Americans are increasingly struggling financially. This includes daily food insecurity, monthly bills like housing, power, and water. Health care like cancer treatments or other surgeries can send people into bankruptcy. Wages are not keeping up with inflation.
Why is America defending Europe? Korea? Taiwan? Japan? and more with over 800 military bases around the globe?
But let's focus on Europe. It's clear that America is spending vast sums to defend Europe. The total figure is probably $10 to $20 billion annually, prior to the Russia-NATO war in Ukraine. Since that time, the amount has grown.
The war in Ukraine has shown one thing clearly: Russia does not have the military power to invade and conquer western Europe. We have paid for decades to defend Europe from an aggressive Russia. It turns out that Russia didn't have the power to invade Europe, probably from 1985 to today. The low cost estimate of our wasted dollars to defend Europe against a boogey-man is $10 billion per year from 1991 to 2022. That's 31 years x $10 billion/year. With math that easy, all we need to do is add a zero. The answer is that we spent an estimated $310 billion to defend Europe, against an impossible threat.
Here we are today spending more than ever. Pushing the region into instability. Our push for Ukraine to join NATO pushed Russia into an existential crisis. And yet, this was needless. Instead of helping, we pushed Ukraine into a deadly war. And all the while, our financial situation at home is worse. Rent is due, and our money is going to defend Europe.
Let's not be deceived. Inflation is a tax. When our federal government spends money it doesn't have, it inflates the money supply. That makes dollars worth less, the money in your paycheck is getting smaller each day because our federal government is printing itself loans.
Our defense of Europe is not even balanced on the surface. Our nation is clearly $30 trillion in debt. And this debt is the reason the government prints loans to its self.
We're spending money on things that don't return us value.
Once upon a time we defended the world against every threat and we said it's not about the money. We said it's about doing the right thing. It's about defending innocent people, and defending democracy. Well, now our nation is approaching the easy end of our vast wealth. We have entered a period where we have great wealth, but it comes at a high price. It must be extracted. It can no longer be gleened off the top and no one complains too much. Now we are struggling to put food in our mouths, and still we defend Europe.
Let Europe pay for Europe's defense. Are they not wealthy? Are they our child? Do we need to send our children to defend them? And for how many generations are we on the hook for their defense? And so what? So they can take comfortable, month-long vacations?
Yes, I have nothing against Europeans taking month long vacations. It's beautiful. I hope someday I get to do that too. I'll know I've made it when my job pays me for 12 months and I work 11. But let's see them do that when we are gone. And maybe they will. Maybe they won't. I don't know. But it will be up to them. They will decide whether Russia is such a great threat that they need to work an additional week each year to help pay for their defense.
We're so deep in the financial hole, that I don't expect month long vacations for us. But I know one thing: we don't need to go any deeper. We can get out of our military commitments around the globe.
I've talked about Europe. And the same thing goes for Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and everywhere else we defend. We're defending nations across the globe. I'm going to make an ad with reverse psychology. I'm going to have actors saying things things like, "My son is defending Japan." and "My daughter is defending Germany."Another actor will say, "We're proud of our boy defending Italy." A scene of a ranch home with family gathered will joyfully welcome back their son, "Luke is back from defending Africa!" A newborn child will be shown to Luke and a young woman will say, "He wants to say thank you." A scene of a US military soldiers in an arid climate will shout, "We're Defending Syria!"
Everytime we defend another nation, we spend our hospitals away. We spend away our medical schools, our elementary schools, and more. We spend away our ability to feed ourselves. We spend away our future. The world is going to not going to join hands singing around the campfire anytime soon. But our military forces would be better served defending Canada and Mexico than Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Let them form an alliance against China. They are wealthy and intelligent. We're out. Our engagement with the world is economic, diplomatic, and cultural. The US military is to defend the United States. That is our focus. And with that aim, we'll have food on the table that we paid for with a single income.
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