Originally posted by jogiba The rich in this country have you brainwashed to think social programs are evil but the war machine is good.
Obviously you have a similar issue going on as Wheatfield. Not only do you selectively read and understand what you want, but you read into what I say, whatever you want to believe. Where have I EVER said social programs are bad? As to the "war machine", it is good at what it does, which is kill people and break things. It is also very necessary. I have stated in another discussion here in the Politics and Religion forum, "U.S. serviceman slaughters 16 Afghan civilians in their homes", a discussion in which you have taken part in, a discussion where you exhibited what is starting to look like a pattern of drive by "cut and paste" without any real thought or analysis on your part. Perhaps that is wrong, but that is what it is beginning to look like.
Here is what I said in that forum about the war machine.......
"I think a lot of the problem has to do with a kind of addiction to war. Since WW2, I think, we have adopted a policy of always being ready for a war so that we do not get caught with our pants down. It makes sense from a national security point of view. The cold war with the Soviet Union turned this readiness mentality into an arms race where each side distrusted the other and competed for military supremacy. While I cannot speak for the Soviet businesses that built arms, take a look here at the list of American defense contractors:
List of United States defense contractors - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Many of these contractors depend either solely, or to a large degree on the military for their financial success. They don't sit idly by and watch things happen, they are very proactive in their approach to war and how they sell goods. You think they like war? Of course they do. They cannot sell as many tanks or whatever unless the old ones break, and that is one of the things a war is great at, breaking things. I would bet that many in government are heavily invested in some of these companies. I think there was a stink I heard about with both Cheney and Rumsfeld, not to mention the Bush family holding stocks in foreign oil.
I think in a very real sense, war is like a bad drug and highly addictive. The business model is not that much different from the one behind that of a street dealer either. [That being]There is a need, real or imagined, not only am I going to help you meet that need, I am going to work you every day to convince you to buy more and different, more expensive drugs."
The military is great at what it does. In that sense it is good. The military, for the most part, does not make the decisions about where they go to kill people and break things, they just do what they are told. In that regard I support our military. It is the respective government, in this case, the U.S. (read GWB administration) that owns the lion's share of the responsibility.
I suggest you read what has been said by people before criticizing their stand on issues.