200 Billion from that annual budget and shift it into domestic agencies at a time when populist groups feel unloved and distrustful of their government. Could that fund more infrastructural public school reform and give an adequate raise for teachers? Can it be used to address the homeless epidemic in our cities through addiction treatment and rehab? Could it be used to provide more social services for Americans clawing out of lower-middle class indentured servitude? There's plenty of "woke stuff" we could do with the spare change, maybe break ground and open up 2000 historically black colleges just for hell of it. Even at 600B, we'd still outpace spending for 2-9 combined. Nah, you can keep pretending that I'm the unreasonable idealist who wants zero military.
I'm not really sure what you are arguing as I didn't say you were an idealist that wanted zero military. I even said we could probably cut some from the military budget but those "strawmen" you mention are actually real situations. You yourself noted that the PRC benefits from the US Navy protection of shipping lanes. That isn't stopping them from building up their own navy and looking to project power. As of February 2022 should show that there are real threats from great powers. Dealing with them isn't cheap. Bombs, missiles and bullets all have a cost and that the we are giving so much to Ukraine does mean they have to be replaced. Or are you arguing we don't both replacing them?
My point is that these threats are being used to justify runaway defense spending despite us not being in any declared war with boots on the ground. Even if China is building up their navy or "provoking us", we still outspend them 3-4 times over. It would require an unknown technological advantage for them to surpass us and overtake Taiwan. No amount of profligate spending currently planned would account for that scenario. Public discussion or added skepticism on keeping that spending in check now amounts to "you're nothing more than a Putin bot" or "we have to keep up with the China threat." Somewhere in this past decade, we lost something significant over public discourse on gargantuan defense spending. Without it, it becomes a blank check rife with corruption and "botched" multibillion projects, and it's definitely becoming more of a crutch in handling foreign relations.
Of course it's worth it when Russia is being the aggressor and proving we were too soft on them under Obama and Trump. It's just naïve, madness to think it's in the US's benefit to get into a fair fight. Real easy to be against F35s when it's not you personally potentially going against another air force. Fair fights are for suckers. The main issue is the War on Terror was such a terrible boondoggle that it has eroded folks' mindset about the true nature of humans. I've seen nothing in human history to suggest Russia and China wouldn't take the US down a peg if given the opportunity. China's navy is setting up shop along the major trading routes. This whole "US navy protects Chinese shipping lanes" is just a red herring.
LOL threats? You mean Russia showing exactly why NATO should exist and how we were too soft with them under Obama and Trump? You mean China's "Wolf Diplomacy" and swarming Taiwan's defense network in order to find soft spots, to put Taiwan's military on edge, and hope they make a mistake to justify China invading? You mean North Korea increasingly gaining more ICBM technology? You mean Iran trying to get a nuke and engaging in proxy battles from the Middle East to Central Asia? And all these countries are increasingly working together and forming partnerships. You do see Europe and Asia raising their own military spending due directly to the actions of Russia, North Korea, and China? Again, the war on terror boondoggle gave a lot of folks naïve tendencies on how the world actually works.
I agree military spending shouldn't be a blank check and yes we are outspening all other countries. That doesn't mean there aren't real threats to allies and interests that need to be confronted militarily. The situation between PRC and Taiwan is one. That Putin actually did invade Ukraine shows that such threats should be taken seriously. I can't tell you exactly how much the military should be cut and it does seem like there is a lot of bloat. I don't think downplaying such issues as the PRC possibly invading Taiwan is the right argument to make given that they say they could do it all the time, they are building a Navy that looks like it is geared for that type of conflict, and are throwing around their military weight in the South China Sea and Yellow Sea.
U.S. general warns troops that war with China is possible in two years Gen. Michael A. Minihan, who oversees the Air Force’s fleet of transport and refueling aircraft, cited the 2024 presidential elections in Taiwan and the United States as part of his rationale https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/01/27/us-general-minihan-china-war-2025/
I still think war between the US and the PRC is unlikely and that the PRC is unlikely to make a serious military attempt to take Taiwan. That doesn't mean that this isn't very possible and that actions by both the US, Taiwan and other countries in the region couldn't lead to such an outcome. As we saw with Putin when an authoritarian leader says he's going to do something we should probably take it seriously. My own view is one of guarded optimism. I'm leaning towards that there are enough people in the CCP who know that an invasion of Taiwan would be disastrous on many levels so it shouldn't be done. Whether Xi himself believes that isn't clear and whether he has such a hold on the CCP that he could push them to invade is unclear.
