The price of peace...

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

The problem is it does trickle down to all 50 states and into the wallets of the congress, all these contractors, spread the wealth to all 50 states, making sure they have employees in every congressional district, or just enough of them to make doves hawks when it comes to military spending. For more willing participants, see Sen. Richard Shelby in Alabama, putting holds on all of Obama's nominees until he gets his military pork.

Yeah. I guess what I meant to say is that it would be nice if everyone could see exactly where it was going...

LOL Internet:

$500B give or take spent on defense

Lobbying:

Defense Industry - $135,879,762
Defense Enthusiasts - $5,648,743

Defense Employment 3.6M Jobs x $77K Median Income = $277B

etc...

http://www.opensecrets.org
http://www.uschamber.com/NR/rdonlyres/e ... etrade.pdf
Consider the source on this one, does not include actual foreign expenditures but good facts besides.

[Bored, Esq.]

http://www.opensecrets.org

Awesome.

[spacehamster]

War is about money, and capitalism is an oppressive oligarchy. News at ten. Yawn.

[Necrometer]

War is about money

OK, so how do war-profits scale with casualties? Is there any correlation?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

War is about money

OK, so how do war-profits scale with casualties? Is there any correlation?

They don't actually, war has generally gotten more profitable and less dangerous over the years actually. More dollarbux less corpses.

[Necrometer]

War is about money

OK, so how do war-profits scale with casualties? Is there any correlation?

They don't actually, war has generally gotten more profitable and less dangerous over the years actually. More dollarbux less corpses.

That's a correlation; an inverse correlation!

[spacehamster]

War is about money

OK, so how do war-profits scale with casualties? Is there any correlation?

What John said. But I don't see how this matters. The people who benefit from war don't care either way, so... what?

[Necrometer]

Apathy towards dying people? Welcome to Smegma.

[the awesome Assassin]

The price of everything has gone up...

[John Jr.]

and also the UN - which the US doesn't give a flying fuck about when they have a warboner - they made peace also!"

we dont give a fuck about it because we provide the vast amount of its operating capital, thus we can tell them to take a hike and they dont do anything but wring their hands. the UN is just another tool for "american" companies to use in tandem with the world bank to help destroy small countries economies, so that we can go in and blow the shit out of them. net result: "jobs"

[John Jr.]

bogeymen

exactly. how else will they keep a "free" people in line?

[Necrometer]

thanks for not simmfocking prematurely

[DeadWalrus]

hey ross, if you're still interested in this i can put together a devil's advocate position

dont really want to type it out if no one cares and i'm not really feeling up to irony-posting atm

[riley-o]

do you actually believe your DA position though ? i mean i understand that arguments exist and are "reasoned" but does anyone actually stand behind them ? do you stand behind them ? i remember one time on the old board in one of these threads you posted something along the lines of "let me ask y'all something: do you think iraq is better off without saddam in charge ?" and i wondered if you actually thought that was relevant ? but didn't really want to get into it at the time...

actually now that i think about it i still don't really want to get into it...

[DeadWalrus]

do you actually believe your DA position though ? i mean i understand that arguments exist and are "reasoned" but does anyone actually stand behind them ? do you stand behind them ? i remember one time on the old board in one of these threads you posted something along the lines of "let me ask y'all something: do you think iraq is better off without saddam in charge ?" and i wondered if you actually thought that was relevant ? but didn't really want to get into it at the time...

actually now that i think about it i still don't really want to get into it...

in all honesty, i did at one point. i was very angry that leftists and others who i believed should despise dictatorships and religious extremism were (and to a certain extent, some still are) defending these things as long as they oppose the US. i dont hold the same position anymore only because i was able to step back and look at my beliefs again after separating out the reactionary elements i was pulling towards. i still question a lot of the, ummm, malleable ideologies people hold but i try not to let that color what are my core beliefs.

so no, i don't believe in american militarism but i think i could put together a reasonable defense of it as a fun intellectual exercise.

[John Jr.]

thanks for not simmfocking prematurely

eat shit.

