Too Much Tequila, Too Little Sunscreen

I’ve been ranting (pissing and moaning is more like it) about our priorities or lack thereof for years. I wrote a rant about how the U.S. comes out in the middle of the pack in whatever survey they conduct: life expectancy, education, infant mortality, etc. It seems like we’re always portrayed as, or actually are, a second-class nation, far down most lists, just above Rwanda. Then Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, Make America Great Again, got me thinking. Not about building goofy walls or banning Muslims, but what it would take to truly make America a great country.

We do one thing really really well. We lead the world, by far, in military spending. We spend over 600 billion, that’s billion with a B, dollars on military stuff every year. That’s 37% of the world’s total. We spend more than twice the amount of China and Russia combined, and they run a distant second and third place. We are truly a Great military power. It just takes lots of money and a strong commitment. We’ve taken the long list all of the things that countries should do and put military spending at the very top of our priority list.

Donald Trump said we spent 6 trillion on wars in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan since 9/11. Brown University pegs it at 5.6 trillion if we include our increased spending on homeland security and the departments of defense along with our future obligations for veterans’ care.

The questions I want to pose are these: What did we get for our 5 to 6 trillion dollars? What have we sacrificed or done without to become this planet’s military force? What could we do if we scaled our military back to some lesser level? What if we worried and cared more about our own citizens that those across the globe?

We could design a military that could more than ensure the defense and safety of the U.S. close all of our bases round the world, bring our troops home, and focus our energy and money on improving the lives of Americans, not Afghans, Iraqis or Syrians.

Just try to imagine the kind of country we could be if we spent some of that 600 billion on infrastructure, education, science, healthcare, medical research, or on anything but pointless wars and acting as the planet’s police force.