Four More Years...

quote:

---

The politics of world power is mainly conducted behind closed doors.

---

Given that behind those closed doors sit the supposedly democratically elected representatives of their respective people (under the guise of support for freedom and human rights), that your statement is true should bother you and everyone else.

That suggests that christians (assuming you represent a typical christian) are only moral if it is convenient or does not in any way impinge on their lifestyle. What kind of ethic is that?Not to mention that most of the countries with the highest standard of living (that your average American could only fantasize about) and the least disparity among income groups are places like Switzerland, Sweden, Norway,..and even Germany which all have exceptionally low military spending and only tiny armies.

Sorry for taking what you said incorrectly and I retract my question and its implications.However, regarding the other countries with low military spending, Switzerland for example had very high military spending and during WWII were devoted to highly armed neutrality. They may not have been able to fend off the Nazi's for long, but they would have made it a major engagement. So they were not relying on the US for protection. And like Norway, they remain outside of most interntational organizations including the EU which together with NATO would be responsible for their protection. France has a huge military but still only a fraction of what the US spends. Average quality of life and living standards are much higher than in most of the US. High military spending is like EU farm subsidies, if a group with a large lobby wants tax money, they usually get it...the military in the US has a huge lobby and a lot of representatives working for them when they should be working for the public...on both sides of the aisle.