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- Aug 18, 2009
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It would be nice if we could cut back our military and spend more on social services, but we are kind of stuck, because there is nobody out there to wipe our ass, because we know that China and Russia sure as hell aren't going to do it.
I guess this is the consequence of being the #1 super power and we made our own bed, but for people of the U.S. wanting to disarm and follow the model of the European/Canadian Socialist models have to realize that we can't do that, because in the end nobody has our back like we do their's.
I doubt that we would actually up our social welfare spending even if the other nations were spending 3% on military spending. Which is why I think bringing up Europe's social welfare spending is a red herring. It implies that our military spending allows them to hone these social welfare programs. It also implies that the 2 things are trade offs - either you have 2% of military spending or you have robust social welfare programs.
To my way of thinking, making that implied connection is just more divisive reasoning. It leads some Americans to believe that Europe is essentially taking advantage of us. And that makes them our enemies, not our allies.