Does the US need more military spending?

[Hammer Britannia]

Norway and Denmark were being used by the allies to stage weapons and soldiers, so why wouldn't he do something about that? also he knew the Russians were going to betray him, so he made the right move, Bolshevism was, and is still a major threat to the world

The area of Poland he took over was an Area of largely Germanic people who were oppressed by the Poles. Look into it.

“Oppressed”

Oh you mean like the holocaust? To think the Poles, would be capable of such evil.

As we all know, oppression is perfectly fine when it happens to people I don't like. But when it happens to people I do like, that's bad and evil.

[Evil Dictators Happyland]

Norway and Denmark were being used by the allies to stage weapons and soldiers, so why wouldn't he do something about that? also he knew the Russians were going to betray him, so he made the right move, Bolshevism was, and is still a major threat to the world

The area of Poland he took over was an Area of largely Germanic people who were oppressed by the Poles. Look into it.

“Oppressed”

Oh you mean like the holocaust? To think the Poles, would be capable of such evil.

If the Germans in Danzig were oppressed to the same degree that the Germans oppressed the Poles, then it wouldn't be long before there weren't any Germans to oppress.

[Valkalan]

In real life, my native nation from Europe is a NATO member and partner of the USA, however my native country has to deal in politics more like a "vassal" (secretly more countries in the world are controlled in part by foreign powers) and didn't benefit of a "Marshall plan" for reconstruction but rather an opposite plan. And that's not the only. Otherwise my country would had been better as a strong NATO partner & member in a region of Europe.
If I were a leader, I wouldn't neglect welfare, health and education, but I would put at 20% military spending at least.

I don't care about Europe. With the notable exception of the British, European assistance to NATO operations is a drop in the bucket compared to what America does. NATO is mostly just bureaucratic deadweight during counterinsurgency ops in the Middle East and Afghanistan, and they do little more than freeload off of the US for security on their eastern flank. The US should go its own way. We'll see how long European pretentiousness lasts when they have to face Russian T-90s and Iskander missiles alone.

You bring up a lot of interesting points.

I partially agree, but still, we can't have people who suck at their MOS or leadership roles going around doing random useless stuff just to make things up for their NCOERs, and still getting promoted. I say we should let go of bad soldiers, and the safety nets that sustain them at great public expense, and use some of the savings to increase pay for the remaining force. The rest of the savings should be spent on maintenance, training, R&D and new weapons.

Not a bad idea at all, for a peacetime military at least. I still disagree though, it's better to have that extra manpower for when shit hits the fan, they'll either improve under fire, or die.

Numbers don't mean as much in a modern conflict were cyber and electronic warfare can easily shut down communications and weapons systems. I'd say that we need to find a sweet spot, where you have the manpower to get things down, but not so many people that you're bogged down in bureaucracy and personnel expenses. I've watched Taliban and ISIS commanders walk away alive just because some useless officer on high needed to make up a job for himself, increasing layers of bureaucracy and keeping us from pulling the trigger. Bigger is not necessarily better, you just need to be big enough.

Well, on that, I believe we need to implement the idea of total war with the enemy. Cut thru the bureaucracy, give more authority to NCO's to make field decisions, stop with the only fire when fired upon, it should always be weapons free. Get more officers leading from the front, etc. etc. The type of military your advocating for sounds great for dealing with insurgents, but how will we fare in such a scenario against a very large military, like N Korea, China, or Russia? It will likely be a war of attrition to some extent, if it should come to that. Having a large number of trained personnel ready to go would give us a big advantage in the early portion of the conflict, potentially allowing us to make gains early on. We have interests all over the world, it would be detrimental to our ability to ensure stability, and project power in certain regions to downsize. I'm not saying "fuck it lets let the broke dicks, kids, and granmas & grandpas in" I would actually argue for ensuring the standards are met. It's just better imo to maintain a large force. We would also still have elite units, (rangers, SF, MARSOC, (well, raiders I guess) PJ's etc. etc.) And, hell even those groups should be increased, not by lowering standards, but by offering more slots to both recruits, and those already in. If they meet the standard their good.

Instilling discipline, pride and purpose is not the business of the state. Having a smaller, more efficient and smarter force would allow for lower taxes, which would create jobs for those who don't serve in the armed forces.

This is true, although it certainly doesn't hurt.

