A Cold War Budget Without a cold war?

I noticed that the US is spending alot on their military, I mean that on they are spending somewhere close to $550 Billion on their military. The U.S military budget rises to cold war levels and is higher than the next 30 countries combined.

Is Current U.S. Spending Justified?
"For 45 years of the Cold War we were in an arms race with the Soviet Union. Now it appears we're in an arms race with ourselves."
Admiral Eugene Carroll, Jr., U.S. Navy (Ret.)
Deputy Director
Center for Defense Information

With a 2 million man Fighting force comprised of the Second best trained in the World, the US armed forces at the moment have no potent adversaries and the rogues they oppose are rather considered as Small Fry.

Rogues: Iran, Syria, NK, Iraq and other potential rogue nations.

I've seen attempts to save money like the cancelling of the Crusader Artillery system or the Commanche Cancel. But the most effective way to cut spending is to have never disarmed from the begining.

After world war 2 America disarmed but noone else did. After the cold war everyone disarmed but America HAd to follow the flow.

It would have been cheaper to maintain or sometimes replace the aging equipment though. Replacing aging equipment is good but not all the time, The US armed forces are operating the best equiment in the world and it will take yaers for their enemies to go in par with them so it would go some where in the long-run.

The quote mentioned above is true, America is so ahed of every body else their racing, look at the M1A1 it's only near 20 and the M1A2 only 14 and now they're all being upgraded to the SEP version, despite the fact that in 73 easting t72 shells bounced right off the Chobham II armor so the upgrading can wait.

if you didn't know the 500 billion thy're spending all come from taxpayers like all of us so we should stop buying th F18 E and buy the JSF which is cheaper and better and digitalize the Blackhawk, Upgrade the L.A class Subs and buy more f 15s than the f22
Heres a good link: Link


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[edit on 22-5-2006 by UK Wizard]

Good advice, but most unfortunately it will only fall on deaf ears. The U.S. Govt. is always right. How could you accuse them of wasting money!!!

If you ever managed to ask, they're bound to say 'terrorism' or some crap like that. Terrorism? Then why don't you get your arse in gear and stop letting Bin laden escape!

It is all also linked in with the big corporations. The Cold War really propped them up, what with a constant stream of orders for more nukes and missiles and torps and ammo and whatever else. After that finished, they were left outside, shunted away because they were not needed. So, of course, people within those organizations have had some say in how things are now.

It's a pity, really, that the United States feels the need to constantly upgrade everything they can. I just wanna see how long this mid-life crisis lasts for!!

The reason the US spends more is because they have more. China actually uses a slightly higher percentage of their resources on their military.

obviously the US is racing with alliens, so in case something like "war of the worlds" or "independence day" happens, the US can give those alliens a one two.....

[edit on 26-5-2006 by warset]

Originally posted by InsanityMajor
The reason the US spends more is because they have more. China actually uses a slightly higher percentage of their resources on their military.

US has a much higher percentage of its population serves in its military service than that of China

With a 2 million man Fighting force comprised of the Second best trained in the World, the US armed forces at the moment have no potent adversaries and the rogues they oppose are rather considered as Small Fry.

Rogues: Iran, Syria, NK, Iraq and other potential rogue nations.

Remember that those nations have large militaries but small economies based on their history of military might as a stability force against their own domestic people. You should remember that NK has a million man army, while its own population is starving to death. The U.S. has barely 25,000 troops and support units in SK and units in the Pacific.

[edit on 26-5-2006 by deltaboy]