Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
This forum is in permanent archive mode. Our new active community can be found here.
Military industrial complex (or Is Obama going to disarm us)
I figured since this E-mail from my dad was an Obama campaign ad that he was reacting negatively to (and my brother law reacted the same way arguing with my sister). kRGru2CPC4E
In response to being sent this E-mail I wrote to my dad: "Wow Remove the military from Iraq, and make sure we are not spending money needlessly and get oversight to military spending and get rid of nuclear weapons.
Sounds good to me."
In response my dad wrote: "put your hands up in the air and just give up.... sad just to think you would think that without a deterrent you can service in this world... With thoughts like that we will for sure be a third world country"
Where I responded "I would think you'd want some oversight over military spending after the boon-dongle that was all the private contractors when we moved into the Iraq conflict. That and Boeing Ripping off the American government when they put in a bid for those tanker planes, and then because they tired to rip us off, we ended up giving the contract to a European Company. I would think fiscal conservative would want to make sure The Military Industrial complex didn't run rough-shot over the American people. I think it was the Great republican president Dwight Eisenhower, that used his last speech as president to warn of the power of the private military companies and how they would get us involved in wars and rob us blindly in the name of patriotism and anti-communism.
Reducing the amount of Nuclear weapons in the world is a good thing, Russia and the U.S. have more Nukes pointed at each other then is a needed for a deterrent. Do we really need more nuclear weapons then would completely destroy all major cities in Russia, I don't think so. Military engagements are won through the projection of force, we win and prevent our wars because we have the ability to project force to nearly any part of the world with little problem. China might have more men in it's military but they can't even project force into Taiwan. A large arsenal of Nuclear Weapons only makes other countries more anxious to get them. Showing the world that we are drawing down our nuclear weapon stockpiles. We currently have 5,730 active nuclear missiles (as in ready to fire right away) and 4,000 more nuclear warheads that would take a bit more time to be ready,
If there is ever going to be another nuclear attack in the world, it will be by a terrorist group and be some sort of mobile ground bomb, they will have gotten their nuclear material from one of the stockpiles in U.S or Russia or a country that we gave them to. A missile defense shield will have been a waste of money and who will we be able to nuke if this happens, if we ever use a nuclear weapon in a offensive way or to take out a terrorist camp in a neutral country we would then have to deal with the mess of where the radioactive material goes and who else gets effected. Nuclear weapons are not and can never be the answer, Airplanes like the F-22 Raptor and having a well trained military is the answer.
Laura's Aunt "The admiral", who did not like the Clintons still though the military ran better under bill Clinton then Bush in Hindsight."
So do you think Obama and I are right or am I a crazy liberal pinko that wants the US to become a Muslim country?
In response to being sent this E-mail I wrote to my dad: "Wow Remove the military from Iraq, and make sure we are not spending money needlessly and get oversight to military spending and get rid of nuclear weapons.
Sounds good to me."
In response my dad wrote: "put your hands up in the air and just give up.... sad just to think you would think that without a deterrent you can service in this world... With thoughts like that we will for sure be a third world country"
Where I responded "I would think you'd want some oversight over military spending after the boon-dongle that was all the private contractors when we moved into the Iraq conflict. That and Boeing Ripping off the American government when they put in a bid for those tanker planes, and then because they tired to rip us off, we ended up giving the contract to a European Company. I would think fiscal conservative would want to make sure The Military Industrial complex didn't run rough-shot over the American people. I think it was the Great republican president Dwight Eisenhower, that used his last speech as president to warn of the power of the private military companies and how they would get us involved in wars and rob us blindly in the name of patriotism and anti-communism.
Reducing the amount of Nuclear weapons in the world is a good thing, Russia and the U.S. have more Nukes pointed at each other then is a needed for a deterrent. Do we really need more nuclear weapons then would completely destroy all major cities in Russia, I don't think so. Military engagements are won through the projection of force, we win and prevent our wars because we have the ability to project force to nearly any part of the world with little problem. China might have more men in it's military but they can't even project force into Taiwan. A large arsenal of Nuclear Weapons only makes other countries more anxious to get them. Showing the world that we are drawing down our nuclear weapon stockpiles. We currently have 5,730 active nuclear missiles (as in ready to fire right away) and 4,000 more nuclear warheads that would take a bit more time to be ready,
If there is ever going to be another nuclear attack in the world, it will be by a terrorist group and be some sort of mobile ground bomb, they will have gotten their nuclear material from one of the stockpiles in U.S or Russia or a country that we gave them to. A missile defense shield will have been a waste of money and who will we be able to nuke if this happens, if we ever use a nuclear weapon in a offensive way or to take out a terrorist camp in a neutral country we would then have to deal with the mess of where the radioactive material goes and who else gets effected. Nuclear weapons are not and can never be the answer, Airplanes like the F-22 Raptor and having a well trained military is the answer.
Laura's Aunt "The admiral", who did not like the Clintons still though the military ran better under bill Clinton then Bush in Hindsight."
So do you think Obama and I are right or am I a crazy liberal pinko that wants the US to become a Muslim country?
Comments
But with all seriousness, he is completely right about what needs to be done.
Abortion on demand.
Take everybody's guns away,
And throw them in the sand.
