2008/12/13

Wake-up call

.
Let's face some reality: It would be foolish to spend much on national security in the next three to six years.

There are discussions and studies about what could be done better than before if we allocate money here or there - but it should not happen.
There's no money (unless you accept to go broke on a national scale) for more training, more hardware, more soft power - the luxury of expeditions needs to end in this time of economic crisis and our military needs to accept a smaller budget.


* The fiscal health of our states is a very strong factor for our ability to prepare for defence in general.

* The economic health of our nations is a very strong factor for our ability to defend ourselves and to prepare for our defence when war becomes likely.

Our long-term national and collective (NATO) security would be ill-served if we spent much on national security policy and its metastases in the next few years.

We need to exploit the opportunity to focus on our economic & fiscal problems without serious national security challenge. Terrorists are annoying in fair weather, but not worth the distraction now.

I've heard and read much about how the Arabs are responsible for their problems and always blame others. Well, now it's our turn to face reality and to realize that our societies were not sustainable and we need to address OUR domestic problems.

There will certainly come a time when we can afford distraction, waste of resources in expeditionary warfare and messing in distant and irrelevant places in general again, but it's not now.

1st
Get out of the wasteful 2002-2006 crusader attitude.

2nd
Face reality; we have domestic problems. Real, huge problems.
We cannot afford what many believed was affordable and our societies are not sustainable.

3rd
Fix our own problems.

4th
Enjoy the benefits of no-nonsense behavior after 2015.


Proposals like
"Building a Military for the 21st Century"
"These recommendations would save the Department
of Defense $38.6 billion over the next four years."
are just poor jokes.

NATO members with especially strong economic problems (UK, Spain, Greece, USA, Italy) and/or especially strong military spending (USA) don't need minor savings like one or two percent in military budgets - but rather 20, 30 - maybe 50% cuts.

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