Frankly, the flashpoints that you cited should be handled by the local nations rather than by the US. Japan and South Korea are both wealthy and technologically capable nations that should be able to deal with North Korea all by themselves. Japan is already arming itself in light of North Korean and Chinese aggression the ambivalence of the Trump administration, and both Japan and South Korea have respectable military forces to begin with. I'm sure that South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and other local nations can band together to contain China. The same goes for Russia, which is Europe's problem. In all cases, the US can save money by not subsidizing other nation's defenses while possibly earning money from weapons sales as these nations are forced to arm and defend themselves. If all of this comes to pass, then the US simply wouldn't need as much military manpower.

[The Technocrates]

If they spent more money on science and technology, then overtime the US military can just outrank everybody else technologically with a fraction of the money they spent.

[Evil Dictators Happyland]

You're arguing against lower spending and higher taxes, but later in the same post you admit that lower spending and higher taxes is something we have to do? What?

No I’m against the idea of simply heightening the taxes, but I think both are in order. Reread my friend.

The post you were disagreeing with was, as near as I can tell, advocating for the exact same thing you're proposing, but I'll drop the point on the grounds that it doesn't explicitly say that. I'm pretty sure neither one of us is wrong, but if one of us is, it's probably me.

[Slovenya]

Oh you mean like the holocaust? To think the Poles, would be capable of such evil.

you keep believing your fairy tales

[Northern Guaniet Sover]

Yes to build that wall or try to declare a national emergency again

[Zurkerx]

I'm torn here. On One hand, we should cut spending as the Pentagon is a big waster. On the other hand, we do need new equipment to stay toe-to-toe with our enemies. I would say do an audit and evaluation first and determine which funds are needed/not needed and or being fiscally irresponsible; than cut spending and redirect some of it to other defense programs, different programs, or put the savings in a wealth fund.

[Evil Dictators Happyland]

Oh you mean like the holocaust? To think the Poles, would be capable of such evil.

you keep believing your fairy tales

As long as you get to keep believing yours.

[Holy Tedalonia]

Oh you mean like the holocaust? To think the Poles, would be capable of such evil.

you keep believing your fairy tales

Are you implying there was no holocaust? Or that the Germans were as evilly as oppressed as the Jews?

[Slovenya]

As long as you get to keep believing yours.

you have a deal my friend

[Slovenya]

Are you implying there was no holocaust? Or that the Germans were as evilly as oppressed as the Jews?

Yes to the first question, and the second question is pretty complicated and might offend and traumatize the weakest of the NS community.

[United Muscovite Nations]

Has the muh threat inflation brigade come in yet?

[United Muscovite Nations]

Because they give their soldiers crappy pay.
The much lower wages in those countries means we are going to have to spend more to keep up.
As a percentage of GDP our spending is not that high.

Percentage of GDP doesn't excuse why we're throwing more money at our defense program and not getting similar results as the Chinese or the Russians. There's only so much their lower wages for soldiers can excuse.

It's about purchasing power. Money goes farther in some countries than others.

[Evil Dictators Happyland]

I propose that we ignore Slovenya until they have an argument based on facts and not neo-Nazi propaganda. Anyone else with me?

[Valrifell]

I propose that we ignore Slovenya until they have an argument based on facts and not neo-Nazi propaganda. Anyone else with me?

They derailed the thread so that would be a good idea regardless.

[Ebengar]

The US already spends plenty on it's military.

What it needs to do, though, is spend that military budget more efficiently on new tech rather than bureaucracy and salary increases on the higher-ups.

[Slovenya]

I propose that we ignore Slovenya until they have an argument based on facts and not neo-Nazi propaganda. Anyone else with me?

Depends where you get your facts from. But that's alright. I know I'm fighting against the current.

[Slovenya]

I propose that we ignore Slovenya until they have an argument based on facts and not neo-Nazi propaganda. Anyone else with me?

They derailed the thread so that would be a good idea regardless.

actually, I didn't bring up Hitler in the first place

[Valrifell]

The US already spends plenty on it's military.

What it needs to do, though, is spend that military budget more efficiently on new tech rather than bureaucracy and salary increases on the higher-ups.

This is the correct opinion

[Ifreann]

The US should greatly increase military spending, but instead of the military doing war they should be a dance troupe.

[Valrifell]

The US should greatly increase military spending, but instead of the military doing war they should be a dance troupe.

I stand corrected. This is the correct opinion

[Evil Dictators Happyland]

The US should greatly increase military spending, but instead of the military doing war they should be a dance troupe.

This sounds like a fabulous idea. Where do I sign up?