this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2023
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Politics

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[–] mtset@beehaw.org 26 points 1 year ago (27 children)

I honestly don't think that most people understand how incredibly bloated the US military budget is. Even if you accept the premise that we have to have the biggest military in the world, so much money is spent on overseas military bases that don't meaningfully contribute to our national defense. We have >750 military bases around the world so that we can intimidate other countries into doing what we want, which is both wasteful and evil. Learn more at Al Jazeera

[–] fuzzywolf23@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The existence of those bases means we can negotiate with soft power where instead we might need to make a show of force. Intimidation, aka diplomacy, is superior to actual fights.

[–] mtset@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We wouldn't need to intimidate people if we weren't all up in the business of other random countries, constantly inciting coups, etc.

[–] fuzzywolf23@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_navigation

International shipping: just one of the freedoms protected by the modern us armed forces

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