Do you support the idea of the US dismantling its military?

[Gheld]

If the US dismantles its military then what does that mean for all the countries under its defensive umbrella?

A military the size, scope, and strength of the US is only necessary to be able to simultaneously defend against every other nation on the planet at once. The Soviet Union was briefly that size of a threat to the US, but is no longer such.

Wars are fought and won every day in countries nobody in the US has ever heard of. So presumably the world would be fine. The hornets from all the nests the US kicked over since World War 2 however...

[Celawien]

Dismantle it completely. When was the last time the military actually protected us?

I don't count ANY of the bullshit going on in the Middle East for the last 25 years "protecting".

Our military presence is why no major force has tried to attack us, duh. And no I don't consider Al-Qaeda a major force, more of a tick on the back of a dog.

[The Stormbringer]

The ENTIRE military? No, that's fucking stupid. Parts of it that are unnecessary where gross over-spending goes into? Possibly. They need to do some serious re-evaluation and long-term planning before doing anything, though.

[Deleted]

What happens to those fighter pilots and sailors who planned on doing the 20 years they were promised and retiring, who now find themselves jobless?

If you can fly a military jet, then you can easily find another job.

[Gheld]

Dismantle it completely. When was the last time the military actually protected us?

I don't count ANY of the bullshit going on in the Middle East for the last 25 years "protecting".

Do people honestly think this has only been going on for the last 25 years?

[zoefschildpad]

The fact that armies exist disgusts me. Training people to shoot other people is a barbaric and ridiculous practice that should be abolished as soon as possible. The US has by far the largest army and should set a good example by scaling down significantly.

[Greyce]

Definitely cut back -- and put large portions of that spending toward the State Department and diplomatic efforts.

[Bearshield]

What an ignorant question. No, the US should not dismantle its military and neither should any other country. A nation has a right to defend itself with a proper military. Does the US GOVERNMENT involve the military in situations that it has no business in? Absolutely, but that is the fault of the government, not the military itself and dismantling the entire military because the morons running the country don't know what to do with it only serves to leave the rest of the nation defenseless.

[Zvinny]

If you can fly a military jet, then you can easily find another job.

Except they signed a contract with the US government, meaning they shouldn't have to find a another job. You can't dismantle the military and honor their contracts at the same time.

The fact that armies exist disgusts me. Training people to shoot other people is a barbaric and ridiculous practice that should be abolished as soon as possible. The US has by far the largest army and should set a good example by scaling down significantly.

I see you haven't met reality.

[icausewipes]

Dismantle it.

[zoefschildpad]

I see you haven't met reality.

I have, and it blows. Still, since the US has an army that is far bigger than they'll ever need, and since they're so fond of calling themselves "leaders of the free world" I see no reason why they wouldn't downscale and use diplomatic means to try and get others to do the same, so that armies that large will never be necessary again.

[Deleted]

I have, and it blows. Still, since the US has an army that is far bigger than they'll ever need, and since they're so fond of calling themselves "leaders of the free world" I see no reason why they wouldn't downscale and use diplomatic means to try and get others to do the same, so that armies that large will never be necessary again.

Yeah, the fact that the US overdoes the whole army thing is actually something that should help promote diplomatic means. You're more likely to talk rather than do something that could irritate a nation with such a large army.

[Deleted]

Na, they shouldnt cut it. They should triple the spendings and cut it from useless institutions like education, health care or whatever. This way the US will slowly die to their military spending while not fighting anybody because there are no real enemies out there for you. However, the US will always find enemies ...so they did it with afghanistan, so they did it with al quaida, and they would love to do it with cina.

So dismantle would have only one benefit: Would save countries from the US invasion. No point in defending, the offensive aspect of it is the problem. Yeas americans, you are invaders ...not world police

[Deleted]

If the US dismantles its military then what does that mean for all the countries under its defensive umbrella?

If you remove the US spending from the total NATO military spending, the remaining part of NATO would still have sufficient military spending for defense purposes.

[bayushisan]

I have, and it blows. Still, since the US has an army that is far bigger than they'll ever need, and since they're so fond of calling themselves "leaders of the free world" I see no reason why they wouldn't downscale and use diplomatic means to try and get others to do the same, so that armies that large will never be necessary again.

.....Not everyone can be reasoned with. Diplomacy only works to a point, and sometimes you have to use force to get something done. It's called reality.

[Cthulhu 2020]

People greatly misunderstand where all the wasted money on the military goes. The military actually operates at great efficiency on the inside. Where most of the waste occurs is in contracts for military equipment from contracted from private companies. That's pretty much true for ALL government spending in the US. Internally the US government runs at extremely high efficiency levels. The overspending happens in areas where we contract out to private companies.

We contract jets that nobody wants. We build tanks that go straight into tank graveyards. We spend billions of dollars of taxpayer money to Lockheed to make military equipment that will NEVER GET USED. If we got rid of this, lots of military equipment manufacturers would be out of work, but then that money could go to say... research and development of technology for NON WAR USE.

If NASA even had 1/10 of the budget of the military, considering the miracles and inventions they've pulled out of their ass with their meager budget, I'm sure we'd have colonies on the moon by now.

[Kraenen]

.....Not everyone can be reasoned with. Diplomacy only works to a point, and sometimes you have to use force to get something done. It's called reality.

When was that point and why was this size of military necessary?

[Aeula]

Eliminate the military, war doesn't exist, it's just a fantasy to scare children!

[twelvethirty]

Politicians would never give up their toys without a fight.

[Goradan]

Face it the U.S is spending way too much on it's military and I get the impression that cost of the maintaining it is far more that what it's worth compared to other countries. With their current Military might and the spending used to fuel it, I'd that only an alliance between two of the countries like Russia, the UK and North Korea and others of the same level of power, annual spending and military might to match the U.S evenly and they as we all know only spend a cent compared to the thousand U.s is spending. In short the U.s Army is in my own opinion wasting money on a colossal scale and it's akin to literally burning money for nothing but show. it's stupid and Americas Pride and joy is more or less slowly killing itself, like a snake eating it's own tail.