Let's face it. This is ridiculous:
*The world's top 5 largest military budgets in 2009.
While the US continues to stack up a record debt and lags behind much of the civilized world in education and healthcare, it seems more and more evident that our nation has to become better at spending money more efficiently. For instance: it's very difficult for me to understand why the US needs a Navy that is larger than the combined forces of the next 13 largest navies in the world when 11 of those 13 countries are our allies. Why not downsize the Navy to a size that is only as big as the next 5 combined navies in the world? I'm not suggesting that the US should not be the #1 military spender in the world, but I am suggesting that, barring the invasion of extraterrestrials, we have little to loose and much to gain by decreasing our margin of superiority and utilizing those assets in other areas of the national budget.
Americans are going to have to eventually decide whether they want 700 foreign military bases across the world or higher quality healthcare. Do we want to pursue foreign policies of occupying other nations or do we want to balance the budget? Like any other business or organization, the US government has a limited amount of resources. Every F-35 aircraft and every nuclear submarine represents an enormous amount of money that could have been spent towards education, environmental conservation, healthcare reform, mass transit, or deficit reduction. The opportunity cost of excessive military spending is a thorn in the side of this nation which deserves immediate political action.