We fought a two front war on top of the War on Terror that added hundreds of billions more in additonal spending for surveillance and espionage. Are you a fatty who whines "it's not fair" when a kid eats one scoop of ice cream and you are entitled to three? At the height of fighting two wars from 2005-2015, the DoD averaged 600B in official spending. You don't need 200B+ in added spending while justifying congressionally approved aid packages to whatever new threat is out there. Quit enabling these blank checks. It saps crucial funding on what would otherwise go to American programs. They are unabashedly wasteful. 2/3 of their R&D spending isn't directed towards their top 10 modernization priorities. The one thing all Presidents this millennium have wanted and agreed upon has been for our allies to pay a larger burden for their defense and our alliances. It only took an erratic leader like Trump for them to start shaping up and quit mooching on our grotesque military spending spree. We were taken down a peg because we were saddled with two Trillions plus wars we really had no right in maintaining for that long. Our presidents didn't "go soft" on them, rather they were distracted and constrained by the existing wars and couldn't pay full attention elsewhere. Does that hint at a limit? If you think it's naive to cut down ~200B in spending, why not add 200B more? Let's make it $1,000,000,000,000 dollars in official spending to look un-naive. Ukraine still gets their annual-ish 100B in aid packages, so don't fret @rocketsjudoka Let's keep hiding the full costs elsewhere, like VA benefits, VA insurance, and pensions. DOE still gets to manage and maintain nukes Biden Strong!! This sounds I took your safety blanket, as if 800 Billion is some nice pragmatic number. If our military is critically unprepared for these challenges after all of these spending increases, then there should still be an inevitable shakeup...or domestic eats it yet again. They can handle it if they learn to spend more wisely and we didn't give them a pass.
And what does this have to do with Russia invading Ukraine? Those costs don't even tell the full story of what we spent in Iraq and Afghanistan. Like I've said, The War on Terror boondoggle has made folks irrational and naïve about real threats. Upgrading our military and shifting our military away from lower technological threats like terrorists to more peer level threats in China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. And they didn't even do it under Trump..... It took Russia actually invading Ukraine for various NATO countries to actually start ramping up weapon purchases. Poland will soon have one of the most powerful continental European militaries. Germany is the biggest offender and we will soon find out if they are going to upgrade their military with an additional $100 billion. I think the timing of the increase with the Ukraine invasion is telling. If Russia attacks NATO, will we spend more or less? LOL. Hidden under the budget of Department of Veteran Affairs....... hiding in plain sight! Whoops! Biden also signed into legislation a bunch of spending on infrastructure, semiconductors, and critical supply chains but lets just focus on the military because we can't see the forest through the trees.... Go Brandon!?!?!? So you view it as all some sort of conspiracy or coincidence that the US military budget ramped up with the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, China increasing their war games against Taiwan and sending more sorties to test out Taiwan's responses, NK increasing it's ICBM testing and more sabre rattling, and Iran ramping up its proxy wars (oh and Israel just attacked several military sites of Iran)......
I'm not going to devote time into a repetitive tit-for-tat of the same points when you haven't even read the links grounding my points. Lazy. It's telling you want to push me conspiracy theory status and...a Brandon zinger? You're hitting it out of the park! The military will always push for more spending and resist cutbacks on budget. Use it or lose it. It's not a secret, and yes, most people will gloss over total military expenditures because we've been spending over a trillion a year on defense since the height of the Iraq/Afghanistan Wars. Similar to our budget deficits, the government obfuscates and misdirects transparent line item spending. They'll use any crisis as opportunity for more spending, so it's essential for Congress to appropriate side packages to rein in on waste that becomes baked in on the annual budget. It's still a flawed process, but it's better than whatever is being eaten up these days. If you're so big on timing, all these budget increases happened under naive Trump. If the goal posts shifted then you probably didn't notice out of the constant fear being peddled to enable said ridiculous spending.
This is what people don't get. Bidens announcement in December that TSMC is building 3nm chips at the new factory is the biggest news story of the year and it got no traction or headlines. This is why the only that matters right now is building out our own chips capabilities. That's why banning chips export to China and curbing their tech field is so damn important. It gives us those 5-7 years to build out capacity. Wish the biden folks weren't so damn awful of messaging. The strategy is the right one.
And I asked you what these links had to do with Russia or China? And I pointed out that there was additional spending.... you didn't even bring up the "nation building" costs of rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan. Thinking you are the one that is lazy in this context, Your argument seems to boil down to "you don't view Russia, China, NK, and Iran as credible threats based on their actions the last several years therefore the military spending isn't justified". Yay or nay? That's government in general..... but you disagree with the cause and effect of Russia and China escalating things in Ukraine and Taiwan which caused an increase in spending? And you feel like Russia invading Ukraine and China gearing up against Taiwan by using war games and by flying sorties to test and tire out Taiwanese defenses aren't the US's problems? Just say you don't find China, Russia, NK, and Iran to be credible threats or the US's problem. Are we talking about defense under Trump because it went up and then went down? The largest defense increase between Trump and Biden has come under Biden with this last budget..... which times up to Russia's invasion and China's escalation.
It's the Sun but the wheels are still in motion... https://www.the-sun.com/news/7267938/china-prepare-taiwan-blitz-cut-island-off/ COUNTDOWN TO WAR China ‘learning from Putin’s Ukraine disaster’ as regime prepares for all-out Taiwan blitz to ‘cut island off from US’
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/11/politics/taiwan-foreign-minister-interview/index.html Military exercises suggest China is getting ‘ready to launch a war against Taiwan,’ island’s foreign minister tells CNN
