[extropy-chat] my country, right or wrong

[Samantha Atkins]

On Dec 15, 2005, at 5:29 PM, Mike15007 at aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 12/15/2005 8:11:49 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
> neptune at superlink.net writes:
> And a better way to lessen wars would be to slash government  
> military budgets (down to zero if possible), lower the size of the  
> government military (again, down to zero), abandon many foreign  
> commitments, and foster, as much as possible, free trade through  
> unilaterally opening markets.  Privatizing military forces would  
> probably be best too.  If each person had to pay the direct cost of  
> all the military she or he wanted, I think most people would opt  
> for purely defensive forces and there would be a marked drop in  
> foreign adventures -- save for those few who felt some kind  
> crusading spirit.  Those few would be very few indeed and their  
> leaving on such adventures would likely be no great loss and even a  
> welcome respite from their bleeding heart asinine harangues.
>     As neat as this sounds, a state that did this would likely lose  
> to any neighbors that maintained a large, well-funded, tightly  
> centrally controlled military. This option (slashing military  
> budgets and the size of the government military down to zero, or as  
> low as possible) is only a viable strategy - or a safe one at least  
> - if everyone else one knows about is doing the same.


  A country without a huge State burden is likely to advance over  
other peer states still under such a burden.  Defense today is  
largely a matter of technology.    Such a state would probably have  
little trouble raising a defensive force that was quite capable.  It  
would have trouble raising an offensive force.   Yes you need some  
R&D in defense.  But you don't need to spend hundreds of billions  
even in peaceful times to have standing forces all over the world.   
Yes you need a certain amount of military readiness to guard the  
country against aggression.  But this is a tiny fragment of today's  
US military spending.

- samantha

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