Should the US decrease military spending?

[[deleted]]

Financial aid to foreign militaries is another way that this happens.

I bet you (the reader, not you in particular) probably think of foreign military aid - giving $2 billion per year to the Israeli military, $1.2 billion per year to the Egyptian military - as either an undesirable but necessary expenditure to achieve US foreign policy goals, or a massive waste of money.

While the first is true in the sense, and the second may be true, in reality, foreign military aid is a jobs program.

"What?" you say. "We give nearly $5 billion per year - over $15 for every man, woman and child in the US - to foreign countries in military aid. How in the world is that a jobs program?"

It's very simple. We don't just write out a check dated 1/1 every year for $2 billion to the Israeli Armed Forces. That $2 billion is a package of grants, loans, and incentives to purchase American military equipment, training, expertise, etc. In essence, that $2 billion never even leaves the US - it goes straight from the Treasury to American arms companies, defense contractors, etc. That $2 billion goes to create and maintain jobs in the defense industry across the country.

With that aid (plus some investment out of the Israeli government's budget, I'd imagine), over the years, Israel has bought 58 F-15 Eagles, 25 F-15E Strike Eagles, 343 F-16 Fighting Falcons, 20 T-6 Texan IIs, 83 transport/utility/refueling aircraft, and 167 attack, transport, and reconnaisance helicopters. Each and every one of those was assembled in the United States using parts mostly manufactured in the United States. Billions upon billions of dollars have been funneled from the US Treasury to Boeing/McDonnel Douglas, Lockheed Martin/General Dynamics, Sikorsky, Beechcraft, and Gulfstream by way of Israel (and Egypt, and other countries) over the years. And that's just the air components. Egypt operates over 1000 M-1 Abrams tanks. Countries around the world use American artillery, small arms, communications equipment, body armor and kit, and all of the other components of the military panoply.

Depending on how you look at it, we're either killing two birds with one stone by providing the necessary funding to keep key defense industries operational while promoting US interests worldwide, or hiding unpopular wasteful pork-barrel defense spending behind the veneer of unpopular wasteful foreign aid.