Senate OKs $626B defense budget

[goadam1]

Re: Senate OKs $626B defense budget

I think a better analogy is sometimes you have to burn the forest down to let life grow anew. If there is anything we can say about the modern world, pervasive peace and prosperity has certainly made life rather boring and trite.

Life only has meaning when you can lose it at any moment.

Okay, I'm dropping the first bomb on your house. Sound okay with you.

[D-Mack]

Re: Senate OKs $626B defense budget

Well, we care less about the conflict than Al Qaeda does -- and civilian life in America is generally more comfortable than civilian life in the populations from which Al Qaeda draws its supporters -- so the conditions of service and risk involved for our guys has to be commensurately lower in order to have a proper war. We're paying for lower casualty rates, higher combat power per soldier, better medical care, better creature comforts, and the overhead of delivering all that in the middle of nowhere. And yeah -- I think your remark about Ferraris was pretty close... those MRAP vehicles are pretty damn costly.

I think Rome used to loot the occupied regions for food and soldiers could cook their own meals.

In modern times, soldiers used to guard the bases or prepare the food, not anymore.

I bet Afghanistan is problematic, because you have to rely on helicopters to supply troops in remote hilly locations with stuff like water.

Afghanistan Contractors Outnumber Troops


...
The number of military contractors in Afghanistan rose to almost 74,000 by June 30, far outnumbering the roughly 58,000 U.S. soldiers on the ground at that point. As the military force in Afghanistan grows further, to a planned 68,000 by the end of the year, the Defense Department expects the ranks of contractors to increase more.

The military requires contractors for essential functions ranging from supplying food and laundry services to guarding convoys and even military bases -- functions that were once performed by military personnel but have been outsourced so a slimmed-down military can focus more on battle-related tasks.

...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125089638739950599.html

[Chomsky]

Re: Senate OKs $626B defense budget

Deficits don't matter. Austerity doesn't matter.

Rome burns.

And this is Thomas Cole, from "The Course of Empire," a series of five paintings at the New-York Historical Society.

[Jay]

Re: Senate OKs $626B defense budget

And this is Thomas Cole, from "The Course of Empire," a series of five paintings at the New-York Historical Society.

What a great painting.

[Chomsky]

Re: Senate OKs $626B defense budget

What a great painting.

Outstanding paintings by one of America's greatest artists. The entire series can be seen here, with pretty good explanation:

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

If you're ever in New York, go see the paintings at the New-York Historical Society.

[lsa420]

Re: Senate OKs $626B defense budget

Can't say we haven't been warned...

[GRG55]

Re: Senate OKs $626B defense budget

Obligatory Video...

"America, *uck Yeah! Savin' the M**** F**** world again!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS-FoXbjVI

Adeptus

PS. "$1 billion for every 1,000 troops added" ?!?! That's like $1 MILLION per 1 Soldier (!!!)
WTF are these guys doing? Eating caviar and driving around in Ferrari's?

AlQueida Budget per Solider: $1,000 = 1 used AK47, ammo, 10 sticks of dynamite and basic food & water.

I'll call your AK47, ammo and 10 sticks of dynamite, and raise you one JDAM attached to an MK-84 bomb. See you back at the mess tent for some caviar after the mission...and try not to run the battalion's only Ferrari over an IED, okay. The black scorch marks are hard to polish out of the paint...