pinguhk

its free in HK

craigm1841

I served for 7 years and still work for the federal government, and I have volunteered for a deployment to Afghanistan as a civilian. I don't need to put a price on it, I work for it.

JETBLACK530I

The downward spiral of the female population due to abortions and other means of removing the non male births in china has already started an interesting trend. Read up a while back on some korean blogs that chinese farmers were buying korean wives for about 200-500$ from north korean families. This may stem the tide for a while but eventually if the male birth only tradition continues they may have to resort stranger methods of acquiring wives. Or the China of 2050 may be a nation of horny bachelors with nowhere to turn.

BluedMan

Very interesting.. never thought about that before but def seems like something that could be happening. I like that idea much more than losing the money in bureaucratic BS like our state money disappears into.

pjinca

These types of things happen all the time, the DoD budget is public record, as such they cannot realistically reveal how the dollars are ACTUALLY spent. Only the senators approved for this type of info are briefed as to the true expenditures for a given operation (them and the GAO - but they aren't talking either).

It isn't a matter of the price of freedom - as a veteran myself, even one young and capable American life is too great a cost for me, but it is a cost that must be paid by the very good and brave young people who serve. This discussion focuses on supposed stupidity in the military regarding paying too much for fuel - which I don't think is happening.

BetterMakeWay

Funny, as i thought the war in Afghanistan was more about the freedom of the locals from the suppressors as the war in Iraq was about to "free the Iraqi people" of Saddam's evil regime.

In the US history i don't remember of a single act of war that would threaten the freedom of the US citizens.

Having said all that i wouldn't really bother too much if i were an American citizen as i think the war in Iraq has provided some relative but very real 'fruits of war'. Too bad for the cost of lives !!

pjinca

Threats to American freedom:

Revolutionary war

War of 1812

Civil war (if you happened to be a slave)

WWII

Other than those, yep none "historically"

BetterMakeWay

IMHO Civil war should not be on the list as for the other two i can't comment.

It's true that my history is quite limited but i don't to see how WWII was a threat to US, in fact the real reasons(s) US joined the war are still debated and speculated considering the US has remained neutral for quite some time. Also the surprise attack of the Japanese still remains a dilemma.

Anyhow my point was that from WWII (aprox 70 years ago) till today US fought how many wars? From those wars how many of them were a threat to the US freedom?

Later edit: Ok let me put it in another way: Like it or not, let's face it: As the title in a way suggests the US military is a war machine, a money making machine with lots of other implications. But most and foremost it's a money making industry. Truth be told US can't or should not be seen as an invading country, even though it is capable of such a thing, but tons of money are invested in the military industry, money that have to bring a return. Since money is pumped in the war machine, bullets have to be fired from time to time and missiles have to be launched so to avoid overstocking and to further improve R&D. So if some 'existing threats' are not really threats but more or less a pain in the a@@, as was the case of Saddam Hussein which let's be honest wasn't capable in any way to threaten the mighty US, the US military is surely quick on the trigger. The US military has always been seen as the "police of the world" and i don't know if since they are capable of such a thing this gives them right to act as such.

pinguhk

this is how I think too, they need to use the old stuff to make way for new 1s

v_therussian

yeah, but at these prices, its a shame to let it go, bro

Is that like a way of saying that we're all about to get fvcked by the Chinese or something?