[Nuclear1]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8466303.stm

Iraq has begun collecting signatures for a class action lawsuit on behalf of people killed or wounded in incidents involving US security firm Blackwater.

It will seek compensation for a number of such cases, the office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said.

Incidents include the 2007 killing of 17 Iraqis in Baghdad's Nisoor Square.

Last month, a US judge dismissed charges against five Blackwater guards over those killings, which Iraqi officials described as "regrettable".

Immediately after the US decision, the Iraqi government issued several angry statements pledging that it would continue to "act forcefully and decisively to prosecute".

Bout ****ing time.

[Turambar]

how can we spend more on the military than the rest of the world put together and yet still need to hire mercenaries?

[Rian]

Because US soldiers are actually held accountable for their actions.

[SpardaSon21]

Where does the money go?  Probably a lot of it goes to maintaining our currently-deployed advanced technology, and a lot of it probably disappears into projects like the F-22, as well as expensive government contracts, and of course like the rest of the U.S. government the U.S. military has a large bureaucracy.  The Pentagon is the world's largest office building after all.

[General Battuta]

Ironically, we can then be stymied from our strategic objectives by a budget rebellion that could probably run for a century on our operating budget for a day.

Hooray efficiency?

Someone recently pointed out that China and its ilk have a big advantage: their leaders can go about building their nations and focusing on getting stuff done, without having their agendas disrupted by members of a suicide jihad cult with explosives in their underpants.

The United States of Hysterica seems to be its own worst enemy of late. We jumped when we were told to jump, because our pride wouldn't let us do otherwise - in spite of the fact that a quiet, quick response to September 11th would have done infinitely more than all this gallivanting about - and now we're in a bit of a rut.

[Nuclear1]

how can we spend more on the military than the rest of the world put together and yet still need to hire mercenaries?

Because we're so paranoid about everyone else in the world that we have to maintain an extremely large and expensive network of military bases around the world.  Maybe if we weren't the world's police force, we'd actually be able to spend less on the DoD.

Out of the $685.1 billion defense budget:
$283.3 billion to "operations and maintenance"
$154.2 billion to "military personnel"
$140.1 billion to "procurement"
$79.1 billion to R&D
$23.9 billion to construction
$3.1 billion to family housing

So, we spend nearly a third of the budget just making sure our stuff still works and that it does what it's supposed to do.  
We spend over $150 bill just making sure people get paid.  Last I checked, the armed forces and the defense of your way of life was supposed to be a patriotic calling and your civic duty, not a profession.  Alas, we have to make sure the people who want to make their living waging unnecessary wars under the brainwashed guise of "patriotism" and "national service" get their money.
Stupidly enough, we spend the absolute least making sure the families who deal with the hardships of spouses/parents being deployed have decent housing.  A lot of it is outsourced now.  Lots of cases of family housing being bug-infested and falling apart too.  

Misplaced priorities much?

[General Battuta]

As I understand it, a large amount of military expenditure occurs outside the defense budget, right? Special appropriations bills and whatnot?

[Nuclear1]

Yeah, that's true.

[iamzack]

All that, but a public health insurance would be a crime. Sigh.

[Scotty]

Alas, we have to make sure the people who want to make their living waging unnecessary wars under the brainwashed guise of "patriotism" and "national service" get their money

Yeah, because it's so easy to hold another job to bring home the bacon when you're in the military.

[Nuclear1]

Alas, we have to make sure the people who want to make their living waging unnecessary wars under the brainwashed guise of "patriotism" and "national service" get their money

Yeah, because it's so easy to hold another job to bring home the bacon when you're in the military.

I'm not saying hold another job while you're in the military (even though people do that).  I'm saying balance the responsibility of maintaining global security with the rest of the world (or better yet, find another way to fix the world's problems that doesn't involve dropping bombs) and keep the military as a primarily defensive force.  Let the members of the military pursue their own civilian profession and do something to benefit American infrastructure, rather than waste potential by sending people to die meaninglessly in a quagmire.  All those ****ing right-wing anti-abortion twits who make the "you killed Mozart!" argument should apply that to soldiers.  How many potential doctors, engineers, musicians, professors, researchers are you throwing away in Iraq?

Seriously, are our freedoms and liberties at stake in Iraq?  Or even in Afghanistan?  Yeah, the guy who planned and executed the 9/11 attacks was there at one point, but we so botched what (as Battuta said) should've been a quick action to get in, overthrow the Taliban, and kill the al-Qaeda leadership that we bogged ourselves down.  We should be well into the rebuilding of Afghanistan and helping establish the first stable, prosperous Central Asian nation outside of India.  Instead, we're still fighting tribal warlords, and al-Qaeda has spread to the point where it has the potential to get its hands on WMDs.

I can't think of a single conflict in the last sixty years that has actually poised a threat to the US mainland, Hawaii, or Alaska.  Maintaining an enormous military is absolutely detrimental to democracy.  I'm not anti-military, far from it (by the way, how many times do I have to mention that I'm in the USAF?); I'm anti-imperialism.  I want what's really best for my country; not what the propaganda poster of the week says what's best for my country.  Nationalism isn't patriotism.

[Bobboau]

well I was going to say something along the lines of 'this will be interesting' but the amount of circle-jerking in this thread is making me ill.

[BloodEagle]

I can't think of a single conflict in the last sixty years that has actually poised a threat to the US mainland, Hawaii, or Alaska.  [...]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_missile_crisis

--

well I was going to say something along the lines of 'this will be interesting' but the amount of circle-jerking in this thread is making me ill.

Seriously.

Also, the spell-checker wants to turn circle-jerking into skylarking. 

[Nuclear1]

I can't think of a single conflict in the last sixty years that has actually poised a threat to the US mainland, Hawaii, or Alaska.  [...]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_missile_crisis

Fair enough, I'll give you that.