It seems like the United States always does things bigger. Whether it’s the size of our hamburgers or the size of Donald Trump’s imaginary wall, Americans find a way to make almost everything huge. One thing that’s undoubtedly too large in our country, however, is the military.
The problem started when the Truman Doctrine was accepted after World War II. Our politicians decided it was our job to police the entire world. We paraded ourselves into several potentially communist countries throughout the Cold War because we felt it was our international duty.
This should not be the case. The Truman Doctrine ushered in massive, unnecessary military spending that we still feel the effects of today. When we compare U.S. military spending to that of other developed countries, the numbers speak for themselves.
The U.S. spends $596 billion on defense each year. This is roughly $30 billion more than the next seven highest-spending countries combined. That statistic blows my mind, especially considering how geographically far away the U.S. is from potential and current war zones.
Think of how much money could be funneled into education, reducing taxes or paying off the national debt if we didn’t spend more than half a trillion dollars on an overgrown military each year. A military this large simply isn’t necessary to defend the country.
Unfortunately, our military’s main goal doesn’t seem to be to defend Americans. To me, it seems we maintain such a large defense budget to be interventionists in a wide array of countries.
Currently we have bases in at least 74 countries worldwide with multiple bases in many of those countries.
To put this into perspective, consider that the United Kingdom maintains bases in only seven other countries. Why do we need to have our nose in the business of so many parts of the world?
The cost associated with maintaining these bases and paying for the necessary troops and equipment is astronomical.
We can’t be stationed in so many places around the world simply for the purpose of defending the average American. Our politicians want control over world affairs and politics that we have no business meddling with.
Think of the recent failures in Iraq, Pakistan and Syria. The list goes on.
We’ve put terrorist dictators into power and tried to institute corrupted government systems that don’t work in these countries. We’ve armed militant groups who turn to terror. The worst part? We’ve done it all on the backs of overtaxed Americans.
If we cut the military by even 20 percent, that would mean another $119.2 billion every year the U.S. could use for much more urgent domestic issues. We’re currently operating a gigantic military that is spread into too many countries, arming the wrong groups and putting the wrong people into power.
It’s an expensive, overgrown system that is doing more harm than good for the average American.
Our domestic issues will be our downfall before any outside threat, but the war-hungry xenophobes who determine military spending would rather drum up trouble than fix our internal problems.
dylmoore@indiana.edu
