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Title: Ron Paul is right. Military adventurism is a luxury we can no longer afford
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URL Source: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/j ... uxury-we-can-no-longer-afford/
Published: Sep 9, 2011
Author: James Delingpole
Post Date: 2011-09-09 11:53:00 by Capitalist Eric
Keywords: None
Views: 19370
Comments: 44
Ron Paul has got himself into trouble over his suggestion that if the US military stopped air con for its troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, it could save the treasury a whopping $20 billion a year. He remarked in the latest Republican presidential candidate debate in the Ronald Reagan Library: It's unlikely to endear him to the rump of US right: there are an awful lot of conservative apple pie moms out there whose boys (and girls) are proudly serving right now in sweaty, lethal hell holes where dysentery is a way of life. But Congressman Paul has never held back from telling it like it is and while his suggestion may be insensitive and tasteless, the broader point he is making is absolutely spot on. Foreign military adventures are a luxury the free West can no longer afford. To put Paul's remarks into perspective, consider these shocking figures from Mark Steyn's terminally bleak new masterpiece After America. If today's abnormally low interest rates return to their 1990 to 2010 average of 5.7 per cent, then America's debt service projections for 2015 (that's less than four years away, by the way) would increase from $290 billion to $847 billion. Steyn notes: "China would be in a position to quadruple its military budget and stick US taxpayers with the bill." We can all come up with plenty of good reasons as to why the world is a healthier, happier, safer place when America (and its allies in the free West) are out there spreading democracy, keeping peace, defending freedom and so on. Unfortunately, we are moving out of the Age of Ought (as in "We ought to do this because it's the right thing to do") into the Age of Can't (as in "Sorry, but we can't ruddy afford it any more."). This is why I find myself so spectacularly uninterested in the news coming out about our glorious "victory" in Libya. That David Cameron should be preening himself about this massively wasteful, outmoded exercise in gratuitous power projection, let alone considering it to be the kind of exercise we might try again sometime soon, shows just how terrifyingly out of touch with reality the man is. Perhaps this is what happens to all politicians when they enter the bubble. They're capable of making all the right noises on the campaign trail – as Rick Perry did at the same debate when he bravely and rightly described the welfare system as a "Ponzi" scheme – but as soon as they gain office, they forget all their promises (Cameron's "Bonfire of the Quangos", anyone?) and carry on increasing government spending and borrowing like there's no tomorrow. Ron Paul is one of the few exceptions. He's not another politician. He doesn't care whom he offends. His principles are adamantine. If things are going to get as bad as I think they're going to get, we need to start taking Ron Paul and his ideas much, much more seriously.
Ron Paul. Is he "The One"? I was astonished! We are spending twenty billion dollars on air conditioning for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. I would take all that away, use ten billion to pay down the debt, and use the other ten toward FEMA and any other agency that we really need. And if you took that air conditioning away, those troops would come home very quickly, and I’d be happy with that.
In 2010 the US spent about $663 billion on its military; China about $78 billion. How is it financing this massive expenditure? By borrowing money, mainly from China. Within a decade the US will be spending more of the federal budget on interest payments than it does on its armed services.
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#3. To: Capitalist Eric (#0)
I think those folks over in Afghanistan guarding the poppy cash crop for the international gangsters would be even more proud to be home. I guess I think that because Paul gets more in donations from military personnel than all the other GOP political slugs combined.
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Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestIt's unlikely to endear him to the rump of US right: there are an awful lot of conservative apple pie moms out there whose boys (and girls) are proudly serving right now in sweaty, lethal hell holes where dysentery is a way of life.
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