Free needles for the addicts,
Free condoms for the kids.
We'll not blame the criminal
For anything he did.
For who's to say what's right and wrong?
Is there such a thing as sin?
And does it really matter, if wars we lose or win?
In any case, I couldn't agree with you more, Cremlian. Military spending has reached self-parodying levels in the face of a terrorist boogy-man, and more American nuclear weapons has little to no practical application in today's geopolitical environment.
I feel for you. My father has similar views against Obama, however my father does not know nor does he care to know how to work a computer or go on the internet for that matter.
A few weeks ago my father and I got into a discussion about Obama. It was mostly my father attacking Obama stating things he heard on the news. It didn't help at all that my father likes watching Fox News. He questioned why Obama wore a turban when he went to some country in the Middle East. I was almost dumbfounded by that. I really didn't know what he was talking about, but I took a guess that Obama was wearing it as a sign of respect. I told my father that and that even if Obama was Muslim, even though he's not, that just because you're Muslim it doesn't mean you're a terrorist.
He then got angry and tried to say something that Obama doesn't give a shit about veterans or the military because Obama voted no on a bill to increase military funding. If I recall correctly, Obama has stated the reason why he didn't vote yes was because the bill basically gave an open check to G.W. to spend whatever amount on military spending. I explained this to my father, he didn't say anything back.
On another instance, my father was yelling and questioning why Obama just wants to talk to Ahmadinejad about Israel instead of just bombing them like McCain wants to. As much as I wanted to give him a "Whatchu talkin' bout Willis?" look, I calmly stated that not every global problem should or can be solved by aggression or war.
There are many other instances where I have corrected my father on certain things, and he conceded that I was right. Overall, he likes to talk about politics, but he doesn't vote.
To give a bit of a back story to my father, he is a disabled Vietnam Veteran. He is retired US Army as well as retired from the civil service and has been retired for almost 10 years now. He was born and raised in Guam where he lived on a farm and lived mostly in poverty. Went into the military, served two tours in Vietnam and was injured. He served the Army for I believe over 20 years, so most of his views tend to lead toward to the right.
My mother tends to be more open minded than my father, even though she is a fairly religious Catholic and an extremely superstitious Filipino woman. I remember during the Democratic Presidential Primaries that she told me she want Hillary Clinton to win the nomination vs. Barack Obama. I tried to get into a discussion why she thought that, but she didn't want to have the conversation with me. Since then, my mom has now stated she isn't participating in the general election this year. I tried to ask her why, but again, she doesn't want to talk about it. Sometimes I think it might be possible that she is racist and that's one of the reasons why she doesn't like Obama. It pains me to think that, however it is possibly true. She has also stated that McCain would do a better job because he is a Republican and that Republicans take better care of people in the military as well as Veterans.
It is extremely hard to argue this because my parents support anything when it comes to funding the military as well as funding the Veterans Administration. One of the main reasons is that my older brother is a Captain in the US Army and is currently serving his third tour over in the Middle East. Another reason is the fact that both my mother as well as myself work for the Department of Veteran Affairs. My mother has worked for them for almost 20 years, so when it comes to funding the VA, we tend to agree with people who are for that.
Even though I don't wish any harm on my brother in the Middle East, I'm very happy that he's not here during the Presidential Elections. He is a very loyal member of the Republican Party and will argue for them with every fiber of his being. I tend to loathe whenever he comes to visit because he knows we greatly differ on political views and he tries to argue with me. Many of his arguments are not valid and basically comes off as belittling me or my side instead of actually talking about real points. He will never admit he is wrong or that the Republicans are wrong. I've basically come to the decision that I will just ignore him and whenever he tries to bring a discussion up, I will just keep quiet.
I also have a half-brother who lives in Texas. He and his family recently came up to visit my family in May. They saw that I had an Obama sticker on my car. My neice happened to point that out, and we soon got into a discussion about politics. My half-brother and his wife are also Republicans. I'll just say that after a few minutes of discussion, we agreed that talking about politics wasn't the best idea and that people are entitled to their opinion. It was funny, however that they said that they even though he wasn't their choice, they will still vote for McCain while holding their noses.
So as you can see, I seem to be the oddball in my family. It gets rough at times when they try to team up on me with their views, however I try to hold strong and fight back when I feel it is necessary. Even though we disagree, I still love them, even though I think they're all crazy. :P
(Sorry for such a long post. Also if I made a few grammatical errors, it's because I was typing this post off and on for the last three hours while also working.)
I want world peace, and I'd like a tighter account on how our money is being spent, but I don't believe we should disarm ourselves ICBM-wise or severely cut military research. I don't think we should ever use a nuclear missile against another country, but other countries might feel otherwise. It's sad, but the nuke is a very good ace for everyone else to know you have. It's scary, and un-yielding (heh, or is it?). Not having nukes ready to launch will make developing countries want to make nukes of their own to assert power.
As for military research, I agree that space should be left untarnished by war, but a lot of technologies funded by our military have trickled down to local law enforcement as a form non-lethal weaponry. Such projects as those directional sound weapons systems (which don't kill) have applications in situations like riots. I recognize that when a country creates weapons, it will want to use them, but I think what we gain through research is worth more.
But then again, what do I know.