War & the Economy

[nw_hunter]

Here is an interesting article on War and the economy.


http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=1025

[Spirithawk]

Good article. Thanks. 

[Brett]

That's essentially what I've been saying all along.   Everybody talks about how much the war on terror is costing us. I contend that the war on terror is helping to keep our economy from completely tanking.   Soldiers are government employees,  If they did not work for the government they would be unemployed.  It takes a lot of materials, weapons, ammo, vehicles, aircraft, uniforms, food, etc to supply the troops.  All this stuff has to be made by someone, creating employment in the private sector.  Many High tech and electronic industries survive on government contracts or government funding for research.  Yes, the government spends trillions toward the war effort but you have to think about all the industries and people who earn their living by taking a slice of that pie.  I would rather my tax dollars go to pay an assembly workers salary for building tanks or rocket launchers than have my tax dollars going to pay that persons welfare check. Wouldn't you?   

[billy_56081]

I'd be a lot happier with this war if it all looked like. The highway of death. Those were the good old days, too bad we stopped when we did.

Beautiful memories!

[Spirithawk]

You know folks? It's okay and good to debate the buiseness of war in dollars and cents. I've stated myself that I feel war is a buiseness. Money and power the rule. Could I ask a favor though? Lets all of us take a moment and remember the most exspensive cost of any war. Saddly, that is human lives. Sorry guys, over 30 years later my emotions are still in turmoil when it comes to lives lost. I wish it were ancient times. A person knew what they were fighting for and it was man to man.  Now I see kids, my own included, enlist as much to get a better education that they couldn't otherwise afford, as much as for patriotic reasons. All too many come home in boxes. Their only reward for trying to make a better life for themselve's  and or for standing up for freedom. Our government sends them to fight but fails to give them the adequate tools to do so. Then ties their hands further with rules that have no buiseness in war.  Those that make it home are then quickly forgotten. Yes, war is a buiseness, but one with a far greater price than money. In a just war at least the price paid is honerable and for something again more valuable than money. For freedom.  But who decides what is just and what is not these days? The line is so easily blurred. Sorry, just remembering old friends, brothers-in-arms, and my youngest daughter now serving in her 13th year.  

[Spirithawk]

"Politicians never accuse you of  'greed' for wanting other people's money -- only for wanting to keep your own money."

[Conan The Librarian]

I guess it's just OK for more and more young American men to go on dying for no good reason in Afghanistan. Tell them and their families they are helping the economy.  

Why not just say Let's have another world war so another 20+ million people can die at the hands of their own governments and hundreds of millions more can live in famine and impoverishment for decades after their worldly goods are seized or destroyed and their families exterminated. That's what world war is about. This article is more evidence that we have no concept of true hardship in this country. The first 2/3 of that article describes what sounds so appealing to so many people.

[beerbelly]

Anyone dieing in Afghanistan volunteered to be there! No one is being drafted! If they don't want to go they don't enlist. I truly believe that if we were not there disrupting their operations we would have been hit again here. And likely harder than 9-11.
   Is it the way I would fight the war NO! I would not go over there right now with our troops under the rules of engagement that they are, but the one's there went own their own , no one forced them to enlist.
                                          Beerbelly

[slim rem 7]

war to stimulate the economy..im not buying into that..i know the families of lost sons an daughters wouldn t either..
 population control. huh.. better we just use a little self control of our baby making abilities. jmo slim

[Brett]

I guess it's just OK for more and more young American men to go on dying for no good reason in Afghanistan. Tell them and their families they are helping the economy.  

Why not just say Let's have another world war so another 20+ million people can die at the hands of their own governments and hundreds of millions more can live in famine and impoverishment for decades after their worldly goods are seized or destroyed and their families exterminated. That's what world war is about. This article is more evidence that we have no concept of true hardship in this country. The first 2/3 of that article describes what sounds so appealing to so many people.

I'm not advocating that we participate in wars just to sustain the economy.   I'm just saying that all those who use "the financial costs of war" as a reason why we should pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan are barking up the wrong tree.  More appropriate reasons are: 1) It's none of our business how they treat their own people just like it is none of their business what we do on our soil.  2) It cost too many American lives.  I believe these reasons to be true and accurate but to say war cost too much financially just does not make sence.

[Pat/Rick]

Stop giving billions to welfare and illegals and our economy might get a bit better.

[WylieKy]

" I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but world War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."-Albert Einstein

My grandfather always said that there can be no peace AND prosperity.  He said that the greatest prosperity always follows the times of greatest war, and that seems to prove pretty true up through Viet Nam.  I think that TM7 has it partially right though.  Our way of war has evolved so that it is no rather....half assed compared to our other great wars.  The way it is set up now there is no great national mobilization and industrial growth spurt.  Right now the few existing companies with top end government contracts, just get more contracts for more expensive weapons.  The rich get richer, the middle class get deader, and the leaches that should be culled by a draft continue to suck the rest of the country dry.  This is the first war that has preyed so heavily on our middle class (the back bone of our country.) 

[magooch]

I think we make all of this more complicated than it really is.  We either fight those who would do us harm on their ground, or we die from their treachery on our ground and in foreign places where we choose to travel.  Obviously we can't fight the evil doers as we would fight an entity such as a country; terrorism has no country. 

I don't believe in grunt wars where we fight more, or less hand to hand.  I think we should have made it clear a long time ago that we will engage our enemies with the most destructive technical weapons we can develop and if any country,or group of people don't want to suffer the results, they'd better do everything in their power to assure that no attack on us comes from their corner of this planet.  We have to have a greater sensitivity for our safety and security than we do for so-called innocent people in far away places.  This is the sticking point that makes these terror wars long and deadly.  We have made it clear that we will fight the terrorists on their terms and not ours.

[Merle]

You know folks? It's okay and good to debate the buiseness of war in dollars and cents. I've stated myself that I feel war is a buiseness. Money and power the rule. Could I ask a favor though? Lets all of us take a moment and remember the most exspensive cost of any war. Saddly, that is human lives.

Sorry guys, over 30 years later my emotions are still in turmoil when it comes to lives lost.

Yeah - some memories are just too bitter to ever go away.