The Number One Military Power In The World ?

The is from a new Gallup Poll -- taken between February 8th and 11th of a random national sample of 837 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.

Frankly, I was a bit shocked at the results of this survey. It seems that nearly four out of 10 Americans (38%) don't think the U.S. has the number 1 (strongest and best) military in the world. How can that be? We spend the majority of our discretionary budget on the military (which is around 45% of the entire world's military spending). If we don't have the number 1 military, then we certainly have the most incompetent military and civilian leaders in the world.

Maybe these people are looking at our recent failures in Iraq and Afghanistan. But that would be a mistake. Our military, like all others, is designed to fight a war -- not to engage in nation-building in some foreign country (which no country's military can successfully do). No military can force people to have the kind of government we want them to have -- but in a combat conflict, I do believe our military is the best in the world.

And I have no problem with having a strong military. Like any other country, we have the right to a good national defense. My problem is that we have gone far beyond having an adequate national defense. We have built a military that is strong enough to bully most of the rest of the world into supporting our economic (corporate) empire -- with more than 800 military bases around the world.

There is simply no justification for having that many military bases in other countries. And there is no justification for the billions we waste in spending on the military-industrial complex (many times of weapons systems that don't work, or that the military says it doesn't need).

We could radically cut our military spending without damaging our ability to defend ourselves. We could do that by closing most of those foreign bases, and cutting out the wasteful spending that does nothing but fatten corporate bank accounts -- and still have the strongest military in the world.

There is nothing wrong with having a strong military -- but there is plenty wrong with spending so much on the military that we can't meet our social obligations to our own citizens. And that is what we are currently doing.