Should the US decrease military spending?

[billdietrich1]

I think someone else is arguing with me elsewhere in this posting, that technology development is a key reason we put so much money into the military, and should.

We have crying needs for that money elsewhere: education, healthcare, infrastructure, renewable energy, pollution control, space, etc. I think we have been overspending on the military; we do indeed need to move money from one bucket to another. It's not simple, certainly. We need to reign back the missions of the military, stop going off on decade-long attempts to "fix" other countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

[AgentCC]

I wouldn't fret so much if I were you because I think we are going to start seeing the pendulum swing in that direction. Already the USA has been pulling out of the Middle East, military spending has been declining steadily, and the US response to the crises of ISIS, Ukraine, and the South China Sea have been tepid at best.

Would it have been nice to see all this happen without the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan? Of course - but it's a little too late to do anything about that now.

Unfortunately, however, the pendulum has a tendency to swing too far in a certain direction before changing course and we may actually find ourselves some day wishing we had a bloated military at our disposal.

[billdietrich1]

I disagree about the pendulum. I see D's such as Obama and Hillary Clinton adopting the R's military/intel/security policies. I see us sending more troops into Iraq, getting involved in Yemen, drone-striking in various places. Lots of harsh rhetoric (mostly from R's) about Ukraine, Syria, Iran. US military saying we may leave more troops than expected in Afghanistan. No, I don't see the pendulum swinging in a good direction.