03.28.07 11:20 AM CDT
• Politics
• David Pfister
A footnote to the Senate’s move to establish a withdrawal date from Iraq that would influence the spending of a proposed $122 billion for maneuvers: The American military budget for 2007 is currently $561.5 billion. The British, for the sake of scale and comparison, come in a distant second with a budget of $60 billion. That’s a nine-fold difference, and literally off the charts.
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Comments on this entry:
Sort of. It's this kind of misleading number play that gets Playboy criticized, and rightly so.
The population of England is 5 times smaller. By ignoring that fact, you cite the cute graphic and make the claim that our defense budget is "off the chart." It's not exactly an accurate picture though. We're obviously outspending everyone, but it's nowhere near a nine-fold difference from Britain per-capita, and the comparison is silly and useless even if it was. We're two different countries with two completely different roles in the world.
That having been said - EVERYTHING about the budget of the US is off the charts. The entire federal government needs a 25-50% reduction in size...which will NEVER happen in this country. Most Americans are too busy trying to score political points against the other side or simply not caring at all. We're too lazy to overthrow our corrupted system. And so the republic will slide in to oblivion and it will be a shame, because for all our flaws, this country is the greatest experiment mankind has ever undertaken.
Exploitation of statistics may be the hobby of Mark Twain, but even Samuel Clemens, when he stepped aside from his role as national wit, would note that dollars and sense outweigh concern for "lies, damn lies in statistics." As we consider where to mark the twain in this battle over Iraq and Iran and Afghanistan, we need something like the finite to remark upon the ability of the population to seek representation. We might consider the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness to be that which kept (and still keeps) us from tyranny. But public criticism of ourselves, not just by our allies but by our selves, leaves none for the better. No, we need to praise in public, criticize in private. But now we wonder whether there truly is privacy in which to criticize. "No such thing as constructive criticism," someone said, but compliments go farther in facilitating negotations than critique, even farther than flattery. For in war, flattery will not get us everywhere. Even back-slapping would be better than back-stabbing.
to wit: a man walks longer in peace than he does in war, for in war he only walks to the next battle.