[Jesus H Dump]

Bilderberg

[riley-o]

in all honesty, i did at one point. i was very angry that leftists and others who i believed should despise dictatorships and religious extremism were (and to a certain extent, some still are) defending these things as long as they oppose the US. i dont hold the same position anymore only because i was able to step back and look at my beliefs again after separating out the reactionary elements i was pulling towards. i still question a lot of the, ummm, malleable ideologies people hold but i try not to let that color what are my core beliefs.

yeah i can definitely relate to this. the amount of "radical feminists" i heard springing to the defense of al qaeda and 9/11 because "fuck america maaaaaan" was enough to turn me off politics pretty much forever...

[neckbeard]

[altars of radness]

Biochem department has a reading room WELL STOCKED with Newsweek.

NO FUCKING WAY!

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

in all honesty, i did at one point. i was very angry that leftists and others who i believed should despise dictatorships and religious extremism were (and to a certain extent, some still are) defending these things as long as they oppose the US. i dont hold the same position anymore only because i was able to step back and look at my beliefs again after separating out the reactionary elements i was pulling towards. i still question a lot of the, ummm, malleable ideologies people hold but i try not to let that color what are my core beliefs.

I'm glad you don't think that way anymore, no wonder we agree more lately, but I find it really hard to believe that a lot of people on the left were actively pro-Al Queda, or pro-Hussein, and only for the reason that either would oppose the US. I always found that to be a despicable straw-man created and promoted by the anti-intellectual conservative media and if you were angry at anything about that maybe you should have been angry at being duped by cheap rhetoric. Neither considering the context of a certain enemy's existence and motivations (and any role the US may have played in it) or questioning whether a particular strategy against that enemy is intelligent and/or timely and/or fruitful are even at a stretch indications that someone is defending that enemy or their ideaology.

A detective may want to understand the serial killer's past, motivations, any connection with the victim that may provoke him, the best way to find, capture and elicit a confession and none of these things make the person pro-serial killer (except Dexter). It makes them a damn fine detective.

[ThE GodDamN BattletweeteR]

Or the countless overseas bases in peaceful countries. God I hate the US military.

a "peaceful country" such as ?

Uhhh, Japan, South Korea, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, Germany, etc. I'd love/dread to see how much money gets wasted maintaining all these bases.

hmm....more than half the ones you listed had a history of violence.

[ThE GodDamN BattletweeteR]

We really need to defend Spain and Portugal and a shitload of Eastern European countries from the Nazis.

NATO stepping stones...

[Necrometer]

hey ross, if you're still interested in this i can put together a devil's advocate position

dont really want to type it out if no one cares and i'm not really feeling up to irony-posting atm

It's cool man, I'm feeling a healthy amount of satiety. Thanks!

i was very angry that leftists and others who i believed should despise dictatorships and religious extremism were (and to a certain extent, some still are) defending these things as long as they oppose the US.

I was of that stance... shitholes can remain shitholes forever as long as they're not fucking with other countries. I don't believe in any universal human rights; if you're in a sovereign state that has some fucked up policies, other countries should not jump in there just because they think X practice is wrong. Fucking Prime Directive. I'm not pro-Hussein, I'm anti-interference. People cite him killing/torturing to get what he wants, but our country does the same shit... but to other people's citizens. At least Hussein kept his affairs internalized AFAIK.

Biochem department has a reading room WELL STOCKED with Newsweek.

NO FUCKING WAY!

Or the countless overseas bases in peaceful countries. God I hate the US military.

a "peaceful country" such as ?

Uhhh, Japan, South Korea, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, Germany, etc. I'd love/dread to see how much money gets wasted maintaining all these bases.

hmm....more than half the ones you listed had a history of violence.

Touche!

[ThE GodDamN BattletweeteR]

that's an angle, appreciated

don't think that I haven't considered and soaked in those darksided outlooks - I am aware of the big picture

still, there is nuance to our actions... maybe this thread is about how (quickly) we're going to inevitably kill each other

crossing over into vueuvueuv territory...

ok... listen up vueuvueuv, i am about to tell you the truth of the world. now listen up and i am only going to say it once.

if blood is not spilled each day upon the earth... the earth will stop existing.

its the truth,it is canon law for all humans, and you cant escape it.

now... you don't want to stop the earth from existing, do you ?

http://reeelapse.com/viewtopic.php?f=1& ... ay#p999077