Trump: U.S.military spending could be cut in half- Now 8 percent a year

Well one obvious notion is not to cut the legs out from our demonstrated competitive advantage which is our military. Hence this entire thread

 

So you live in an alternate timeline I see where Russia hasn’t been bogged down for 3 years and taken only a small portion of Ukraine

 

China is racing past our military prior to any cuts.

 

We can beat China to space and we can beat China to the next Industrial Revolution. As long as we don’t literally sabotage ourselves. We are well positioned to win both of these. The next war is not with conventional weapons.

 

Color me skeptical. China built 1,474 ships last year. We built 5. Do you think we’re just trying to suck ?

 

Scale is much less important than technology now. Cyber warfare, satellites, space dominance, drone technology, AI, etc. all much more important than 10,000 ships. They are playing catch up and can only copy what they steal from us. May not last forever if we ruin it. But US still has a monopoly on technological innovation. Taiwan is extremely important for our supply chain and our Achilles heel

one of the biggest national security risks we have right now is chip manufacturing supply chain. Covid really exposed that. Intel getting their act together is just as important as DARPA these days

 

China used to be a copycat. Nowadays it’s killing us on innovation. Bottom line: there are four times as many of them and they are smarter than we are. Consolation: we still dominate in crotch-grabbing pop culture.

 

I’m sorry but this is just not true. They are extremely capable nation. No one can deny that. But the world’s economy is controlled by American companies and we are still the innovation capital of the world. Throwing in the towel is simply not something Americans should suggest. We need to work to maintain our competitiveness, not actively seek to retreat into a shell and see our GDP and thus standard of living crumble.

 

We talk the game while China plays the game. Innovation is in our calculations. In China, innovation is all around you. Ex: their 10,000 miles of high speed railway to our 100 miles.

 

It’s almost like we should advance research and development instead of slashing grants and research in favor of billionaire tax cuts?

 

I’m arguing that no amount of money and political will catch China. Why can’t we be happy that we’ve had our day in the Sun ? Where is it written that we get to be #1 forever ?

 

and you called someone else a doomer? This defeatist attitude is wild to me. As a student of history, why would a nation retreat at the next inflection point? China isn’t all roses over there. They have some large economic issues bubbling g the same as us.

 

Am I a defeatist or a realist ? The other side of the coin is the person who feels defeated if he can’t always be #1.

 

If you don’t compete in a competitive world, you will lose a lot more than a vague notion of being #1. The next Industrial Revolution is almost here and we are trying to reduce our research. It’s worse than sabotage

 

You seem stressed out. Look, we could cut our military budget in half, close all of our military installations overseas, cease meddling in the affairs of other nations … and the world would be a better place.

 

Nope not stressed at all because I basically can forecast how this plays out. Americans aren’t going to vote for reducing power abroad to let China and Russia expand their influence. So this plan won’t be popular and will not come to fruition. We aren’t a nation of defeatists. The disruption is temporary. You will have to cope

I just can’t help but note that you are anti American. You actually want Russia to expand their influence as they are doing in Africa and South America while the isolationists prevail for a brief time here. You see how that worked out for Russia in Syria. Not well.

 

The real domestic threat is you. People with your mindset are not capable of cutting spending to the degree needed. The biggest mistake Reagan made was not asking for enough concessions during his honeymoon period, per his #1 economic advisor Miton Friedman

The US can no longer afford to be the world's hegemon. It's a multipolar world. Of the big 3 powers only 1 is communist. We should have aligned with Russia against China, which was headed for economic collapse. Instead you Russia-hating foreign policy geniuses forced Russia to align with China. The cheap food and energy China now gets from Russia probably saved Xi, according to grand strategist Gregory R. Copley.

As far as Russia not sharing US values and therefore they cannot be our friend and ally, please explain. Reagan and Thatcher wanted the Russian economy to be integrated with Western Europe's economy. As a KGB agent stationed in Germany Putin liked Western culture. Russia is a ZVjristian cc country. They aren't big fans of homosexuality and transgenderism. Are you?

When Putin became president of Russia he asked Clinton if Russia could join NATO. The answer was no.

The correct play: Either let Russia join NATO or disband NATO.

Putin is profoundly anti-communist and he is a Christian. Russia is not expansionist unless provoked. Russian elections are freer and more fair than US elections according to many international observers. Unlike US statesmen Russian govt officials tend to speak the truth, not lie with every breath like their American counterparts Find one like told by Putin or Lavrov. You probably can't. I could find hundreds of lies told by Western leaders.

So explain how Russia's values are so different from ours that they should be our enemy. You will fail.

China gets along with Saudi Arabia and Iran. They have very different values but China knows they can benefit by working with both countries. China isn't concerned so much with another country's internal politics.

You might say Putin is too much of an authoritarian for us to get along with him. The truth is Russia is extremely diverse. The more diverse a country is the more authoritarian the gov't must be to maintain the peace and keep the subgroups from acting on their secret desire to spill each other's blood. Examples of diversity that required authoritarian governance: The Byzantine, Ottoman and Roman empires, the dominions of the Habsburgs and Romanovs.

 

Pfft, I’m a better American than you because I’m not America right or wrong however wrong.

 

“Let Russia join NATO or disband NATO” is maybe the dumbest thing I’ve read on this site outside of people that wanted to keep Mike White

 

NATO - a purely defensive organization that has moved 16 nations and 1,000km to the east since 1990.