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It's not a fact that the US needs to spend 50% of the global military budget. If anything is myopic, that is.

It can still be argued that it's worth the expenditure. But the cost should be weighted against the alternatives. Neither Russia or China can be said to threaten the US with their military, except with nuclear weapons, but no defence budget protects against those.



It's also myopic to think that having a large conventional army that deters rivals from attacking smaller trade partners is not beneficial.

Also, the US Navy protects vital global sea lanes that benefit US trade.

Also:

> Neither Russia or China can be said to threaten the US with their military

China is arming up at a huge pace, even outside of nukes.


> It's also myopic to think that having a large conventional army that deters rivals from attacking smaller trade partners is not beneficial.

No one suggested that it isn't beneficial.

What I said is that the benefit has to be weighted against the alternative benefits.

> China is arming up at a huge pace, even outside of nukes.

I'd argue that one large reason they're doing so is the threat they perceive themselves to be under from the large US military.


That's not a valid reason since the US has had a large military since 80 years ago.

Don't fall into that trap.


Are you saying that China doesn't have a valid reason for having a large military, but the US does?

That sounds like a difficult position to maintain...


I'm saying that China was extremely prosperous and growing from 1980 to the present day, without increasing the size of its army 10x-20x-or-however-much-they're-increasing-it right now.

They don't have a real need for a bigger army, they could for sure defend themselves against any neighbor, even India and Russia, with "just" the military from 20 years ago.


China threatening to invade Taiwan, what’s your opinion now? What exactly are they building up for?

Are you from China?


If there was a total war scenario with Russia and China, all bets would be off regarding U.S. military budget, as they would most certainly be a dire threat to numerous allies of the U.S.


> but no defence budget protects against those.

what?!? what do missile defense systems do then? nothing?


In practice, nothing (against multiple multi-warhead ICBMs). If your foe only has one or two ICBMs maybe you have even odds. Against any nuclear-armed nation other than present-day North Korea, nothing. Even if you could intercept 90% of missiles/warheads if the opponent fires 20 (or 2000), you're screwed. There are multiple stages of flight in which one can attempt interception, but only the final stage after separation of warheads is realistic (which multiples the number of projectiles to intercept greatly): you can't intercept at accent unless you're very close to the launch site, hitting stuff in space with directed energy is defeated by a simple mirror, and hitting it with an inceptor is not feasible.

An article I picked at random:

https://breakingdefense.com/2022/02/no-us-missile-defense-sy...


My next question is how did this organization get the security clearances required to know what missile defenses we have?




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