should we spend more money in our defence force?

Bewildered Metalhead Joined: Aug 15, 2006 Posts: 4

i live in queanbeyan on the outskirts of canberra right and the other morning about a week or 2 ago i saw 2 fucking huge golbemarster aeroplanes aprrentley we have needed an powerfull airlift caperbility for years and we have been using a russian compony to transport our troops over 2 iraq

it brings me to the question,
do we need to spend more money on our defense forces?

Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2006 9:30 am

sorry for not seeing this one earlier.

there are two ways to look at the army / defense force imo:

1. As a necessary public service that goes beyond the "fighting wars and protecting our shores" mentality. They do a hell of in assisting with disaster zones, helping impoverished countries etc. which is above and beyond the gun-slinging stereotype that I'm sure many of us possess. The other side of it being that they do also serve as a form of border protection. Plus it employs hundreds of thousands of people, who I guess would otherwise be unemployed.

2. An unnecessary and self destructive expensive line item on a budget that could use the money in many other more contructive ways. If no country in the world had an army, it would be money that is more constructively spent on any range of things including both foreign and domestic aid, infrastructure, tax breaks, public services etc.

It'd be great if we could get to #2, but realistically, it won't happen any time soon. So I guess we just need to find a minimum spend for our budget that serves purpose #1 most efficiently.