foreign policy debate

[strigori]

But you spend a tiny fraction of the money on protection if you are not needing to buy it for tens of thousands of troops in a war zone. Sure they spend money to protect the troops, but they would not need protecting the same way if they were stateside. And invariably some people will die, as is the nature of a war zone.

 

You know the best way to not go to war with someone? Establish regular trade with them. Throughout history you will find precious few cases where two nations who were heavy trading partners went to war. Its not good for business, which means its not good for the wealthy and influential in a nation. We will never go to war with China. Too many people on both sides stand to lose way the hell too much money in trade is disrupted.

 

Isolating a nation, and making them feel trapped and desperate is a sure fire way to lead to conflict.

[BigRedBuster]

I beg you to show me a war we got into because the military contractors convinced the politicians to go to war.

 

I am all for bringing our men and women home. I have been preaching for years that once we are out of the wars we are in, we need to close most of the over 700 military installations around the world and just worry about our little part of the world.

 

That is a decision for the politicians. Not the contractors. That's like someone going out and building a $500,000 house when they can only afford $100,000. Then, when they go bankrupt, you blame the home builder for selling them the house.

[carlfense]

I think the part I bolded is a completely unfair assessment of military contractors. I will guarantee you that what would make these people the happiest is if the military buys their products and then doesn't have to use them to kill anyone.

 

In fact, a HUGE amount of this money is spent on PROTECTING our troops and making sure they don't die. AND, we have spent literally billions of dollars on technology to only kill the few people we actually need to kill. Our military and it's contractors work tirelessly to prevent unnecessary loss of life and our military contractors are a big part of making that happen.

War is good for the business of defense contractors. Is war good for the protection of our troops?

 

I don't think that I've ever seen someone actually buy into the patriotic defense contractor bit.

[akita]

Both candidates foreign policy. Keep giving them foreign aid. The tax payers think the real money is being payed to welfare recipients.

[strigori]

I beg you to show me a war we got into because the military contractors convinced the politicians to go to war.

 

I am all for bringing our men and women home. I have been preaching for years that once we are out of the wars we are in, we need to close most of the over 700 military installations around the world and just worry about our little part of the world.

 

That is a decision for the politicians. Not the contractors. That's like someone going out and building a $500,000 house when they can only afford $100,000. Then, when they go bankrupt, you blame the home builder for selling them the house.

And how many of the politicians have close ties to the defense contractors? How many contractors donate large amounts of money to hawkish politicians. We had a vice president who had worked for a major defense contractor, and that administration gave no bid war contracts to the same company. For a war we had no business starting.

 

Don't think for a second that the Cold War was not influenced by the same companies either. The arms race meant billions and billions for those companies.

 

Its not like these companies are taking out ads to sway the populace, all they need to do is nudge enough friendly politicians into things.

[carlfense]

Both candidates foreign policy. Keep giving them foreign aid. The tax payers think the real money is being payed to welfare recipients.

If you're comparing those two . . . it's probably true that more money is paid to welfare recipients. Foreign aid is a very small portion of the budget.

[carlfense]

I beg you to show me a war we got into because the military contractors convinced the politicians to go to war.

 

I am all for bringing our men and women home. I have been preaching for years that once we are out of the wars we are in, we need to close most of the over 700 military installations around the world and just worry about our little part of the world.

 

That is a decision for the politicians. Not the contractors. That's like someone going out and building a $500,000 house when they can only afford $100,000. Then, when they go bankrupt, you blame the home builder for selling them the house.

And how many of the politicians have close ties to the defense contractors? How many contractors donate large amounts of money to hawkish politicians. We had a vice president who had worked for a major defense contractor, and that administration gave no bid war contracts to the same company. For a war we had no business starting.

 

Don't think for a second that the Cold War was not influenced by the same companies either. The arms race meant billions and billions for those companies.

 

Its not like these companies are taking out ads to sway the populace, all they need to do is nudge enough friendly politicians into things.

Eisenhower was a wise man.

[sd'sker]

I beg you to show me a war we got into because the military contractors convinced the politicians to go to war.

 

I am all for bringing our men and women home. I have been preaching for years that once we are out of the wars we are in, we need to close most of the over 700 military installations around the world and just worry about our little part of the world.

 

That is a decision for the politicians. Not the contractors. That's like someone going out and building a $500,000 house when they can only afford $100,000. Then, when they go bankrupt, you blame the home builder for selling them the house.

it is more like a fraudulent lender selling you a house you do not want nor need and then going bankrupt because of the debt.

 

also, if you remember candidate bush vs. president bush you will remember lines like this:

so bush did not want nation building. his words. so he left his foreign policy department pretty void. it was not a concern for him because he wanted a 'humble' foreign policy. his big sell was to be a compassionate conservative and focus on domestic policy. and what happened? it was filled with hawkish neo-cons with military contractors deep in their pockets (*cough* cheney *cough*) and that lead to two wars and billions of dollars of funding to military contractors and even for-pay, militia-style, military.