04-19-2017, 03:20 PM
(04-19-2017, 09:24 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: I am one who criticizes defense spending loudly and often. The recent use of the tomahawk cruise missiles is a great example of the issues with our defense budget, and with the quote I was responding to in particular. For reference:
The reason my response was directly related to this was because the cruise missile attack in Syria did not have to do with our national survival. It was the antithesis of "America First." This is the problem with acting like the world's police force. We utilize our expenditures to take care of internal matters of sovereign nations over taking care of our own. If the international community rose up to put their collective foot down on Assad, then I can get behind that a little bit (I'm still against war 99.99999% of the time). But it is not our place to get involved in such a way individually when we have so many problems at home.
So really, my critical statements have less to do about the use of the missiles specifically, but in a more general sense about the defense expenditures that do not benefit our own country as much as that money being spent domestically could have.
Which I think is a fair point to be made here. The criticism of Trump isn't what I have a problem with, it's the way in which these criticisms are being presented and fed to the masses and then people eat it up as some sort of way out of the universe action being taken by Trump. Defense spending is an issue and has been for years. I believe it's far more effective to talk about the issue of defense spending in a greater context rather than give the majority of focus to 59 Tomahawks and how much they cost.
