Dirk Diggler said:
- What's the point of having a great military if you aren't looking after your own people though? When we have so many struggling back home due to budget cuts I still can't justify it being that high, I understand the need for defence absolutely but do we need to spend that much? Especially when we're so closely link to America (probably the biggest spenders, cba to look it). Shouldn't they be watching our back more? If so why can't we slash the spending in half (TOO DRASTIC A CUT BUT YOU GET THE EXAMPLE) and either cut our defence but use American support more or pull the troops out and focus solely on defending our land. I don't see why we need to spend such a large amount to defend such a small piece of land personally.
I understand the need for strong allies but being linked so closely to America leaves us incredibly vulnerable as a whole, everyone wants to knock America off their pedestal and we're a major part of it now which IMO is the wrong approach, we should be a minor supporting player who'll offer support when it's required to America not some Johnny come lucky who'll jump at their every demand. It may have been our idea to push into Iraq or Afghanistan but it's America's war on terror let's be honest, it's their fight and we're just the fall guys who'll spout our positive propaganda as another example of how it's working.
Politics in general leave me bored and confused usually so I've dumbed it down for my own sake, apologies in advance.
We do look after our own people, we just don't do enough. That isn't really to do with our military though, although we are spending a lot on it, it's more to do with the country as a whole. The budget cuts are in the wrong place, but society doesn't want to cut anything, yet complain when we are in a bad way economically.
As I said before, and whether it's right or wrong I don't know, but we spend a lot because of what we do abroad. We can't go around trying to fix countries that need fixing without a powerful force behind us. Us being close to America won't make us a target either, it doesn't really work like that. When was the last time someone started a war with the UK because we're friends with the US? It wasn't our idea to push into Iraq or Afghanistan, but we were supporting our allies, and we would fully expect the US to do the same if we were in a situation like that.
Replied to this really quickly and skim-read most of it, as I'm doing something with Xanth (inb4 sex), and he gets frustrated because I don't talk when I type as I can't multi-task
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