you seriously want to cut the military budget ?

consider this.

WWII ended in 1945.
The cold war ended in the Reagan era.

We still have major bases,  Army, Air Force and Navy,  in the former belligerent and allied countries.

We could / should close at least half of them, maybe more, with the reduction of costs, bring those troops home, revitalize local bases, and cut the foreign aid payments that are being used to buy off a large chunk of the world as well.

Think about what that influx of military spending and payroll dollars would do for local communities, here.



   

**SNIP**  I wish there was a website that listed the total amount we are providing in aid to other countries.

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/foreign_commerce_aid/foreign_aid.html

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2011/tables/11s1296.pdf

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2011/tables/11s1297.pdf

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2011/tables/11s1298.pdf

just a side note.   1,500  represents 1,500,000,000  (1.5 billion)

I've not had time to add up the totals per year.  I'm almost afraid to. . 

I have no real knowledge on the subject, but my father (Maj. USAFR) thinks that they could easily reduce the DoD budget by 25-30% simply by getting out of the 2 1/2 wars, and reducing waste and inefficiencies.  He says that that is a conservative estimate.

Kaso

There could be a real argument for closing foreign bases. Okinawa, Korea, Japan, Germany,Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan. etc.

Once closed, we would no longer need the troops that manned tose bases so there woulkd be a huge savings right there when they were retired, separated, rifed, whatever, just discharge them..

If we closed the ports that we maintain overseas, Japan, Italy, Okinawa, Diego Garcia, etc then we would no longer need all those ships or the personnel manning them.

And if we closed all the foreign airbases we would no longer need as many airplanes and the people flying them.

As a matter of fact, if we no longer have any foreign bases or ships sailing around we could probably close most of the bases here.

I think we're on to something here

Barney Franks trhinks so too. Here he is farting on the Rachel Maddow Show (I am not kidding, listen for it)

he found three navigators sitting around in the Nav room, doing nothing.

But was one of them Outbreak?

  Just kidding...

An actual example of waste in the USAF: Yesterday, my father (a navigator) had to go out to the base to fly a local 'mission.'  When he arrived at the base, he found three navigators sitting around in the Nav room, doing nothing.

Perhaps they were perched, like FALCONS, waiting to swoop in and render safe orientations.

There is some definite room for cutting in the defense budget.  We also need to seriously reevaluate our current alliances and military obligations.  NATO has long outlived its usefulness.  South Korea can defend themselves and we need not have any presence in that country whosoever.  We could easily dispense with the billions of aid we provide to Egypt, Israel, Pakistan etc.  Of course getting troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan needs to happen sooner rather than later.  The immediate abolishing of NORTHCOM would save some money.

The navy needs some pruning.  Cancel the San Antonio Class and cut up the ones under construction for scrap.  Cancel those damned LCS ships.  Retire the Perry class frigates and sell them to South Korea or whoever wants them.  Scrap the marine stovl variant of the F-35.  You could probably cut number of LA class attack subs by a third.

Ground forces need to be brought home, re-arranged and reequipped and their numbers reduced as much as possible.  It needs to become more difficult and politically costly for politicians to send troops overseas to places where there isn't a vital US national interest involved.  And just as importantly it needs become almost impossible for the US military to be used in any domestic capacity whatsoever other than the defense of the US borders from invasion or in the event of a large scale nuclear attack.

The AF has dead weight too.  The U2 is ready for pasture at least a manned U2.  Retirement of F-15s and 16s should be accelerated.  As useful as it is, it may be time for the BUFF to head to AMARC. 

The US needs to concentrate more on long range deterrence and address actual threats to US national interest.  That means no nation building.  No getting into squabbles that don't concern us (Libya-Iraq-Israel and its neighbors-North Korea-Taiwan etc).  No more entangling alliances.  Friend to and arsenal of Liberty everywhere but defender of only our own.

Fail.

Just how do you see that working if we need them? We going to conjure some up in a week?

Precious Roy, like me, was being facetious.     Or was that Bud?

Precious Roy, like me, was being facetious.     Or was that Bud?

That was a whole lot of facets for facetious.