The huge US Military Budget is for one thing and one thing only....

[WCGreen]

The safety of international trade.

Plan and simple, the US is a Manufacturing and Mercantile economy that depends on ease of transporting good into or out of the country.

And then, of course, protection of the World oil fields is part of that protection of Mercantile economy.

[NoOneMan]

1. If we can all recognize that, they we should go on to discuss cost-efficiency

[RobertEarl]

7. We could save a lot of money

If we just sub-contracted it out to China.

Every empire I can recall was that time's empire because they owned the shipping lanes.

If we don't do it, somebody else will.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. This is the solid bedrock truth:

Protection of the World oil fields is part of that protection of Mercantile economy.

Oil runs the entire show.

The wars come out of that...

[Th1onein]

3. I disagree.

It is the mechanism by which tax money is funneled into the pockets of the already rich.

[WCGreen]

5. but that just says the same thing only from a different angle...

[Th1onein]

6. Not really.

Do we really need all this high tech weaponry in low tech countries? No.

I think Bill Maher did a piece on it.

[L0oniX]

4. The Pentagon and World Trade Centers. There's a reason why they were a target.

World corporate control and world police protection.